| British TV & Radio News |
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| Freesat- Fastest growing platform in the UK |
| Wednesday, May 12013 |
Freesat, have announced very strong 2012/13 results as the company celebrates its fifth birthday next week. Having added c.150,000 homes in the last 12 months, Freesat remains the UK’s fastest growing established TV platform, and continues to outgrow Pay-TV rivals.
According to Freesat’s own customer research, 51% of homes that joined the free TV service in 2012/13 were from Pay-TV rivals. The research also indicated that just over 25% of homes are considering changing TV service provider in 2013, and of these, 60% are being driven by the desire to save money. |
Emma Scott, Freesat’s Managing Director commented:
"Freesat is truly a TV platform of choice. Our consistently positive results demonstrate fantastic growth and a strong appetite for high quality, good value TV, in a challenging economic environment. The success of our <free time> service with its cutting edge TV Guide and on-demand services including BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and YouTube, gives yet more sensible reasons to switch to Freesat.
Everyone of us across the UK is continually reassessing how we spend our money, and with 79% of viewing across all platforms, including pay, going to free channels, and 52% going to the top 5 channels – having a monthly TV subscription just doesn’t make sense for most people." |
Freesat has now sold 3.2 million units, far exceeding original sales projections and taking total gross retail UK sales to £1.2 billion since launch in May 2008.
Freesat will grow the <free time> features over time, including a remote record app for smart phones and tablets as well as the introduction of additional movie and music services.
- Freesat added c.150,000 homes in the last 12 months, more than both Sky and Virgin Media combined
- This included 29,000 new Freesat homes in latest quarter, Jan-Mar 2013
- 51% of Freesat customers switched from Pay-TV in 2012/13, the majority from Sky
- Freesat now in 1.7 million homes, c.6% of UK homes
- Total unit sales of 3.2 million since launch five years ago
- Gross retail UK sales to date of £1.2 billion with particularly strong sales of the new hybrid <free time> box |
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| UKTV Drama Channel to launch on Freeview - July 8, 2913 |
| Thursday, May 2 2013 |
UKTV, the company behind TV channels Dave and Yesterday, has today unveiled its plans for a new drama channel on Freeview called "Drama".
The channel is set to launch on 8th July 2013. The channel number has not been confirmed, but Drama is likely to be using the bandwidth currently taken by Dave Ja Vu, which was temporarily brought back to Freeview on a full-time basis in January. There has been no word as yet about any distribution on satellite and cable services.
Drama will go head-to-head with ITV3 on Freeview airing a "diverse range of critically-acclaimed shows featuring stellar talent, many of whom have gone on to join Hollywood's elite."
The channel will feature shows such as Pride & Prejudice, The Cinder Path, Sharpe, Tipping the Velvet, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Cranford and Lark Rise to Candleford.
“Drama is targeted at a different audience demographic than our other highly successful free-to-air channels, Dave, Yesterday and Really”, said Emma Tennant, Controller of UKTV. “ The channel is aimed at people who simply love drama and want to watch critically-acclaimed shows that have absolutely defined the landscape of British television. I am very passionate about the subject and discussing the programmes that will create Drama’s schedule has just been brilliant fun. I’m genuinely excited about the launch of Drama both as a viewer and as Controller.”
While Adrian Wills, General Manager of Drama, added: “Drama lovers’ prayers have been answered. This channel represents the best drama content within the genre and we are confident that viewers will enjoy these celebrated shows.”
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| 4oD on Freesat <freetime> from June 2013 |
| Friday, May 3 2013 |
Freesat has officially confirmed that it is expecting to launch 4oD on its < free time > service from June.
The satellite platform operator confirmed that it was doing "everything possible" to secure a June launch of the catch up TV service from Channel 4.
Freesat and Channel 4 are still unable to confirm the exact day in June when the service will begin to appear on < free time > boxes.
Channel 5's on demand service Demand 5 is still on course to launch by the end of the summer. Both on demand services were expected by the end of last year, but have been repeatedly.
The new on demand services will only feature on < free time > boxes which enable viewers to go back seven days in the TV guide to select past programmes. < free time > boxes are currently only manufactured by Humax. |
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