SKY AND UKTV EXTEND MULTI-YEAR DEAL FOR SKY PLATFORMS ACROSS UK AND IRELAND

Sky and UKTV have announced a multi-year extension to their long-standing partnership, securing carriage for UKTV’s highly popular pay channels, Alibi and Gold, across Sky platforms in the UK and Ireland.

The new agreement ensures that Sky and NOW customers will continue to enjoy the valued channel brands including Gold and Alibi and popular programming from UKTV.

The deal also sees UKTV’s streaming service U, formerly UKTV Play, launch on Sky Glass and Sky Stream devices in the UK, further expanding the footprint of the U service. This is the first time the U app has been made available to Sky customers and marks the latest evolution of a highly successful and longstanding partnership between UKTV and Sky.

The launch follows the transition of the streaming service to U, from UKTV Play in July, as part of the new U Masterbrand uniting UKTV’s streaming service and free-to-air linear channels, with a line-up of nearly 8,500 hours of high-quality content.

UKTV’s free-to-air channels U&Dave, U&W, U&DRAMA and U&YESTERDAY will also continue to be available for Sky customers to enjoy for the duration of the deal, as will Eden which joins UKTV’s free-to-air portfolio as U&Eden in the coming weeks.

Jon Simkin, Managing Director, Content Partnerships, Sky, commented: “We are thrilled to extend our partnership with UKTV. UKTV’s distinctive content across channels such as Alibi and Gold is loved by Sky customers. This agreement reinforces our commitment to providing the best entertainment experience to our customers across the UK and Ireland.”

Sam Tewungwa, Managing Director, UKTV, said: “We’ve enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Sky over a number of years and we are delighted to be extending our partnership so that Sky customers can continue to enjoy the rich mix of content that UKTV has to offer.”

U (as UKTV Play) enjoyed record-breaking growth in 2023, with direct-to-consumer views increasing by 56% and monetisable views by 47% year-on-year. Since the U rebrand, average weekly sign-ups have increased by +71%.