Full episodes of ITV shows including I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and The Masked Singer will be put on YouTube as part of the broadcaster’s digital strategy.
The channel will join YouTube’s partner programme, which will see hundreds of hours of ITV programmes uploaded in a bid for the broadcaster to increase advertising sales.
ITV said that full episodes of various sports, entertainment, documentary, reality, daytime and news programmes will be on the video platform including An Audience With Kylie, Olivia Marries Her Match, Ferne McCann: My Family & Me and soaps.
Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff’s new game show Bullseye and You Bet!, which has been brought back by ITV with Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern as hosts, are also among the programmes cited to be joining the partnership.
Kevin Lygo, managing director of ITV media and entertainment, said: “This partnership is part of our continuing strategic approach to maximise reach and viewing opportunities for audiences, wherever they choose to watch, alongside the successful and thriving ITVX, and our market leading commercial TV channels.”
ITV Studios’ new digital content label, tasked with maximising the value of ITV Studios IP, Zoo 55, will manage ITV and ITV Studios YouTube presence.
They will sell advertising from existing ITV Studios’ YouTube channels The Graham Norton Show, Hell’s Kitchen, The Voice Global and natural history focused channel, Our World.
Channels such as ITV News and ITV Sport will be developed alongside This Morning and Loose Women, Love Island or I’m A Celebrity.. Get Me Out Of Here!
ITV will have a new YouTube sales team, led by Abul Noor, who previously worked at Channel 4.
Kelly Williams, managing director of ITV Commercial, said: “Working with YouTube provides our advertisers with even more ways to engage with audiences in premium brand-safe content from the nation’s best loved TV shows, with a wide selection of targeting options.
“ITV Commercial’s sales team will be selling the inventory around all our YouTube content, and working alongside ITV Studios and Zoo 55 we will be creating opportunities for clients across a wide span of genres and programmes beyond ITV’s commissioned long form content.
“I’m also delighted to welcome Abul Noor to our team to spearhead this important development in our digital commercial strategy.”
In 2022, ITV announced plans for a new on-demand platform called ITVX, which replaced ITV Hub.
ITV told shareholders in November that group revenues dropped by 8% to £2.74 billion for the nine months to September, compared with the same period a year earlier.
It said this fall was driven by ITV Studios, its production business which is behind recent hits such as Rivals for Disney+ and Ludwig for the BBC after the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes weighed on revenues.
The media company announced plans to cut its costs by another £20 million this year, including a £10 million reduction in content costs.
In July, it said that ad revenues surged 17% in its second quarter and 10% over the first half following its broadcast of Euros matches.
Alison Lomax, managing director of YouTube UK & Ireland, said: “We are thrilled to be strengthening our partnership, which will see hundreds of hours of programmes available on YouTube for the first time.
“Through full episodes, clips, compilations and brand-new fan content, audiences will be able to forge even deeper connections with the shows they love.”
Channel 4 has also put full episodes of its shows on YouTube with Hollyoaks airing on the platform, as well as its election and Paris Paralympic Games coverage.
