[Score]

Is the ITVX premiere to ITV1 strategy working? Do these ITVX originals underperfom when they get to main ITV1?  Or do they perform comparable to an ITV1 'premiere'

They’ve mostly done quite badly when they get to ITV1, although arguably they’ve all been series that would not rate especially well on linear anyway.

Without Sin did OK on linear, averaging about 4 million in 7 day consolidated. That’s less than a stripped thriller premiering on ITV1 would be expected to get (Maryland the following week averaged well over 5 million, having not premiered on ITVX), although ITV said elsewhere that 2 million had already watched it on ITVX, which takes it to a pretty strong number overall.

A Spy Among Friends and Riches both bombed over the Summer, with overnights going below 1 million and 7 day consolidated below 2 million. Frannie Langton isn’t doing well at all this week either (just over 1 million overnights for the past two nights). But I guess these are shows that would not have been commissioned as ITV1 premieres in the first place. I think where they’re getting to with ITVX is commissioning shows that wouldn’t sit particularly well at 9pm on ITV1 (because they’d otherwise just put them there) and instead ordering shows that aim to appeal to lighter viewers, who don’t watch much ITV, and attracting them in to ITVX. I’d therefore expect them to be judged more on their ITVX performance than their linear performance.

In some cases they then do turn up on ITV1, although generally not in prime slots, as ITV1 premieres will still normally get those. A Spy Among Friends getting the Sunday 9pm slot felt like a bit of an exception and I do think they’d have expected a bit more from it on linear. Whereas with something like Riches, yes it did badly, but did it do worse than the repeats they’d have put on Summer Fridays otherwise? No, probably not. It’s interesting to see them putting these shows in slots they wouldn’t normally have that kind of original content in (e.g. Crime on Saturdays at 10pm, You & Me on ITV2) and that might be the way forward.