Delivering the UK's most complete catch up TV service

New research released this morning reveals that Britons are now watching more TV than ever before - largely due to the growth of on-demand services offering catch-up TV. 

The figures, from the annual Telescope study, reveal that on average, Brits now watch a total of four hours and two minutes of TV each day – a dramatic increase on the three hours and 36 minutes viewed on average each day back in 2006. 

Coincidentally, it was back in 2006 when we first launched our first on demand TV service for PCs, which eventually developed into the award-winning Sky Go, which now offers live and on-demand access to a total of up to 45 channels across PC, Mac, smartphones, mobile tablets and games consoles. Alongside this, more than 2 million Sky TV customers have now connected their Sky+HD set-top box to the internet to enjoy our catch-up TV and on demand service on their main TV screen.

Providing our customers with even more flexibility and choice over their TV experience is a fundamental part of what we do, and it’s why we’re delighted that from today our TV on demand service is getting even bigger and better following the addition of 4oD to the service this morning. 

With the launch of 4oD, catch-up content from Channel 4’s portfolio of channels – including Channel 4, E4 and More 4 – is now available alongside hundreds of hours of great content from Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living, Sky Arts, the BBC, ITV, Channel 5, the History Channel, National Geographic and others.  Taken together, it means that Sky+ offers the most complete catch-up TV service in the UK, perfectly complementing the Sky+ PVR so that customers need never miss a single episode of their favourite series.

At the same time, older shows and series from the Channel 4 archives are also now available to download from the library section of Sky’s On Demand service, where box-sets of classic shows and series are available. Channel 4 series available on Sky will include The Inbetweeners, Shameless, Spaced, Father Ted and The IT Crowd.

As well as Channel 4 shows now available on demand on the Sky+HD set-top box, Channel 4 is today also becoming the first terrestrial broadcaster to join the line-up of channels on Sky Go. From today, Sky customers will be able to enjoy Channel 4 and More 4 live on their laptop, smartphone or mobile device, with More 4 and Film 4 to follow shortly. A range of classic Channel 4 shows will be available to watch through the on demand section of Sky Go. And if Sky customers chose to upgrade to Sky Go Extra, they can download Channel 4 shows to watch offline at a later date.

It’s very timely that the launch of 4oD on Sky+ and Sky Go has come on the same day as research is published that suggests the more options you give TV viewers, the more TV they enjoy. Our overriding aim is always to deliver our customers TV on their terms, and we hope that our comprehensive catch-up TV service will continue to help fuel the rising popularity of on demand viewing.