ITV will be launching a new streaming service later this year under the new name ITVX. It will be the UKs first integrated advertising and subscription funded platform.
Fewer people are sitting down to watch live TV, as they increasingly switch to streaming alternatives like Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+. It will be interesting to see how ITV performs with its new platform in a marketplace becoming increasingly crowded.
As with Netflix or Amazon Prime, ITVX will be viewer led with audiences able to watch hours and hours of content. However, the big difference being that the content will be free, in exchange for advertising. In other words, it will be like Spotify without the paid subscription, but on TV. We all know how successful Spotify is so its understandable why ITV are looking into developing their own platform using this model. There will also be the option to trade up to a subscription service for those wanting to avoid the ads and have access to even more content. ITV also plan to premier new content first on ITVX rather than through traditional linear channels seen in the past.
Within the market, shares in ITV slumped by 14% after the announcement. Concerns were raised over the investment made in the new service along with the negative long-term downwards trends we are all seeing in linear TV. ITV are in a sticky spot, there is a clear need to shake things up but how they can compete with the big players as well as having the budgets to produce or buy quality content remains to be seen.
Advertising opportunities are yet to be published but we look forward to exploring how this new platform could work for our clients.
Check out our article on how we can unlock the power of addressable TV for our clients.
If you want to chat about how we can help you with video production or media planning, then please get in touch at kim.mclellan@hunterlodge.co.uk
