Remember if the Scripps and Discovery deals goes though you have to wonder what cuts could be made? Good Food and Food Channel could be good place to start, The big question has to be what do you do with Home? what does it's really do?
Perhaps launch a UK version of Scripps' HGTV channel?
The problem with Scripps is they entered the UK market post the 'Changing Rooms' boom of the 90s and 2000s. So the demand isn't quite there. Whereas they go mad for it in the USA, hence its own channel. Food Network (UK) tried doing a Home Improvement daytime stunt a few years ago, but that got dropped. And Travel Channel is now very far from being 'Travel' now, so they have content that skews towards older males who like 'Alaska' and Adventure shows but the 'Travel Channel' brand puts viewers off, despite the refresh from last year to emphasise the content change. Identity crisis.
Last edited by dbl on 6 October 2017 11:13pm - 2 times in total
The problem with Scripps is they entered the UK market post the 'Changing Rooms' boom of the 90s and 2000s. So the demand isn't quite there. Whereas they go mad for it in the USA, hence its own channel.
Last edited by Mouseboy33 on 7 October 2017 3:07am
LS
Lou Scannon
If the gradual erosion of the distinction between each of UKTV's channels continues, we might eventually end up with a raft of channels that each have litte or no clear purpose/character/niche and all just show a random mixture of stuff that UKTV has the rights to.
Then they might as well end up renaming them all as e.g. "UKTV 1", "UKTV 2" etc. And probably also close some of them, as I suspect that the current ratio of number of channels to available content is spreading themselves too thinly (which is also true of most/all other UK broadcasters' multi-channel era portfolios).
To be honest the original UKTV portfolio, including Play worked in my opinion. Saying that I must be in a minority who prefers Gold the way it is know, ie just comedy. But it worked better having one channel for classic entertainment, one for documentaries, one for lifestyle, one for arts and drama, and for one music and comedy.
Let’s face it UKTV are happy to throw the cash behind the paywall channels and Dave. Having looked at the BARB ratings Home’s have hardy shot up since it went FTA, I see why they’re just throwing any old rubbish on it to boost ratings. I couldn’t even tell you where Home is on the Sky guide it’s that far down.
Of course UK G2 and Dave were basically the spiritual successor of Play’s comedy side. I recall at launch UK G2 even repeating some fillers that said they were a Play UK production.
To me this just says that UKTV has no faith in Home if it’s prepared to put programmes on it completely at odds with Its remit. Surely the golden rule of creating a successful brand is is to know what it is, what it stands for, and to stick to it. If you don’t, you muddy the waters, dilute your brand and end up with a channel that means nothing to anyone.
It’s the TV equivalent of walking into Halfords and finding they’ve started selling fruit and veg.
I think Home will take the Yesterday route, while maintaining a core schedule of home interior/property programmes with some populist comedy/drama series loosely based around the Home brand to boost the channel's overall share.