Darren Childs

Last year saw UKTV deliver a 9.27% share of social impacts (SOCI), putting it marginally ahead of Sky’s branded channels (9.25%) and Channel 5’s portfolio (9.26%).

The results follow a big drive by the broadcaster to commission more original content. Storage Hunters UK Celebrity Special and Dave Gorman Modern Life is Goodish received UKTV’s highest ratings last year. Meanwhile comedy gameshow Taskmaster and sitcom Marley’s Ghosts also contributed to a boost in audience share.

Five years ago, UKTV was seen as the home of the BBC’s archive shows and the owner of a channel called Dave. Everyone in the industry thought Dave was named after the company’s former CEO, David Abraham.

Fast forward to today. The 300-strong company that began life as a multichannel archive business 20 years ago has grown. It now runs 11 channels, ranging from natural-history channel Eden to Good Food, and has a commercial television market share of 9.3%.

Plans to put BBC Three online could rob a new generation of comedy writers and performers of the opportunity to find an audience, said Jessica Knappett, creator of E4 sitcom Drifters.

Knappett, who writes and stars in the series said: "I feel like BBC Three going online is a door closing, it's an opportunity that's been taken away from me. I feel personally it's exactly the sort of channel I would write for and I found it difficult enough to get an audience on E4."