While traditional TV broadcasters globally ponder whether YouTube should be seen as a rival or a potential partner, UK commercial broadcaster ITV has launched five new thematic channels on the platform: ITV Entertainment, ITV Retro, ITV Drama, ITV Real Life Stories and ITV Quiz. The channels, launched two months after ITV’s partnership with YouTube was announced, mirror the new styling of the already successful ITV Reality channel (formerly branded ITVX) and follow the lead of UK rival Channel 4’s distribution strategy, which has an existing suite of genre-based channels. This alignment of strategies between the UK broadcasters comes after ITV’s recent appointment of an ex-C4 exec as its first Head of YouTube Sales.

There has also been a significant shift in ITV’s strategy around long-form content on YouTube. The new channels are seeing full-length episode releases, with titles such as Victoria appearing on ITV Drama, Deal or No Deal on ITV Quiz and Thunderbirds on ITV Retro. Long-form has not been a staple of ITV’s YouTube strategy until November 2024 when it started uploading full episodes on the flagship ITV page. But since February 2025, long-form has been the primary distribution format across the broadcaster’s ITV-branded YouTube channels. 

This extends to existing channels like ITV Reality, which was formerly used exclusively for promotional content – trailers, bloopers, and interviews. The channel had observed a four-month pause of uploads until mid-March 2025; the following two weeks have seen six full episode releases of Love Island USA and a marathon release of Olivia Marries Her Match: Season 3 in its entirety.

ITV’s YouTube strategy previously focused on clips from singular Unscripted IP such as The Chase, Lorraine and Loose Women. These have not seen the same shift in duration with videos staying between the 5-10 minute mark. Full episodes of The Chase have appeared on the main ITV channel, however, which may imply that the broadcaster wants to keep long-form releases restricted to the ITV-branded and thematic channels. 

The full impact of ITV’s evolving YouTube strategy remains to be seen, in terms of audience reach and ad revenue. But the broadcaster’s new commitment to uploading full episodes across its channels has already changed the average video length of ITV content on the platform, highlighting the impact of its agreement with YouTube. More generally, it also reflects a potential wider industry shift towards social video as a key distribution tool for broadcasters.