‘A fantastic addition to the History landscape, superserving the history audience with a clear concise offering which is clearly gathering momentum’
Securing its second consecutive Broadcast Digital Award, History Hit is moving unstoppably upwards. Over the last year, the channel has seen a viewership increase of 414 thousand hours and smashed past 1 million subscribers on both YouTube and Facebook. By adding 11 more series to its platform, History Hits has expanded, with multiple episodes gaining 6 million views online. In order to increase its content’s accessibility, History Hit has added closed captions to all its documentaries and has enabled subscribers to access podcasts without any adverts.
By bringing in expert historians and classicists including James Holland and Natalie Haynes, History Hit guarantees its audience reliable, fascinating, and trustworthy knowledge. The documentaries’ subject matter is diverse, ranging from Ancient Greek mythology to Mediaeval women, to World War Two.
Not content with just discussing history, the channel is also researching it: among other projects in the last year, History Hits broke the discovery of Thomas Cromwell’s Bible, dug up the remains of the real Oliver Twist’s workhouse, and created two highly successful up-close films on Pompeii.
In addition to this, History Hit has gone international, collaborating with Channel 5 to produce films in Machu Picchu and China, and independently filming in locations such as the USA, Italy, Germany, and Jordan.
One judge described History Hit as “a fantastic addition to the History landscape, superserving the history audience with a clear concise offering which is clearly gathering momentum”. Another commended History Hit for building, “a much-loved brand in a short space of time with international potential”.
SHORTLISTED
BSL ZONE
BSL Zone and its commissioning body BSLBT remain globally unique in having a sole focus on sign-language content. Created 15 years ago by Ofcom, the channel has pioneered over 400 BSL programmes, including the first BSL game show and sitcom, which have attracted over 1 million views, alongside nominations and awards from BAFTA, RTS, and Broadcast Awards. Even its earliest shows retain thousands of views each year from around the world.
CBBC
CBBC has continued its longstanding mission of providing informative and fun family entertainment, via projects that help children engage with environmental issues and current culture, alongside a range of live-action and animated dramas aimed at families. With an audience that includes 12% of all UK 7–12-year-olds, CBBC has generated 40 million viewer hours in the last year, and the morning Newsround bulletin achieves over 3 million views each week.
Crime + Investigation
The last 12 months have been record-breaking for the 17-year-old C+I channel. It has celebrated two of its highest launch premieres, including one YouTube episode that gained just under 250k views in 24 hours, 29% of which were new viewers. Across social media, C+I has reached a growing audience of 24 million users – one TikTok original achieved one million views in 12 hours.
Sky Sports News
Sky Sports News turned 25 this year, and celebrated an 11% viewing increase on last year – with large viewership growth among women and young people. Beyond its remit of offering rolling sports news, the channel has established a team of production journalists, data experts and reporters and given them time and space to tell stories about under-represented groups in sport.
Time Team Official
Time Team, an archaeology series that aired for 20 years on Channel 4, has moved to YouTube, where it has regained a significant presence. The channel allows Time Team to assert itself as a thriving, renowned brand, and enables them to make archaeology accessible to a global audience. Across documentaries, series, and interactive content, Time Team has scored high viewing figures, cementing itself as decisively popular entertainment.
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