The launch of ITVX, as a combined SVOD and AVOD offer to replace ITV Hub later this year, will boost ITV’s digital first commissioning strategy.

“We are investing significantly in new and exclusive programmes which will be free to stream, and also in technology and product design to make the viewer experience and interface a premium one on ITVX” says Rufus Radcliffe, ITV’s Managing Director of Streaming,

ITV will spend £20 million pounds on digital-first content for the new platform this year and £160 million pounds in 2023.

Until the launch of ITVX later this year, ITV Hub will continue to be the free streaming home of ITV, with ongoing plans to scale up the amount of content on the service in the run up to ITVX launch. ITV Hub currently has 4,000 hours of content while ITVX will have around 15,000 hours at launch.

BritBox will remain the standalone subscription home of the best of British content including forthcoming originals Why Don’t They Ask Evans? and The Dry, until later this year, when the content on ITV Hub and BritBox come together in what will be the new streaming home of ITV, ITVX.

A raft of dramas will now stream first and for free on ITVX before arriving six to nine months later on ITV’s broadcast channel, including A Spy Among Friends, starring Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce and Nolly starring Helena Bonham Carter, which is the first production for Nicola Shindler’s new Quay Street Productions, part of ITV Studios. There’s also Drama Republic’s Confessions of Frannie Langton, Lenny Henry’s six part drama The Little Birds and Tiger Aspect production Litvinenko, starring David Tennant.

Other ITVX exclusive content will include landmark natural history series from Plimsoll Productions, A Year on Planet Earth, comedy, such as a new series using Deep Fake techniques to create celebrity set-ups, as well as a feature-length film finale for Plebs. Plus new documentary The Case Against Cosby – exposing new truths about accusations against Bill Cosby with exclusive access to survivors.

As well as streaming first exclusives, all the drama and comedy ITV commissions will be made available to viewers in one go on ITVX, for free, as soon as the first episode has aired on ITV’s linear channels. The same will be true of the majority of reality series.

ITVX will also be home to a wide selection of popular US series. In the first of a series of deals to be announced, ITV has concluded a wide ranging content deal with WarnerMedia International Television Distribution for programmes including UK premieres of The Sex Lives of College Girls and All American, as well as The OC, One Tree Hill and select series of The 100, Supernatural and Veronica Mars.

As well as being able to live stream ITV linear channels, ITVX will have a changing number of exclusive themed channels, data driven to align with viewer preferences and popularity.

These pop-up channels will give a scheduled experience through a streaming service, with viewers able to choose where in the schedule they join.

With 20 channels at launch, including Hell’s Kitchen US, True Crime, The Oxford Detectives, 90s Favourites and The Chase as examples, ITV intends to offer viewers a new themed channel, every week of the year on ITVX.

More information on ITV’s streaming premieres:

A Spy Among Friends

More information on ITV’s streaming premieres:

A Spy Among Friends

A limited series based on the New York Times best-selling book written by Ben Macintyre, which dramatises the true story of Nicholas Elliott (Damian Lewis) and Kim Philby (Guy Pearce) — two spies and lifelong friends, one of whom was betraying the other all along, at the height of the Cold War. It is produced in collaboration with Sony Pictures Television, ITV Studios and Veritas Entertainment Group. Lewis also serves as executive producer through his production company, Ginger Biscuit Entertainment

The Sex Lives of College Girls

Created by Emmy-nominated writer/producer Mindy Kaling and Justin Noble, The Sex Lives of College Girls follows four college roommates as they arrive at New England’s prestigious Essex College. A bundle of contradictions and hormones, these girls are equal parts lovable and infuriating as they live out their new, free lives on campus. The series stars Pauline Chalamet, Amrit Kaur, Reneé Rapp, and Alyah Chanelle Scott. Additional series regulars include Midori Francis, Gavin Leatherwood, Chris Meyer, Ilia Isorelys Paulino, Lauren Spencer, and Renika Williams.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton – Drama Republic

Sara Collins’ award winning debut gothic novel brought to the screen, a tale of mystery and murder, sex and slavery, laudanum and love. Starring Karla-Simone Spence (Blue Story, Wannabe) as Frannie Langton, the drama’s young protagonist born into a life of slavery who is fighting to tell her own story. She is joined by Sophie Cookson as Madame Marguerite Benham and Patrick Martins as Laddie Lightning in the line-up for the murder mystery drama.

A Year on Planet Earth – Plimsoll Productions in association with ITV Studios

Featuring a story arc across the seasons, the series is set to draw viewers in over a number of episodes, unfolding like a drama. It will be narrated by Stephen Fry, and made by a team, including Tom Hugh-Jones (Tiny World, Planet Earth II) and Dr Martha Holmes (Blue Planet, Hostile Planet).

The Case Against Cosby

A two-part documentary revealing new truths through exclusive access to the long-time survivors of the sexual assault accusations against Bill Cosby. The Case Against Cosby follows the harrowing journey for justice driven by the only survivor whose case could be tried in a court of law, Andrea Constand. Based on her memoir, The Moment: Standing Up to Cosby, Speaking Up for Women, The Case Against Cosby will reveal the stories of the many who have finally been able to raise their claims publicly against the serial sexual predator and television icon, Bill Cosby.

Three Little Birds – Douglas Road Productions in association with Tiger Aspect

Devised by Lenny Henry and based on the experiences of his own family, this is the story of a group of young friends finding their way to Birmingham, after they journey over from Jamaica as part of the Windrush generation.

Nolly Quay Street Productions

The first drama under Nicola Shindler’s new production banner with ITV Studios, Nolly is written by Russell T Davies as his love letter to the soaps, it is a biopic following the life of actress Noele Gordon on the Crossroads set playing motel owner Meg Mortimer. Nolly is played by Helena Bonham Carter.

Litvinenko – Tiger Aspect

Litvinenko is a four-part drama with David Tennant as Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian Federal Security Services and KGB officer whose death from polonium poisoning in November 2006 triggered one of the most complex and dangerous investigations in the history of the Metropolitan Police. The drama also focuses upon the story of Marina, played by Margarita Levieva, Alexander’s fearless, dignified widow who fought tirelessly to persuade the British Government to publicly name her husband’s killers and acknowledge the role of the Russian State in his murder.

 

 

 

Pippa Considine

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