Culture

ITVX hits 2.7 billion streams in first year powered by Love Island, reveals plans for 2024

A DJ on the decks at ITVX 1st birthday party in London

Streaming service ITVX has delivered over 2.7 billion streams since it launched a year ago. The service, which celebrates its first birthday on December 8 2023, now has more than 40 million registered UK users.

To mark the milestone, the streaming platform held a lavish party at London’s JOIA restaurant at Battersea Power Station. 

The performance of the platform far exceeds what was achieved by its predecessor, ITV Hub, proclaimed Rufus Radcliffe, MD, at the event. In 2024, news and sport will move centerstage, he told attendees.

 “There will be more sport on ITV, and ITVX than ever before, particularly football. We’re also the exclusive UK home of the Oscars, so you can stay up late and see films you didn’t know anything about…” 

Viewership of all genres of TV are up, with the audiences for drama, sport and films doubling.  

The performance of the platform far exceeds what was achieved by its predecessor, ITV Hub…

Platform enhancements coming in 2024 include 12 regionalised news services, with exclusive regional reports made just for ITVX,  as well as the ability to pause ads, says Radcliffe. On the commercial front there will be new short form advertising and enhanced sponsorship opportunities.  

ITV News has had over 18.5 million streams of short form news since launch. Launching this December is a new weekly programme with Tom Bradby, centred around Prime Minister’s Questions. From January 2024 onwards there will also be an occasional pop-up news channel to cover big breaking stories.

ITVX’s most popular show has been Love Island, streamed 340 million times. The Rugby World Cup has also been a huge hit for the service, having been streamed 60 million times. This is up more than 80 per cent on the last tournament in 2019, we’re told. 

Reality TV remains a huge draw. The latest I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! series was streamed over 20.5 million times in its first week, up by more than 3 million on the same period last year. The return of Big Brother generated 38 million streams.

Other successes fir the platform include The Twelve, a courtroom drama with Sam Neill; the first two series of Irvine Welsh’s Crime; Love & Death starring Elizabeth Olsen in a true story of a 1980’s Texas housewife accused of murder; two-part documentary The Case Against Cosby; and comedy Changing Ends based on Alan Carr’s childhood in Northampton in the 1980’s, which has just been recommissioned. 

Future ITVX exclusives to look forward to include historical drama The Winter King, which will debut  late December. Set in the fifth century, it portrays Britain as a brutal land of warring factions and tribes; Liverpudlian comedy G’Wed, and the second series of critically acclaimed comedy-drama The Dry

ITVX has also partnered with Disney+, giving it the first UK free-to-air run of comedy series Extraordinary and Hollywood drama Under the Banner of Heaven, created by Academy Award-winner Dustin Lance Black and starring Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones. 

The platform has also secured the film rights to the entire Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchise.

Earlier this year, ITVX won Best On Demand Service at the Edinburgh TV Awards and Media Brand of the Year at the Media Week Awards.  

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About Steve May

Creator of Home Cinema Choice magazine, and Editor of The Luxe Review, Steve muses and reviews for Trusted Reviews, T3, Home Cinema Choice, Games Radar, Good Housekeeping, Louder Sounds, StereoNet and Boat International. He’s also the editor of professional home cinema website Inside CI. He's on Twitter/X, Tiktok and Instagram as @SteveMay_UK