ITVX: What It Is, the Sky Purchase and Live Addressable+

ITVX is the streaming platform of ITV, the UK's largest commercial public service broadcaster — and in May 2026 it returned to the top of search results for three reasons at once: a purchase negotiation with Sky, the 1 billion streams milestone reached earlier than ever, and the launch of an addressable advertising tool that shakes up the entire paid traffic TV market. In this guide I explain what ITVX is, why it exploded in searches now, and what it teaches advertisers in Brazil.

TL;DR

• ITVX is ITV's streaming service (UK): hybrid AVOD/SVOD model — free with ads or ad-free subscription.
• It replaced the old ITV Hub in December 2022 and jumped from ~4,000 to ~15,000 hours of content.
• In May 2026 it surpassed 1 billion streams for the year, eight days ahead of 2025's pace.
• Sky is close to buying the channels and ITVX; ITV would keep only its studio arm (ITV Studios).
• Live Addressable+ brings digital targeting to live linear TV — the best addressable TV lesson of the year.

What is ITVX and how does it work

ITVX is ITV's streaming service, launched in December 2022 to replace the old ITV Hub. It wasn't just a name change: the catalogue jumped from about 4,000 hours to approximately 15,000 hours of programming. ITV itself presents it as the UK's first integrated AVOD and SVOD platform — combining free ad-supported streaming and paid ad-free subscription in a single app.

In practice, viewers choose: watch for free by accepting commercial breaks, or pay for ITVX Premium to remove ads and unlock extra content. This hybrid design is what makes ITVX a topic for media professionals — it turns broadcast TV audiences into measurable advertising inventory, with data on who is on the other side of the screen.

Even the name has strategy behind it. The brand was created by consultancy DixonBaxi by rotating a "plus" sign 45 degrees: in a market crowded with "+" services, ITV decided to be the "X". The X appears as a multiplier — a signal of scale, anticipation and premium entertainment.

AVOD, SVOD and why the acronym matters

Before proceeding, it's worth fixing three terms that recur throughout this text:

• AVOD (Advertising-based Video on Demand): free video on demand, paid for by ads. This is where the advertiser opportunity lies.
• SVOD (Subscription Video on Demand): subscription video, ad-free — the classic Netflix model from the early years.
• Hybrid (ITVX's case): both in the same app, letting the audience decide how to "pay": with money or with attention.

Why ITVX exploded in searches in May 2026

Three recent events pushed ITVX into the spotlight almost simultaneously.

First, the negotiation with Sky. Sources close to both companies indicated in mid-May 2026 that a deal could be just weeks away. The discussed structure splits ITV in two: the TV channels and ITVX would go to Sky, while ITV shareholders would keep ITV Studios — the arm that produces programmes for ITV itself and for American streaming giants like Disney. For the UK market, it's the biggest open media reorganisation in years.

Second, an audience record. ITVX surpassed 1 billion streams in 2026, reaching the milestone eight days earlier than it did in 2025. Consumption growth is exactly the fuel that values a platform on the eve of an acquisition.

Third — and most relevant for those working with paid traffic — the launch of Live Addressable+. This is the one worth focusing on.

Live Addressable+: addressable advertising comes to live TV

In May 2026, ITV launched Live Addressable+, its addressable advertising product for live linear broadcast. The launch began as an exclusive beta with Omnicom Media Group, involving more than 20 of the group's brands in sectors such as automotive, retail and telecoms, before opening to the wider market in the following weeks. Official details are on the ITV Press Centre.

The term "addressable" means this: instead of everyone seeing the same commercial in the same break, different advertisers deliver different ads to different audiences — in the same programme, at the same time. It's the logic of digital applied to TV.

What Live Addressable+ allows you to target

The innovation brings addressable targeting for the first time to ITV's live linear channels — ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV Quiz — as well as ITVX itself. Advertisers can use data attributes such as:

• Life stage: single, family with children, retired.
• Income bracket.
• Geographic location.
• Shopping preferences.

In practice, a car manufacturer can speak to higher-income families in a specific region while a retailer reaches a different profile — all within the same break of the same live programme.

Why this is big

Linear TV has always been the realm of mass reach, but "blind": you buy the programme, not the person. Addressable advertising breaks this logic and brings TV closer to what advertisers already do on Google and Meta — buying audiences, not space. Add to this the joint announcement of intent by Sky, Channel 4 and ITV to create a premium video advertising marketplace, and it's clear that the UK is building a unified alternative to the American giants.

There is also a technical detail that changes the game: applying targeting to a live broadcast is much harder than to on-demand content. With recorded video, there is time to decide which ad to insert; with live, the replacement must happen in seconds, household by household, without freezing the signal. Crossing this frontier is what makes Live Addressable+ a milestone — not just another programmatic media feature.

ITVX vs. ITV Hub: what changed in practice

The leap from the old ITV Hub to ITVX was not just in catalogue size. The table below summarises the change:

Aspect	ITV Hub (until 2022)	ITVX (since Dec/2022)
Hours of content	~4,000	~15,000
Model	Free catch-up + subscription	Integrated AVOD + SVOD
Advertising	Standard ads	Addressable (Live Addressable+)
Exclusive content	Limited	Films, series and original premieres
Brand	Extension of ITV Hub	Own identity (DixonBaxi)

ITVX was born to compete on equal footing with Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon — not as a simple "catch-up player" for programmes that have already aired. This ambition is what justifies Sky's bid for the asset.

The AVOD model and what it means for paid traffic

The point that most interests campaign managers: free ad-supported streaming is no longer plan B. Platforms worldwide — including Netflix and Prime Video — have launched ad-supported tiers because audiences resist stacking subscriptions. ITVX was born hybrid and proves that well-targeted ads can pay for content without driving audiences away.

For the advertiser, this opens up new inventory: so-called CTV (Connected TV), the internet-connected TV. Unlike traditional commercials, CTV ads can be targeted, measured and — with products like Live Addressable+ — delivered to specific profiles. It's the fusion of TV reach and digital precision, and that's why budgets that previously went only to display are starting to migrate to the big screen.

If you follow how AI is changing what matters for Brazilian companies, you see the same movement here: data making media more precise and more accountable for results.

What the ITVX case teaches Brazilian advertisers

Brazil doesn't have ITVX, but it has the same direction of travel. Globoplay, Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus and the CTV offerings from YouTube and smart TVs already sell targetable inventory here. The ITVX case anticipates four movements:

1. TV becomes performance media. It's no longer possible to treat TV only as a "top-of-funnel" brand tool. With addressable, you can measure and optimise as you do in digital.
2. First-party data is the asset. Those with audience data — login, history, purchases — control targeting. This applies to both broadcasters and advertisers.
3. AVOD lowers the entry barrier. Audiences accept ads in exchange for free content, expanding targetable reach without requiring a subscription.
4. Unified measurement becomes a requirement. Crossing TV, CTV and digital in a single dashboard is no longer a luxury but a basic necessity to avoid paying twice for the same audience.

How to apply this to your campaigns today

• Start treating CTV as a separate media line, distinct from traditional display.
• Structure your first-party data (CRM, pixel, conversion events) — without it, advanced targeting is an empty promise. The same principle applies as we advocate when discussing automation and AI agents for businesses: organised data becomes a competitive advantage.
• Test short video formats before migrating heavy budgets to large screens.
• Negotiate measurement: ask for incremental reach reports, not just impressions.

Risks, limits and what NOT to copy blindly

Not everything in the ITVX movement can be transplanted to Brazil. Three warnings:

First, privacy and regulation. Targeting by income and location treads on sensitive ground. In Brazil, the LGPD requires a clear legal basis for using personal data — copying British granularity without proper consent is a recipe for fines.

Second, scale. ITVX relies on the massive broadcast TV audience in the UK. Smaller brands in Brazil don't have this volume and may waste budget trying to address audiences too small to be efficient.

Third, platform dependency. The more an advertiser outsources data and measurement to a single vehicle, the less control they have over their own results. The message is to build your own assets — not just rent the audience of someone who, by the way, is being bought by Sky.

Conclusion: ITVX is a map, not a destination

ITVX matters to Brazilian advertisers less for what it is today and more for what it anticipates: the convergence of TV and digital, with data, targeting and measurement at the centre. The Sky negotiation and Live Addressable+ are just the visible symptoms of an industry reorganising around addressable advertising.

The next practical step is not to wait for a "Brazilian ITVX". It's to get your house in order: organise first-party data, separate CTV as a media line, and demand real measurement. Those who do this now will be ready when addressable TV becomes standard here — and that is closer than it seems.