Dave channel a hit, says UKTV

UKTV has hailed the launch of the Dave channel as a success, with ratings for the company's overall Freeview offering up 27% in the channel's first week.

Dave attracted a share of 2.2% in Freeview homes in its first full week after its debut on October 15, UKTV said.

Between them, Dave and UKTV's other Freeview channel, daytime strand UKTV History, accounted for a 3% share of Freeview viewing last week.

This was up from UKTV's total 2.43% showing the previous week, when UKTV History was a full-time channel and the now defunct UKTV Bright Ideas channel was running in UKTV's daytime slot.

Across all multichannel viewing, including cable and satellite homes, Dave reached 10.7 million viewers last week, representing a 1.33% share of the total multichannel audience.

By contrast, the channel's previous incarnation, UKTV G2, reached around 10 million viewers a month on satellite and cable.

Dave's debut week makes it the fifth biggest channel - discounting the five analogue terrestrial channels - among all multichannel viewers over 16.

ITV2 tops the list with a 1.93% share, followed by E4 (1.61%), ITV3 (1.6%) and Sky Sports 1 (1.42%). Channels below Dave include BBC3, Living, UKTV Gold and Sky One.

Among ABC1 males and 16- to 44-year-old males, only Sky Sports 1 outranks Dave in the multichannel ratings outside the big five of BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel Five.

This appears to vindicate UKTV's strategy of rebranding UKTV G2 to Dave and focusing on a young male audience by offering a mix of comedy and factual entertainment programming.

The channel's best performing shows were Top Gear, which delivered an average of 335,000 adult viewers, peaking at 545,000, and QI, which delivered an average of 289,000 and peaked at 431,000.

"It's incredibly satisfying that the channel has performed so strongly in its first week," said the Dave channel head, Steve North.

"Dave's stellar programme lineup and its innovative marketing on and off air have paid dividends."

Dave's success had meant UKTV History's share of the Freeview audience has fallen from 1.9%, when it was broadcast 24 hours a day, to just 0.8% last week, when it aired only during daytime between 7am and 6pm.

The cut in the channel's hours has angered some fans who have aired their grievances on the station's messageboard.

UKTV, a joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Virgin Media, also runs UKTV Gold, UKTV Style, UKTV Drama, UKTV Documentary, UKTV Food, UKTV People and UKTV Gardens.

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