ITV to relaunch iPlayer rival

chris

ITV broadband catch-up TV service: major marketing push

ITV is to revamp its broadband catch-up TV offering and is considering rebranding the online video service less than a year after it first launched.

The overhaul of the 30-day catch-up service, a key part of ITV.com's overall broadband TV service, will be followed by the first major marketing campaign to drive usage since launch at the end of July.

ITV is aiming to incorporate lessons learned from almost nine months of data on broadband viewing habits to try and ramp up the catch-up service's traffic.

Navigation improvements to the catch-up TV service will include introducing the ability to search for programmes in different ways, such as by genre, as well as highlighting more prominently popular shows viewers might have missed on TV.

Other new features that are being considered for the revamp include offering recommendations on programmes to watch and highlighting "most watched" shows online.

ITV is also planning to back up the new-look catch-up service with a major marketing campaign, something analysts have argued needs to be done to help drive awareness and usage.

Broadcasters including ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC have high hopes of being able to bring in extra revenue from the so-called "long tail" of recently aired and archive TV content via their broadband TV services.

ITV has ambitious plans to be earning £150m a year in revenues from online services such as ITV.com by 2010.

Last month the BBC unveiled an "Amazonisation" to enhance the usability of the iPlayer service including a personal recommendation system.

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