UKTV Play launches on PC and YouView
November 18, 2014
Cable and satellite broadcaster UKTV has launched digital brand UKTV Play on PC and connected on-demand platform YouView.
UKTV Play, which celebrated a successful launch on iOS earlier this year, is an intuitively-designed TV application that gives viewers easy access to their favourite shows from UKTV’s popular free-to-air channels, including the UK’s most watched non-PSB channel, Dave and popular entertainment channel Really.
Hit shows such as Storage Hunters UK, Crackanory, Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled, Forbidden History, Inquisition, The Sixties, Crime Stories, Most Haunted and Ghost Adventures, along with a selection of fantastic BBC programmes, will be available to watch on demand.
The service will also include box sets and handpicked collections on PC, so users can enjoy complete series of popular shows such as Dave Gorman Modern Life is Goodish, Ross Noble Freewheeling, Storage Hunters, Lizard Lick Towing, Black Ops, World at War, Raiders of the Lost Art, I Survived Evil, Cold Justice and Ghost Adventures.
The broadcaster says that UKTV Play makes choosing what to watch easy with cleverly-themed collections of programmes from UKTV’s channels to suit the viewers’ mood or interest, such as ‘Real Crime’, ‘Wet Weekend’ and ‘Gadget Geeks’ collections. It also includes recommendations straight from the people who know the content best at UKTV headquarters, in a special ‘Staff Picks’ area.
On YouView, UKTV’s popular free-to-air channels will be housed in a dedicated UKTV Play-branded area, where all customers can access a seven day catch-up service for their favourite Dave, Yesterday and Really shows.
The news follows last week’s launch of all of UKTV’s channels on Virgin On Demand which will be accessible under the UKTV Play brand from December.
Dan Fahy, UKTV’s Director, Commercial and Business Development, said that UKTV Play had been created to give viewers access to UKTV’s content anytime, anywhere via a single on-demand destination. “UKTV’s viewers really embraced the new UKTV Play app when it launched on iOS in the summer and the launch of UKTV Play on PC and YouView marks the next step in growing UKTV’s first fully-digital brand,” he added.
David Faulkner, Head of Business Development at YouView said it was great to see UKTV further investing in its on demand TV player, which had been popular with YouView customers for well over a year. “UKTV Play gives YouView customers access to a wide range of quality on demand TV programmes via our seven day scroll back guide and within the bespoke player, offering a flexible and easy-to-use TV experience for everyone,” he explained.
Upon launch in July, Apple featured UKTV Play in their ‘Best New Apps’ section of the App Store, highlighting it amongst the half a million apps available.