ITV will launch a brand new service allowing viewers to find and purchase items from the programme they are watching directly on screen.

Shoppable TV is the first service of its kind in the UK with the service launching during Love Island on ITV2 with Boots UK as the first confirmed partner.

The service is only available to viewers with an LG TV.

Viewers can initiate the shopping interface at any time by using their LG remote but must actively opt-in to receive the notifications and use the service.

The technology, created by contextual product discovery company, The Take, is built directly into LG TV sets in the UK and is being used for the first time in this country by ITV. 

Paul Ridsdale, ITV, Acting Chief Marketing Officer, said: “Shoppable TV is a wonderful innovation to allow ITV viewers to be able to shop directly from their TVs, filling a real gap currently in the market.

“We know ITV viewers enjoy being able to purchase items featured in our programmes and this makes doing that smoother and easier than ever before.”

The service identifies and tags featured products during programmes and notifies viewers that products on-screen are available. If a viewer is interested, they can select to view more info with their remote and make a purchase via the vendor’s site or a link sent to their phone.

Using the on-screen shopping interface, viewers can scroll through products, which will refresh when different products and characters are shown during a programme. 

All 2021 LG TVs have the technology integrated as standard and it can be added via software update to 2019 and 2020 models.

Boots will be the first official partner to trial the new service with ITV currently talking to further partners.

Launching initially in Love Island, ITV plans to roll-out the service on other programmes across different genres throughout the rest of 2021. The Take technology is already live in the USA on 2021, 2020, and 2019 LG TVs.

Bhavit Chandrani, ITV, Director Digital and Creative Partnerships, said: “This is a unique commercial opportunity and the next natural step in what we can offer to brands.

“Love Island has been a fantastic platform for innovation in how we work with commercial partners over the past few years and is the perfect show to introduce shoppable TV before we roll it out across other programmes.”

Pete Markey, Chief Marketing Officer, Boots UK comments: “We are very excited to be partnering with ITV and TheTake on the new and innovative opportunity.

“Launching shoppable TV as part of our wider partnership with Love Island is a great way to help customers easily shop the products they spot in the villa and recreate iconic islander looks from the show. 

“It will simplify the customer journey and bring the Boots brand even closer to the Love Island audience.”

Ty Cooper, CEO and Co-founder of TheTake said: “We are thrilled to introduce our interactive product discovery platform to the UK market with premier partners in ITV and LG.

“We look forward to helping ITV viewers discover and engage with the products that inspire them on the programmes that they love.”