Although ITV has made clear its broadcast business will remain “the home of award-winning drama, the biggest entertainment shows and sport,” it’s still unclear what the rejig will mean for linear channels such as ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4, with insiders whispering that the channels could be scrapped in time.
With the ongoing rise of streaming/catch-up etc, the viability of the umpteen spin-off linear channels that broadcasters launched following the advent of DTT will shrink/cease in the long-term.
Glad to hear that ITV are being brave and sensible enough to seriously review this. Even though they may well decide that it is not yet necessary to close any of their sibling channels at this particular juncture, it acknowledges the likelihood of such an eventually ultimately being on the cards.
The rumoured return of linear BBC Three rather flies in the face of the long-term trajectory that broadcast media consumption is already on.
ITV do seem to have well defined channels, it would be difficult to single one out as “first to close”. They hardly cross over (maybe ITV2 & ITVBe, but the latter has found a niche with littleBe and the more reality based shows).
It’s interesting the BritBox vs ITV commissions, because ultimately how do they decide which to put where? Spitting Image was clearly done for the nostalgia attached to the brand & hoping it would boost BritBox... but with a drama?
Would they be better off rolling ITV Hub into BritBox? Maybe a bit like (as I understand it) Peacock works in the States? Some content with free & it’s a catch-up service for NBC shows, but also has its own content as a streaming service.
ITV's linear digital channels will remain as long as they are profitable. The only one likely to be sacrificed in the near future using the BBC3 excuse would probably be CITV, but for now it still serves an ad market their other channels don't.
Maybe they're drop the +1 channels first (except maybe the main one), and go from there?
As other posters have mentioned, VoD is much more widely used compared to when these channels first launched.
Would they be better off rolling ITV Hub into BritBox? Maybe a bit like (as I understand it) Peacock works in the States? Some content with free & it’s a catch-up service for NBC shows, but also has its own content as a streaming service.
I think they should buy out the BBC and take full control of BritBox. There are far too many ongoing issues regarding the future of the Corporation and how it's funded. I
Domestically, rolling ITV Hub into BritBox is in my opinion a viable solution. Although, to think outside of the box (no pun intended), is BritBox really the right brand to take forward for the streaming service? Consider the amount of production companies ITV owns around the world. Do they really want to limit themselves to a service showcasing the best of British?
From a global perspective, they actually have an even better brand for a streaming service (one which Apple would have liked to have used instead of Apple TV+)...
ITV
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ITV are already downsizing their linear output, scrapping certain SD feeds instead with HD feeds of those regions but for how much the ITV could easily replace that for HD space is beyond any multiplex itself.
As for the sibling channels, I couldn't see those closing, especially since although we're in an age where things are easily accessible and there's no need for channels like Gold, they still retain their audiences and if the plans were to scrap the channels, the likelihood is that the viewership of those channels (or indeed, the programming) will go up as a response to that on their linear feeds. Realistically, I can't see CITV being "moved online" unless they may see the success of Disney pulling their channels in favour of an on-demand service, time will only tell.
BBC Three relaunching is a pretty big shaky road, since while the BBC have "no plans to relaunch the channel" at that moment, they could easily change their minds and completely confuse the industry since although the BBC have the power to do that sort of thing, it shows they're simply bleeding viewership. If ITV4 were to be scrapped, say goodbye to FTA viewings of Tour de France!
I hope ITV4 isn't scrapped, because apart from The Tour de France, there is the French open, Touring car championship, both darts and snooker, horse racing, when not on the main channel, and The Opening Show every Saturday morning. At times, especially at the weekends, it does feel like ITV4 is like an ITV sports channel and I wouldn't like the above sports not to be FTA.
Strongly agree with the sentiments of @Big-G, in that ITV4 serves a great function of being ITV's FTA sports channel and even if ITV2 and ITV3 are scrapped, that ITV4 should remain even if named something else.
Without these additional channels, a lot of the licenses ITV have for broadcasting snooker will probably end up at Eurosport (all of the Coral 1-year ranking list events, and the Champion of Champions are on ITV4), which allows for hearing from some of the non-Eurosport commentators like Alan, Stephen and Clive (though we probably won't hear from Clive for a long time atm). Plus all the other sporting tournaments they cover would end up behind paywalls.
ITV are already downsizing their linear output, scrapping certain SD feeds instead with HD feeds of those regions but for how much the ITV could easily replace that for HD space is beyond any multiplex itself.
That's not downsizing, that's future proofing.
No more really to this story than there was to the BBC scrapping their news bulletins a couple of months back. Just an insider or two saying that in time the linear channels may be reviewed and it being taken that ITV2/3/4 are closing next week.
I’m not really convinced that there’s much truth to this story. As mentioned closing ITV4 would make a lot of their sport coverage homeless and force them to put all the horse racing on the main channel. ITV2 has long stopped being ‘ITV Extra’ and has become a channel in its own right. And ITV3 is surely a great way to bring extra ad revenue in from programmes that would otherwise just be sitting on the shelf.