But still, industry onlookers were sceptical.
In August, ITV trumpeted 2 billion views and was named Best On-Demand Service at the Edinburgh TV Awards.
ITVs best total for a full year prior was 1.9 billion for 12 months in 2022.
Damian Lewis in ‘A Spy Among Friends.‘ITV Studios
The metrics were up significantly.
The numbers dont lie, and they are really good in all metrics, Radcliffe says.
Similar stories have been playing out across Europe.
RTL Group CEO Thomas Rabe.RTL Group
Weve seen a change of pace recently with ITVX and RTL+ in Germany, Enders Godard.
says ITVX is releasing more content online before the linear channel.
It is conceived as a destination rather than ITV Hub, which was catch up.
The question now is really whether Europes big dogs took too long to respond.
This interplay hasnt been seen at streamers.
Broadcasters do have a chance to capitalize on subscription fatigue, says Amperes Anderson.
However, there isnt a unified approach to the future amongst Europes commercial players.
Meanwhile, the proportion of the demo using streaming services grew across the board.
Thats a big opportunity, says ITVs Radcliffe.
Others have been much more focused at local level.
RTLs businesses remain hyper-focused on local consolidation but have found progress tough.
I still see these as missed opportunities for us, but also the European media industry as a whole.
Broadly, regulators have been far more comfortable with pan-European consolidation.
The Warner Bros.-Discovery deal was waved through by the EU at the end of 2021.
ITV has invested heavily in ITV Studios.
For ITV, Studios has been a really big strategic advantage, says Amperes Anderson.
Content is the lifeblood of RTL Group, Rabe says.
It drives audiences in broadcasting and streaming.
In France, TF1 Group has followed a similar strategy.
Meanwhile, ProSieben has taken a different approach.
Im not sure they completely realize that, Godard says.
Europes commercial connection chiefs argue theyre more than aware of the challenges ahead.
The media industry is amid a fundamental transformation, says RTLs Rabe.
This comes with significant challenges but also huge opportunities.
I encourage our teams to embrace creativity and entrepreneurship, and to take decisive action.
Our digital transformation has brought a lot of new business in we attracted 400 new advertisers digitally in 2022.
