KISS EXPANSION CONTINUES AS KISS FRESH LAUNCHES ON FREEVIEW

05 August 2013

-Kiss Fresh to launch into almost 20 million Freeview homes on August 5th
-KissFresh to champion new music, genres, DJs & artists to Freeview audiences
 
LONDON, August 5th: Bauer Media UK, owner of Kiss, the largest UK commercial radio station for 15-34 year olds, has announced its digital radio station Kiss Fresh is to broadcast into almost 20 million homes on the Freeview platform.
 
In a further expansion of the Kiss brand across the UK, Kiss Fresh begins broadcasting on Monday, August 5th, playing non-stop new beats ranging from hip-hop, R&B, House, Garage, Disco and Bass.  It also airs hour-long mixes from a range of new DJs and specials from artists such as Disclosure, Avicii and Rudimental. Kiss Fresh, which launched in May 2013 to meet consumer demand for new music, is already available via the Kiss Player and through the KissKube iOS app.


Andy Roberts, Group Programme Director at Kiss, said: “This increased distribution for Kiss Fresh is firmly in line with our ambition to grow the Kiss brand across multiple platforms. Kiss Fresh has had a successful launch and can now champion new music and artists to even bigger audiences across the UK. It’s yet another example of Kiss’ successful ‘Hear It, See It, Share It’ strategy to push content across platforms people want and to be ‘always on’ in all the right places.”
 
Karen Stacey, Head of Broadcast Sales and Bauer Access, added: “Kiss Fresh being available on Freeview gives our commercial partners a fantastic opportunity to engage with a pure, passionate, 15-34 year-old national audience. It proves that the Kiss brand continues to go from strength-to-strength, with its content available to millions of consumers nationally across multiple platforms - radio, TV, mobile, tablet and desktop.”
 
Kiss (channel 713) is already available on the Freeview platform, as is Kiss Fresh’s sister digital station Kisstory, which plays non-stop old skool and anthems on channel 714. Kiss Fresh will be available on channel 712, where it will replace Smash Hits Radio.
 
The Smash Hits brand will continue with the successful Smash Hits TV channel, one of the seven Box TV music channels, a joint venture between Channel 4 and Bauer Media. Smash Hits currently attracts an average of 2.6m viewers a month (BARB: April-June 2013) on Sky 362, Virgin 337 and Freesat 521. The other music channels in the Box TV portfolio are Kiss, 4Music, Kerrang!, The Box, Magic and heat.
 
The announcement follows the launch of the KissKube iOS app in mid-May which enables users to listen live to Kiss FM, Kisstory and Kiss Fresh and to watch Kiss TV. Other new app features allow users to download shows for offline listening; get the latest Kiss FM news, videos, competitions and social updates; and share KissKube content with friends via email, Facebook and Twitter.  
 
The latest RAJAR figures (Q2 2013) showed that KISS UK reaches 4.4m listeners and it remains the largest UK commercial radio station for 15 – 34 year olds.
 
Over 8.7 million adults listen to radio every week through digital TV. The average age of a KISS UK listener through digital TV is 27, compared to 42 of all radio listeners to digital TV. (RAJAR: Q2 2013)