UKTV

**UKTV** is a British multi-channel broadcaster, jointly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide) and Discovery, Inc.. It was formed on 26 March 1992 through a joint venture between the BBC and Thames Television. It is one of the United Kingdom's largest television companies.

UKTV's channels are available via a digital satellite subscription in the UK and Ireland. The Dave, Drama, Home, Really and Yesterday channels are also available in the UK on Freeview, the free-to-air digital terrestrial television (DTT) service.

Most programmes on the channels are repeat broadcasts of productions from the BBC archives, although the entertainment channels also feature some programmes produced by other companies and UKTV have commissioned a small number of programmes. The channels are played out by Red Bee Media.

The UKTV channels have broadcast in widescreen since 31 January 2008, although some programmes originally made in 16:9 format are screened in the compromise 14:9 semi-letterbox format.

## Commercials on UKTV channels

In 2003, UKTV announced plans of an experiment which examined the effect of different break patterns on advertising. UKTV teamed up with a number of advertisers to measure the effect of reductions in advertising spots, programme trailers and the number of breaks overall.

In February 2004, UKTV reduced the length of its ad breaks in a bid to retain viewers and attract advertisers after results of its research show that shorter breaks produce higher advertising recall levels. From 8 March, Its junctions were limited to a maximum of five minutes, with three-and-a-half minutes of commercial plus one-and-a-half minutes of promotional material, instead of a standard seven-and-a-half minutes.

UKTV's move was similar to a solution suggested by PHD executive strategy director Louise Jones at 2003 *Marketing Week* TV United Conference, with a view to cleaning up breaks. Her proposal was for broadcasters to reduce spots by 20 percent and to charge a corresponding price increase for them; the theory being clients would not have to boost their media spending, thus improving UKTV hopes a reduction in the length of break junctions would help it to keep viewers and provide advertisers with improved cut-through.

## Channels

### Present

UKTV's channels are available via satellite and cable in Ireland and the United Kingdom. In the UK, on digital terrestrial television, Yesterday, Dave, Really, Drama and Home are available on the Freeview platform, and selected parts of Gold, Home and Good Food were available through the now defunct Top Up TV service. The logo on the UKTV branded channels has also now been replaced by a new design, shown on the right.

W (formerly 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 such as *Total Wipeout USA* and *Torchwood* are aired. From launch until 2010, the official 'mascot' was Blinky the eyeball, who is seen on the idents, logo and website. From 2012, there has been a rebrand which includes smoke, hairballs, crystals and liquid fly out of the logo.

Gold is the comedy channel operated by the network. 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, with the name becoming simply Gold in 2010.

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. On 1 March 2016, it joined Freeview.

Eden and Eden +1 (formerly UKTV Documentary and +1) was launched on 8 March 2004, and focuses on documentaries such as *Planet Earth*.It is on Sky and YouView, 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 Freeview, Sky, Freesat 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 Drama.

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, Virgin Media and YouView.

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 on Freeview had previously been cut when Dave launched, with transmissions finishing at 18:00, but were restored on 1 June 2010.

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.

Drama launched on 8 July 2013 and is positioned as a home for British dramas from the last 40 years. The channel became the fourth UKTV channel to launch on Freeview, after Yesterday, Dave and Really.

October 2013 saw catch-up services for Watch, Gold Dave and Alibi appear on Sky Go, all UKTV channels launched on Eircom's eVision TV service and Gold was launched on NowTV. The following month all channels went on to appear on Virgin TV Anywhere.

### UKTV Play

*Main article: UKTV Play*
In June 2014 UKTV launched its first digital-only brand, a catch-up service, UKTV Play. Launching on iOS in August, on PC, YouView and Virgin Media in November and on Android devices in February 2015. The interactive service features content from the channels Dave, Yesterday, Really and Drama.