The Advert Assault
ITVX completely replaced the old ITV Hub. While the picture quality improved, the sheer volume of adverts on the free tier became unbearable for many users. Trying to watch a simple one-hour drama means sitting through multiple, incredibly long commercial breaks.
To escape the adverts, you have to pay £5.99 a month for ITVX Premium. But does an IPTV UK service offer far more value for roughly the same price?
Let\'s compare the £5.99 ITVX tier against a dedicated IPTV subscription, looking specifically at what you get for your money.
1. The Premium Catch
ITVX Premium
- Only removes adverts on catch-up content
- Live TV channels still have full commercial breaks
IPTV UK
- Zero adverts on any VOD film or series
- Far broader selection than a single broadcaster
The biggest complaint about ITVX Premium is the fine print. People pay the £5.99 fee thinking they will never see an advert again. But if you watch the actual live ITV channels through the app, the advert breaks are exactly the same. You only get ad-free viewing on their on-demand catch-up library.
When you use a premium IPTV UK provider, the on-demand library is completely separated from the live broadcasts. If you decide to watch a VOD film or a boxed set, it plays straight through without a single interruption.
2. The Limited BritBox Library
To make ITVX Premium feel like a better deal, they folded BritBox into the subscription. This gives you access to a solid back-catalogue of old British comedies and dramas. But that is where it stops.
If you want to watch the latest American hit show, or a massive Hollywood blockbuster that just left the cinema, ITVX is useless. It is a highly specific, narrow library.
An IPTV subscription is an aggregator. You do not just get UK content. The VOD section of a high-quality IPTV service pulls in thousands of international films, documentaries, and box sets from every major global studio.
3. Sports & Live Events
ITV shares the broadcast rights for a few major tournaments, like the FA Cup and the Six Nations. But for regular, week-to-week sports fans, the offering is incredibly weak. There is no Premier League football. There is no Formula 1. There is no regular heavyweight boxing.
A dedicated IPTV subscription handles everything. Instead of waiting for a random international tournament, you get live access to Sky Sports, TNT Sports, and dedicated PPV channels. You get every major match, every single weekend.
Final Verdict: Don\'t Pay for Catch-Up
Paying a £5.99 monthly fee just to remove adverts from old episodes of *Love Island* or *Vera* is bad value for money.
If you are willing to spend money on television, put it toward a premium IPTV UK subscription instead. You still get access to all the UK channels, but you massively upgrade your viewing with international sports, a massive ad-free film library, and global premium networks.