Grade: ITV will charge for online clips

ITV hopes to boost revenue streams by charging viewers to access online clips from popular programmes such as Britain’s Got Talent.

Speaking in a radio interview, ITV’s chief Michael Grade said the broadcaster is likely to implement a micropayment scheme as early as next year.

He confirmed that ITV wants to charge between 10p and 50p per clip on its on-demand service and said the money made will support the broadcaster’s annual programming budget.

“This is an issue all content owners are struggling with. [Britain’s Got Talent] did very well in the UK on ITV.com,” Grade said. “Our advertising was sold out and we get a big premium for our online advertising. We are working on it, so watch this space.”

Grade’s comments come after ITV failed to strike a deal with YouTube following the success of Susan Boyle’s performance on Britain’s Got Talent, which ran up around 200 million views on the video sharing site.

The commercial broadcaster reportedly lost out on more than a million pounds in ad revenue due to the dispute, which saw ITV block any ads from being run against the clips of Boyle.