ITV has announced that it is launching a new Media and Entertainment division that will contain separate arms for Broadcast and On-Demand content.
The broadcaster's director of television Kevin Lygo will oversee the new division, with particular focus on the Broadcast side, while chief marketing officer Rufus Radcliffe will head up the On-Demand unit.
The decision to promote the role of on-demand content in ITV's thinking is a move towards safeguarding its future in a world increasingly dominated by on-demand services and will see the broadcaster increasingly commission content with a streaming audience in mind as a first priority.
The On-Demand unit will cover the ITV Hub, ITV Hub+ - a premium version of ITV Hub without advertising - and BritBox, ITV's joint-venture SVOD service with the BBC.
ITV CEO Carolyn McCall explained: "Our new Media and Entertainment Division will enable ITV to continue to deliver mass, live audiences while investing in the future to create the sort of content and viewing experience that younger, and other harder to reach viewers want.
"ITV will continue to broadcast shows which entertain millions of viewers. Most are watched live and that fact together with the scale of these audiences will continue to offer unrivalled opportunities for brands to reach consumers.
"Linear channels will be around and be profitable for many years but we also need an On-Demand business which will increasingly be the focus of our new investments in content and technology and which will be our growth engine attracting younger and more targeted audiences to ITV."
The process of restructuring at the organisation has already begun and is expected to be completed by March next year.
Separately, ITV has confirmed that it is looking at options to save cost by reducing its office space, inspired in part by the effectiveness of home-working during the coronavirus lockdown.
Neil Wilkes
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