UKTV Play and Social AVOD a hit for UKTV in 2021.
UKTV Play re-built its mobile apps in 2021, introducing Live TV and offering a fresh, new design, faster performance, and enhancements to content discovery and search. Monetisable views to content on UKTV Play and pay platforms were up 34% year-on-year, and UKTV Play added 1m registered users to reach 5.45m. The top titles on pay platforms included many UKTV Originals and exclusive acquisitions such as Annika, Smother, Ragdoll, The Cockfields and Bangers and Cash. The Only Fools and Horses 40th Anniversary stunt in September, which offered VoD viewers the box set of all episodes, was also a viewing success.
UKTV Originals similarly were responsible for driving strong viewing performances and active users on UKTV’s direct-to-consumer service UKTV Play. Top performing shows included Bangers and Cash and Secrets of The London Underground from Yesterday, and brand new shows Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable, Outsiders and Late Night Mash, from Dave.
Social AVOD formed a key part of UKTV’s digital strategy in 2021 with an aim to reach new, younger audiences. UKTV relaunched its Dave YouTube channel featuring archive clips, outtakes and specially commissioned short-form content (e.g. Who Cares? hosted and produced by Chicken Shop Date creator Amelia Dimoldenberg, and Big Zuu’s Wrap Clash) which helped the channel achieve over 8.4m views last year. UKTV also teamed up with BBC Studios to commission three series for Dave’s Facebook page: The Comedy Guide to Life, BackChat and Bad Advice with Olga Koch.
In 2021, UKTVs social feeds saw impressions up 12% year on year, averaging 20 million impressions per month, and followers increased by 20%. Dave’s TikTok feed also enjoyed a huge 300% yearly increase in views.
