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(Alliance News) - STV Group PLC on Wednesday said it saw a record-breaking performance in January for its free streaming service STV Player, with the release of exclusive drama box sets driving viewer growth.
The Glasgow-based television broadcaster said total steams for STV Player are up over 100% to 12.5 million streams when compared to a year prior.
The number of monthly active users on the service grew by 20% in January.
STV said: "STV's streaming service grew faster than any other broadcaster video-on-demand platform in 2020 - up 68% - thanks in large part to the growing popularity of its Player-exclusive content, which now makes up around one third of all digital viewing."
Drama box sets were at the heart of the growth, these included The Bay being streamed 1.7 million times and Marcella attracting 700,000 streams in just six days of its release.
"The Player's addressable audience increased considerably after being added to Sky Q across the UK in December, following UK-wide launches on Freeview Play and Virgin Media earlier in the year. It is now pre-installed in over 17 million UK broadband-enabled homes - around 70% of the total," STV added.
Managing Director Richard Williams said: "We're only one month into 2021 but we've already delivered a record-breaking performance for the STV Player, which has exceeded all expectations.
"We spent much of last year working to ensure that viewers across the UK could enjoy the fantastic free content available on our platform, and we're delighted to see so many of them are now doing exactly that. Our strategy of constantly refreshing the service with new Player-only titles from around the world will continue throughout 2021, with a range of exciting content deals in the pipeline."
STV shares climbed 5.0% at 347.56 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com
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