Stvg Regulatory News (STVG)

NEWS RELEASE

7am, 7 October 2020

Strong ratings continue for STV and STV Player

Record viewing growth continues for STV post lockdown, with TV viewing up 13% to the end of September and online viewing up 84%

· Broadcaster STV was the best watched TV channel in Scotland across all time in September and throughout Q3

· Streaming service STV Player records best performing month ever, up 99% in streams and up 88% in total online viewing

· Across the year, STV has seen a higher year on year gain in viewing share than any other channel in Scotland. 

· New drama, Des, starring David Tennant is STV's most successful drama launch in 18 years, and the best performing drama on STV Player ever

Broadcaster STV has reported a strong month for ratings in September, with audiences at their highest levels since April when the country was in lockdown. 

Already Scotland's most popular peak time TV network, STV was the best watched channel in all time in September and across the whole of Q3. 

The channel delivered a peak time audience share of 23% for September, as the new autumn schedule launched, with total audience up 16% year on year, on top of 21% growth in July and a further 8% growth in August.

In digital, September marked the STV Player's biggest month ever with 7m streams, an increase of 99% year on year, with total online viewing up 88%. Time spent viewing the STV Player has almost doubled to 1.5 billion minutes compared to the same period in 2019, up 84% year to date. 

Contributing to this success is three part drama Des about Scottish serial killer Dennis Nilsen. Starring David Tennant, the series is STV's biggest drama launch in 18 years and performed particularly well in Scotland, with a 40% average share compared with 36% across the rest of the UK, and almost 1m people tuning into the first broadcast episode. It's also the best performing drama ever per episode on the STV Player, with total catch-up streams now totalling more than 1.2 million and counting.

The autumn ratings have also been boosted by strong audiences for STV's daytime programming including Loose Women, This Morning and The Chase which are all up; the return to five episodes a week of Coronation Street and six Emmerdale; and the performance of STV News at Six, which has further strengthened its position as Scotland's most popular news programme with a viewing share of 36% and an average audience of half a million each night in September. The programme has seen year on year growth of 30%.

STV's Chief Executive, Simon Pitts, said: "We've seen record viewing growth on STV across 2020 and I'm delighted to say this has continued post lockdown both on TV and online, with September our biggest month ever for the STV Player. With more new drama and entertainment to come, together with exciting new Player-exclusive content being added to the STV Player every week, we're confident this strong performance will continue."

For more information, please contact Kirstin Stevenson on 07803 970106 or email Kirstin.stevenson@stv.tv.