Multichannel broadcaster UKTV, owners of the Really, Dave, GOLD and W channels, says it’s on course to register record-breaking growth in audiences over the past 12 months.
The broadcaster is expecting commercial audiences to reach 9.87%, putting it ahead of Channel 5’s full portfolio and all of Sky’s wholly-owned channels (including movies and sport) for the second year running, and closing the gap with the ITV Digital channels group.
Originally formed with just the GOLD channel, UKTV has increased its portfolio of channels and launched its UKTV Play on demand player across a range of platforms and devices.
In recent years it’s invested heavily in original content and first-run premium shows which have helped boost audience numbers. In addition, HD versions of some channels has been extended to
CEO Darren Childs said: “UKTV’s focus on content, brand and digital has grown audiences to almost 10% of all commercial TV viewing.
“In 2016 we broadened into new genres and built the popularity of programming such as Taskmaster, Dara O Briain’s Go 8 Bit and live sport.
“UKTV Play also grew VOD viewing by 74%, with more viewers coming in to our vibrant TV on demand service than ever before.”
