1. 1990s

2. 2000s

3. 2010s

4. References

This is a timeline of UKTV, a television company that broadcasts ten television channels in the UK.

1990s

• 1991
  • 16 November – Thames Television loses its ITV franchise.

• 1992
  • 1 November – UK Gold launches. The channel shows archive programming from the BBC and Thames Television archives.

• 1993
  • Tele-Communications Inc. takes a stake in UK Gold.
  • 1 September – Sky Multichannels launches, resulting in UK Gold becoming a pay channel.
  • Flextech purchases TCI’s stake in UK Gold.^[1]

• 1994
  • January – TCI acquires a 60.4% stake in Flextech.^[2] This gives the company a 25% stake in UK Gold.^[3]

• 1995
  • No events.

• 1996
  • 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 involvement.^[4]

• 1997
  • March – The BBC and Flextech agree on a deal to provide 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.^[5]
  • 1 November – UK Horizons, UK Style and UK Arena launch. However they are only available full-time on cable as on the Astra satellite they share a single transponder and each channel is only available at certain times of the day. The channels use the ‘UK’ prefix because Flextech wanted these channels to carry adverts but the BBC did not. BBC Showcase/Catch-Up and BBC Learning are removed from the venture, and launch the following year as BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge respectively.

• 1998
  • 1 October – Sky Digital launches, allowing all four channels to broadcast full-time, and UKTV sets up an additional spin-off channel for the platform – UK Gold Classics.
  • 10 October – UK Play launches. This channel is the proposed TV version of Radio 1 and whilst music videos and other music programming is a mainstay of the channel, it has no tie-up with Radio 1.
  • 15 November – Digital terrestrial service OnDigital launches and UKTV provides three channels – UK Play, UK Gold and a third channel where UK Horizons and UK Style share. UKTV was eventually given a fourth slot, allowing Horizons and Style to broadcast full-time.

• 1999
  • April – UK Gold Classics is renamed UK Gold 2. It operates as a time shift service of UK Gold by broadcasting the channel's daytime output during the evening.

2000s

• 2000
  • 30 March – UK Arena closes and is replaced by UK Drama.
  • November – UK Play is renamed Play UK.

• 2001
  • 5 November – UK Food launches. Consequently, UK Style focusses on programming to do with the home.

• 2002
  • 1 May – ITV Digital stops broadcasting, resulting in UKTV's channels disappearing from terrestrial television.
  • 30 September – Play UK closes due to low ratings following the closure of ITV Digital.^[6]
  • 30 October – Freeview launches and UKTV launches UK History for the new terrestrial platform.

• 2003
  • 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 the channels on pay-tv platforms.
  • 12 November – UK Gold 2 is renamed UK G2. It broadcasts its own schedule and is no longer a time shift of UK Gold.

• 2004
  • 8 March –
  • The UKTV prefix is added to all channels, e.g. UK Gold becomes UKTV Gold.
  • UKTV People launches.
  • UKTV Documentary replaces UK Horizons.
  • March – A new digital terrestrial pay service, Top Up TV, launches and three of UKTV's channels – UK Good, UK Style and UK Food – form part of the service of ten channels, each broadcasting on a part-time basis.
  • November – UKTV launches its first +1 channel – for UKG2.

• 2005
  • 23 February – UKTV Style Gardens launches as a gardening spin-off from UKTV Style.

• 2006
  • No events.

• 2007
  • UKTV Style Gardens is renamed UKTV Gardens.
  • 15 October – Dave launches as "the home of witty banter". It replaces UKTV G2.^[7] The channel also launches on Freeview, replacing UKTV Bright Ideas. It also launches with a +1 channel. The channel is available form day one on Freeview, replacing UKTV Bright Ideas which closes down to make way for Dave.

• 2008
  • 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.^[8][9]
  • 7 October –
  • Watch launches as UKTV’s flagship entertainment channel. It replaces UKTV Bright Ideas.^[10]
  • Alibi launches as a crime drama channel, replacing UKTV Drama.
  • UKTV Gold becomes a comedy-only channel but retains the GOLD branding which officially stands for Go On Laugh Daily.

• 2009
  • 26 January – Eden launches as a natural history channel, replacing UKTV Documentary.
  • 17 February – Blighty replaces UKTV People.^[11]
  • 2 March – UKTV History is renamed Yesterday.
  • 30 April – UKTV Style is renamed Home and the channel once again incorporates gardening programming.^[12]
  • 19 May – Really launches as a female-orientated lifestyle channel. It replaces UKTV Gardens.^[13]. UKTV Gardens is closed to make way for the new channel and its content moves to Home.
  • 22 June – UK Food is renamed Good Food.^[14] It launches a HD version in August.

2010s

• 2010
  • October – UKTV launches its second HD channel – for Eden.

• 2011
  • July – UKTV does a deal with BSkyB to provide one demand content available to Sky customers via Sky Anytime.
  • 2 August – Really launches on Freeview.^[15]
  • 15 August – Virgin Media agrees to sell its 50% stake in UKTV to Scripps Networks Interactive in a deal worth £339m.^[16]
  • October – High definition versions of Dave and Watch launch.

• 2012
  • July – Alibi HD launches.

• 2013
  • 8 July – Drama launches, replacing Blighty. The channel also launches on free-to-air platform Freeview. However it does not launch on Virgin Media until 14 August.

• 2014
  • 4 August – UKTV launches its video on demand service UKTV Play.^[17]

• 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.^[18] Later in the year Dave broadcasts the 2016 BDO World Trophy darts tournament and cricket's Caribbean Premier League.
  • 15 January – UKTV signs a deal with the BBC to provide a same-day repeat of EastEnders. The deal will also see the return of the weekend omnibus edition.^[19]
  • 15 February – Watch is renamed W.
  • 1 March – Home becomes UKTV’s fifth channel to launch on Freeview.^[20]

• 2017
  • October – Gold HD launches.

• 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.^[21] The dispute receives considerable media attention.^[22]
  • 11 August – The UKTV channels return to Virgin Media.^[23]

• 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.^[24]

References

• Mothers of the plaza de mayo
• Mother (song)
• Mothers' Peace Movement
• Mother spleenwort
• Mother Spleenwort
• Mother's Pride
• Mother's Pride (song)
• Mothers' rights
• Mothers ruin
• Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives
• Mothers Talk
• "Mother" Stewart
• Mother Stewart
• Mothers Union
• Mothers' Union
• Mother's Union
• Mother superior
• Mother Superior (band)
• Mother Superior (comics)
• Mothers’ Union
• Mother Tekla Famiglietti
• Mother Teresa Catholic Elementary School
• Mother Teresa Hall
• Mother Teresa High School
• Mother Teresa of India