Living TV Launches Spin-Off Dedicated To Reality Shows
Flextech is planning to capitalise on the growth of Living TV’s valuable youth audience with the launch of a new spin-off channel focusing heavily on reality-TV shows and exclusive acquisitions.
Living TV 2 will hit the multi-channel airwaves on 13 December and will broadcast daily from 9am to midnight with a mix of US imports and specially commissioned shows such as the new reality series Famous and Frightened (pictured).
The new venture will also replicate E4’s successful relationship with Channel 4 by featuring extended live coverage of reality shows and live event programming screened on the main channel.
The launch follows a period of impressive audience growth for Living TV, which has seen its share of multi-channel viewing increase by 32% year on year. Living TV’s director of programming, Richard Woolfe, said: “We’ve made such an investment in high-quality programmes we haven’t got enough room on one channel to place them all.”
Living TV has its sights firmly set on overtaking Sky One to become the UK’s sixth television channel and the new launch will significantly strengthen its position in the battle for multi-channel audiences. Sky One has been struggling lately and has seen its share of viewing decline by more than 30% over the last year.
However, Sky One still commands an audience almost twice the size as that of Living TV and recently revealed its new autumn schedule with a focus on ‘distinctive, high quality and high concept’ programming designed to help it move away from its downmarket image. The broadcaster also refreshed its image with a new onscreen identity and logo (see Sky One Gets Facelift In Time For Autumn Schedule).
Commenting on the launch, Andrew Canter, broadcast director at Media Planning Group, said: “Living TV has done very well in the last year and it is as good a time as any to launch a second channel. However, that market is pretty cluttered at the moment and it remains to be seen whether it will return the sort of impressive numbers which it needs to.”
Flextech claims that Living TV is one of the fastest-growing top five cable and satellite channels in the UK. From January to July the channel was up 46% on the target audience of 16 to 44-year-old women. In comparison, Sky One was down 24%, UK Gold was down 7%, and E4 down 4%. ITV2 is the only cable and satellite channel other than Living TV to also see a year-on-year increase and this has bee driven by the increase in Freeview homes.
Flextech: 020 7299 5000 www.flextech.co.uk
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