UKTV launches 4 FAST channels
August 23, 2023
Commercial broadcaster UKTV has announced 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 new channels are available in the UK on Samsung TV Plus now, and on Pluto TV from August 24th. The UKTV Play branded channels will provide curated access to some of UKTV’s most popular content from its free-to-air channel brands, Dave, Drama, W and Yesterday.
The channels are:
- UKTV Play Heroes allows viewers to join frontline medics and police at life’s most dramatic moments, with 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 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. Shows include 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. 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, a specialist in cloud-based SaaS technology for broadcast and connected TV.
Newman commented: “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.”