More viewers choose ITV1 and ITVX over the BBC’s offering, breaking the BBC’s previous dominance of New Year drama.
- Mr Bates versus the Post Office beat series two of The Tourist in the rating battle, with both dramas released as box sets on their respective streaming services
- ITVX receives 8 million New Year streaming requests
- Streaming service finally reaches three billion streams since launch
Two years ago, the first episode of The Tourist, starring Jamie Dornan, secured the BBC its biggest drama ratings hit of 2022. The following year, the BBC came first again with the return of Happy Valley. But this year’s return of The Tourist could only attract 2.2 million viewers on BBC One.
On the other side, ITV1’s audience was up 10% year-on-year, with its main evening drama Mr Bates versus the Post Office achieving 3.9 million.
Both BBC and ITV made their respective dramas available as box sets on their streaming services, where Mr Bates… was streamed more than one million times. Both broadcasters will now closely watch the seven day on-demand trend, to see who wins the streaming ratings battle.
Jeopardy also launched on New Year’s Day with 2.2m. Alongside Deal or No Deal, which premiered late last year, it is the highest gameshow launch since Lingo in 2021.
The Winter King on ITVX has been streamed 5.7 million times since launch too.
All this means that ITVX has now surpassed the three billion streams mark since its launch in early December 2022.
ITVX still shows sign of slow down
But the time it’s taking for ITVX to hit each billion stream milestone is slowing down or flatlining. The first billion was achieved in just four months. It took four and a half months to build to two billion. It’s now taken over just over four months to get to three billion, that’s despite the last four months including the Rugby Union World Cup, I’m A Celebrity and Big Brother.
The pace of progress indicates ITV’s ongoing battle to ensure ITVX grows amidst a crowded streaming market, despite a successful New Year.
Marc Thornham
[Image: Mr Bates versus the Post Office, ITV]