ITV and Virgin Media O2 have signed a long-term multi-year agreement that will see ITV programming receive enhanced prominence across all Virgin TV interfaces, including bespoke content curation and enhanced advertising capabilities.
The five-year commercial deal incorporates full integration of the ITV Hub platform on Virgin TV set-top boxes, enabling viewers to easily search for and watch all ITV content. New features such as programme start over and cloud recording will also be introduced for Virgin TV customers in the future.
The integration brings increased benefits to advertisers through Planet V, ITV’s programmatic addressable advertising platform. Planet V grants both advertisers and agencies control over the planning, purchasing and reporting of their campaigns on ITV Hub.
ITV’s live channels and the ITV Hub will also be made available through Virgin TV’s upcoming IPTV service when it launches in early 2022.
ITV CEO Carolyn McCall said: “This extended and enhanced commercial agreement brings benefits to both ITV’s viewers and advertisers and the work that Virgin Media O2 is doing to develop its IP proposition advantages both those groups.
“As Planet V continues to grow at scale, we’re able to deliver addressable advertising via the fully integrated ITV Hub on the great platform that Virgin Media O2 continues to evolve via both on-demand and linear viewing. Plus our viewers are able to access ITV’s fantastic range of programming more easily than ever before with an enhanced viewing experience.”
Virgin Media O2 CEO Lutz Schüler added: “We have been a longstanding partner of ITV for many years and this new agreement further cements our relationship. It paves the way for future product innovation and delivers more for our customers and our business, as well as enhancing the toolkit available to advertisers.
“Our focus in TV is all about providing incredible entertainment to our customers in a seamless way underpinned by the very best connectivity. As we continue to invest and innovate, having ITV’s vast selection of must-watch programming fully integrated and easily accessible plays a huge part in giving our customers a fantastic experience both now and in the future.”
