ITV reported that it delivered 846 million hours of online video in the first six months of 2024, with 14.6 million monthly active users. It works out at just under two and a half hours a week per account. ITV said that it will concentrate on online advertising revenue rather than subscriptions, as the number of subscribers fell by over a third.
ITV reported that total hours delivered for its ITVX online service were up by 15%, with monthly active users up 17%. Online advertising revenue was also up by 17%.
Total viewing hours through ITVX were 846 million for the first six months of 2024, compared to 738 million for the first six months of 2023 and 1,505 for the whole of 2023.
The number of monthly active users rose to 14.6 million from 12.5 million the in same period the previous year. That is the average number of registered accounts that accessed ITV owned and operated on demand platforms each month.
That works out at under 10 hours a month per active account, or just under two and half hours a week. That could be spread across several individuals that might share the same account within a household.
Online advertising revenue was up £30 million to £209 million for six months, out of total advertising revenue of £889 million.
Subscription revenue was down 10%, with BritBox in the United Kingdom rolled into the ITVX Premium tier. As a result, the number of subscribers was down to 0.9 million from 1.4 million. Total subscription revenue was just £26 million over six months.
ITV sold its 50% share of BritBox International to its joint venture partner BBC Studios for £255 million in cash in March, returning the proceeds to shareholders. It will continue to receive licensing revenue for ITV programming available through the BritBox International service that is now wholly owned by the BBC.
“Going forward,” ITV said, “we will prioritise our ad funded proposition over our pay proposition to deliver the best return”.
“We expect ITVX to continue to perform strongly in the second half of the year with further improvements in content, product, distribution, marketing and monetisation.”