ITVX to live stream Edinburgh Fringe shows
- ITVX Presents: Edinburgh Fringe Live will involve four hour-long comedy showcase shows being streamed live from the festival
- "This will be the real Edinburgh experience in a venue at the heart of the Fringe with new line-ups each night"
ITVX is to stream comedy live from the Edinburgh Festival this August.
The streaming platform has commissioned four hour-long episodes to form ITVX Presents: Edinburgh Fringe Live, with the content broadcast live from the arts festival. Each show will focus on specially curated compilation shows in which performers will present highlights from their festival shows.
ITV confirms: "The magic, chaos and hilarity of the Edinburgh Fringe will be streamed directly to viewers on ITVX this summer via four specials.
"This will be the real Edinburgh experience in a venue at the heart of the Fringe with new line-ups each night featuring some of the most exciting comics and breakthrough stars of 2024.
"Audiences will be immersed into the anarchic and irreverent atmosphere as if they were in the rooms themselves - all streamed live on ITVX, and available to catch-up for 30 days afterwards."
The episodes are being produced for ITVX by NextUp Comedy, the company behind the dedicated comedy streaming subscription service of the same name. Since the pandemic lifted, the NextUp team has been building up experience live streaming comedy shows from a number of venues around the country.
The broadcast dates, venue details and show line-ups for ITVX Presents: Edinburgh Fringe Live will be announced nearer August.
ITVX Presents: Edinburgh Fringe Live will be one of a number of comedy offerings on the platform this summer. ITVX will also be showing Series 2 of Alan Carr's Changing Ends, new police-based sitcom Piglets and Slip, the Canadian-based comedy series created by and starring Zoe Lister-Jones as a woman who travels through parallel universes trying to find her way back to her partner.
Nana Hughes, ITV's Head of Comedy, says: "We wanted to build on the success of last year's comedy season knowing there is strength in numbers. We have packaged for your pleasure the return of Alan Carr's hilarious autobiographical comedy, Changing Ends, alongside a brand new comedy, Piglets, set in a police academy from the team behind Green Wing, acquisitions from around the world and a first for ITVX, we're stripping live comedy from the Edinburgh comedy fringe."
Craig Morris, Managing Editor of ITVX, adds: "Comedy has proved to be one of the most popular genres on ITVX, with streaming hours increasing by 80% year-on-year. We already have over 2,500 hours of funny on ITVX - and these programmes will be a welcome addition."