Over 250 hours of new content added to STV Player

Immediate Release: Monday 12 October 2020

Over 250 hours of new content added to STV Player for autumn

Leading video-on-demand service now offers over 1,750 hours of exclusive content to viewers across the UK - with online consumption up 84% year-on-year

The STV Player has announced a significant increase in content for Q4 2020 - with over 250 hours of new drama, sport, true crime and lifestyle programming being added to the free UK-wide service this autumn.

STV's VOD offering - which is the exclusive home of the Channel 3 network schedule in Scotland and offers a wide variety of Player-only programming to viewers across the UK - has ordered a wealth of new content from distribution partners DCD Rights, Fred Media, Inverleigh and Broken Arrow.

Under the new deals, STV Player's reputation for providing high-end drama from around the world will be bolstered, with critically-acclaimed dramas East West 101, Striking Out and Devil's Dust joining an already stellar line-up which includes Catching Milat, The Bridge and Janet King. The catch-up window on network content has also been extended, meaning hit dramas like Des and Honour will be available on the Player for longer.

STV is also adding 140 hours of new sport to the Player as part of the latest catalogue expansion. Weekly football analysis shows Life's a Pitch and The Football Review lead the new additions, alongside petrolhead-friendly titles Garage Dreams, The Racing Years and Shifting Gears with Aaron Kaufman.

In total, the STV Player now offers over 1,750 hours of exclusive content with seven live channels. The new additions follow a year of accelerated digital growth for STV, with online streams up 66% year-on-year, and the number of minutes watched rising from 719m to 1.32bn - an 84% year-on-year increase.

2020 has also seen STV Player being launched UK-wide on Freeview Play, Virgin Media and YouView, making it automatically available in around half of the UK's 42 million internet-enabled TV devices.

New content on the STV Player:

·    A deal with DCD Rights brings some of the most critically-acclaimed Australian dramas of the last decade, including all three series of multi AACTA Award-winning detective drama East West 101; two-part thriller Devil's Dust, which explores the real-life story of social justice campaigner Bernard Banton; and gritty four-parter The Principal. Both series of the Neil Morrissey-starring Irish legal drama Striking Out are also being added as part of the new DCD deal.

·    A new partnership with Fred Media sees a range of new lifestyle, reality and factual titles being launched, including true crime series City of Evil and The Trouble with Murder; veterinary reality shows from Australia (Bondi Vet), New Zealand (Vet Tales) and the UK (Vet on the Hill); international food series Peter Andre's Greek Odyssey and Lee Chan's World Food Tour; and hit Australian reality format Tattoo Tales, which offers a unique insight into contemporary Australia from inside the walls of a Sydney tattoo studio.

·    Inverleigh creates hundreds of hours of premium sports content every year, and STV Player viewers can expect weekly football analysis shows Life's a Pitch and The Football Review; "sportainment" series Dream Teams; and documentaries Homage and The Immortals, which both celebrate the world's greatest-ever sporting stars. Further new Inverleigh titles will be launched in 2021 to coincide with the postponed Tokyo Olympics and European Championships.

·    A range of exciting motoring titles are being added as part of a deal with Broken Arrow, including Garage Dreams, Auto Speed, Shifting Gears with Aaron Kaufman and The Racing Years, along with The Australian Fishing Championships and intriguing 13-part space documentary series Zenith.

Richard Williams, Managing Director of Digital at STV, said: "It's been a truly landmark year for the STV Player in which we've not only seen a surge in viewers watching the fantastic network content on offer, but also a rapidly increasing number of viewers from across the UK enjoying our diverse selection of Player-exclusive content.

"Our focus on bolstering our Player-only offering is being well-received by viewers - and with 1,750 hours of content now more easily accessible than ever, we hope they will continue to make STV Player their go-to destination for free on-demand TV from around the world."

The STV Player app is available on web, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, Kindle tablets, Freeview Play, Apple TV, YouView, Samsung, Freesat, Fire TV, Virgin Media, Sky+, Sky Q and Sky Go, Roku, Now TV, and via Chromecast.

ENDS

Media contact:

Stephen Innes - [email protected] / 07500 757049