UKTV moves Home to FTA
February 18, 2016
Multi-channel broadcaster UKTV has taken a new free-to-air slot and revealed plans to move lifestyle channel Home to the UK’s Freeview DTT platform.
Home, currently exclusively in pay-TV, is the UK’s only television channel dedicated to inspirational home and gardens programming.
Home takes up its new residence at channel 25 on March 1st, bringing audiences hit shows such as My Dream Derelict Home, Escape to the Country, A Place in the Sun: Home Or Away, My Flat-Pack Home featuring Amanda Lamb, Nick Knowles’ Original Features, Make My Home Bigger, Fantasy Homes by the Sea and Kitchen SOS featuring Nadia Sawalha.
Emma Ayech, general manager, Home, said, that moving Home in to free-to-air households gave the channel a greater reach, offering more viewers the opportunity to watch its “great” roster of much-loved shows fronted by big name talent. “We’re looking forward to welcoming new audiences to our Home,” she added.
Home has been in pay-TV since 2009, when it replaced UKTV Style. Home’s move brings UKTV’s roster of channels in free to six, with the channel joining Dave, Dave Ja Vu, Drama, Really and Yesterday.
Dave Ja Vu, currently airing on channel 25, will move to a new channel slot which will be announced in the coming days. From March 1st, most viewers will find that their TV has automatically retuned to reflect the new channel positions for Home and Dave Ja Vu. However, viewers with older sets may need to conduct a manual retune.
UKTV recently celebrated its most successful year after record-breaking viewing helped the network deliver 9.32 per cent share of commercial impacts, putting it ahead of Channel 5’s full portfolio and all of Sky’s wholly owned channels, including movies and sport, for the first time.