ITV To Restructure Broadcasting Unit Amid BritBox And On-Demand Focus

(Alliance News) - ITV PLC on Monday said it will restructure its broadcasting arm, establishing two new units and putting more focus on its video on-demand offering.

ITV will establish a Media & Entertainment division which will house two units, Broadcast and On-Demand.

"The On-Demand business unit will be the focus of digital product development and growth for ITV. It will grow ITV's online offering by providing new content that appeals to audiences who already do most or all of their viewing on demand and will serve it to them in whatever way they want to access it," the broadcasting company said.

The unit will include its Hub and Hub+ on-demand offering, which allows viewers to catch up on missed content, in the case of the latter service, ad-free. It will also include BritBox, a Netflix-style video subscription service established alongside the BBC.

"As well as aligning ITV's resources and investments clearly to the two main ways of viewing, the restructure will drive improvements in efficiency and reduce cost. The process of restructuring has now started and will be fully complete by the end of March 2021," ITV explained.

Kevin Lygo, ITV's director of television, will be managing director of Media & Entertainment and will head up the Broadcast unit.

ITV's Chief Marketing Officer Rufus Radcliffe will lead On-Demand.

"As a result of this restructure ITV will be recruiting a new CMO as well as a new chief operations officer for Media and Entertainment. Both of these new roles will report to Kevin Lygo," ITV added.

ITV said it also plans to reduce its London office space "over the coming years" to reflect its "changing needs".

"At this stage no decision about exactly what this means for ITV's current London offices has been made as the company assesses the sort of space needed to support the business in the future," the company explained.

ITV shares were 0.1% higher at 72.18 pence each in London on Tuesday afternoon.

By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com

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