'Coronation Street' and 'Emmerdale' could move online in ITV scheduling shake-up

Coronation Street and Emmerdale saw some changes to their scheduling during the Euros, and there's a chance that we could see the beloved ITV soaps following the same format going forward.

Because ITV aired football games during primetime, soap fans were able to binge-watch episodes via ITV Hub, a watching style that's become popularised thanks to streaming services such as Netflix. Previously, soap fans would have to tune in live or watch episodes on catch up.

Recently, ITV boss Kevin Lygo has suggested that fans could be able to continue binge-watching episodes weekly, as it reflects the way that many viewers watch TV in the era of on-demand. It's not currently known if other soaps are considering the same format.

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, he said: "On soaps — it’s possible [that the soaps could stream on the hub first], it’s a possible future.

"For us, part of the restructure and its effect on commissioning is that we wanted to bring together in one place all aspects of what used to be called broadcasting, so the commercial programming and delivery so that it is more in line with modern behaviour and tastes."

He added: "ITV is incredibly successful at getting large numbers of people to come and watch the show at the same time.

"During the Euros we saw over 20 million people watching the England game, I think 98% of all the programmes over 5 million people watching are on ITV. We are doubling down on that. It’s more live."

In addition to the soap news, Lygo added that they were also working on new programmes over on ITV2. He said: "We are moving into drama for ITV2. Its first drama in a decade. We are doing more factual on ITV2 aimed at younger viewers."

For now though, viewers can continue to watch Emmerdale and Coronation Street on ITV first, and you can check full listings over on our TV guide. Episodes are also available on-demand afterwards via ITV Hub.