8 September 2014 UKTV's growth as a commissioning business and the increasing popularity of its channels have brought top line growth in 2013, with revenues at a record £278m, a boost to underlying profits and the promise of even greater returns in the current year.
The choice to invest in three strategic areas: content, digital distribution and new channels, including the launch of successful new channel - Drama - had an impact on reported EBITDA, down 6% to £67.4m, but once those costs are stripped out, underlying EBITDA rose 7% to £76.7m.
That kind of investment in content, distribution and new channels has already seen UKTV's reach grow this year. In the year to date, SOCI (share of commercial impacts) for the portfolio of channels reached 9.1%, a gain of 17% over the same period in 2013, from 8.2%.
The three pillars of investment are at the heart of a new growth phase for UKTV: taking advantage of the opportunity to grow market share during the UK's economic recovery.
In distribution, long term carriage deals were signed with both Sky and Virgin Media during the year - plus a new distribution agreement was made with YouView, and UKTV launched its first direct-to-consumer VoD service on PC, smartphone and tablets, initially with its free-to-air portfolio, now distributed from the new digital brand, UKTV Play.
In addition to the trove of celebrated BBC programming, along with programmes first shown on ITV and Channel 4; UKTVs brand new commissions and top-rating exclusive acquisitions are central to the networks allure for British TV viewers. In 2013, apart from its highest ever SOCI score at 8.2%, UKTV recorded its best ratings performance with an average share of 4.67% across the portfolio of 10 channels, up by 5% on the 2012 performance.
In the first six months of 2014, the number of video-on-demand viewings has increased by 639% year on year, while UKTV Play, the first interactive, digital-only brand launched in July 2014. For the calendar year 2013 (UKTV's financial year runs from January - December) revenues were up 6% to £278m. Profit margins reached 27.6% on an underlying basis (24.2% reported EBITDA).
Financial Results
Revenues £278m (2012 £262m)
Reported earnings before interest and tax £66.2m (2012 £71.5m)
Reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation & amortisation £67.4m (2012 £71.7m)
Underlying* earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization £76.7m (2012 £71.7m)
Operating Highlights
SOCI up 3% in 2013 vs 2012
SOCI up 17% to 9.1%, from 8.2% - H1 2014 vs H1 2013
On Demand viewing increased by 639% - H1 2014 vs H1 2013
New channel Drama launched
Long term carriage deals agreed with BSkyB and Virgin Media
Further digital distribution secured through YouView
Investment in programming and programme launch support £125m 2013
International sales building increasingly important role in P&L, tripling since 2010
*After removing costs of launching the Drama channel and associated investment costs.
Darren Childs, chief executive, said
Investment is key to our future growth. These results show that the more we put in, the more we get out, and I am delighted that so many of our original programmes are amongst our top titles and selling so well internationally. UKTV is changing its role in the market, moving to the front and centre of everyone's attention whether they be producers, talent, advertisers, or, most importantly, viewers. We are becoming an increasingly significant investor in UK creativity.
This is a really significant phase in UKTV's story, when we move from challenger to contender and this is the first time in the history of British television that a non-PSB channels business has played so big a role in the ratings charts. That's reflected in our SOCI performance, where we are in sight of a 10% share in the next few years, and that is the result of a concerted effort to invest in a targeted, thoughtful way in the future of the network.
We've invested smartly in our distribution too and that has paid off with long-term deals with Sky, Virgin, BT TV, TalkTalk, UPC in Eire and YouView but most impressively in an extraordinary leap forward in our VoD performance as we launched direct to consumer video applications under UKTV Play. We are widening our distribution and broadening the viewer's chances for seeing our shows: all in all, this is a modern TV company, fit for the future.
ENDS For more information contact:
Zoe Clapp, Communications Director, UKTV
About UKTV UKTV is the multi-award winning media company that reaches over 42 million viewers per month.
UKTVs eleven imaginative brands - Watch, Dave, Gold, Alibi, Eden, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Good Food and UKTV Play - include the most watched non-PSB channel, the most watched channel in the Factual genre and the most watched channels in the Lifestyle genre. The company's most recent financial results showed a record-breaking year-end revenue of £278m, and operating profit at £66.2m.
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, TalkTalk, YouView, plus direct On Demand digital services. The network distributes its highly valued programmes to 200 territories.
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.
corporate.uktv.co.uk / press.uktv.co.uk / @uktv_press
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
8 September 2014 UKTV's growth as a commissioning business and the increasing popularity of its channels have brought top line growth in 2013, with revenues at a record £278m, a boost to underlying profits and the promise of even greater returns in the current year.
