[Orry Verducci]

Yes, ITV Hub was SD but 50p - ITVX increased the resolution to 1080p but dropped to 25p. I'm wondering if they don't/didn't have the bandwidth to provide both. I'd like to see it fixed, though. Watching interlaced content at 25p is nasty.

I'm also astonished that they haven't added regional content before now, to be honest!

Simple answer, cost.

I believe ITV use AWS to deliver ITVX. Their cloud video encoding solution has tiered pricing depending on resolution and framerate, with HD costing more than SD, and framerates greater than 30 fps costing more. For ITVX they've presumably decided to pay the extra for HD encoding instead of the extra for 50p encoding. They could of course pay for both but have clearly decided not to.

This is before we get on to bandwidth costs. There's no limits to bandwidth but you do have to pay for it. 50p video files are usually bigger than 25p, which is more data being egressed and therefore a bigger bill.

I wish they would encode at 50p as 25p really doesn't look good on some content (e.g. live sport on ITV1), but on a commercial level I can see why they might be reluctant to.