ITV Hub is to be fully integrated into Virgin Media O2’s set-top box following the signature of a new multi-year agreement between broadcaster and platform.
The agreement also includes enhanced advertising capabilities and continued access to ITV’s channels and on-demand services for Virgin TV customers.
Viewers will be able to seamlessly search for and watch all of ITV’s ever-growing selection of available programmes. A range of new features including programme start over and cloud recording will also be introduced for some Virgin TV customers in future. There will also be greater prominence for ITV shows across all Virgin TV interfaces.
A similar integration was announced for Sky Q earlier this year.
Lutz Schüler, CEO of Virgin Media O2, said: “We have been a longstanding partner of ITV for many years and this new agreement further cements our relationship. It paves the way for future product innovation and delivers more for our customers and our business, as well as enhancing the toolkit available to advertisers.”
The full integration of the ITV Hub platform also brings increased benefits to advertisers through Planet V, ITV’s programmatic addressable advertising platform. Planet V allows both advertisers and agencies control over the planning, purchasing and reporting of their campaigns on ITV Hub, building audiences with first-party data and augmenting those audiences with advertisers’ own data.
Carolyn McCall, CEO of ITV, said: “As Planet V continues to grow at scale, we’re able to deliver addressable advertising via the fully integrated ITV Hub on the great platform that Virgin Media O2 continues to evolve via both on-demand and linear viewing. Plus our viewers are able to access ITV’s fantastic range of programming more easily than ever before with an enhanced viewing experience.”
The contract also ensures ITV’s live channels and the ITV Hub will also be available through Virgin TV’s new IPTV service when it fully launches in early 2022.
