UKTV has unveiled impressive growth figures for its newly rebranded streaming platform, U (formerly known as UKTV Play), reporting that views on the service have more than doubled between January 2023 and December 2024.
In 2024 alone, the platform recorded a 34% jump in views, alongside a 21% rise in active users. The boost in audience engagement is part of UKTV’s broader strategy to dominate the video-on-demand (VoD) space in Britain. The broadcaster also saw a 40% increase in total viewer minutes across its pay and free VoD platforms, which contributed to its status as the fastest-growing on-demand presence in the UK.
The significant growth can be attributed to the extensive overhaul of the U app, including improvements to user experience, app stability, sustainability, and content discovery.
Andrea Amey, Chief Digital Officer at UKTV, said, “In 2024 UKTV achieved record growth across all of our VoD output, with BARB data revealing that we grew viewing minutes to content on U along with VoD content on pay platforms faster than any other UK competitor. We’ve achieved this by rebuilding the U app, adding improvements to user experience, app stability, sustainability and content discovery. In 2024 we also expanded U’s footprint by launching on Sky Glass, Sky Stream and Freely devices and we added over 2000 hours of content to the service.” and added some of the priorities for the year ahead, “As we remain focused on driving growth in 2025, we will continue to look at our product and content offering, including the ongoing rollout of new content personalisation across all devices by the end of Q1 and adding FAST channels to the service later in the year.”
In addition to enhancing the app, UKTV bolstered the content library on U, growing its offerings from 7,000 hours to over 9,000 hours. Beyond the success of the U platform, UKTV’s FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) channels had a standout year.
Marcus Arthur, UKTV’s CEO, said, “2024 was a pivotal year in UKTV’s digital transformation, and it is testament to the hard work of everyone here that in just two years we have doubled viewing to the U streaming service and achieved record viewing across all our VOD inventory, outpacing the growth by our competitors.”
Furthermore, with viewing across all demographics growing and record-breaking performance across both free and pay VoD platforms, UKTV’s digital-first strategy is paying off. As U continues to expand with enhanced personalisation features and the addition of FAST channels, 2025 looks set to be another breakthrough year for the broadcaster.