Design Week reports “full branding on the channel will launch from 9 March, though some elements will appear around the launch of Grimm in February”.

The channel will be available for free from Friday 3rd February to Monday 6th February.

Freeview, Sky and BT Vision viewers will be able to watch everything on the channel that weekend with no charge.

The channel will get a brand new logo and identity. Programming will likely remain unchanged.

This will be the third logo change since the channel’s launch. The current logo was introduced in September 2010.

It’s thought the channel moves and changes will now take place on Tuesday 21st February instead.

For more information on the planned changes to Sky’s channels please click here.

Christmas 24 and Christmas 24 +1 will rebrand back to Movies 24 and Movies 24 + tomorrow (4th January) on Sky channels 327 and 328.

Sky Sports F1 HD will launch in March and will air all races live, live practice & qualifying for every race and extra live content. The channel will also be available on Sky Go via a laptop or mobile device.

The channel will be available at no extra cost for people already subscribing to Sky Sports packages 1 & 2 or the HD pack of channels. Sky Sports customers without the HD pack will receive the standard definition version of the channel.

The new channel has only be confirmed for launch on Sky at the moment.

Visit the Sky Sports website for more details.

Sky Movies Showcase will become Sky Movies Christmas on the 1st December, and will run through until at least the 2nd January.

Christmas-themed films will be shown on the channel as well as the themed days they normally have throughout the rest of the year.

Sky Movies are also holding a vote for which films should air on the channel on the 1st and 2nd January on the Sky Movies website.

It’s the same channel as the UK receives and doesn’t have any regional opt-outs yet.

Regional BBC One HD channels aren’t due for launch until 2012 or 2013.

If you’re an HD customer, Dave HD is available on Sky channel 111 and Virgin Media channel 129, and Watch HD is available on Sky channel 109 and Virgin Media channel 125.

Also, Eden HD and Good Food HD were both added to Virgin Media’s channel lineup on the 7th October.

Eden HD is available on channel 209 and Good Food HD is available on channel 249.

This is the first time Eden HD and Good Food HD have been available outside of Sky’s platform, where they exclusively launched a year ago.

Due to the recent channel launches on Virgin Media’s TV platform, some channels have changed their numbers:

125 – Watch HD
129 – Dave HD
190 – Watch +1
191 – Dave Ja Vu
204 – Yesterday +1
209 – Eden HD
210 – Eden +1
261 – Good Food HD
262 – Good Food +1

The move was announced by the BBC’s Director General Mark Thompson to save money at the corporation as part of their plan to cut 20% from their budget over the next 5 years.

It’s not known when the BBC HD channel will be replaced with BBC Two HD as the announcement simply said “the BBC HD channel will close and be replaced with a single version of BBC Two in high definition” but no timescale was given.

The new HD channel is a simulcast of the standard definition channel.

Cartoon Network HD is available on Sky channel 601 for all Sky+ HD customers who subscribe to the appropriate package.

Non Sky+ HD customers will still receive the standard definition version on channel 601.

From 6am on the 24th September through to 6th on the 26th September Sky Sports 1-4, Sky Sports News and Sky Sports HD 1 & 2 (only for customers with an HD box) will be free to all TV customers.

For more details see the September issue of the Electric newsletter by clicking here.

The new HD channel will be available exclusively to Sky+ HD customers.

Scripps Networks Interactive already own other channels such as Food Network which recently made its Freeview debut.

The other 50% share of UKTV is still owned by BBC Worldwide – the BBC’s commercial arm.

Kenneth W. Lowe, chairman of Scripps Networks Interactive, says “making a solid investment in UKTV and entering into a strong partnership with BBC Worldwide reinforces our core international strategy which we believe will create significant long-term value for our shareholders”.

It was originally thought Discovery would get the UKTV stake, but Scripps pipped them to the post.

What will this change mean for the UKTV channels? Will we see more UKTV channels on Freeview? Will certain channels close such as Good Food which has the same remit as Scripps’s own Food Network channel?

Watch HD and Dave HD are due to be launched in October this year and Alibi HD will be available some time next year.

The new HD channels will join UKTV’s existing high definition offerings Eden HD and Good Food HD on Sky.

In addition to the new HD channels, UKTV have also announced a selection of their programme catalogue will be made available on demand for the first time as part of Sky’s Anytime+ service (available to Sky broadband customers through their set top box).

On demand content will start appearing on Sky Anytime+ this September.

The official UKTV press release says:

“Initially launching with hundreds of hours of programming throughout the year cherry picked from across its network, UKTV’s VoD service which will be refreshed on a monthly basis and nine box sets will be made available to Sky Anytime+ viewers every year. UKTV’s service will offer crown jewels from the BBC archive, well regarded third party acquisitions and high-profile UKTV commissions, such as: Fawlty Towers and Fry and Laurie: Reunited on Gold; Doctor Who and Total Wipeout USA on Watch; New Tricks and Murdoch Mysteries on Alibi; Top Gear and Argumental on Dave; Planet Earth and The Long Way Round on Eden; Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and My Flat Pack Home on Home; and Rick Stein’s French Odyssey and Rachel Allen: Bake! on Good Food”. Click here to read UKTV’s press release in full.

Also MTVN HD was due to rebrand as MTV Live HD on the same day but the channel is still known as MTVN HD so it’s thought this change has been postponed.

The new logos for all MTV channels are based on the same theme as those on MTV in the US, dropping the iconic “Music Television” subtext from the bottom.

Some content will also now be aired in widescreen 16:9 format.

Instead of it being on a different channel with a different schedule to Discovery standard-definition it’s now replaced Discovery standard-definition on channel 520 for HD customers.

Non HD customers will still see Discovery standard-definition on channel 520.

They will be dropping the “Music Television” subtext from their channel logos and MTVN HD will be renamed to MTV Live HD.

The new channel logos can be seen by clicking here.

MTV channels will also be available in 16:9 widescreen for the first time in their UK history on that same date.

Their standard definition counterparts are also now available to Virgin Media TV customers.

Sky Arts 1 (standard definition) is on channel 281, Sky Arts 1 HD is on channel 282, Sky Arts 2 (standard definition) is on channel 283 and Sky Arts 2 HD is on channel 284.

The Japanese news channel has been available in SD on Sky for some time (on channel 516).

NHK World HD will launch on Sky channel 507 and will be available to all Sky HD customers.

The channels will be available at no extra cost for HD customers.

Sky Arts 1 HD will be on channel 284 and Sky Arts 2 HD will be on channel 285.

This is the first time the Sky Arts channels have been on the Virgin Media cable platform.

Click here to read the Virgin Media press release in full.

The channel will be free for all Sky+ HD customers between Friday 1st April and Monday 4th April.

Sky says; “The weekend includes over 20 of MGM’s best films, back to back including Paul Verhoeven’s iconic RoboCop, Patrick Swayze’s greatest hour in Road House, Oscar® winning great Dead Man Walking and the action classic The Taking Of Pelham 123″.

Click here for more information.

Also, Five HD has become Channel 5 HD.

Fiver and Five USA will rebrand in the coming weeks (Fiver will become 5* and Five USA will become 5USA).

Sky customers will find Living, Living HD, Living ROI, Living +1, Livingit, Livingit +1, Challenge and Challenge +1 off-air between approximately 2am and 4am. Sky advise “during this period, there will be brief outages and you will see a placeholder banner advising you that no programmes are being broadcast. You do not need to adjust your TV set or Sky box”. Virgin Media customers should be unaffected.

Channel One will cease broadcasting permanently at 6am on all TV platforms including Sky and Virgin Media (Channel One +1 will end an hour later at 7am). Channel One on Freeview will be replaced with Challenge.

All of the Living channels will be rebranded as Sky Living (Sky Living, Sky Livingit, etc).

Sky advise “HD customers will notice that some HD channels now have the same channel numbers as their standard definition counterparts”.

Sky Atlantic will launch at 9pm on Sky channel 108. A special pre-launch show advertising the launch of Sky Atlantic will air 8pm-9pm on Sky Atlantic, Sky 1, Sky 2, Living, Living it, Living Loves, Sky Arts 1 and Sky Arts 2.

Click here for the official “timeline of changes” page at Sky.com.