ITV’s chief executive has told the RTS Cambridge Convention the number of people registered to the platform has now reached 28 million.
Carolyn McCall said the broadcaster’s investment in the platform had paid off with viewers coming in to watch premieres such as A Spy Among Friends with Damian Lewis and Guy Pearce.
“The more pleasing figure for me is that 93% increase of light viewers. So people that would have come in for the rugby or the football or a programme that they know they want to watch. … they’re finding more stuff on there to watch. And again, pleasingly, 86% of people who have come in for a premiere on ITVX are staying and browsing and watching more.”
McCall said the increase in available hours from 3,000 hours on the former ITV Hub to 20,000 today meant that viewers who had come in to watch Love Island were now able to find something else to watch.
ITVX has benefitted from the development of its data driven platform Planet V that has helped personalise advertising on the streaming service.
After a poor start to the year in terms of advertising, McCall called on the Government to set out the initiatives they had for the economy. “It feels like there’s a waiting game. Everyone’s waiting because everyone knows there’s going to be an election. And so for us, I think that’s, I know it’s very difficult, but it is frustrating because we are doing worse than every single European country economically other than Germany.”
McCall said it was the economy more than programmes that would help improve the advertising market.
