UKTV reports year-end viewing boost to deliver record annual ratings

UKTV announces its highest ever SOCI (share of commercial impacts) growth for advertisers, achieving 8.2%

UKTV has achieved its highest ever total audience share in 2013, an increase of 5% vs 2012 according to BARB data

General entertainment channel Dave became the most watched non-PSB channel, up 20% year-on-year

December 2013 was the most successful month in UKTV's 21 year history

UKTV has maintained its record of attracting audience growth against increased investment in content across past three years

UKTV boosted audience share to deliver record ratings in 2013, official end-of-year BARB data reports.

The multi-award winning media company, an independent joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Network Interactive Inc. (SNI:NY), achieved an average share of 4.67% across the year, up 5% on 2012s numbers, and saw its SOCI (share of commercial impacts) also grow, delivering a share of over 8.2%, building on 2012s record figure.

Viewing numbers for Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day also broke all previous ratings records and viewing increased by 86% (year-on -year) across all of UKTV's VOD platforms.

UKTV Chief Executive, Darren Childs says

UKTV has enjoyed three successive years of viewership growth and achieving over 8.2% of all commercial impacts in the UK last year puts our business at terrestrial levels of viewership, reaching 42 million viewers every month. Audiences are rewarding UKTV's compelling and creative programmes and brands with record ratings. This is fantastic news for our platform partners and for advertisers.

The festive period was particularly successful for the broadcaster with Christmas Day achieving its highest ever share of total viewing at 5.49%, up 21% year-on-year, with a mix of original commissions, bold acquisitions and treasure trove of BBC content. Boxing Day was up 2% year-on-year, New Year's Eve up 17% and New Year's Day up 42%. As a result, December became UKTV's most watched month on record, averaging 5.35% viewing share, up 14% on December 2012 and week 52 was UKTV's highest rating week ever, attracting 5.8% share, up 12% on the same week in 2012. The bumper month contributed to a huge increase in SOCI with the network predicted to achieve a record breaking commercial impact share of 9.6%.

Individual channels outperforming previous years bolstered UKTV's stellar performance.

Popular entertainment channel Dave has now confirmed its place as the number one non-PSB channel with viewing up one-fifth and a viewing share of 1.32%. It also celebrated its best Christmas on record with Christmas Day (up 26% year-on-year), Boxing Day (up 25% year-on-year), New Year's Eve (up 25% year-on-year) and New Year's Day (up 100% year-on-year) all growing versus previous years.

Lifestyle channel Really, the market leader in its genre, is up 7% year-on-year. It also enjoyed a strong festive period with Christmas Eve (up 42% year-on-year), Christmas Day (up 28% year-on-year), Boxing Day (up 73% year-on-year), New Year's Eve (up 25% year-on-year) and New Year's Day (up 21% year-on-year) proving record breaking for the channel.

Plus the nation's favourite comedy channel Gold didn't disappoint with Christmas Eve (up 11%), Christmas Day (up 20%), and New Year's Day (up 34%) all outperforming 2012. Gold was also the highest non-terrestrial channel in Pay TV on Christmas Day in terms of share.

UKTV's flagship Pay entertainment channel Watch also enjoyed a bumper Christmas, celebrating its best Christmas Day since the channel launched five years ago, up 13% year-on-year, Plus Pay crime drama channel Alibi had a stellar year, up 3% year-on-year.

The launch of brand new channel Drama, which trended globally on Twitter in July, boosted UKTV's overall performance in 2013 by achieving a share of 0.74% and breaking the 1% barrier five times. Popular shows New Tricks and Jonathan Creek pulled in audiences of over half a million.

The record-breaking figures come at the end of a 12-month period in which investment in programming has never been higher and original commissions formed many of the network's top performing shows.

Dynamo: Magician Impossible returned for a third series on Pay channel Watch and achieved UKTV's highest rating with 1.4 million viewers tuning into its premiere episode. New commissions Crackanory and Dave Gorman's Modern Life is Goodish on Dave both launched with over half a million viewers each and David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities on Eden broke all previous records for the channel and peaked with 156k viewers. A supersized new series of the hit show will return next month and air on Watch.

Storage Hunters on Dave became the network's highest rating acquisition with six episodes averaging over a million viewers each and Rizzoli & Isles continued to go from strength to strength on Alibi with series four becoming the most successful yet, averaging 567k viewers and beating previous series by 27%.

Upcoming highlights include J.J. Abrams' supernatural drama Believe and a new series of Dynamo: Magician Impossible on Watch, travelogue series with a twist Spending Dave's Money on Dave, Porridge: The Inside Story on Gold and John Torode's Australia on Good Food. UKTV's debut drama commission Legion, penned by Tony Jordan, is also in development.

Source: BARB, All day, channel share based on Adults, programme data based on Individuals. All channel data includes +1. Data consolidated up to 26th December 2013.

For more information please contact: Kerry Parker, UKTV Senior Corporate Communications Manager

Zoe Clapp, UKTV Director of Communications

About UKTV UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches over 42 million viewers per month.

UKTVs ten imaginative channel brands - W

LINK:	http://corporate.uktv.co.uk/news/article/uktv-reports-year-end-viewing...
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