ITV Launches Streaming Service ITVX; Shows Will Air Months Before Being Given Linear Slot; Full Year Results Show Record Ad Spend

deadline.com:

The next phase of ITVs digital strategy is here as the network launches a streaming service called ITVX that will air shows months before they arrive on linear, while posting impressive revenue and profit growth and record advertising spend.Launching later this year or next with both an AVoD and SVoD option, ITVX will kick off with dramas including Damian Lewis’s A Spy Among Friends, Helena Bonham Carter-starring Nolly and Lenny Henry’s The Little Birds, along with a new series using deep fake techniques to create hilarious celebrity set-ups, a feature film for ITV2 hit Plebs and a feature doc on the truth about Bill Cosby.In a sign that ITV is truly embracing the streaming revolution, multiple shows will air six to nine months before being given a linear window.ITVX, which is targeting 15,000 hours of content, will be populated with multiple ITV hits including Broadchurch and Love Island, and, going toe-to-toe with Channel 4’s All4, the network has already struck a deal with WarnerMedia International Television Distribution for U.S.

content including UK premieres of The Sex Lives of College Girls and All American, as well as The OC and One Tree Hill.Total content costs next year for ITVX are expected to hit around £1.2BN in content plus a £45M one-off – £25M for data and technology and a £20M launch cost.BritBox, the streamer run by the ITV and BBC but majority-funded by ITV, will be folded into ITVX, which will effectively replace current ITV VoD player ITV Hub.

The future of the BBC’s role in BritBox is unclear.ITV Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said ITVX “builds on everything we have achieved in phase one” of the network’s More Than TV strategy, which was unveiled three years ago and saw the broadcaster forge a Media