ITV is to retire linear network ITVBe from its channel portfolio in June, with tentpole brands The Only Way Is Essex and The Real Housewives set to move to ITV2.

The flagship titles will join ITV2 to help supercharge the youth-skewing channel, which will now be the linear home of all of ITV’s best-known reality series, sitting alongside the likes of Love Island and Big Brother.

ITV2 will also house forthcoming commissions originally earmarked for ITVBe including Towie spin-off following Sam Faiers and Billie Shepherd, Sam & Billie: Sister Act, which is produced by ITV Studios’ Potato.

Alongside its reality offerings, ITV2 offers animated comedy acquisitions such as Family Guy and original programming such as G’Wed.

The move to ITV2 marks a homecoming for Towie, whose first 12 series ran on the channel before moving to ITVBe in 2014. This year’s 15th anniversary sees a celebratory Autumn series to air on ITV2.

Meanwhile, with the flagship commissions moving to ITV2, ITVBe will be retired from the brand portfolio in June with plans to use the available linear slot under the title ‘ITV Quiz’, exploiting the broadcaster’s leading UK quiz and gameshows such as Tipping Point.

The reality genre provides some of the most highly consumed programming on ITV2 and ITVX, with Love Island and its spin-offs generating more than 2.2bn streams. Towie remains one of ITVX’s most streamed titles and has been streamed over 66m times over the last 12 months.

This story first appeared on our sister site, Broadcast.