A network feed, not a show feed
- ~4,160videos
- 800Ksubscribers
- ~447Mlifetime views
- ~107,000views per video, lifetime
Public counts for the main ITV channel, as of Sep 2026.
So on a show channel you are optimising a feed; on a network channel you are mostly optimising individual videos, because the subscriber relationship does much less of the distribution. Titles have to carry the show's name, not just the moment. Playlists have to work as destinations rather than tidy-up.
A show channel sells the next episode. A network channel has to sell the programme first and the channel second, every single time.
Everything on one feed, and no single audience for it
This was the front door to the whole set, which made it the widest brief of the 7 and the hardest to hold together.
- First looks at new programmes.
- Compilations cut from across the network’s shows.
- Trailers.
- Original content made for this channel rather than lifted from a broadcast.
- Cross-posting and promotion for the show channels, which is what made this one the way people found the others.
Every other channel in the set had one audience and one reason to exist. This one had all of them at once. Somebody arriving for a first look at a drama, somebody arriving for a clip of an entertainment format and somebody arriving off a trailer are not the same person, and the feed had to hold all 3 without becoming a dumping ground.
That is a variety problem and a brand problem in the same decision. Enough range that no audience finds nothing, and enough consistency that the channel still reads as one thing rather than a shelf. And because it was the face of the network on the platform, what could and could not go on it was agreed with stakeholders rather than settled in the edit.
A show channel knows who it is talking to. This one had to be recognisable to everybody and aimed at nobody in particular.
- 00:00The programme first. A network feed sells the show, then the channel.
- 00:05The moment that would make somebody who has never watched it curious.
- 00:11No house style to lean on. Each clip has to carry its own tone, not the feed’s.
- 00:16One clear reason this is worth 20 more minutes on the programme.
- 00:20Out clean. No sting, no branding tail. It is not that kind of feed.
A schematic of how a clip on this channel opens, not a reading off any particular video.
What a broadcaster channel does that a creator channel doesn't
3 things, and none of them show up in advice written for creators.
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You publish what you are allowed to publish
A creator owns everything they shoot. A broadcaster channel is a licence with a feed attached: rights have windows, and when a window closes the video comes down whether or not it is doing well.
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You do not set the deadline
Transmission does. There is no version of the week where the edit slips because it is not quite there - which teaches you to make the call early and live with it.
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There is no face to fall back on
A creator channel has a person on it, and the person is a large part of why anyone stays. A brand channel has a format and nothing else, so everything has to be carried by structure.
That last one is what I took from all of it, and it is the only part of broadcaster work I would call an advantage. When you cannot rely on a personality to hold an audience, you find out very quickly how much of retention is decided in the edit. Then you work on a channel that does have a personality, and the structure turns out to matter just as much.