Soap fans may soon be able to catch their favourite ITV offerings online before they are screened on telly.
In a possible shakeup announcement, the channel's director of television, Kevin Lygo, has suggested that Coronation Street and Emmerdale could stream on the ITV Hub before being shown on TV.
During the summer's Euro 2020 action, ITV's soaps were put on the ITV Hub so that fans of footie could avoid having to choose between their favourite show and watching England.
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And the success of that has led ITV bosses to consider making it a permanent feature, the Daily Mail reports.
Mr Lygo told the Edinburgh TV Festival that early ITV Hub uploads are a "possible future" for Corrie and Emmerdale, which would mean that soap fans could watch all the drama before the episode is shown on terrestrial TV.
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He said: "For us, part of the restructure and its effect on commissioning is that we wanted to bring together in one place all aspects of what used to be called broadcasting, so the commercial programming and delivery so that it is more in line with modern behaviour and tastes.
"ITV is incredibly successful at getting large numbers of people to come and watch the show at the same time."
He continued: "During the Euros we saw over 20 million people watching the England game, I think 98% of all the programmes over 5 million people watching are on ITV. We are doubling down on that.
"It’s more live, more big events, more shows we believe will unite large swathes of the British public."
Mr Lygo added that ITV are also restructing their channel offerings, with more drama on ITV2 along with "more factual [programmes]" aimed at younger viewers.
The early Coronation Street and Emmerdale programming on ITV Hub was available for one month in June, as the Euro 2020 tournament became one of the most-watched items of programming on UK TV.
Coronation Street producer, Iain MacLeod, said at the time that the show's storyline was very much on a par with the football, saying that there were "loads of key rivalries across the Cobbles".
He added: "I think it will be like following your favourite team - there will be times where they let you down, make mistakes and maybe score a few own goals.
"But you'll back them till the end and woe betide anyone else who criticises them.
"Given how exciting the stories are, it's great that fans will have the chance to binge watch all the episodes on ITV Hub at the start of each week - as with football, sometimes when it's an exciting face-off, you really want extra time."
Coronation Street and Emmerdale were not the only soaps to be aired early during the Euros, as BBC's Eastenders was also put on iPlayer early to avoid football clashes.
Would you like to see soaps aired early online? Let us know in the comments!
