Cookie Policy

Return

Introduction

UKTV, a BBC Studios company, operates a range of online services, including commercial websites and mobile and television apps. This notice describes how cookies and other specialist web technologies are used to support our apps & websites and the options available to you.

To learn more about how we treat other personal data please read our Privacy Policy

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that is automatically sent to your device where it is stored by your web browser (for example, Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge). The cookie stores a unique identifier (a string of random characters) so that your browser can be distinguished from others. They are often used to link your browser to databases that hold data about your usage and inferred interests, along with other data such as your IP address.

Cookies have lots of different functions. These range from enabling the website to work, by recognising the same user as they navigate from one page to another; to analysing what content is viewed and is popular, through to personalising content based on browsing behaviour and interests.

Cookie Duration

Cookies are either stored for the duration of your visit (a “session cookie”) or they will remain on your device for a fixed period (usually several months, or longer) to remember you across multiple browsing sessions (a “persistent cookie”).

Other types of storage, such as local or “HTML” storage

Many websites use local storage technologies that are like cookies but enable larger amounts of data to be stored. This means they can store information like your preferences and viewing history on your device rather than on their own systems.

When you access our UKTV Digital Services on your device using local storage (rather than a browser) we may use cookies and similar technologies to store information on your device, for example about how you use our UKTV Digital Services on that device. It is not currently possible for you to opt out of or remove these cookies from your device without deleting the application.

When we use the term “cookies” in this document, we mean cookies or similar technologies.

Other tracking technologies, such as pixels

Websites and email communications may also use embedded code to record how you interact with them (recognising your browser via the unique ID stored in their cookie or your device “AdID”). They are often used to send data about your browsing to a third party, such as a social media company or advertiser to measure engagement with their content or to personalise ads or marketing.

Tracking via Apps

Companies are unable to use cookies within Mobile Apps. Instead, they use unique identifiers associated with your device, such as the device ID (a random and resettable ID on your device), and other data such as your geo-location or your network location. This data is used in the same way as cookies, e.g. to analyse and improve services and to serve marketing and advertising to you (if the App is funded by advertising).

How cookies are used by UKTV

Cookies are used for the purposes described below. The specific cookies used by UKTV Play are listed and described in the cookie management platform for that service. This is presented to you when you first visit the website, when we periodically refresh the cookies used, and/or when we periodically ask you to review your preferences. You can also load the preference centre by clicking on “Cookie Settings”, usually found in the footer of the service.

Essential cookies

These cookies are required in helping you navigate our website and apps and to use the features we provide. They are integral to providing the delivery of UKTV’s personalised services. Without these cookies, the service wouldn’t work as it should.

These cookies typically store information that does not directly identify you, such as your IP address and your UKTV unique ID. Your UKTV unique ID is a random sequence of numbers and letters which we can use to link information collected by cookies back to you, so that we can remember your preferences without collecting information that directly identifies you.

We use information from analytics cookies to improve and personalise your user experience. This often includes delivering programme recommendations. If many of our users who watch Programme X also watch Programme Y, we are more likely to recommend Programme X to Programme Y viewers who haven’t already seen it (and vice versa). We also use data from analytics cookies to determine what type of device you use so we can ensure we process your data for advertising in a way that is compliant with the policies of the platforms and operating systems where our services are available (specifically, to ensure we comply with Apple’s privacy policy).

These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing without you providing additional consent. To find out more about how we use your data for marketing and to serve advertising, please consult our privacy policy.

Some examples of the jobs that these essential cookies do include:

  • Ensuring you don’t need to sign into UKTV Play every time you use our service because we can identify you as “logged in”.
  • Storing your preferences and settings and logging your viewing history, so that, for example, if you leave UKTV Play before you’ve finished watching a programme then you are able to resume at the point where you left it.
  • Ensuring that we store your favourite programmes in “my list”.
  • Allowing us to serve tailored recommendations based on your previous viewing.
  • Ensuring that you don’t see the same advertisements too often and / or in the wrong order.

UKTV works with the Broadcasters Audience Research Board (BARB), an independent body which provides the TV industry with viewing data, to collect anonymous data from UKTV Play. Their cookie (administered by Kantar Media, a research agency working on behalf of BARB) counts all the views of adverts and programmes on UKTV Play across all devices. The data includes information on which programme or advert has been watched, when, for how long and on which device. The cookie sets a unique ID which is unconnected to your UKTV account to count these views.

Performance Cookies

To measure, test and improve aspects of our service, we and our technology providers use additional non-essential measurement cookies. These cookies are used to enable us to analyse and improve the performance of the service. These cookies enable us to understand better who is using our site, and to improve and tailor our services accordingly. For example, to understand how long it takes a page to load or for a programme to start streaming.

We also use cookies to measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns (online, via TV and by email). Additionally, we use Google Analytics to measure how many people visit

Advertising Cookies

Advertising enables us to provide UKTV Play to you for free. We use cookies from our ad-serving partner, Freewheel, to help us deliver more effective interest-based advertising and to monitor the effectiveness of these advertising campaigns.

These cookies may store de-identified demographic or other data which is linked to data that you have submitted voluntarily to us. This may include your email address, postcode or gender, that we share with our advertising technology partners solely in hashed, non-human readable form. You can find out more about how we use your data for advertising purposes in our Privacy Policy

Advertisers will set cookies on UKTV Play to count how often their advertisements have been seen. This is to ensure that they know that they are reaching enough people. They use this information to check that the view count that we provide them with is accurate.

If you opt out of these cookies, you will still be served personalised advertising before and during programmes, as described in our privacy policy. Opting out of these cookies may lead you to see the same advertisements more frequently and may increase the number of advertisements that you see. To opt out of personalised advertising entirely, you will need to change your preferences in your account settings.

UKTV Play Promotion Cookies

We deliver advertisements and promotions for UKTV Play on third-party services (e.g. social media, websites, in TV advertisements, search engines, e-mail newsletters). We allow third-party advertising companies to place cookies on UKTV Play to enable us and them to measure the effectiveness of those advertising campaigns. These companies (particularly ad networks, ad-serving companies, and other service providers) may also place cookies on third party websites so that they can link your activity across different sites that you may have visited.

These advertising cookies do not store directly identifiable information (such as your name or email address) but do collect your IP address and assign you a unique ID so that they can remember you and the adverts that have been shown to you. The types of cookies used by these advertising companies and how they use the information generated by them will be governed by those companies' privacy/cookie policies.

Third Party Cookies

We work with a number of specialist companies to help us to run our services effectively for the purposes set out in the previous section. These companies use and control cookies on our services, which may be used for their own purposes, including for the purposes of tracking your browsing behaviour across multiple websites.

Below we provide links to the privacy policies of the key companies we work with, where you can find out more about what they do with your data along with information on how to opt-out from their cookies more generally.

A full list of the cookies used on the service are provided in the cookie management platform, available via Manage Cookies in the footer.

Freewheel

https://www.freewheel.com/privacy-policy

While you can opt out of using the Freewheel cookies, we use Freewheel to serve you personalised adverts on UKTV (see our Privacy Policy). To opt out of these personalised advertisements, you should amend your preferences in your account settings.

Google Analytics

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Kantar Media

https://optout.2cnt.net/

Doubleclick

https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads

We use Doubleclick cookies to measure the effectiveness of advertising that we do on other websites and apps to understand whether people who have seen those ads also visit UKTV services.

How to manage your cookies

To place cookies on your browser, we require your consent which we will obtain via your browser when you first visit one of our UKTV Digital Services.

You can choose how cookies (across all websites) are handled on your device via your browser settings including to block or delete all cookies or just third-party cookies. Each browser manufacturer is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.

These browser settings will also only apply on the device on which you change them. If you want to control the cookies placed on your browser across all of your devices, you will need to separately change your browser settings on each device. Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences. Be aware that if you choose not to receive cookies at any time, our UKTV Digital Services may not function properly, and certain services will not be provided. Please note that, unless you have adjusted your browser settings (as set out above) to block or limit cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon as you visit our UKTV Digital Services via a browser. You should be aware that if you do delete your cookies, you will lose any preferences you have previously set.

Contact Details

You may contact us here:

Email: viewers@uktv.co.uk

Post: UKTV, PO BOX 6996, Cardiff, CF15 5DS

Phone: 020 3192 0504

We are UKTV Media Limited, a company registered in England and Wales under number 04266373 and our registered address is 10 Hammersmith Grove, London, W6 7AP.