ITV to Launch New Female-Skewed Channel

LONDON: Expanding its bouquet of free-to-air channels, ITV has unveiled ITVBe, targeting a younger, female audience with lifestyle and reality programming from the U.K. and the U.S.

ITVBe will serve as the exclusive home of The Only Way is Essex. It will also feature the Real Housewives franchise from the U.S., which is currently airing in daytime on ITV2. ITVBe will be a complement to ITV2, which will continue to program entertainment for 16- to 34-year-olds. ITVBe will launch later this year, and will be available for free on all major broadcasting platforms, including Freeview, Sky and Virgin.

Adam Crozier, the chief executive of ITV, said: “ITVBe will be a terrific new addition to our family of channels. It reinforces our plan to maximize audiences and revenues from our broadcasting business. Alongside our recently announced new pay channel ITV Encore, this is another important step forward in our strategy to become the most watched, most loved and most talked about family of free and pay channels for every household and every advertiser in the U.K.”
 
Peter Fincham, the director of television at ITV, added: “Expanding ITV’s family of channels to introduce a new free-to-air, female skewing channel focusing on entertainment and reality means our viewers will have access to even more great content. We identified an opportunity to develop what is currently part of the ITV2 schedule—reality and non-scripted shows, which are very popular with young women and housewives with kids—into a distinct channel proposition, aimed more squarely at that audience. ITV2 will continue to be the youngest channel in our portfolio, outside of CITV, and the strategy of bringing more scripted series, both acquired and commissioned, will continue apace, alongside panel shows, formats and other young skewing commissions.”