Top Up TV Boosts Appeal With Extended Viewing Hours

Terrestrial pay-TV operator, Top Up TV, has extended the broadcast hours of UKTV Gold, giving viewers access to the entertainment channel until 5am every day.

The extension has been made at no extra cost to subscribers, who are charged £7.99 per month for a package of ten premium entertainment and documentary channels to supplement their existing Freeview channel line-up.

Amongst the channels offered by Top Up are E4, TCM and the Discovery Channel. However, speculation has surfaced in recent months that Channel 4 may soon try to turn E4 into a free to air offering, leaving space for another premium entertainment channel in Top Up TV’s line up.

Top Up TV has seen impressive growth since its launch last year (see Top Up TV Confirms End Of March Launch Date). Riding on the back of Freeview’s success, the service notched up 20,000 subscribers in its first month, while David Chance, chairman of Top Up TV and former BSkyB executive, claimed last year that Freeview homes will outnumber their Sky Digital counterparts by December 2005, stating that increased interest in pay-TV from terrestrial viewers was fuelling growth in his company’s low-cost offering (see Freeview Penetration Set To Equal Sky Next Year).

Freeview penetration recently topped the five million mark, with record sales over the Christmas period giving a massive boost to the platform. The festive increase marked a year on year increase of around one million, according to initial sales figures (see Christmas Shoppers Push Freeview Into Five Million Homes).

Top Up TV: 08700 543 210 www.topup.tv

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