ITV, the leading commercial broadcaster in the United Kingdom, had its biggest day and biggest month so far for online video in June. Coverage of the Euros football championship produced the largest audience for the broadcaster since the World Cup. Most ITV viewing still comes from traditional television channels.
On the last day in June ITVX delivered over 30 million online streams, with a combination of coverage of England against Slovakia and Spain against Georgia in the UEFA European Football Championship, not to mention the dating game show Love Island.
The Euro coverage also helped drive record online video numbers in June, with 375 million streams over the month on ITVX, up 54% year on year.
The 19 Euro 2024 matches on ITV in June delivered just under 84 million streams. The current series of Love Island up to 76 million streams after 28 episodes, which is up 10 million on the comparable point in the series last year. Including episodes from the previous series, Love Island delivered over 80 million streams across June.
Craig Morris, the managing editor of ITVX, said: “We’re delighted that more people than ever before came to ITVX in June. They come in for a football match or Love Island but then stay to binge on the hundreds of films and TV shows now available.”
ITV has announced a deal with Hayu, which specialises in reality shows, to bolster the subscription tier of its ITVX service. It includes unscripted series like Keeping up with the Kardashians and The Real Housewives of Melbourne.
Bobby Birk of NBCUniversal International Networks, part of Comcast, which owns Hayu, said: “Having already launched a similar offering in France, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, we are delighted to now make this Hayu ‘taster” available in the UK as we evolve our Hayu proposition to meet the needs of customers.”
ITVX is building momentum, driven by persistent on-air promotion, but it is the football that is proving positive for ITV, which shares the rights to the Euros in the United Kingdom with the BBC.
ITV had a peak audience of 18.4 million watching England’s extra-time victory against Slovakia across ITV1 and ITVX on all devices. The match itself was watched by an average audience of 15.6 million, with an average of 11.3 million watching across the coverage of the match. It was the largest audience for ITV since the 2022 World Cup.
ITV reported that it delivered approaching 450 million hours of online video in the first three months of 2024, up 16% on the same period the previous year. To put that in perspective, total ITV viewing in 2023 was over 13 billion hours.