ITV has revealed its new streaming offering, ITVX, coming later this year

New service ITVX (no exact date for launch beyond 2022) is billed as something unique in the UK — the first integrated advertising and subscription funded (AVOD/SVOD)  platform. On ITVX, viewers can choose to watch thousands of hours of content for free in an advertising funded tier or trade up to a subscription service which provides all that content ad-free and in addition provides thousands more hours of British boxsets from BritBox and other partners’ content.

There’s a lot more in the announcement (including new drama A Spy Among Friends), and we noted this:

In a step change to its traditional approach ITV will now adopt a digital first windowing strategy — premiering much of its new content first on ITVX and subsequently months later on ITV linear channels.

This is similar to putting The Larkins on ITV Hub for Christmas Day morning, to allow viewers flexibility. BBC does something similar at times (such as the final series of Killing Eve, which is released weekly on iPlayer)

There’s also general ideas on content, though details are something we’d like to see:

> Exclusive new series launching online every week, including Spy Among Friends (pictured above)

> The nation’s biggest events streamed live

> An ever-changing library of blockbuster movies

> Exclusive themed channels

> Thousands of box sets.

First Reaction

It seems like a good idea, and ticks several boxes. We can’t see why viewers wouldn’t take the free, advert supported offering, and it makes BritBox easier to access. It keeps existing advertisers in the centre of the business model, as well as allowing for far greater understanding of viewer demographics than broadcasting allows. We l0ok forward to seeing how this develops, and any synergy with their arrangement with Samsung.