UKTV's Record Breaking Year

UKTV ended 2012 with a record-breaking month to end record-breaking year.

UKTV

  • UKTV was the fastest growing commercial TV network in 2012

  • December 2012 was UKTV's most successful month in its 20 year history

  • The network delivered year-on-year SOCI growth every month

  • UKTV grew its share of viewing in Pay by 2%

  • UKTV achieved over 3 million Video on Demand views across all of its new platforms London, 9 January 2013: Official end of year BARB data has confirmed that 2012 was a record-breaking year for UKTV*, with the award-winning 10 channel network achieving greater percentage growth than any other TV network and enjoying its best performance since UKTV's inception (with a 4.43% share, up 10% compared to 2011). The network delivered SOCI (Share of Commercial Impacts) growth every month, including during an Olympics-filled August, with end of year SOCI at 8%.

UKTV also launched its own On Demand services in Q4 (Dave, Yesterday and Really) and, combined with services on BT Vision and Sky On Demand, total UKTV digital views topped three million.

The festive period proved particularly successful for UKTV with the network achieving its highest ever Boxing Day share with 5.83% (up 15% year-on-year). December was also UKTV's best ever performing month, with an average share of 4.72% (up 4% year-on-year). Week 52 was UKTV's highest rating week of 2012 with a 5.21% share and a strong performance by the nation's favourite comedy channel Gold contributed to this success with in excess of a 1% share across Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Gold was also the seventh most watched channel in Pay homes on Christmas Day and was up 5% year-on-year across week 52 with an average 0.96% share. In addition, Dave performed well in week 52, up a quarter year-on-year, averaging a 1.33% share.

UKTV CEO Darren Childs commented, ?UKTV is a growth story: in every month of 2012 we've achieved record growth, outperforming the market, and delivering our programmes to record numbers of viewers. I'm looking forward to building on UKTV's success in 2013, when our viewers will see the result of further content spend on screen and a number of brand new commissions will premiere across the network.?

The news comes at the end of a 12 month period where original commissions formed many of the channels? top performing shows and helped make UKTV the fastest growing commercial broadcaster of 2012. The premiere episode of Dynamo: Magician Impossible on Pay channel Watch achieved UKTV's highest rating with 2.1million viewers, followed closely by the premiere of Red Dwarf X on Dave with 2.09 million viewers. Comedy channel Gold benefitted from UKTV's multi-million pound investment in comedy with original commissions such as The Comic Strip Presents: Five Go To Rehab and Bring Me Morecambe and Wise both featuring stellar talent and attracting large audiences. Lifestyle channel Good Food achieved its highest audience of the year with standout commission Hairy Bikers Mississippi Adventure which attracted 163k viewers to its premiere episode.

Year-end BARB stats also reveal that Really (+168%), Eden (+21%), Yesterday (+21%), Watch (+5%), Dave (+3%) and Alibi (+1%) all saw growth year-on-year (% growth based on share). In addition, UKTV grew its share of viewing in Pay by 2% (year-on-year), with Home as the lifestyle genre leader in Pay homes and flagship entertainment channel Watch smashing through the million viewer mark 28 times.

UKTV will build on this success in 2013 with an investment of over £100 million in content. Viewers have a lot to look forward to; later this month Gold airs the brand new series of Yes, Prime Minister, David Attenborough presents original Eden commission David Attenborough?s Natural Curiosities, and in March the ultimate daredevil series, The Jonathan Goodwin Project, will explode onto Watch.

Source: BARB, All day, channel share based on Adults, programme data based on Individuals. All channel data includes +1. Data consolidated up to 25th December 2012.

*UKTV is an independent joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Network Interactive Inc.

Notes to Editors

For more information, please contact:

Kerry Parker
UKTV Senior Corporate Communications Manager
kerry.parker@uktv.co.uk
0207 745 3036

Zoe Clapp
UKTV Director of Communications
zoe.clapp@uktv.co.uk
02072996259

@uktv_press

About UKTV

UKTV is a major industry player and one of the most important and successful multichannel providers in the UK. Formed in 1997, it is an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, and Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. (NYSE: SNI).

Attracting over 41 million viewers each month, the network consists of 10 distinctive channel brands ? Watch, Gold, Dave, alibi, Yesterday, Blighty, Eden, Home, Really and Good Food ? offering a broad range of quality programming across entertainment, lifestyle and factual. UKTV currently operates 25 broadcast streams when its eight multiplexes and five HD channels are taken into account, and 11 highly successful websites. The network also runs video on demand (VOD) services on Sky and BT Vision and is part of TalkTalk on YouView. In addition, UKTV recently launched its own ?On Demand? services with Dave On Demand and Yesterday On Demand.

UKTV's successful programming strategy combines high profile original commissions and key acquisitions with quality content from the BBC.

All UKTV channels are distributed on Sky and Virgin Media. Dave, Really and Yesterday are also available on Freeview.