I’m joined by Steve Forde, Director of Core Experience, and Lee Marshall, Director of Growth at ITVX, to explore how product development can prove its contribution to streaming growth. They explain ITVX’s shift towards teams organised around viewer journeys, and how a long-term holdout group helps isolate the cumulative impact of product improvements from content and marketing. From passwordless sign-in to promoting upcoming programmes, Steve and Lee discuss changes that have driven an additional 30 million viewing hours – and changed the conversation about technology investment inside ITV.

For the second half, Christof Brutsch, SVP of Engineering at Bedrock Streaming, joins us to discuss delivering the World Cup at scale. With ITVX reaching nearly five million concurrent viewers, we explore the preparation behind those peaks: load testing, supplier coordination, resilience, and scaling everything from authentication to recommendations and data processing. We also discuss the sudden rush of arrivals at kick-off, the overlapping demands of football and Love Island, and how second-screen experiences can help turn occasional visitors into returning viewers.

Watch the full episode below and share or comment on LinkedIn.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction and Context of ITVX
02:32 Product Development and Growth Strategies at ITVX
05:41 Experimentation Framework and User Experience
08:27 Impact of Product Changes on Viewer Engagement
11:21 Comparative Analysis with Netflix’s Growth Strategies
14:41 Viewer-Centric Approach and Stakeholder Collaboration
23:05 Scientific Measurement in Media Strategy
25:28 World Cup Success and Viewer Engagement
26:56 Engineering Challenges During Major Events
30:18 Scaling for Peak Viewership
34:37 Learning from Past Events
38:16 Preparing for High Traffic Events
41:28 Innovations in Second Screen Experiences

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