ITVX: Over 6bn streams in 2 years
December 4, 2024
ITVX turns two on December 8th and will mark the occasion with a host of audience records.
ITV says its streaming service has outpaced all other major streaming platforms in terms of growth in viewer hours since its launch – with a 35 per cent growth in viewer hours in two years, ahead of BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Disney+, Channel 4 and Prime Video.
Kevin Lygo, ITV’s Managing Director of Media and Entertainment, commented: “Two years on, ITVX is now firmly established as a superior streaming destination, for a wealth of must-watch content. There will be countless lists this month on the shows of the year, but let me say this ahead of them – in terms of the most talked about programming, that resonated with the largest volume of UK viewers in 2024 – ITV has been the market leader. Mr Bates vs The Post Office is the most watched UK drama of 2024, bigger than anything on any other channel or streamer. And when England defeated The Netherlands to make it into the Euro 2024 final, our coverage peaked with 21.6 million viewers, that’s the biggest sporting audience of the year. Viewing to I’m A Celebrity in streaming has more than doubled since ITVX launched and the series opener has consolidated at nearly 11 million viewers, making it the biggest entertainment show of 2024. And with 640 million streams since ITVX launched, Love Island is surely the biggest reality show in streaming, with UK audiences.
“ITVX is the home of our biggest shows, but so much more too, with over 21,000 free-to-view hours of programming and films. We have transformed the viewer experience on ITVX, making it easier to discover, more accessible, more prominent and better to navigate – with an ever-changing mix of personalised content recommendations. And we have increased our investment in marketing and this has enabled us to reach more viewers more consistently, reacting to trends and preferences. In short, we are very pleased with the incredible growth ITVX has delivered since its launch, as the UK’s fastest growing streaming platform over the last two years,” added Lygo.
The biggest total audiences of 2024
The biggest UK audience of 2024 is ITV’s coverage of England vs The Netherlands, which peaked with 21.6 million viewers across ITV1 and ITVX.
Mr Bates vs The Post Office is the biggest drama audience of 2024 to date, with a total audience of 15.1 million viewers watching the final episode of the four part series. ITV has had four out of the top 10 new dramas in 2024 – Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Red Eye, Until I Kill You and After The Flood – more than any other channel or streamer (BBC and Netflix both have three).
ITVX – top performers in streaming
In the two years since launching ITVX has had 6 billion streams, growth of 77 per cent versus the two years prior to launch.
Live sport has delivered some of ITVX’s biggest audiences – with ITVX’s five biggest sporting events, three Euro 2024 matches and one 2022 World Cup audience, attracting nearly 70 million streams combined. The 25 Euro 2024 matches on ITVX this summer attracted 133 million streams.
Looking at ITVX viewing alone, and based on streams to most watched episode – Mr Bates vs The Post Office takes the crown as ITVX’s most watched commissioned title of 2024, closely followed by reality show, Love Island, and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!. Drama thrillers Red Eye and Trigger Point complete the top five most streamed commissioned titles on ITVX since launch.
To date drama has been the biggest genre on ITVX, accounting for 1.5 billion streams. Red Eye, After The Flood, Trigger Point, The Long Shadow, Joan, Until I Kill You as well as of course, Mr Bates vs The Post Office have all been popular streaming choices, for all these titles more than 40 per cent of their total audience has come from streams through ITVX. In 2024, ITV began making major commissioned dramas available in the early morning on ITVX, ahead of their broadcast on ITV1 in the evening.
Reality is another key genre in streaming and since ITVX’s launch Love Island has delivered a massive 640 million streams. With 100 million streams to its catalogue on ITVX, The Only Way is Essex is another top performer, alongside Big Brother, which since coming to ITV in 2023 has also amassed 100 million streams, including streams to Celebrity Big Brother and Big Brother: Late and Live.
I’m a Celebrity tops the entertainment genre and it is currently enjoying its biggest ever audiences on ITVX. In the first two weeks of this year’s series it was streamed 53 million times, up by 23 per cent on last year, and up 205 per cent on 2021.
Coronation Street and Emmerdale have clocked up 600 million streams since launch, making them amongst the top performing titles on ITVX. ITV’s flagship continuing dramas have recently received their own dedicated destination on ITVX, with episodes dropping daily at 7am ahead of their evening ITV1 broadcast.
ITVX now tops over 21,000 free hours of content, a significant increase on the 4,000 hours available at the start of 2022. Amongst the archive, top performing acquired box sets include Family Guy, One Tree Hill, The Originals, Love/Hate, Love and Death and The Twelve as well as UK series favourites including Vera, Midsomer Murders, Unforgotten, Benidorm and Broadchurch.
ITVX also boasts a film library with popular movies over the period including the Harry Potter films with over 10 million streams, the James Bond collection with over 6 million, and further blockbusters including Gladiator, Mamma Mia, Jurassic World; Fallen Kingdom and most recently the original Star Wars trilogy and Rogue One also featuring amongst the highlight titles.
ITVX also offers 12 FAST channels, including The Only Way is Essex, ITVX Kids and Sport, which are now delivering 60 per cent more streaming hours than a year ago, with two thirds of FAST channel viewers under 55.
Streams to the dedicated news service on ITVX are up 29 per cent year on year, with ITVX News attracting half a billion streams since launch.