Entertainment Interactive » uktv

UKTV HD channel launches

Paul — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:00:19 +0000

Watch HD and Dave HD have launched on Sky and Virgin Media.

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

Scripps Networks Interactive gets Virgin’s UKTV stake

Paul — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:23:00 +0000

Virgin Media has sold its stake in UKTV to Scripps Networks Interactive. The deal, worth £339m, sees Scripps Networks Interactive take Virgin Media’s 50% stake in UKTV.

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?

UKTV – New HD channels and Anytime+ deal

Paul — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 09:35:22 +0000

UKTV will be launching three new HD channels on Sky in the coming months.

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.

Really to launch on Freeview this August

Paul — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:06:58 +0000

UKTV-owned lifestyle channel Really will make its Freeview debut on the 2nd August.

The channel – currently only available on Sky and Virgin Media – will be on Freeview channel 20 between 8am GMT and 2am GMT daily.

Really will replace Dave timeshift channel Dave Ja Vu on Freeview.

Dave Ja Vu will continue to broadcast as normal on other TV platforms.

UKTV Food rebranded as Good Food

Paul — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:55:23 +0000

UKTV Food has been rebranded as Good Food. Good Food is available on Virgin Media channel 260 (Good Food +1 is on channel 261) and Sky. UKTV Food was the last channel to be rebranded in the UKTV package.

UKTV Gardens now Really

Paul — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:41:57 +0000

UKTV Gardens has rebranded today to become Really. Really can be found on Virgin Media channel 267 and Sky channel 248. Gardening content that used to appear on UKTV Gardens before it was rebranded will shift across to Home (formerly UKTV Style). The only remaining UKTV-prefixed channel to be rebranded is UKTV Food, which will change its name to Good Food on Monday 22nd June.

Click here for the official Really website.

UKTV Food to become Good Food

Paul — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:24:19 +0000

The final UKTV channel to be rebranded is UKTV Food. It’s been confirmed the new name for the channel will be Good Food. UKTV have struck a deal with BBC Worldwide to license the brand from them for the Good Food channel name.

UKTV say, in an official press release, “negotiated directly between the broadcaster and BBC Worldwide, this agreement permits UKTV to rebrand its dedicated UKTV Food channel and associated website while also adopting the new channel brand for all related commercial and promotional activities. UKTV’s new lifestyle channel, Good Food, will launch at 9am on Monday 22nd June alongside a complementary website”.

The tagline for the new channel will be “we have fun with food” and will have “80% of its schedule made up of brand new commissions and exclusive acquisitions”.

Matthew Littleford (UKTV’s controller) says “we are thrilled to mark our tenth and final channel rebrand with a completely different approach: licensing an established brand name that has both heritage and credibility associated with it”.

Good Food logo

UKTV Style rebrands as Home

Paul — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:35:13 +0000

UKTV Style has rebranded as Home. The channel rebranded yesterday – 30th April. Home is available on Top Up TV channel 26 and Virgin Media channel 265 (also, a +1 timeshift channel is available on Virgin Media channel 266).

The remaining UKTV-prefixed channels will rebrand shortly – UKTV Gardens will rebrand as Really on the 19th May and UKTV Food to rebrand soon.

Click here to visit the official UKTV website for Home

More UKTV rebrands confirmed

Paul — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:38:47 +0000

Following on from the successful rebrands of many of UKTV’s other channels, UKTV Style will soon be rebranded as Home and UKTV Gardens will become Really. The UKTV Style rebrand to Home will come on the 30th April and the UKTV Gardens rebrand to Really will happen on the 19th May.

Brand Republic reports “Home will only focus on homes and gardening-related programming… gardening content that was previously on UKTV Gardens will be absorbed into Home” and Really will have “a range of programming such as The Baby Borrowers and Farm of Fussy Eaters”.

UKTV Style is available on Virgin Media, Sky and Top Up TV. UKTV Gardens is available on Virgin Media and Sky.

Following the UKTV Style and UKTV Gardens rebrand, there will just be one “UKTV” pre-fixed channel name remaining – UKTV Food. UKTV Food is expected to rebrand soon. UKTV’s online service UKTV Homes is also expected to change its name soon.

UKTV History becomes Yesterday

Paul — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:56:27 +0000

UKTV History was rebranded as Yesterday today. Their new tagline is “where the past is always present”. To pick up the new name for the channel Freeview customers might need to rescan their boxes. Virgin Media customers don’t need to do anything. Click here for Yesterday’s official website. UKTV Food, UKTV Gardens and UKTV Style are the only UKTV channels left to rebrand.

UKTV History rebrand date confirmed

Paul — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:00:29 +0000

The date for the rebrand of UKTV History to Yesterday has been confirmed. In a press release from UKTV they say “following the successful rebrand of UKTV’s entertainment portfolio as Dave, G.O.L.D., Watch and Alibi, UKTV will launch its third rebranded factual channel Yesterday on Monday 2nd March, following Eden and Blighty’s launches on 26th January and 17th February 2009 respectively. The final wave of the network’s ambitious rebrand to create a portfolio of multiplatform brands will be completed in Q2 2009 with the re-launch of its lifestyle offerings”. UKTV History (soon to be Yesterday) is available on Freeview, Virgin Media and Sky.

Dave +1 becomes Dave Ja Vu

Paul — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:51:14 +0000

As planned, Dave +1 has rebranded as Dave Ja Vu. In a press release from UKTV they say “Dave ja vu will replace Dave +1 on all platforms… and so is available to view in 17.5 million homes nationwide via Freeview, Sky Digital and Virgin Cable. Also in the press release, Dave’s Channel Head Steve North says “renaming our +1 service Dave ja vu will help bolster the already successful Dave brand further while appealing to our target audience of 16-34 year old male viewers, who are sure to get the joke”. Freeview customers may need to carry out a rescan on their box to pick up the new channel name. Dave and Dave Ja Vu are available on Freeview, Virgin Media and Sky.

Dave +1 to become Dave Ja Vu

Paul — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:54:04 +0000

Those crazy cats at UKTV have been at it again – Dave +1 will rebrand as Dave Ja Vu (like deja vu – get it?) tomorrow. You will need to rescan your Freeview box to pick up the new channel name tomorrow. Virgin Media customers will see the change happen automatically.

UKTV People rebranded as Blighty

Paul — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:18:38 +0000

UKTV People has been rebranded as Blighty today (17th February). This is the latest UKTV channel to be rebranded without the “UKTV” prefix. Click here for the official UKTV website for Blighty. UKTV History will be the next channel to change – it will be rebranded as Yesterday in March.

UKTV Documentary becomes Eden; other UKTV changes coming soon

Paul — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:38:18 +0000

UKTV Documentary has been rebranded as Eden. It’s available on Virgin channel 208. Other UKTV channels rebranding soon are UKTV People which becomes Blighty on the 17th February, and UKTV History will rebrand as Yesterday in March.

UKTV Documentary to become Eden in January

Paul — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:48:54 +0000

As reported a while back, UKTV Documentary is rebranding as Eden in 2009. The exact date of the name change is the 26th January. The rebrand was originally announced earlier this year. Also in 2009, UKTV People will become called Blighty (Q1 2009) and UKTV History will become Yesterday (Q1 2009).

UKTV History to rebrand as Yesterday

Paul — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:29:01 +0000

The big UKTV rebranding machine continues to roll. It was announced this week UKTV History will be rebranded as Yesterday in early 2009. Early next year will also see Blighty (currently UKTV People) and Eden (currently UKTV Documentary) coming to our screens. The full range of UKTV channels will therefore be the following by early next year; Watch, GOLD, Dave, Alibi, Yesterday, Eden, Blighty, UKTV Style, UKTV Gardens and UKTV Food. It’s thought the three remaining UKTV-prefixed channels will also be rebranded some time soon.

More UKTV channel name changes in 2009

Paul — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:59:56 +0000

Following on from the other rebrands of UKTV channels, UKTV People and UKTV Documentary will rebrand in early 2009 to become Blighty and Eden. The decision to rebrand these channels follows on from the other quirky channel names that launched recently including UKTV G2 becoming Dave, UKTV Drama becoming Alibi, UKTV Gold becoming G.O.L.D. and a new channel called Watch that launched earlier this week (with Alibi and G.O.L.D.).

UKTV channel changes today

Paul — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:52:00 +0000

The changes to the UKTV channel lineup have taken place today.

Virgin TV: Watch is available on channel 124, Watch +1 is on channel 125, GOLD (the new name for UKTV Gold) on channel 126 and GOLD +1 is available on channel 127. Watch (and Watch +1) is only available in the XL package. Dave has moved to channel 128 and Dave +1 has moved to channel 129. Alibi (the new name for UKTV Drama) is on channel 130 and Alibi +1 is on channel 131. UKTV History +1 (from channel 204) and UKTV Documentary +1 (from channel 209) are both no longer available on Virgin TV.

Top Up TV: UKTV Gold is now broadcasting the new GOLD.

Post updated 8th October.

UKTV channels rebrand

Paul — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:46:57 +0000

To clarify, the following changes will take place on the 7th October;

UKTV Gold will become GOLD (same channel number) – Virgin and Top Up TV
UKTV Gold +1 will become GOLD +1 (same channel number) – Virgin TV only
UKTV Drama will become Alibi (same channel number) – Virgin TV only
UKTV Drama +1 will become Alibi +1 (same channel number) – Virgin TV only
Watch will launch (channel number unknown) – Virgin TV only
Watch +1 will launch (channel number unknown) – Virgin TV only

For more details of things coming soon to Virgin TV, click here.
For more details of things coming soon to DTT, click here.