UKTV and Channel 4 agree 10-year ad sales deal

2 July 2010

Notes to Editors

About UKTV (www.uktv.co.uk)
Formed in 1997, UKTV is an independent commercial joint venture, between BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, and Virgin Media. Attracting  36.5  million viewers each month, the network consists of 10 distinctive channel brands  - Watch, G.O.L.D., Dave, Alibi, Yesterday, Blighty, Eden, Home, Really and Good Food  - offering a broad range of quality programming across entertainment, lifestyle and factual programming. UKTV currently operates 17 broadcast streams when multiplexes (+1s) are taken into account, and 10 highly successful websites.

Promising to creatively connect its audiences with great programming, UKTV's successful programming strategy combines quality content from the BBC with high profile original commissions and key acquisitions.

All UKTV channels are distributed on Sky and Virgin Media. Dave and Yesterday are also available on Freeview.

About Channel 4
Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster funded solely from commercial revenues. It receives free spectrum in return for fulfilling its public service obligations as set out in the 1990 and 1996 Broadcasting Acts and its licence, issued by Ofcom, which was last updated in December 2004.

The channel's licence obligations include annual quotas on original, independent and regional production and weekly quotas governing news and current affairs.

Channel 4's portfolio of digital channels (E4, More4, Film4, and 4Music) are distributed on the UK's main digital TV platforms.  Channel 4 offers time-shifted +1 services of all its TV channels and offers a free catch-up service for its commissioned output and some acquired programmes via 4oD.

London, July 2010 - UKTV and Channel 4 have reached agreement for Channel 4 Sales to become the exclusive advertising representative for the UKTV portfolio.  Under the terms of the 10-year agreement, Channel 4 Sales will represent UKTV as its sole advertising sales agent across its full portfolio of services including 10 linear channels, VOD services and websites.

The UKTV rebranded linear portfolio reaches over 37 million people every month across its entertainment, factual and lifestyle channels.  The quality and breadth of the channels ensures the UKTV network is in the enviable position of being able to offer advertisers a wide range of desirable consumer demographics from the 16-34yr to high ABC1s across a range of targeted, resonant brands. The portfolio includes four of the top 10 pay entertainment channels and the UK's leading lifestyle and factual channels.

In addition to the 10 linear channels which include Good Food, Dave and Eden, Channel 4 Sales will also sell advertising across all UKTV websites including goodfoodchannel.co.uk, which has a database of over 11,000 recipes and over 1.6m users per month and joindave.co.uk.  Channel 4 will also represent UKTV's VOD services as they evolve.

The deal, which applies to all inventory from 1st January 2011, means Channel 4 Sales will maintain its position as the UK's second largest sales house and will allow it to compete more effectively against a dominant ITV.

The deal was negotiated between UKTV's Executive Director, Business & Operations, Julia Jordan and Channel 4's Commercial & Corporate Development Director, Nathalie Schwarz.  ids remains UKTV's incumbent ad sales agency in 2010. 

Commenting on the deal, Jordan says, "UKTV with ids has enjoyed a long history of delivering high quality, innovative and creative solutions to the advertising market."

She continues, "Cementing a long term relationship with Channel 4, is a fabulous marriage of complementary brands and cultures representing the highest quality product, leadership and innovation to the market and we look forward to building on ids' stellar performance. 

Channel 4 also understands how to deliver innovative and creative campaigns to mass and niche audiences; this will ensure UKTV continues its track record in building market share in both the linear and non-linear advertising markets."

Andy Barnes, Director of Sales at Channel 4, said: "The UKTV portfolio of channels, with its emphasis on high quality UK content, is the perfect complement to the existing Channel 4 network which continues to perform strongly.  Incorporating UKTV into our existing portfolio will allow Channel 4 to bolster its investment in quality British content and its distinctive public service contribution."

"As TV audiences get more and more fragmented, we believe that consolidation in TV advertising sales is inevitable and will unlock benefits which will be of real value to the whole industry.  Incorporating UKTV into Channel 4 Sales' existing offering will ensure that we continue to deliver to advertisers our distinctive and valuable audiences and share in the opportunities that arise from our combined offering."

Since completing its ambitious rebrand, the UKTV entertainment portfolio has grown at a faster rate than any other pay entertainment portfolio. Watch is now the 6th largest pay entertainment channel; G.O.L.D. has grown 6% YOY since its rebrand, and Dave is a top 5 multichannel player and the most appealing channel to men aged 16-44yr.  UKTV has the two top performing channels, Good Food and Home in the Lifestyle genre and Yesterday, Britain's leading factual channel, is up over 50% YOY.

Notes to Editors

About UKTV (www.uktv.co.uk)
Formed in 1997, UKTV is an independent commercial joint venture, between BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, and Virgin Media. Attracting  36.5  million viewers each month, the network consists of 10 distinctive channel brands  - Watch, G.O.L.D., Dave, Alibi, Yesterday, Blighty, Eden, Home, Really and Good Food  - offering a broad range of quality programming across entertainment, lifestyle and factual programming. UKTV currently operates 17 broadcast streams when multiplexes (+1s) are taken into account, and 10 highly successful websites.

Promising to creatively connect its audiences with great programming, UKTV's successful programming strategy combines quality content from the BBC with high profile original commissions and key acquisitions.

All UKTV channels are distributed on Sky and Virgin Media. Dave and Yesterday are also available on Freeview.

About Channel 4
Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster funded solely from commercial revenues. It receives free spectrum in return for fulfilling its public service obligations as set out in the 1990 and 1996 Broadcasting Acts and its licence, issued by Ofcom, which was last updated in December 2004.

The channel's licence obligations include annual quotas on original, independent and regional production and weekly quotas governing news and current affairs.

Channel 4's portfolio of digital channels (E4, More4, Film4, and 4Music) are distributed on the UK's main digital TV platforms.  Channel 4 offers time-shifted +1 services of all its TV channels and offers a free catch-up service for its commissioned output and some acquired programmes via 4oD.

London, July 2010 - UKTV and Channel 4 have reached agreement for Channel 4 Sales to become the exclusive advertising representative for the UKTV portfolio.  Under the terms of the 10-year agreement, Channel 4 Sales will represent UKTV as its sole advertising sales agent across its full portfolio of services including 10 linear channels, VOD services and websites.

The UKTV rebranded linear portfolio reaches over 37 million people every month across its entertainment, factual and lifestyle channels.  The quality and breadth of the channels ensures the UKTV network is in the enviable position of being able to offer advertisers a wide range of desirable consumer demographics from the 16-34yr to high ABC1s across a range of targeted, resonant brands. The portfolio includes four of the top 10 pay entertainment channels and the UK's leading lifestyle and factual channels.

In addition to the 10 linear channels which include Good Food, Dave and Eden, Channel 4 Sales will also sell advertising across all UKTV websites including goodfoodchannel.co.uk, which has a database of over 11,000 recipes and over 1.6m users per month and joindave.co.uk.  Channel 4 will also represent UKTV's VOD services as they evolve.

The deal, which applies to all inventory from 1st January 2011, means Channel 4 Sales will maintain its position as the UK's second largest sales house and will allow it to compete more effectively against a dominant ITV.

The deal was negotiated between UKTV's Executive Director, Business & Operations, Julia Jordan and Channel 4's Commercial & Corporate Development Director, Nathalie Schwarz.  ids remains UKTV's incumbent ad sales agency in 2010. 

Commenting on the deal, Jordan says, "UKTV with ids has enjoyed a long history of delivering high quality, innovative and creative solutions to the advertising market."

She continues, "Cementing a long term relationship with Channel 4, is a fabulous marriage of complementary brands and cultures representing the highest quality product, leadership and innovation to the market and we look forward to building on ids' stellar performance. 

Channel 4 also understands how to deliver innovative and creative campaigns to mass and niche audiences; this will ensure UKTV continues its track record in building market share in both the linear and non-linear advertising markets."

Andy Barnes, Director of Sales at Channel 4, said: "The UKTV portfolio of channels, with its emphasis on high quality UK content, is the perfect complement to the existing Channel 4 network which continues to perform strongly.  Incorporating UKTV into our existing portfolio will allow Channel 4 to bolster its investment in quality British content and its distinctive public service contribution."

"As TV audiences get more and more fragmented, we believe that consolidation in TV advertising sales is inevitable and will unlock benefits which will be of real value to the whole industry.  Incorporating UKTV into Channel 4 Sales' existing offering will ensure that we continue to deliver to advertisers our distinctive and valuable audiences and share in the opportunities that arise from our combined offering."

Since completing its ambitious rebrand, the UKTV entertainment portfolio has grown at a faster rate than any other pay entertainment portfolio. Watch is now the 6th largest pay entertainment channel; G.O.L.D. has grown 6% YOY since its rebrand, and Dave is a top 5 multichannel player and the most appealing channel to men aged 16-44yr.  UKTV has the two top performing channels, Good Food and Home in the Lifestyle genre and Yesterday, Britain's leading factual channel, is up over 50% YOY.

Notes to Editors

About UKTV (www.uktv.co.uk)
Formed in 1997, UKTV is an independent commercial joint venture, between BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, and Virgin Media. Attracting  36.5  million viewers each month, the network consists of 10 distinctive channel brands  - Watch, G.O.L.D., Dave, Alibi, Yesterday, Blighty, Eden, Home, Really and Good Food  - offering a broad range of quality programming across entertainment, lifestyle and factual programming. UKTV currently operates 17 broadcast streams when multiplexes (+1s) are taken into account, and 10 highly successful websites.

Promising to creatively connect its audiences with great programming, UKTV's successful programming strategy combines quality content from the BBC with high profile original commissions and key acquisitions.

All UKTV channels are distributed on Sky and Virgin Media. Dave and Yesterday are also available on Freeview.

About Channel 4
Channel 4 is a public service broadcaster funded solely from commercial revenues. It receives free spectrum in return for fulfilling its public service obligations as set out in the 1990 and 1996 Broadcasting Acts and its licence, issued by Ofcom, which was last updated in December 2004.

The channel's licence obligations include annual quotas on original, independent and regional production and weekly quotas governing news and current affairs.

Channel 4's portfolio of digital channels (E4, More4, Film4, and 4Music) are distributed on the UK's main digital TV platforms.  Channel 4 offers time-shifted +1 services of all its TV channels and offers a free catch-up service for its commissioned output and some acquired programmes via 4oD.

London, July 2010 - UKTV and Channel 4 have reached agreement for Channel 4 Sales to become the exclusive advertising representative for the UKTV portfolio.  Under the terms of the 10-year agreement, Channel 4 Sales will represent UKTV as its sole advertising sales agent across its full portfolio of services including 10 linear channels, VOD services and websites.

The UKTV rebranded linear portfolio reaches over 37 million people every month across its entertainment, factual and lifestyle channels.  The quality and breadth of the channels ensures the UKTV network is in the enviable position of being able to offer advertisers a wide range of desirable consumer demographics from the 16-34yr to high ABC1s across a range of targeted, resonant brands. The portfolio includes four of the top 10 pay entertainment channels and the UK's leading lifestyle and factual channels.

In addition to the 10 linear channels which include Good Food, Dave and Eden, Channel 4 Sales will also sell advertising across all UKTV websites including goodfoodchannel.co.uk, which has a database of over 11,000 recipes and over 1.6m users per month and joindave.co.uk.  Channel 4 will also represent UKTV's VOD services as they evolve.

The deal, which applies to all inventory from 1st January 2011, means Channel 4 Sales will maintain its position as the UK's second largest sales house and will allow it to compete more effectively against a dominant ITV.

The deal was negotiated between UKTV's Executive Director, Business & Operations, Julia Jordan and Channel 4's Commercial & Corporate Development Director, Nathalie Schwarz.  ids remains UKTV's incumbent ad sales agency in 2010. 

Commenting on the deal, Jordan says, "UKTV with ids has enjoyed a long history of delivering high quality, innovative and creative solutions to the advertising market."

She continues, "Cementing a long term relationship with Channel 4, is a fabulous marriage of complementary brands and cultures representing the highest quality product, leadership and innovation to the market and we look forward to building on ids' stellar performance. 

Channel 4 also understands how to deliver innovative and creative campaigns to mass and niche audiences; this will ensure UKTV continues its track record in building market share in both the linear and non-linear advertising markets."

Andy Barnes, Director of Sales at Channel 4, said: "The UKTV portfolio of channels, with its emphasis on high quality UK content, is the perfect complement to the existing Channel 4 network which continues to perform strongly.  Incorporating UKTV into our existing portfolio will allow Channel 4 to bolster its investment in quality British content and its distinctive public service contribution."

"As TV audiences get more and more fragmented, we believe that consolidation in TV advertising sales is inevitable and will unlock benefits which will be of real value to the whole industry.  Incorporating UKTV into Channel 4 Sales' existing offering will ensure that we continue to deliver to advertisers our distinctive and valuable audiences and share in the opportunities that arise from our combined offering."

Since completing its ambitious rebrand, the UKTV entertainment portfolio has grown at a faster rate than any other pay entertainment portfolio. Watch is now the 6th largest pay entertainment channel; G.O.L.D. has grown 6% YOY since its rebrand, and Dave is a top 5 multichannel player and the most appealing channel to men aged 16-44yr.  UKTV has the two top performing channels, Good Food and Home in the Lifestyle genre and Yesterday, Britain's leading factual channel, is up over 50% YOY.