UKTV has no plans at present to launch an OTT service on its own, preferring instead to work with its partners, for who it has enormous respect, according to Dan Fahy, the company’s director, commercial and business development.
He added that it has not looked at retailing its pay brands itself.
Fahy was responding to a question about the emergence of the ‘pay-lite’ segment, essentially Freeview homes willing to pay a little extra, which UKTV sees as one of the key opportunities in the future.
He identified the other key opportunities as putting richer data to good use and putting programming together in new ways for new audiences.
The challenges it faces include rights v new technologies and services; delivery and technology capabilities; and awareness and discoverability.
UKTV has 10 distinct channel brands and a £125 million annual programming budget.
It is growing both its pay and free brands and will roll out a UKTV Play rebrand on Virgin Media later this month.
