UKTV

This article is about the network of television channels in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. For the UKTV channel in Australia and New Zealand, see UKTV (Australia and New Zealand). For the Middle Eastern channel formerly known as Granada UKTV, see ITV Granada (Middle East & Asia).

UKTV

Type	Television and Online
Country	United Kingdom Ireland
Founded	1 November 1992
Owner	1992-1997: BBC Thames Television 1997-2011: BBC Worldwide Virgin Media 2011-present: BBC Worldwide Scripps Networks Interactive
Official website	uktv.co.uk

UKTV is a digital cable and satellite television network, formed through a joint venture between BBC Worldwide, a commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Scripps Networks Interactive, spun off from The E.W Scripps Company in 2008. It is one of the United Kingdom's largest television companies.

UKTV's channels are available via satellite and cable in the UK and Ireland. In the UK, Yesterday, Dave and Really are available on Freeview, and selected parts of GOLD, Home and Good Food are available through Top Up TV.

Most programmes on the channels are repeat broadcasts of BBC productions (although the entertainment channels also feature programmes made by other companies), and the channels themselves are played out by Red Bee Media from their broadcast centre in west London.

UKTV cuts programmes (mainly documentaries) for commercial timing on their factual channels. The channels have broadcast in widescreen since 31 January 2008, although some programmes made in 16:9 format are screened in the compromise 14:9 semi-letterbox ratio as until then they still bought programmes in 4:3.

History

Origins

UKTV started as a single channel, UK Gold. The original partners behind the channel were the BBC's commercial arm BBC Enterprises and the ITV contractor Thames Television, although before the launch the American cable operator Cox Enterprises stepped in a took a majority share, 65 percent, in exchange for underwriting the costs of launching the channel.

UK Gold launched on 1 November 1992, showing reruns of 'classic' archive programming from the archives of the BBC and Thames. In a sense, UK Gold succeeded British Satellite Broadcasting's "Galaxy" channel that had originally held these rights from the BBC.

Later on, United Artists Holding Europe stepped in as part owner, and that ownership eventually became a part of Flextech, which was controlled by the U.S. cable company Tele-Communications Inc.

The UKTV network

During 1996, Flextech and the BBC were talking about a partnership to launch a new range of channels. Preparing for this deal, Flextech to bought the shares held in UK Gold by Cox and Pearson.

The deal was set in March 1997 when the BBC and Flextech unveiled their new venture. Among the channels mentioned as in development at that time were "Arena", "Sports Entertainment Network", "OneTV", "Showcase", "Learning", "Style", "Horizons" and "Catch-Up TV".

Initially, it was assumed that the new channels would be BBC-branded. Flextech wanted these channels to carry advertisements, but the BBC argued that BBC-branded services in the UK should not carry advertising,^{[citation needed]} as the BBC's domestic TV channels are non-commercial publicly funded in the UK by a mandatory licence fee. The BBC thought that this would undermine the rationale of the licence fee in the UK. A compromise was reached; BBC Choice and BBC Learning (later renamed BBC Knowledge shortly before launch) would go ahead as BBC channels without commercials, while the rest were renamed with the 'UK' prefix, forming a 'UKTV' network, and would show commercials, controlled 50/50 by Flextech and BBC Worldwide.

Flextech chose the 'UK' prefix because it decided that UK Gold's success as a brand could be used to create an entire network. The 'UKTV' network launched on 1 November 1997 with three new channels; arts channel 'UK Arena', lifestyle channel 'UK Style' and documentary channel 'UK Horizons'. UK Gold retained its name but received a new look in line with the rest of the network.

Although the new network didn't use the BBC name and logo, its graphics and branding was in other aspects similar to the ones used by the BBC channels. The new graphics for the BBC and UKTV were both designed by the same company, Lambie-Nairn.

Shortly before launch, it was decided the channel UK Living also owned by Flextech was to be renamed Living, instead of becoming part of the new UKTV network due to the similarity in programming between the channel and UK Style.^{[citation needed]}

Digital expansion

This chart shows how the channels have developed over the years.

With the launch of the digital television service Sky Digital and onDigital in 1998, two new channels were launched. One was 'UK Gold Classics', a sister channel to UK Gold showing older shows previously shown on UK Gold. The other was 'UK Play' a new comedy and music channel.

UK Gold Classics was short lived however, and rebranded as UK Gold 2 in April 1999. The new channel time-shifted the morning schedule of UK Gold from 7pm for those who could not watch it at the original time. Popular at first, it dwindled in ratings after a few years.^{[citation needed]}

UK Play was renamed Play UK and given a new look in November 2000. The other channels followed with new looks in May 2001. In November 2001, UK Style's food programming was moved to a new channel named 'UK Food'.

The rebranding of Play UK failed to make the channel more popular, and on 30 September 2002 it was shut down. October saw the launch of the new digital terrestrial platform, and with it the new history channel 'UK History', which was included in Freeview's license to operate the platform. UK History took many of the history-related programming from UK Horizons. In January 2003 came a lifestyle channel fo Freeview called UK Bright Ideas. However UK Bright Ideas was not created for the same reasons as UK Food and UK History to allow other channels to have more space for other programming, but instead showed a mix of programming from UK Style and UK Food (and later on UKTV Gardens) for Freeview viewers.

UKTV Gold 2 was relaunched with a completely new schedule and style as UKG² on 12 November 2003, taking on some output similar to what used to be on Play UK before its closure.

On 8 March 2004, the network carried out a major rebranding scheme where all of the UKTV channels changed their prefixes from UK to UKTV. UK Horizons was split into two channels - UKTV Documentary and UKTV People.

In 2005, the last new channel under the UKTV branding was launched, 'UKTV Style Gardens'. Like UK Food, it served to allow UK Style to focus more on its more home-related programming. In 2007 the 'Style' was dropped from the channel's name.

Network rebrand

In 2007, UKTVG2 was renamed 'Dave' and put on Freeview. UKTV Bright Ideas was shut down at the same time. This represented the first of a huge shake-up of the network. The channel was instantly popular and because of the good reaction, they decided to rebrand the rest of its channels with their own unique names.

On 11 June 2008 UKTV announced that it was beginning the process of rebranding its channels, removing "UKTV" from their name, following the successful re-branding of UKTV G2 as Dave in October 2007.The name is said to be originated from the fact that "everyone knows a bloke called Dave", and that the name seems appropriate for a male orientated channel.

The rebranding continued on 7 October 2008, a whole year later, when UKTV Gold was renamed G.O.L.D. and started focusing on comedy, UKTV Drama became the crime drama channel Alibi, and a new general entertainment channel called Watch was launched. In a technical sense, Watch replaced a short-lived channel called UKTV Style 2. It was with this rebrand that non crime drama (such as Doctor Who and Jonathan Creek) was transferred to Watch. G.O.L.D. was on one level a continuation of the Gold name used since the channels creation, but the letters also made up the channels new slogan: 'Go On Laugh Daily'.

2009 saw the rebranding of all of the remaining channels beginning in January with UKTV Documentary's rebrand to Eden, the name reflecting the nature programmes premiering on the channel. This was followed in February with UKTV People becoming Blighty, the new channel containing programming of the lives of the British population and the quirks of British society, and therefore explaining the slang name for Britain as the channel name. In March, UKTV History was rebranded as Yesterday, styled as YeSTERDAY and reflected the channel's history themed programming. This was closely followed in April by the rebrand of UKTV Style to Home, the new channel retaining the previous DIY shows and home makeovers and also including the programming from UKTV Gardens, however this programming would follow a few weeks later in May, when UKTV Gardens was closed. It's channel slot was taken by Really, a new female and reality channel, similar to Virgin Media's then named Living. The name Really used because of the shocking nature of some of the programmes. The final channel to be rebranded was in June and was UKTV Food. The channel was rebranded on the 22 June 2009 as Good Food, to tie in with the BBC magazine of the same name. It was also in June 2009 when all the logos were put in a circle, to show that they were part of one network. It also made cross channel promotion easier than previously.

On 14 June 2011, UKTV announced it would be launching Really on Freeview channel 20 on 2 August 2011. This will result in the timeshift channel Dave Ja Vu broadcasting reduced hours of 02:00-04:00 on Freeview only. Really would be the third of UKTV's ten brands to launch on Freeview.

Scripps Networks Interactive acquisition

Virgin Media were in talks, with a number of interested parties, to sell its 50% stake in UKTV. Bidders included Scripps Networks, spin off of The E.W Scripps Company, Discovery Communications ITV plc, and Channel 4. Channel 4 was the least interested party, and Discovery had made offers that had been rejected. BSkyB was also said to be interested. BSkyB have worked with BBC Worldwide before, as BBC Worldwide hold distribution rights to many of Sky's original commissions, such as Mad Dogs, David Attenborough's Flying Monsters 3D, Mark Billingham's Thorne and Chris Ryan's Strike Back. BBC Worldwide held first refusal rights and could exercise control over who bought the stake.

On 15 August 2011, Virgin Media agreed to sell its 50% stake UKTV to Scripps Networks Interactive in a deal worth £339m. Scripps paid £239m in cash, and about £100m to acquire the outstanding preferred stock and debt owed by UKTV to Virgin Media. Completion of the transaction was contingent on regulatory approvals in Ireland and Jersey, which was received on 3 October 2011. Related to the transaction, Scripps Networks Interactive and BBC Worldwide are negotiating an agreement whereby, after completion, BBC Worldwide would have the option, via a combination of cash and a package of digital rights for UKTV, to increase its shareholding from 50 percent to a maximum of 60 percent. Scripps Networks Interactive’s existing voting rights and Board representation would be unaffected by this proposed arrangement, which would be subject to BBC Executive and BBC Trust approvals.

Channels

Present

Channel	Genre	Old name	Date of rename	Original channel launch	Timeshift service	HD service	Sky	Virgin	Freeview	UPC Ireland
Alibi	Crime & Drama	UKTV Drama	7 October 2008	1 November 1997 (UK Arena)	Alibi +1	Alibi HD (Coming 2012)	132 (+1: 209) (HD: TBA)	129 (+1: 130) (HD: TBA)	N/A	151
Blighty	Britain & Britons	UKTV People	17 February 2009	8 March 2004 (UKTV People)	N/A	N/A	534	206	N/A	N/A
Dave	Male	UKTV G2	15 October 2007	October 1998 (UK Gold Classics)	Dave ja vu	Dave HD	111 (+1: 158) (HD: 111)	128 (+1: 191) (HD: 129)	19 (+1: 25)	122
Eden	Nature	UKTV Documentary	26 January 2009	8 March 2004 (UKTV Documentary)	Eden +1	Eden HD	532 (+1: 533) (HD: 532)	208 (+1: 210) (HD: 209)	N/A	N/A
GOLD	Comedy and Sitcom	UKTV Gold	7 October 2008	1 November 1992 (UK Gold)	GOLD +1	N/A	110 (+1: 133)	126 (+1: 127)	17 (Top Up TV)	120 (+1: 153)
Good Food	Food	UKTV Food	22 June 2009	5 November 2001 (UK Food)	Good Food +1	Good Food HD	249 (+1: 250) (HD: 249)	260 (+1: 262) (HD: 261)	N/A	N/A
Home	Home/Gardens	UKTV Style	30 April 2009	1 November 1997 (UK Style)	Home +1	N/A	246 (+1: 247)	265 (+1: 266)	26 (Top Up TV)	512
Really	Female	N/A	N/A	19 May 2009	N/A	N/A	248	267	20	N/A
Watch	Entertainment	N/A	N/A	7 October 2008	Watch +1	Watch HD	109 (+1: 155) (HD: 109)	124 (+1: 190) (HD: 125)	N/A	N/A
Yesterday	History	UKTV History	2 March 2009	30 October 2002 (UK History)	Yesterday +1	N/A	537 (+1: 538)	203 (+1: 204)	12	N/A

UKTV's channels are available via satellite and cable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. In the UK, on digital terrestrial television, Yesterday, Dave and Really are available on the Freeview platform, and selected parts of G.O.L.D., Home and Good Food are available through Top Up TV. From 2008 UKTV are considering airing localised versions of their channels in the Republic of Ireland market featuring local advertisements and sponsorship. They are also now considering HD versions of their channels in 2009, and have recently rebranded all of their channels, removing 'UKTV' from their names. The logo on the UKTV branded channels has also now been replaced by a new design, shown on the right.

Watch is currently the flagship channel operated by the network. It is a general entertainment channel from UKTV that launched on 7 October 2008. Programmes like Total Wipeout USA and Torchwood are aired. The official 'mascot' is Blinky the eyeball, who is seen on the idents, logo and website.

G.O.L.D. is the comedy channel operated by the network and usually has an audience share higher than that of Sky1. UK Gold launched on 1 November 1992 as a joint venture between Thames Television and the BBC to show reruns of their classics archive programming, UKTV Gold and its sister stations are now part of the UKTV network, owned jointly by Virgin Media and the BBC. The output of the channel is mainly British comedy programmes and sometimes feature length films. These are a combination of internally produced shows and repeats of shows from the BBC and ITV archive. Although in recent years original programmes have aired on the channel and the US version of Dancing with the Stars has had its first UK airing on the channel. But in doing with this the channel has been criticised by some, for featuring many recent programmes as opposed to classics as was the original concept, with some shows appearing on the channel mere months or weeks after their first television broadcast. It was rebranded to G.O.L.D. in October 2008 as a comedy channel

Home was launched as UK Style on 1 November 1997 with the main output focused on home improvements, DIY shows and Gardening Programmes that are a combination of internally produced shows and repeats of shows mainly from the BBC archive. Before the launch of Good Food (then known as UKTV Food), it also showed many cookery programmes, however these now all reside on the channel Good Food. It is one of the key UKTV channels, and is very well known.

Blighty launched as UKTV People on 8 March 2004, replacing UK Horizons, which closed the day before. The output of Blighty is some factual programming of a lighter nature, such as Top Gear and docusoaps like Airport, and from February 2009, "British" shows like "My Brilliant Britain". However, the majority of the channel's programming is abridged by the BBC for commercial timing purposes, a policy that some critics consider hypocritical. The channel is available on Sky and Virgin Media. However, it is not available on Freeview, despite the majority of the programmes being made by the BBC.

Eden and Eden +1 (formerly UKTV Documentary and +1) was launched on 8 March 2004, and focuses on documentaries like Planet Earth.It is on Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk TV, but not Freeview or Freesat. Its slogan is One amazing world, one amazing channel, and the logo is swirled in a circle. The unveiling of the Eden rebrand was 9 October 2008 but the actual relaunch was 26 January 2009.

Really launched on 19 May 2009. The channel focuses entirely on Reality and Lifestyle shows, which were previously broadcast on UKTV Style (Now `Home`). In February 2005, UKTV Style Gardens was launched moving all gardening content from UKTV Style to the new channel. It lost recognition to UKTV Style in early 2007 when it adopted the more generic name UKTV Gardens, It is now closed, and Really is in its place. It is available on Sky and Virgin Media. The Idents are a pop art comic design, with 4 idents, Changing Room, Cafe, Surgeon and Park Bench. The channel doesn't have a timeshift, nor does Blighty.

Dave was launched by UKTV, on 15 October 2007, and the first without the UKTV or any UK branding. It was announced in September 2007, that UKTV G2 would relaunch and be renamed to Dave. UKTV said the name of the channel was chosen because "everyone knows a bloke called Dave". The rebrand included the channel being available free-to-air on digital terrestrial platform, Freeview, replacing UKTV Bright Ideas which only averaged 0.1% of the audience share. The move to Freeview saw Dave launch in the bandwidth previously used by Yesterday (Previously known as UKTV History) which now uses the time limited (07:00-18:00) bandwidth once occupied by UKTV Bright Ideas. Dave is available daily, from 7 am to 3 am, on all platforms. It calls itself "the home of witty banter" and now uses Ralph Ineson and Phill Jupitus as announcers.

Alibi is another channel operated by UKTV and as the name suggests its main focus is on showing crime dramas mainly from the BBC and ITV archives. Originally launched as UK Arena on 1 November 1997, as an arts channel, it was renamed as UK Drama in 2000 and so shifted its focus on dramas after some disappointing initial ratings. On 2 May 2006, a new timeshift service called UKTV Drama +1 was launched, to replace UKTV People's timeshift channel. It has now renamed Alibi in October 2008 and is now fully focused on crime dramas, with a murder theme and a 'gripping' logo design appearing on-screen from October 2008. The logo has 3 colour variations and a fresh set of idents. It is on Sky and Virgin Media.

Yesterday is the history channel from the UKTV network. Previously known as UKTV History until 2 March 2009, it launched on 30 October 2002, to coincide with the launch of Freeview. Yesterday's main focus are on programmes with historical topics and biographies, as is to be expected, nature and wildlife and some historical fiction, often from the BBC archives. Hours were reduced on the Freeview platform when Dave launched, meaning that now it operates on terrestrial between 7 am and 6 pm. The Sky and Virgin Media versions' hours are still as they were.

Good Food launched on 5 November 2001 and broadcasts a range of food and cookery programmes, similar to that of the content of BBC Worldwide's BBC Food service. Initially most of the channels output was aired on Home until Good Food was introduced. The Good Food website originally devised and launched by Ian Fenn and Ally Branley provides a number of services including information on programmes shown on the channel, recipes, message boards, and a wine club. Recipes come from the various shows on Good Food and some include videos taken from the demonstrations. In September 2006 Good Food's website overtook the BBC Food site in popularity for the first time, achieving a 10% market share, against the 9.63% the BBC Food site dropped to, having held the top spot since it began. It is named "Good Food Channel" on the UKTV website due to the fact that there is a magazine named Good Food.

Former Channels

Channel	Genre	Launch date	Closure date	Closure reason
UK Arena	Arts and Culture	1 November 1997	30 March 2000	Insufficient ratings, relaunched as UK Drama (Alibi)
PlayUK (formerly UK Play)	Music and Comedy	10 October 1998	30 September 2002	Low ratings due to the closure of ITV Digital, replaced by UK History (Yesterday)
UK Gold 2 (formerly UK Gold Classics)	Male	10 October 1998	11 November 2003	To create UKG2 (UKTV G2 then Dave)
UK Horizons	Documentaries	1 November 1997	7 March 2004	Replaced by UKTV People (Blighty) and UKTV Documentary (Eden)
UKTV People +1	Timeshift Service	8 March 2004	18 April 2006	To create UKTV Drama+1 (Alibi+1)
UKTV Bright Ideas	Style, Cookery and Gardening	15 January 2003	15 October 2007	Low ratings. The slot on Freeview was then used for UKTV G2's relaunch to Dave.
UKTV Style 2	Timeshift Service	15 October 2007	6 October 2008	To make way for Watch
UKTV Gardens	Gardening	23 February 2005	18 May 2009	Closed to create Really

UKTV has also had many former channels which have been replaced by others. UKTV G2 was replaced on all platforms except Freeview by Dave, which still carries all the same programming on 15 October 2007. Originally named UK Gold Classics, it was launched when UK Gold began to move towards newer programmes instead of older ones. From 2 April 1999, it was renamed to UK Gold 2, and screened morning programmes from UK Gold time-shifted to the evening of the same day. It was again relaunched with a completely new programme lineup and renamed UKG² on 12 November 2003. Along with the rest of the UKTV network, the "UK" prefix was changed to "UKTV" on 8 March 2004 and therefore the channel name changed to UKTV G2. The output of the channel was mainly comedy from the BBC with some shows produced in house. A fair amount is similar to the comedy output of UK Play/Play UK before that channel's closure. UKTV Gardens closed down in May 2009, in favour of Really.

Another channel, UK Arena, closed on 31 March 2000 due to insufficient ratings, relaunched – originally with the same graphics – as UK Drama. As said before initial ratings were disappointing and it was decided to relaunch the channel as UK Drama, with a focus on showing dramas rather than general arts programme. Along with the rest of the network, the "UK" prefix was changed to "UKTV" on 8 March 2004. The channel's main focus was on arts programming.

Play UK, another UKTV channel closed in 2002 due to low ratings after the closure of ITV Digital which a substantial amount of its viewers came from. The channel was launched on 10 October 1998 and was aimed at playing, for most of the time, music in the morning and afternoon while broadcasting comedy in the evening. It broadcast all day on the digital platforms but on the Sky Analogue platform (on the Astra 19.2°E satellites), it also broadcast between 1 am and 7 am when UK Horizons wasn't broadcasting. It closed for a number of reasons spanning from the closure of ITV Digital to how it could not compete with MTV. Play UK's comedy programming was moved to UKTV Gold. UK Gold 2, formerly UK Gold Classics, closed in 2003 became UKG2 and later UKTV G2 and then Dave.

UK Horizons closed in 2004 to create UKTV People and UKTV Documentary. The channel was mainly based on showing BBC documentaries and other factual programmes. Most programmes were abridged for commercial timing purposes. It took its name from the BBC series Horizon, which formed a staple of its output in the early years. It was launched on 1 November 1997 along with UK Arena and UK Style. It also produced extended versions of top BBC brands such as Top Gear and Tomorrow's World. The launch editor was Bryher Scudamore and the deputy editor Eddie Tulasiewicz. UKTV People +1 closed in 2006 to create UKTV Drama +1.

UKTV Bright Ideas closed in 2007 on all platforms for the relaunch of UKTV G2 as Dave going onto Freeview. Previously known as UK Bright Ideas and originally UK HomeStyle the channel broadcast a variety of programmes, often originally aired on UKTV Style, UKTV Food and UKTV Gardens, and are thus mainly cookery, DIY and gardening. However, in January 2005, it began showing programmes branded by UKTV Sport, presumably to increase potential audience figures by extending the programme to Freeview viewers. Bright Ideas was launched on 15 January 2003 initially for the Freeview digital terrestrial television platform, but later expanded. In September 2007 UKTV announced that UKTV Bright Ideas would be replaced on Freeview by UKTV G2, renamed Dave, as of 15 October 2007 due to low viewing figures of around 0.1% of the audience share. It ceased broadcasting on all platforms on 14 October 2007 at 6 pm.

Also note that there was a channel called UK Living that was originally affiliated with the UK Gold but did not become part of the UKTV network, instead transferring to Flextech to be operated as a wholly owned company, and it changed its name to LivingTV before the UKTV network launched. Also an analogue teletext service known as GoldText was available on UK Gold, but has since closed down.

Operating names

In the Production logo screen at the end of UKTV's original commissions, for the channels Watch, GOLD and Dave the name UK Gold Services Ltd. is used instead of UKTV, as all 3 channels spawned from the original UK Gold channel. For the remaining channels, Alibi, Blighty, Eden, Good Food, Home, Really and Yesterday, the name UKTV New Ventures Ltd. is used instead of UKTV.

HD channels

UKTV launched its first HD channel; Good Food HD on 31 August 2010. The channel is currently available exclusively on Sky channel 283.

A second HD channel; Eden HD launched on 4 October on Sky channel 559. Both channels are high-definition simulcasts of their standard definition counterparts.

UKTV announced on 29 July 2011 that they would be launching three new HD channels, Dave HD and Watch HD launched in October 2011, and Alibi HD launching during 2012.

As part of Virgin Media's deal to sell its share of UKTV, all five of UKTV's HD channels will be added to Virgin's cable television service by 2012. Eden HD and Good Food HD were added on 7 October 2011, followed by Dave HD on 10 October and Watch HD on 12 October.

External links

• Official website