James R | On 30, Mar 2016

UKTV Play had a cracking Easter, with views surging 185 per cent year-on-year across the long Bank Holiday weekend.

The UK’s biggest multichannel broadcaster, UKTV, celebrated its biggest Easter ever this year, with the 10 channel network achieving a record-breaking share of 7.65 per cent on Sunday 27th March – the most successful day in its 23-year history.

While Easter is a popular time for scheduled TV broadcasts, it’s also a prime time for people to catch up on missed titles – and UKTV Play enjoyed an egg-cellent four days, with record-breaking growth year-on-year. That 185 per cent surge was driven largely by a 90 per cent growth in views on YouView and a 113 per cent growth in viewing through mobile devices.

The VOD platform’s performance builds upon a strong 2015, which the broadcaster says saw the service grow its presence “significantly”.

“We added Drama to the service in April last year and launched on several platforms and devices, including Android, BT TV, Amazon Fire and Fire TV Stick,” explains a spokesperson for the broadcaster.

As a result, views jumped 26 per cent year-on-year across 2015, with activity driven by high-performing UKTV originals, such as Dave Gorman Modern Life is Goodish, Taskmaster and Most Haunted Live. The latter drove 341 per cent more views than the daily average for Really on UKTV Play in October 2015.

Apple devices have also played a major part in UKTV Play’s expansion: iOS app downloads increased 175 per cent month-on-month in December 2015, compared to January 2015.

The expansion of services, improved functionality, and growing library of quality content have all continued to boost UKTV’S VOD performance in recent months.

Indeed, UKTV is still hatching plans to improve its functionality and infrastructure, with the broadcaster announced this week it will implement a whole new broadcast management system at its Hammersmith HQ. The MediaGeniX WHATS’On solution will provide UKTV with “greater flexibility to schedule and manage content” across its 10 linear channel brands, as well as support the rapid growth of its VOD arm.

Tim Goff, Head of Technology & Infrastructure at UKTV, says: “MediaGeniX are an important strategic partner for UKTV and a fantastic cultural fit. We are delighted to be adopting their ‘WHATS’On’ system as it gives us powerful tools to craft complex, heavily layered linear channels but is also a product with VoD firmly at its heart. We have already seen unprecedented growth across our linear and digital brands and believe MediaGeniX are well placed to support and accelerate our strategic ambitions.”

The new broadcast management and scheduling system will be operational later this year.

For more on what’s worth watching on UKTV Play, keep up to speed with our weekly Catch Up TV column.

Add to Watchlist