4 June 2014
Cult favourite, Most Haunted, joins Really's stable of paranormal programming, including new celebrity specials
Multi-award winning broadcaster UKTV has today announced the exclusive TV premiere of a brand new series of hit ghost hunt show Most Haunted (10x60'), coming to its entertainment channel, Really.
For twelve years Most Haunted, produced by Antix Productions, has captivated audiences around the world, shooting over 180 episodes and producing over 500 hours of live television in reputedly haunted locations.
Show host and paranormal expert, Yvette Fielding, said,
This is without doubt our best series yet. We are so pleased Most Haunted has found its exclusive new home on Really - the home of paranormal programming.
Producer and director, Karl Beattie, added,
Television was too quiet without Most Haunted so we answered fans' calls and brought it back. And where better for it to be than Really? Really has fully immersed itself in this genre and does it better than any other channel, so we are proud to be working with them.
The new series follows Really's live-streamed ghost hunt on Halloween last year. The talked-about event, which was hosted by Fielding in a notoriously haunted 16th Century Tudor house in Surrey, was exclusively streamed on the Really website, driving page views to more than 100,000 and generating thousands of tweets which kept the hashtag trending on Twitter all evening.
UKTV's free-to-air channel Really has established paranormal programming as a key content pillar, dedicating Thursday nights to the genre. Most Haunted will join a host of spectacular shows including Ghost Hunters, Paranormal Witness and new US import Killer Contact.
Throughout the spine-chilling new series the team investigates purported paranormal activity in locations across the UK including The Royal Court Theatre in Lancashire and Sheffield's National Emergency Services Museum. The crew explores brand new territories, as well as revisiting some old haunts, discovering new phenomena that defies belief.
The series features gripping celebrity specials, including one with Ben Foden and the England Rugby Team, in which a player is given some information on a Ouija board that he will never forget. In another, award-winning Welsh heavy metal band Bullet for My Valentine attracts animosity from a poltergeist.
The deal was brokered by UKTV's Acquisitions and Co-Productions Manager, Emma Sparks and Antix Productions' Karl Beattie. The new series will premiere in August this year.
Emma Sparks added,
This stand-out genre classic will captivate our viewers, who continue to be fascinated by the supernatural. Schedule staples such as Paranormal Witness and Ghost Adventures perform exceptionally well for the channel, drawing high viewing figures and encouraging a huge level of digital engagement.
UKTV, whose network of 10 channels attracts over 42 million viewers a month, recently reported record viewer ratings. The broadcaster's popular entertainment channel Really contributed to this success, with share up 16% year-on-year. Three quarters of the channel's best performing content in Q1 of 2014 is paranormal programming, with Ghost Adventures recently peaking at 251k (up 111% on slot average), Paranormal Witness averaging 207k (up 54%) and Haunted Collector S2 averaging 185k (up 59%).
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
About Really (Sky 248, Virgin 267, Freeview 17)
Really provides a tantalising cocktail of honest and entertaining television. This Free to Air channel offers a compelling schedule with UK premieres of hit US dramas including Hart of Dixie starring Rachel Bilson and Covert Affairs, out of this world television with Paranormal Witness and Ghost Adventures, as well as BBC and UK docu-dramas such as Don?t Tell the Bride, Bizarre ER, Embarrassing Bodies and One Born Every Minute. Drama, real life and out of this world programming ? Really gets you!
About UKTV
UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches over 42 million viewers per month. UKTV¹s ten imaginative channel brands - Watch, Dave, Gold, Alibi, Eden, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home and Good Food - include the most watched non-PSB channel, the most watched channel in the Factual genre and the most watched channels in the Lifestyle genre (Pay and Free). The company's most recent financial results showed a record-breaking year-end revenue of £262m, and operating profit at £71m.
UKTV has a truly innovative model, curating brand-defining commissions, high-profile acquisitions and the very best of BBC and Channel 4 content, and embracing technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT TV, TalkTalk, YouView, plus direct On Demand digital services. The network distributes its highly valued programmes to 200 territories around the world and supplies Sky with more hours of HD content than anyone else. Now celebrating its 21st year at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the only British broadcaster to be recognised by Best Companies.