On December 8, ITVX will make its official debut. Deaf viewers will have access to a British Sign Language channel that will only air signed programming.
This is streaming first for the entire world and will feature a variety of shows like the Emmerdale and Coronation Street omnibus episodes, Cilla, Alan Carr’s Epic Gameshow, Vera, Lewis, and The Saint.
The channel will be updated frequently and developed to contain both current and previous seasons of programming from a wide range of genres.
ITVX will launch with a selection of 20 themed channels, which are designed to offer a lean-back experience of watching a scheduled channel, and these channels will appear in the ‘live’ section of the service, directly below ITV’s six existing channels (ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, ITVBe, and CITV).
ITVX will offer over 10,000 hours of programming at launch, a huge increase in the volume of content on ITV Hub, and a big priority has been subtitling and audio-describing this rich selection of programming.
ITVX will now have subtitles for over 90 percent of on-demand programs on every platform and device – from the mobile apps, through the main web browsers to all connected TVs and plug-in devices.
ITV’s Director of Accessibility, David Padmore, said, “We’re committed to placing great accessibility at the heart of ITVX and our offering at launch represents significant progress on ITV Hub. Our ITV Signed Channel gives us a fantastic platform for showcasing our rich archive of signed programs.”