YouView expansion plans as shareholders agree
July 22, 2014
By Colin Mann
UK on demand TV service YouView says it is demonstrating further momentum and ambition following the completion of its shareholder agreement.
The agreement guarantees five years of funding by all seven shareholders including BT and TalkTalk (which gives YouView scale in the UK broadband market), the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Arqiva.
The service has passed well over 1 million connected UK homes in less than 18 months since its marketing launch and claims industry-leading levels of satisfaction and VoD usage. YouView continues to target a long term goal of 10 million connected homes.
YouView has signalled its continued success and growth by recently announcing a major recruitment drive that will expand its technology team by well over 50 per cent. In the next 12 months, YouView says it will add more than 50 of the best product designers, developers and test engineers to its workforce in roles that will spearhead the next stages of pioneering connected TV development.
Richard Halton, CEO, YouView, said he was delighted that all seven shareholders had committed to another five years, based on the core principles that had already made YouView such a success. “Our plans for expansion will allow YouView to develop more consumer-facing functionality, widening the gap with the rest of the market and allowing viewers to discover more of the content they love,” he added.
YouView currently offers over 70 free-to-air TV and radio channels as well as 113 Internet-delivered TV channels and nine fully-integrated on demand players which include a choice of free and pay-TV, radio and film content. A free YouView app for iOS and Android devices is available to customers offering a TV guide and the option to remote record TV programmes. Further content provider additions and app updates are planned for this year, as well as regular software updates pushed to the set-top box.