Narrative Entertainment sees record audiences
January 18, 2024
Narrative Entertainment has reported record audience, share and advertising impacts growth in 2023. The independent free-to-air channel group’s portfolio of channels gained its strongest yearly share growth, up 21 per cent year-on-year, whilst 4 in 5 of the UK population enjoyed the channels in 2023.
Its four Movies and Entertainment Channels saw 28 per cent year-on-year advertising impacts growth whilst its Kids division was up 11 per cent. This is against the backdrop of a market decline of -1 per cent and -13 per cent respectively.
The broadcaster further improved its presence in UK households with over 26 launches of its apps, the POP Player and GREAT! Player, and FAST channels across an array of platforms. Delivering growth of over 400 per cent in digital ad impressions year-on-year.
Paul Dunthorne, Managing Director, commented: “I’m extremely proud of the team and what they have achieved. We have delivered record EBITDA despite the market headwinds, taking the company to a double-digit margin and putting in place the foundations for growth for the next 5 years. We have overperformed in every programming KPI. Our programming and creative teams understand positioning and connection, delivering content our audiences love to watch.”
The Great Network
The movies and TV channels – GREAT! Movies, GREAT! Romance, GREAT! Action and GREAT! TV – have grown their commercial impacts by 28 per cent year-on-year, in contrast to market decline of -1 per cent per cent, delivering a 29 per cent increase in the share of commercial impacts (SOCI).
GREAT! Movies retained its title as the UK’s biggest independent movie network, reaching 5.5 million Adults 16+ per month. Similarly, GREAT! TV, home to classic TV shows, has grown SOCI +45 per cent year-on-year.
GREAT! Romance launched as the fastest growing channel in the UK, watched for over 2 hours on average – the longest out of all UK channels.
GREAT! Christmas, the seasonal channel, remains the nation’s #1 Christmas channel, and was up 52 per cent YoY.
Steve Hornsey, Narrative Entertainment’s VP, Movies & Entertainment, added: “We’re so excited about 2024 and the continued expansion of the GREAT! channels. After last year’s trend-busting market growth, we are continuing to invest into launching onto multiple platforms so that our committed audiences can access more of their favourite films and TV shows whenever andwherever they want, for free.”
POP, Tiny Pop, POP MAX
Narrative Entertainment has the largest commercial kids’ group in the UK, with 46 per cent share of kids’ commercial impacts, and the only group to grow impacts year-on-year. The POP Channels – POP, Tiny Pop and POP Max – remain the #1 non-PSB destination for Kids 4-15, reaching 4 million kids aged 4 to 15 on linear in the past year alone. Flagship POP has been the No. 1 Commercial Kids channel since 2017.
POP further expanded its presence on FAST platforms and is now the number one kids’ FAST channel on Samsung TV Plus. Following the success of POP on FAST, Narrative extended the network’s digital offering with the launch of its pre-school channel brand, Tiny Pop.
Francesca Newington, Director, POP Channels, said: “2024 will be a very exciting time for Narrative Entertainment’s kids’ network as we continue to explore ways to expand our channels and deliver our fantastic content to loyal viewers, however and wherever they choose to watch.”