The X Factor dominates digital platforms

The X Factor dominates digital platforms

Highest ever app downloads and Twitter dominance leaves competitors trailing in its wake!

The X Factor continues to break new records on digital platforms, broadcaster ITV and co-producers FremantleMedia and SYCO Entertainment announced today.

As the series heads into its star-studded live final at SSE Wembley Arena this Saturday and Sunday, the show has enjoyed some of the biggest ever engagement numbers on key digital platforms.

The award-winning app, sponsored by Domino's, has been downloaded more than 2.4 million times during this series alone, up more than 56% from last year. User sessions numbered 37.4 million, up a massive 83% from last year. The most popular app features were free voting and contestant profiles both new additions for this series. Contestant profiles were linked directly to iTunes (on iOS) and had a direct effect on artists' success, such as Fleur East going to straight to #1 on the iTunes chart this past weekend. The app was developed by FremantleMediaUK Interactive and ITV in partnership with Tellybug; in-app voting was developed with Tectonic Interactive.

The X Factor has dominated social media platforms and became the most tweeted about TV programme in the UK, according to research carried out by Kantar Media early this year. The show generated 9.4 million tweets in total between June 2013 and May 2014 a huge lead over Celebrity Big Brother which placed second with 5.2 million tweets in the same period. The X Factor also accounted for an impressive 8.6% of all TV tweets across the period analysed, making it the only UK television show to gain a Twitter TV share above 5%. The growth continued in the 2014 series, with an average weekly gain of 20,000 followers on Twitter (total followers 5.4 million), a trend mirrored on Facebook where the average weekly gain of likes was 16,000 (total likes 8.9 million).

The official X Factor UK YouTube channel continued to draw global audiences in the millions: total series views worldwide are 145.7 million and growing, up 66% year on year, reflecting the success of the British version of the format in countries around the world. The most watched clip of the series to date is Jake Quickenden's audition with 9.3 million views.

Ann Cook, Director of Interactive at ITV, said: Offering our viewers the chance to vote for free, within The X Factor app, has driven audience engagement with this year's show to brand new levels across the live broadcast and beyond. This incredible level of interaction has proven that fans really do want to engage with live shows in new and exciting ways and we're excited to be able to continue to innovate, with our production partners, to make this easier than ever before.

Kat Hebden, Head of Digital, FremantleMedia UK Interactive, added: The X Factor audience has an insatiable appetite for content they can consume and interact with alongside the broadcast. The innovations we introduced this year, such as free voting and contestant profiles, proved really popular with our fans and we couldn't be more pleased with the results.

Mark Brittain, Global Head of Commercial, Syco Entertainment, said: The level of interactivity across all our digital platforms confirms that The X Factor is still the most talked-about TV show in the UK. The voting app has also revolutionized the way in which the audience can engage with the brand and is something that we look forward to building on in 2015.

The X Factor is produced by Thames (a label of FremantleMedia UK) and SYCO Entertainment for ITV.

LINK:	http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/x-factor-dominates-digit...
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