Commercial broadcaster UKTV announces the launch of four Free Ad-supported Streaming TV (FAST) channels on Samsung TV Plus and Pluto TV.
The news marks the broadcaster’s debut in the FAST market with further plans to build on the offer with FAST channels to launch on its free streaming service UKTV Play.
The four new channels will launch in the UK on Samsung TV Plus on Wednesday 23rd August and on Pluto TV on Thursday 24th August. The UKTV Play branded channels will provide curated access to some of UKTV’s most loved content from its free-to-air channel brands, Dave, Drama, W and Yesterday:
- UKTV Play Heroes allows viewers to join frontline medics and police at life’s most dramatic moments, with inspiring stories of the everyday heroism of paramedics, doctors, nurses and the police. The channel features Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, Inside the Ambulance, 999: Rescue Squad, Special Ops: Crime Squad, Cop Car Workshop, Inside the Operating Theatre, Nurses Down Under and The Shift: Women on the Force.
- UKTV Play Laughs invites comedy lovers to sit back, relax and lose themselves in the lighter side of life. With wall-to-wall witty quips, comical chat and downright daft discussions, it’s dedicated to tickling your funny bone, with shows starring some of the biggest names in comedy in Hypothetical, Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable, Judge Romesh and Comedians Giving Lectures.
- UKTV Play Full Throttle takes viewers to the skies, the tracks or the road, with shows packed with planes, trains, cars and more. The channel allows viewers to get under the bonnet, inside the cowling and off down the tracks for riveting shows led by expert hosts including Bangers & Cash, Architecture the Railways Built, Warbird Workshop, Yianni: Supercar Customiser, Secrets of the Railways, Train Truckers, Impossible Railways, Secrets of the London Underground, and Modern Wheels or Classic Steals.
- UKTV Play Uncovered is for enquiring minds and delves into the darkest corners of history and engineering. Audiences are invited to explore the extraordinary, from the battlefield to the home front, ancient monoliths to modern myths, with featured titles including Abandoned Engineering, Forbidden History, World War 2 From Above, War Factories, History Hunters, Warbird Workshop, World War Weird, World War 2 Frontlines and Secret Nazi Bases.
The FAST launch has been led by UKTV’s Director of Advertising, Sarah Goldman and Head of Distribution, Philipp Pfister, with oversight from Jonathan Newman, General Manager, Commercial. For playout and distribution services on the partner platforms, UKTV worked with Amagi, the global leader in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV.
Jonathan Newman:
“FAST is a fantastic opportunity to reach new audiences with our rich content catalogue and showcase a wide array of genres across the four new channels. Thanks to the hard work of a group of passionate experts from across UKTV, our new FAST channels will be a valuable complement to the existing channel network and will help supercharge the UKTV Play streaming service by further extending its reach.”
