UKTV (Australia and New Zealand)

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UKTV
UKTV Logo
Launched	1996
Owned by	BBC Worldwide (as of 1 July 2008)
Website	www.uktv.com.au www.uktv.co.nz
Austar Digital	Channel 103
Foxtel Digital (Satellite)	Channel 103
SKY Network Television	Channel 006
Foxtel Digital (Cable)	Channel 103
TelstraClear InHomeTV	Channel 6

UKTV is a subscription television channel in Australia and New Zealand, screening British entertainment programming, sourced mainly from the archives of the BBC, RTL Group (mainly Talkback Thames material) and ITV plc. The company was originally a joint venture with Foxtel (60% ownership) and the RTL Group (20% ownership). It is now owned solely by BBC Worldwide.

[edit] History

It was first launched in Australia in August 1996, and became available in New Zealand via SKY Television, in November 2003.

It shows a mix of repeats of old UK shows previously screened in Australia or New Zealand and new episodes of programs not shown before in Australia or New Zealand. Repeated series include Doctor Who, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Are You Being Served?, Dad's Army, The Jewel in the Crown, Never the Twain, The Sweeney and The Bill that have already been seen on free-to-air terrestrial television in Australia. New series include Casualty, Holby City, Shameless, the original UK version of The Weakest Link, and new episodes of popular soap operas EastEnders and Coronation Street which have not otherwise been screened in Australia. UK soap opera Family Affairs, which has never been screened on free-to-air Australian television, ran on UKTV from 1998 to 2007. In July 2006 UKTV began screening 2006 episodes of UK soap opera Emmerdale which had never before been screened in Australia.

UKTV's episodes of EastEnders are approximately four weeks behind the United Kingdom. Coronation Street is approximately one year three months behind. Emmerdale is about seven months behind.

In addition to British programming UKTV has repeated Australian soap operas Sons and Daughters and Prisoner which were both produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation (now owned by RTL). In both cases the entire series was shown; the Sons and Daughters repeat run was from 1997 until 2000 and Prisoner ran from 1997 until October 2004. It also screened the TVNZ soap opera Shortland Street for several years in the 1990s, after early episodes of that series had briefly been screened by SBS on free-to-air television in Australia.

In Australia, UKTV, like all pay TV drama channels, is legally required to spend 10 per cent of their total program expenditure on funding new eligible (Australian and New Zealand) drama programs [1]. Such productions include Changi, Supernova, Make or Break and False Witness.

UKTV now has separate services in Australia and New Zealand, partly to reflect different local tastes, but also for rights reasons, as many programmes, are shown on free-to-air channels in New Zealand . For example, Coronation Street has been shown on TV One for many years, while until May 2009, EastEnders was shown on Prime, before moving to UKTV.

[edit] Changes

On 1 July 2008 BBC Worldwide assumed full control of UKTV. BBC Worldwide previously had a 20 per cent stake in UKTV in a three way partnership with Foxtel and Fremantle Media. BBC Worldwide launched two new Australian channels, BBC Knowledge (documentary and non-fiction programming) and CBeebies (an advertising-free channel for 0 to six year-olds) on 1 November 2008.^[1]

[edit] Programming

[edit] References

• UKTV Website 2006 [2]. Retrieved Jan. 16 2006.

[edit] External links

• UKTV Australia
• UKTV New Zealand