ITVX’s decision to reshedule its top soaps, Corrie and Emmerdale, into a weekday soap “power hour” seems to be paying dividends as the pair’s audience surged 40%, helping the platform surpass 1bn streams for 2026 eight days earlier than in 2025.
The pair attracted streams totalling over 54 million so far this year, while elsewhere sport, drama and entertainment all put in a solid shift.
2026 is now the biggest year ever for streaming for two kingpins of the ITV sport and entertainment schedule – the Rugby Six Nations and the current series of Britain’s Got Talent.
Streams for the rugby tournament are up 5% year on year, with 14.9 million streams, while Britain’s Got Talent has now achieved 10.1 million streams over five episodes, surpassing last year’s series and up 5% as the most streamed series in the show’s history. The launch episode has now consolidated with 6.4 million viewers. This has contributed towards a 14% year on year uplift on ITVX in entertainment content.
In drama, crime thriller Gone became the most watched drama on any channel or streaming platform. The six parter, which stars Eve Myles and David Morrissey, has now been watched by 5.5 million viewers. Total streams for the drama stand at 23.8 million.
ITV also achieved its biggest overnight drama launch of the year, with the new series of Grace bringing in 2.7 million viewers.
There was also a strong performance from The Affair, with 13.4 million streams, The Stolen Girl with 11.2 million streams, and The Lady with 11.9 million streams.
Reality Streams are up 11% Year on Year too. Following the culmination of the most recent All Stars series, Love Island and its global spin offs have now achieved a whopping 2.5 billion streams, while TOWIE has been streamed 340 million times.
It’s not all been Weatherfield kitchen sink drama, Instagram and lip filler, however. A news cycle the likes of which most of us have never seen before, in large part thanks to the ongoing circus in Washington DC, has seen a surge in viewing around ITVX News and Current Affairs content, up by 36% year on year.
A refreshed search experience is also now live across all mobile platforms, with Android joining this month, designed to improve content visibility, support exploratory search, and help users find relevant content more quickly and easily. The updated search experience on mobile includes a new categories tab, improved search bar UI and recent searches visible within the search bar view.
