UKTV
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One of the United Kingdom's largest TV companies, UKTV is a joint venture between the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and the cable television company Flextech.
UKTV's channels are available via satellite and cable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. In the UK, on digital terrestrial television, UKTV History and UKTV BrightIdeas are available on the Freeview platform, and selected parts of UKTV Gold, UKTV Style and UKTV Food are available through Top Up TV.
Most programmes on UKTV's channels are repeat broadcasts of BBC productions (although the entertainment channels also feature programmes made by other companies) and the channels themselves are operated by BBC Broadcast (a wholly owned subsidiary of the BBC,) and played out from BBC Television Centre in London.
None of the UKTV channels operates in widescreen — programmes made in widescreen are always horizontally cropped into 14:9 — and factual programmes are almost always cut for commercial timing although dramas and comedies are not.
Channels
- UKTV BrightIdeas (formerly UK BrightIdeas)
- UKTV Documentary
- UKTV Drama (formerly UK Arena and then UK Drama)
- UKTV Food (formerly UK Food)
- UKTV G2 (formerly UK Gold 2 and then UK G2)
- UKTV Gold (formerly UK Gold)
- UKTV History (formerly UK History)
- UKTV People
- UKTV Style (formerly UK Style)
- UKTV Style Gardens
Closed Channels
- UK Horizons - closed to create UKTV People and UKTV Documentary
- UK Arena - focused on arts programming. Closed due to insufficient ratings, relaunched — originally with the same graphics — as UK Drama, see above
- Play UK (formerly UK Play) — closed due to insufficient ratings
UK Horizons and UK Arena were named after the BBC's flagship science and arts documentaries, Horizon and Arena.
Note that there was a channel called UK Living that was originally affiliated with UK Gold but did not become part of the UKTV network, it changed its name to LivingTV before the UKTV network launched.
Note
- There is a network in Australia and New Zealand called UK.TV, which is similar in format to UKTV Gold, carrying a mix of BBC and ITV programmes.