The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

UKTV

UKTV cites £123m investment in original content behind record profit

Author

By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

May 19, 2015 | 2 min read

UKTV has reported record ratings and profit for 2014 following a £123m investment in original programming which drove strong advertising revenues.

The broadcaster noted its highest ever operating profit of £72.2m, up 9.1 per cent from £66.2m in 2013.

The network – which counts Dave, Really and Drama among its list of channels – has now grown its share of the British commercial TV market to 9.4 per cent.

This boosted advertising revenues with UKTV booking record revenue of £283m last year, up from £278m in 2013.

“Our portfolio of channels [are] vital for advertisers,” said chief executive Darren Childs. “This is the first time in the history of British television that a non-PSB channels business has played such a big role in the ratings, but expect much more from us. This is just the groundwork to ensure long term, future success for UKTV.”

Childs acknowledged its investment in original content, as well as its “enviable” collection of acquisitions from BBC as well as from C4, ITV and overseas, as factors behind the strong results.

Four of the top 10 most watched shows across all of UKTV's channels were original commissions including Storage Hunters UK, Monty Python Live (Mostly), Dynamo: Magician Impossible and Dave Gorman: Modern Life is Goodish.

“We pay relentless attention to our ever-increasing reach and distribution, ensuring modern British viewers can enjoy our vibrant channels and imaginative shows, whichever kind of television provision and technology they have: free, pay or online only,” he said.

Its online service UKTV Play also saw on-demand views across the network grow 348 per cent in 2014 versus 2013.

UKTV

More from UKTV

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +