Ellie Horvath
Whip Media Will Help ITV Studios Manage Performance Tracking Including Its FAST Channels in EMEA
Whip Media, the leading enterprise software platform and data provider to the world’s largest entertainment organisations, announced today that ITV Studios, a world-class international content creator, producer and distributor, will utilise Whip Media’s platform for performance tracking of its popular entertainment content, including the company’s growing FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channels.
ITV Studios, a part of ITV plc, which includes the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, crafts over 7000 hours of original programming across 60 production labels. ITV Studios has produced some of the biggest television hits in the world, including “Love Island,” “I’m a Celebrity,” and “Come Dine With Me.” The company’s global footprint spans diverse markets including the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany, The Nordics, Italy and the Netherlands and its global distribution business sells its catalogue of 90,000+ hours to broadcasters and platforms around the world.
The growth of ITV Studios’ global distribution partners – especially in the evolving FAST/AVOD market – created the need for better content performance tracking and distribution analytics, allowing ITV Studios to keep pace with the high volume of reporting internally and from its partners. Whip Media’s solution consolidates and centralises distributors’ partner data across global platforms while also automating accounting processes to manage and recognize revenue.
“Our team couldn’t be more excited to help ITV Studios – one of the premier production and distribution companies in the world – track the performance of its series across a rapidly growing number of platforms,” said Paul Hastings, Whip Media’s SVP of Global Sales. “As content distribution continues to become increasingly stratified and difficult to manage, it’s imperative for entertainment companies to streamline how their data is analyzed and processed. Whip Media’s platform will help ITV Studios accomplish that goal – allowing it to focus on what it does best, which is churning out great series for millions of viewers to enjoy.”
“We’re very pleased to be partnering with the Whip Media team and utilise their expertise in this space. The Performance Track tool and the data it will unlock is a key component of ITV Studios’ overall strategy to expand and grow our digital business across AVOD, FAST and other digital platforms and deepen our understanding of how our content engages with viewers across multiple platforms and territories,” said Graham Haigh, EVP Business Development & Digital Distribution at ITV Studios.
While the FAST market is rapidly expanding, content programmers do not currently have visibility into title-level performance across multiple digital platforms, creating data inefficiencies for FAST networks that need this data to make strategic content acquisition and programming decisions. Whip Media leverages its industry-leading data aggregation capabilities to solve this problem by mapping FAST network’s performance data to both its linear schedules and internal metadata, creating an automated performance tracking solution for digital linear networks. Designed to handle scale and improve performance visibility, Whip Media’s solution will help ITV Studios make more informed programming decisions.
About Whip Media
Whip Media is a market leading enterprise software platform and data provider to the world’s largest entertainment organizations. Our solutions connect and scale data, processes and teams across licensing, content planning, and financial operations to drive efficiency, revenue, and growth. The company’s latest innovation, The Whip Media Exchange, is a first-of-its-kind content licensing and research platform for buyers and sellers of film and TV content, with real-time access to data and performance predictions to accelerate deal making. For more information, visit http://www.whipmedia.com.
About ITV Studios
ITV Studios is a creator, producer and distributor of world-leading programmes that people can’t get enough of. We connect millions of people every day and shape and reflect the world they live in, we are More Than TV.
ITV Studios is home to some of the best creative minds, crafting over 7,000 hours of original programming across 60 production labels. Our global footprint spans 13 countries including the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany, The Nordics, Italy and the Netherlands and our global distribution business sells our catalogue of 90,000+ hours to broadcasters and platforms around the world.
