UK's YouView plans expansion

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2014
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YouView plans for expansion as full agreement signed

Today, on demand TV service YouView demonstrates further momentum and ambition following the completion of its shareholder agreement.

The agreement which guarantees five years of funding by all seven shareholders including BT and TalkTalk, giving YouView scale in the UK broadband market, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Arqiva.

YouView, which pioneered an easy-to-use TV service that seamlessly combines live and catch up television, has passed well over 1 million connected UK homes in less than 18 months since its marketing launch and has seen industry leading levels of satisfaction and VOD usage. YouView continues to target a long term goal of 10 million connected homes.

YouView has signalled its continued success and growth by recently announcing a major recruitment drive that will expand its technology team by well over 50%. In the next 12 months, YouView will add more than 50 of the best product designers, developers and test engineers to its workforce in roles that will spearhead the next stages of pioneering connected TV development.

Richard Halton, CEO, YouView said, “I am delighted that all seven shareholders have committed to another five years, based on the core principles that have already made YouView such a success. Our plans for expansion will allow YouView to develop more consumer facing functionality, widening the gap with the rest of the market and allowing viewers to discover more of the content they love.”

YouView currently offers over 70 free-to-air TV and radio channels as well as 113 internet delivered TV channels and 9 fully integrated on demand players which include a choice of free and pay TV, radio and film content. A free YouView app for iOS and Android devices is available to customers offering a TV guide and the option to remote record TV programmes. Further content provider additions and app updates are planned for this year as well as regular software updates pushed to the box.