ITV has reported a huge surge in the number of people watching its video-on-demand service ITV Hub.
Year on year consumption hours have increased by 82%, while monthly reach on the platform has risen by 40%.
Hub plus growth
ITV Hub plus, the platform’s ad free service, has also grown 80% since the same period last year.
Figures also released for March 2020 reveal how the Hub has witnessed a 49% increase year-on-year in simulcast viewing. It said this was due to a strong schedule across programme genres.
10 most viewed
The current ten most viewed shows across the platform are Liar, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Belgravia, Sam & Billie: The Mummy Diaries, Ibiza Weekender, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, The Trouble with Maggie Cole, Family Guy and The Good Karma Hospital.
Additionally, viewing across Connected TV devices has risen by 35%.
Both drama and news and current affairs content have helped to boost the service’s catch up and simulcast audience figures in the past month, with catch up across drama up 26% year on year, further to the recent success of the second series of Liar.
GMB and COVID
Meanwhile simulcast viewing between the hours of 6-9am has increased by 55%. This ITV said, was driven by Good Morning Britain’s ongoing news coverage around the Coronavirus.
As part of a broadened content offering, the ITV Hub this weekend debuted a brand new Britain’s Got Talent spin off, Britain’s Got Talent: Unseen, made exclusively for the platform.
With this year’s Euros cancelled, the Hub will also show every match from the Euro 96 football tournament this May.
“The recent uplift in the first quarter for the ITV Hub and Hub plus in both reach and consumption is hugely encouraging, as we continue to evolve the platforms and look at new ways to enhance our content”, Steve Forde, Director of Digital Products, ITV, said.