UKTV admits channel propositions could be ‘clearer’
UKTV has admitted it needs to “work harder” at communicating the different propositions of its family of channels and attempt to create a halo effect from its parent brand.
Emma Tennant, UKTV’s controller, said at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival, that with 500 different channels available to viewers it is difficult to make each brand absolutely clear but hopes that by next year audiences will have a better idea as to what UKTV’s channels are all about.
The broadcaster currently has ten channel brands: Gold, Watch, Good Food, Really, Home, Eden, Blighty, Yesterday, Alibi and Dave.
UKTV has been steadily rebranding and renaming its channels over the last three years and since then has refreshed some of its new brands to “catch up” to where the programming has moved to. Recent examples include the refresh of Yesterday to appeal to a wider audience and launching additional digital content to sit alongside Eden to give it a more “credible” science positioning.
Tennant said changes of names and logos are difficult to directly link to an increase in ratings, although UKTV claims to be the fastest growing TV network in the UK. Notable examples include Really, whose viewing figures it claims are up 800 per cent year on year and Yesterday, which is up 29 per cent year on year.
Separately, she added that there may be value in re-communicating to audiences what the UKTV corporate brand stands for. Tennant said a recent b2b survey revealed positive feedback about UKTV as a brand but that viewers do not necessarily connect its portfolio of channels to each other.
“There is a strength by association that you can build and sometimes it makes sense to viewers if they understand the connections between the channels so that’s something for us to look at,” she added.
