12 Oct 2020 07:00
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Immediate Release: Monday 12 October 2020
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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New content on the STV Player:
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· 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.
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· 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.
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· 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.
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· 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.
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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.
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"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."
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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.
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ENDS
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Media contact:
Stephen Innes -Â stephen.innes@stv.tv /Â 07500 757049
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