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The Euro 2020 football competition is due to start on June 11.
And to make sure Coronation Street or Emmerdale fans don’t miss out on any episodes, every Monday from June 14 a week’s worth of the shows will be available to watch on ITV Hub so viewers can binge watch at their leisure.
The two soaps will still air on the network at their usual time slots, but ITV bosses have decided to provide the coming week’s episodes early to allow football fans to tune into their favourite matches during the sporting competition.
Boxset: A week’s worth of Coronation Street and Emmerdale will be made available on ITV Hub every Monday from June 14 Pictured: Lesley Dunlop and Chris Chittell
Coronation Street producer and team manager Iain MacLeod said: ‘There are loads of key rivalries across the Cobbles this summer and I think it will be like following your favourite team – there will be times where they let you down, make mistakes and maybe score a few own goals.
‘But you’ll back them till the end and woe betide anyone else who criticises them.
‘Given how exciting the stories are, it’s great that fans will have the chance to binge watch all the episodes on ITV Hub at the start of each week – as with football, sometimes when it’s an exciting face-off, you really want extra time.’
Change of plan: The two soaps will still air on the network at their usual time slots will also be available to watch on the streaming service. Pictured: Ryan Russell, Vinta Morgan and Trevor Michael Georges play Michael, Ronnie and Ed Bailey in Coronation Street
And in the case of Emmerdale, the soap will also celebrate its first Pride event this month with a guest appearance from Drag Race UK’s, The Vivienne.
The news comes as BBC soap EastEnders is also set to release episodes early on the BBC iPlayer during the Euros.
Executive producer Jon Sen said: ‘Giving ‘EastEnders’ viewers the ability to decide when they drop in on all things Albert Square is something we’re excited about.
‘With the inevitable scheduling changes due to the Euros, something we’ll be celebrating in Walford on screen, box setting all four episodes will ensure everyone gets their dose of drama and football fans won’t miss out.
No need to miss out: Every Monday beginning June 14 all the episodes of each soap for that week will be uploaded to the Hub. Pictured: Kel Allen, Charlie de Melo and Georgia Taylor play Laura Neelan, Imran Habeeb and Toyah Battersby in Coronation Street
‘From indulging them all in one night, staggering across a few days or continuing to watch the episodes play out on BBC One, we hope the endless streaming options on BBC iPlayer keeps viewers content over the next few weeks.’
It was claimed in April that hit British soaps including EastEnders and Coronation Street have seen a significant drop in their viewing figures.
According to data published by The Mirror, Corrie’s audience has fallen by 19 per cent in the past four years while EastEnders has fell by around 37 per cent.
The numbers also showed the amount of people tuning into watch TV is down nine per cent in the first eight weeks of 2021 compared to the same time period in 2017.
Slump: EastEnders and Coronation Street have seen a significant drop in their viewing figures, it has been claimed (Kellie Bright and Danny Dyer seen as Linda and Mick Carter in EastEnders)
As well as EastEnders and Coronation Street’s viewing figures being down, ITV soap Emmerdale also saw their numbers drop by 22 per cent in the period compared.
Writing in Broadcast magazine ratings expert Stephen Price said: ‘The soaps’ dominance of traditional TV appears to be on the wane, no longer impervious to challenge from the linear opposition and losing fans to the streamers.
‘With volume falling faster than overall TV viewing and the challenge of other genres more keenly felt, soaps’ all-conquering prowess is disappearing.’
The study also reportedly found that younger viewers had turned away from soaps in general, claiming that EastEnders lost 53 per cent of viewers aged 16-34.
Smaller audience: TV viewers across the board are thought to be down, not just for the soaps (Ben Price as Nick Tilsley on Coronation Street)
ITV told The Mirror: ‘ITV soaps are consistently amongst the most-watched programmes in primetime and they are in the top three most streamed on ITV Hub.’
While a BBC spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘A growing proportion of EastEnders’ viewing and the majority for under 35s is via BBC iPlayer where the audience value the ability to watch it on demand.
‘Since the show returned to air in September 2020, it has generated 149 million iPlayer streaming requests, making it one of the service’s very best performing programmes.’
MailOnline contacted ITV for comment at the time.
Despite the fall, EastEnders and Corrie still manage to maintain overall viewing figures in the millions.
An Ofcom investigation into why TV audience sizes were dropping in 2018 also revealed that ‘decreasing popularity of soaps is driving overall decline’.
There has been a shift in what people watch over the years, with Eastenders, Corrie and Emmerdale averaging around 8.7m viewers between them in 2007.
However ten years later in 2017 the three soaps had 6.9m people tuning in to watch.
And last March EastEnders’ ratings saw a huge surge, with highs of 9.32m watching amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Over 3million more viewers tuned in than the average episode of the soap, with the show coming directly before Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation about a lockdown to help tackle the spread of the deadly virus.
The Sun reported that the average figure across the episode was 6.49million, while Coronation Street garnered 6.43million viewers in its first episode of the night.
On the out? Ratings expert Stephen Price said ‘the soaps’ dominance of traditional TV appears to be on the wane’ (Members of the Emmerdale cast are pictured in 2018 still)
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