Horror Channel 2nd most-watched free-to-air movie channel in the UK amongst men 25-54
London, 4 February 2019: Free-to-air channels CBS Reality – the UK’s #1 factual entertainment channel for women – along with CBS Justice, CBS Drama and Horror Channel today announced another successful year of SOCI (share of commercial impacts[2]) growth for UK advertisers. The channel portfolio, owned by AMC Networks International – UK (AMCNI UK) and CBS Studios International, delivered 2.7% of the UK’s adult commercial TV audience in 2018; a 4% increase year on year. The overall UK audience share of the channels was 1.69% in 2018, up from 1.58% in 2017, according to official BARB data.
Kevin Dickie, EVP/MD, AMCNI UK, said, “The CBS UK channel portfolio enjoyed its strongest year on record. CBS Reality continues to dominate the market among women, driven by our outstanding original true crime series. CBS Justice, CBS Drama and, most notably, Horror Channel – which is the UK’s 2nd most-watched movie channel among men 25-54 – have all had remarkable audience growth, with viewers responding to our compelling line-up of drama series and horror, sci-fi and fantasy titles.”
Robert Haiat, SVP Business Development from CBS Studios International said, “With another record breaking year behind the CBS UK channel portfolio, we’re excited to work together with the AMCNI team to drive further growth in 2019 and beyond. Our focus remains on delivering some of the most watched programming from the U.S. while supporting CBS Reality’s successful original programming efforts.”
CBS Reality remains the #1 factual entertainment channel in the UK amongst its target audience of women 16+. The highest rating single broadcast in the channel’s history resulted in 322,800 adults watching an episode of “It Takes a Killer” on 30th March at 10pm. Four out of the top five highest rating individual broadcasts in channel history came in 2018, of which two were CBS Reality Original productions, “Evidence of Evil” and “Donal MacIntyre’s Murder Files”.
The channel’s Originals strategy continues to evolve in 2019 with a number of original true crime shows in the works. CBS Reality now produces at least six UK Originals per year including a number of returning series, co-created with production companies from the UK, Wales, Ireland and Canada. New episodes of “Evidence of Evil”, “Voice of a Killer” and “Murder by the Sea” launched in January, and another two returning series will be announced imminently.
In 2018, Horror Channel, CBS Justice (previously CBS Action) and CBS Drama experienced their fourth consecutive year of growth.
Horror Channel continued to be the second most watched free-to-air movie channel in the UK amongst men 25-54. An average of 6 million adults tuned in to the channel every month in 2018, resulting in a share of 0.43% – a 7.5% share growth year on year.
Horror Channel delivered the second and fourth highest rating movie transmissions in its history during June. Christine delivered 264,900 adults and John Carpenter’s Vampires drew 221,200 adults. Both of these movies were part of the John Carpenter season, the highest rating season on Horror Channel to date with an average of 171,000 adults across the movies shown during the month.
Upcoming movie premieres include Sinister, The Woman in Black, Red Lights, and Maggie, alongside iconic and popular sci-fi series such as “Star Trek: The Original Series”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, “Earth: Final Conflict” and “Sliders”.
The recently rebranded CBS Justice audiences increased by 7% year on year with over four million adults tuning into the channel monthly. 2018 was the best ever year of audience delivery for the channel, resulting in a share of 0.43% (5% share growth year on year). The highest rating broadcast of the year came on 6th November when 164,200 adults watched an episode of “Scorpion” at 9pm.
2019 programming highlights on CBS Justice will include “NCIS”, “NCIS: Los Angeles”, “CSI: Miami”, “Scorpion” and “Diagnosis Murder”.
2018 was the best ever year of audience delivery for CBS Drama, resulting in a share of 0.15% (15% share growth year on year). The channel delivered an 11% increase with over 2.8 million adults watching. “Medium” was the top performer, with one episode attracting 128,900 adults on 6th April at 9pm.
Content from all four channels is now also available via two new on-demand players, the recently announced Horror Bites and CBS Catchup Channels UK. The players launched in December 2018 on Freeview Play.
[1] based on 0900-2959 daypart, All adults 2018
Source: BARB/Techedge, audience shares based on whole day viewing, adults
[2] One impact is one member of the target audience viewing one commercial
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About CBS AMC Networks UK Channels Partnership
The CBS AMC Network UK Channels make up a portfolio of six entertainment channels owned by the CBS AMC Network UK Channels Partnership established in September 2009 between CBS Studios International and AMC Networks International – UK.
The channels include CBS Reality, CBS Reality +1, CBS Drama, CBS Justice, Horror Channel and Horror Channel +1 and feature a broad assortment of drama, reality and long form content from CBS’s extensive television library and CBS Reality original productions airing on CBS Reality, complemented by entertainment programming from third party suppliers. CBS AMC Networks Channels reach viewers in more than 25 million homes throughout the UK via the Sky, Virgin Media, Freesat and Freeview platforms.
About CBS Studios International
CBS Studios International is the leading supplier of programming to the international television marketplace, licensing to more than 200 markets in more than 60 languages across multiple media platforms. The division distributes programming from CBS Television Studios created for the CBS Television Network, The CW, CBS All Access and other platforms, as well as content from CBS Television Distribution, Showtime Networks, CBS News, CBS Films and a library of more than 70,000 hours of programming. The Studio participates in a number of international channel ventures, including owning and operating Network 10 in Australia and also exports a diverse line-up of formats for local production. CBS Studios International has 13 offices around the world, including its base in Los Angeles and EMEA headquarters in Amsterdam. CBS Studios International is a division of CBS Corporation.
About AMC Networks International – UK
AMC Networks International – UK is a business unit of AMC Networks International, a leading producer and distributor of television channels reaching subscribers in more than 130 countries and territories and spanning a range of genres, including movie, lifestyle, entertainment, sports, children’s and factual. AMC Networks International is the global division of AMC Networks. For more information, visit: www.amcnetworks.com/amcni