Wednesday 15 June
Leading entertainment company, UKTV, has announced the first major revamp of its fast-growing on demand TV product, UKTV Play.
The significantly updated service has been designed to make viewers' experience more enjoyable and personalised, based on extensive A/B testing.
The fresh new look and feel features a more focused approach to finding favourite programmes through a better organised homepage, higher-quality programme images and the introduction of easy-to-view genre listings. In addition, the new programme guide makes it easy to find on demand programmes from the TV schedules. The new look UKTV Play has now launched on PC, with other platforms to follow.
UKTV Play's General Manager Emma Boston commented,
UKTV Play has a vast and diverse catalogue of quality shows, which caters for everyone's 'thing', whether that's a love of drama or obsession with true crime. We wanted to reward users with an even better UKTV Play, and rigorous A/B testing has allowed us to develop a brilliant new streamlined interface to ensure visitors can find something great to watch in seconds. The new look site is set against an aesthetic, clean white background to give it a premium feel that mirrors the quality of our content. Our research shows that once people come in to use UKTV Play, they're very likely to keep coming back, so it's crucial their experience is first class every time.
Latest figures show UKTV Play achieved a record-breaking 81% year-on-year growth for Q1 2016, with the service also recently celebrating one million app downloads. UKTV Play has this year been shortlisted for Best Digital Video Platform/Service in the Broadcast Digital Awards for the second year running, alongside established market players All 4, BBC iPlayer and The ITV Hub.
UKTV has ten, highly-defined TV brands including market leading free-to-air channels Dave and Drama, and on demand TV service UKTV Play. The independent British broadcaster is recognised for the popularity and critical success of its burgeoning slate of original programmes such as Dave Gorman Modern Life is Goodish, Storage Hunters UK, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled and Taskmaster. All of these shows are available to watch on UKTV Play, and have contributed to the service's recent success.
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Lara Feinstein, Network Communications Executive
NOTES TO EDITORS
About UKTV
UKTV is the biggest multichannel broadcaster in the UK.
The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food. These include the two most popular non-PSB channels in the UK and account for 9.31% of the British commercial TV market.
The company's most recent financial results showed record-breaking year-end revenue of £283m and EBITDA of £74.1m. It invested £123m in programming and related launches last year, and is becoming an increasingly significant investor in UK creativity.
UKTV has a truly innovative model, curating brand-defining commissions, high-profile acquisitions and the very best of BBC, alongside programmes originally shown on ITV and Channel 4. The network embraces technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat, Amazon Fire and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.
Now celebrating its 23rd 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 television broadcaster in The Sunday Times top 100 companies list.
corporate.uktv.co.uk / press.uktv.co.uk / @uktv_press
About UKTV Play
UKTV Play is the fast-growing on demand TV service where you can watch the TV shows you love from Dave, Yesterday, Really and Drama wherever you want, whenever you want. The good news? We love them too.
Love digging into history or laughing out loud to new, British comedy you can't see anywhere else? So do we. Enjoy an engrossing, nail-biting true crime story or powerful real life documentaries? No problem. In the mood to luxuriate in a decadent period drama or hang on the edge of your seat during a pulsating crime drama? We're with you. There's so much brilliant TV on UKTV Play - Taskmaster, Alan Davies As Yet Untitled, Suits, Parks and Recreation, Red Dwarf, Most Haunted, New Tricks, Pride and Prejudice, Call The Midwife, The Bill and Birds of a Feather - to name a few, so you'll never be stuck for something to watch.
With the UKTV Play app you can stream your favourite TV for free via your computer, tablet or smart phone. It has never been easier to watch the things you love most, so download the app and delve in.
You can also put your feet up and watch on the telly, thanks to Virgin TV, YouView, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. If you're an M+ subscriber on Virgin Media or BT TV customer, shows from other great UKTV channels - Gold, W, Alibi, Good Food, Home and Eden - are on the menu as well.