UKTV streaming platform UKTV Play achieves banner year in 2022

UK commercial broadcaster UKTV revealed today that it grew direct-to-consumer views by over a quarter and added a further one million registered users across 2022, with the total now at 6.45m. The company attributed its robust performance to “a year of increased investment and focus on its free streaming service UKTV Play.”

Marcus Arthur

The broadcaster added that it also achieved record share of commercial impacts in 2022, up 2.1% from 8.52% in 2021 to 8.7% in 2022. UKTV CEO Marcus Arthur said: “Despite the economic downturn in the latter half of 2022, UKTV has continued to grow its share of the commercial TV market (SOCI) to record levels while continuing to invest in services and programming. UKTV Play has undergone product updates and a major brand refresh, while thousands of hours of new content have been added to the service, resulting in growth of over a quarter. Across five of our channels UKTV Original commissions were the top performing shows.”

The growth in UKTV Play’s direct-to-consumer views (27%) was aided by over 3000 hours of new content being added to the service last year. This was achieved through newly acquired programming to complement UKTV’s own originations,

Arthur added: “Looking ahead to 2023, we know it’s going to be a challenging time for broadcasters as we face into an advertising recession, however, at UKTV we remain committed to continuing to invest in channels, content and UKTV Play to fuel growth.”