Timeline of UKTV facts for kids

This is a timeline of UKTV, a television company that broadcasts seven television channels in the United Kingdom.

1990s

• 1992
  • 1 November – UK Gold launches as a 50/50 joint venture between BBC Enterprises and Thames Television, showing programmes from both the BBC and Thames archives. Thames gets involved after it lost its ITV franchise the previous year. Thames bid £32.5 million while Carlton Television placed a bid of £43.2 million,

• 1993
  • Tele-Communications Inc. takes a stake in UK Gold.
  • 1 September –
    • Sky Multichannels launches, resulting in UK Gold becoming encrypted.
    • UK Living launches, as a joint venture between Thames, Tele-Communications and Cox Enterprises.
  • 21 December - Flextech announces to purchase TCI's stake in UK Gold and UK Living.

• 1994
  • January – TCI acquires a 60.4% stake in Flextech. This gives the company a 25% stake in UK Gold and UK Living.

• 1995
  • No events.

• 1996
  • 14 August – Flextech announces its purchase of Cox and Pearson/Thames' stakes in UK Gold and UK Living, gaining full control over the latter and retaining BBC's 50% stake in the former.
  • 1 October – Flextech and the BBC hold talks about a partnership to launch a new range of channels. Rival company BSkyB also holds talks with the corporation but the BBC is against BSkyB's involvement.

• 1997
  • 4 March – The BBC and Flextech agree on a deal to launch a series of BBC-branded channels – BBC Showcase, for entertainment; BBC Horizon, for documentaries; BBC Style, for lifestyle; BBC Learning, for schools, and BBC Arena, for the arts – plus three other channels: BBC Catch-Up, for repeats of popular programmes within days of their original transmission, a dedicated BBC Sport channel and a TV version of Radio 1. After conflicts over advertising, the UKTV partnership was transitioned over to BBC Worldwide. BBC themselves kept the BBC Showcase/Catch-Up and BBC Learning concepts, and launched them the following year as BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge respectively, while the UKTV networks would be named after UK Gold, and named UK Horizons, UK Style and UK Arena respectively.
  • September – UK Living is renamed as Living, after it was decided that the channel would not be part of the UKTV network.
  • 1 November – UK Horizons, UK Style and UK Arena launch on Astra satellite and analogue cable, on the fifth anniversary of UK Gold's launch. On Astra, the new networks initially shared a single transponder, with each channel broadcasting at certain times of the day.

• 1998
  • 1 October –
    • Sky Digital launches, which allowed for UK Horizons and Style to broadcast full time, with Arena airing during the evenings, from 7pm-7am.
    • An off-shoot spin-off to UK Gold - UK Gold Classics, launches as the first digital-only UKTV channel, showcasing older programmes while UK Gold aired newer programmes. However, it only aired as a part-time service, broadcasting from Friday to Sunday between 6:00 pm to 2:00 am.
  • 10 October – UK Play launches to coincide with the launch of OnDigital, which launched a month later. This was the proposed TV version of Radio 1, although it has no direct ties.
  • 15 November – OnDigital launches with UK Play and UK Gold gaining their own slots, with UK Horizons and UK Style timesharing.

• 1999
  • 2 April – UK Gold Classics relaunches as UK Gold 2, transitioning to becoming a secondary timeshift service of its parent network, airing the morning programmes during the evening.
  • UK Play is added to Astra satellite as a filler network within UK Horizons' downtime. UK Style and UK Arena also move transponders.

2000s

• 2000
  • 31 March – After low figure numbers, UK Arena is relaunched as UK Drama, transitioning to dramas full time, although it remains a part-time network.
  • November – UK Play is renamed as Play UK, to differentiate it from UKTV's other networks, and is the first to use the then-new UKTV logo in its branding.

• 2001
  • 30 March – The UKTV channels are removed from Astra satellite as part of Sky Analogue's closedown phase.
  • 8 May –
    • The new UKTV logo expands to the other networks, which gains new ident packages.
    • UK Horizons +1 launches on Sky, becoming the first timeshift service in the UKTV network.
  • 11 July – UK Style and UK Horizons split on OnDigital, no longer timesharing with each other.
  • 5 November – UK Food launches as the first offshoot network of UK Style, which was restructured to focus more on home programming. The channel airs from 7:00am–7:00pm, timesharing with UK Drama.

• 2002
  • 11 February – UK Style + launches on Sky, broadcasting from 8:00am–6:00pm, timesharing with UK Gold 2.
  • 15 February – UK Style + and UK Horizons +1 launch on Telewest.
  • 1 May – ITV Digital stops broadcasting, resulting in UKTV's channels disappearing from terrestrial television.
  • 1 August – UK Gold +1 launches, airing from 7:00pm–7:00am.
  • 30 September – Play UK closes due to low ratings following the closure of ITV Digital.
  • 30 October – With the launch of Freeview, a new UKTV network using the vacated Play UK space - UK History - launches.

• 2003
  • 10 January – UK Food extends broadcast hours, now airing from 5:00am–9:00pm, with UK Drama airing at 9:00pm-5:00am within the rest of the slot.
  • 15 January – UK Bright Ideas launches as a lifestyle channel for Freeview. The channel shows content from UK Style and UK Food (and later UKTV Gardens) and is used as a showcase for UKTV's lifestyle channels on pay-TV platforms.
  • 7 July – UK Style + extends its broadcast hours to end at 2:00am.
  • 12 November –
    • UK Gold 2 is relaunched and rebranded as UK G2, becoming a more "edgier" alternative to UK Gold. Its broadcast hours are changed to 8:00pm–3:00am.
    • UK Gold +1 becomes a fulltime service.
    • UK Food +1 launches, airing from 7:00am–7:00pm.

• 2004
  • 28 January - UK History +1 launches on Sky.
  • 8 March –
    • The UKTV prefix is added to all channels, e.g. UK Gold becomes UKTV Gold.
    • UK Horizons closes and splits into two new channels, UKTV Documentary takes over the former slot and timeshift service.
    • UKTV People, the other network formed as part of the split, launches, broadcasting from 7:00pm–4:00am, timesharing with UKTV Food +1.
    • Following a reduction the previous month in 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, UKTV limits its junctions from seven and a half minutes to a maximum of five minutes.
  • 31st March – A new digital terrestrial pay service, Top Up TV, launches and three of UKTV's channels – UKTV Gold, UKTV Style and UKTV Food – form part of the service of ten channels, each broadcasting on a part-time basis.
  • 1 July – UKTV People extends its broadcast hours to 7:00am–3:00am.
  • November 1 – UKTV G2 +1 launches on Sky and Telewest, broadcasting from 9:00pm to 4:00am.

• 2005
  • 12 January – UKTV People +1 launches exclusively to Sky.
  • 23 February – UKTV Style Gardens launches as the gardening off-shoot from UKTV Style.
  • 1st/30th May – UKTV Drama expands its hours.
  • 7 October – UKTV announces a "UKTV Sport" strand to air on UKTV G2, which would also lead with the launch of a planned channel (that never came into fruition).

• 2006
  • 16 January – UKTV G2 expands its broadcast hours to the daytime to coincide with the launch of the UKTV Sport strand.
  • 28 February – UKTV Food +1 extends its broadcast hours to include the evening.
  • 18 April – UKTV People +1 closes and is removed from the Sky EPG.
  • 2 May – UKTV Drama +1 launches in the bandwidth formerly home to UKTV People +1. It broadcasts from 3:00pm to 2:00am.
  • Summer – 2006 sees UKTV G2 show highlights of the RBS Six Nations rugby union championship, extensive coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup as a sub-licensing of the BBC's rights to the tournament, and basketball, including the quarter-finals of Euroleague Basketball and the 2006 FIBA World Championship.

• 2007
  • UKTV Style Gardens is renamed UKTV Gardens.
  • 14 October – UKTV Bright Ideas closes due to low ratings.
  • 15 October –
    • Dave launches as "the home of witty banter". It replaces UKTV G2. The channel also launches on Freeview.
    • UKTV History moves into the vacated UKTV Bright Ideas space on Freeview to allow Dave to take the 24-hour slot.
  • 14 December – UKTV Style 2 launches on Sky, this was essentially used as a filler network for UKTV to keep the slot for future use.

• 2008
  • 31 January – UKTV begins transmitting its channels in the 16:9 widescreen ratio, though some content initially remains in the older 4:3 format.
  • 11 June – UKTV announces that, following the successful launch of Dave, it will rebrand all of its channels from generic, UKTV-prefixed names to individual and separate brands.
  • 24 July – Dave +1 launches On Freeview.
  • 13 September – UKTV Style 2 closes to make way for Watch.
  • 7 October –
    • Watch launches as UKTV's flagship entertainment channel. It replaces UKTV Style +2.
    • UKTV Drama rebrands as the crime-oriented Alibi.
    • UKTV Gold rebrands as the comedy-oriented G.O.L.D., standing for "Go On Laugh Daily".

• 2009
  • 26 January – UKTV Documentary rebrands as the natural-history focused Eden.
  • 17 February – UKTV People rebrands as the UK-focused Blighty.
  • 23 February – Dave +1 Becomes Dave ja vu on Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media
  • 2 March – UKTV History rebrands as Yesterday.
  • 30 April – UKTV Style rebrands as Home, and reinstates gardening programmes.
  • 19 May – UKTV Gardens relaunches as the female-orientated lifestyle medical real-life and crime channel Really. The gardening programmes move to Home.
  • 22 June – UKTV Food rebrands as Good Food.

2010s

• 2010
  • 31 August – UKTV launches its first high definition channel – Good Food HD, exclusively to Sky.
  • 4 October – UKTV launches Eden HD, also as a Sky exclusive.

• 2011
  • 2 August – Really becomes a free-to-air network as it launches on Freeview.
  • 15 August – Virgin Media agrees to sell its 50% stake in UKTV to Scripps Networks Interactive in a deal worth £339m.
  • 7 October –
    • High definition versions of Dave and Watch launch.
    • Good Food HD and Eden HD are added to Virgin Media in addition to the other two networks as part of a deal concerning the UKTV sale.

• 2012
  • 3 July – Alibi HD launches.

• 2013
  • March 26 – To coincide with its 21st birthday, UKTV rebrands with a new logo and reinstates their brand on-screen.
  • 8 July – A new free-to-air network, Drama, launches on Freeview, and replaces Blighty on Sky and Virgin Media, although it was not launched on the latter until August 14.

• 2014
  • 4 August – UKTV launches its video on demand service UKTV Play.

• 2015
  • No events.

• 2016
  • 6 January – UKTV announces that Dave will show its first live sporting event – a boxing match between David Haye and Mark de Mori at the O2 Arena on 16 January 2016. Later in the year Dave broadcasts the 2016 BDO World Trophy darts tournament and cricket's Caribbean Premier League.
  • 15 February – Watch is renamed W and among the programming on the relaunched channel is a same-day repeat of EastEnders. The deal sees the return of the weekend omnibus edition. W shows the repeats until April 2018.
  • 1 March – Home becomes a free-to-air network as launches on Freeview.

• 2017
  • 2 October – Gold HD launches on Sky. It appears on Virgin Media in September 2018 and on BT TV in March 2019.

• 2018
  • 22 July – The UKTV channels stop broadcasting on Virgin Media following a breakdown of discussions in which Virgin Media had demanded a huge drop in the amount of money it pays UKTV for its channels due to the lack of UKTV's ability to offer on-demand BBC programming. The dispute receives considerable media attention.
  • 11 August – The UKTV channels return to Virgin Media with the addition of Gold HD.

• 2019
  • 1 April – Discovery Inc. announces that it will acquire BBC Studios' stakes in Good Food, Home and Really, while BBC Studios will acquire Discovery's stakes in the seven remaining UKTV networks for £173 million.
  • 11 June –
    • Discovery Inc. takes full control of Good Food, Home and Really.
    • BBC Studios takes full control of UKTV and its remaining seven channels.

2020s

• 2020
  • October – UKTV Media Ltd takes control of Craft Channel Host Ltd, the company behind Freeview channel CCXTV.

• 2021
  • 1 February – CCXTV closes and its Freeview slot is allocated to Drama +1.

• 2022
  • March – W becomes a free-to-air channel, initially launching on Freesat prior to its launch on Freeview on 28 March.

• 2023
  • 23 and 24 August – UKTV launches its first four FAST channels - UKTV Play Heroes, UKTV Play Laughs, UKTV Play Full Throttle and UKTV Play Uncovered.