Could UKTV Gold become Doris?

I'm surprised it has taken them this long to realise they don't need the pointless UKTV branding. Flextech realised many years ago that their channels didn't need a uniform brand.

I'm sure certain channels might do well to have similar names but actually to actually sell the channel a unique name across a network is probably quite risky really - if your parent brand is synonymous with cheap tat and repeats then even a great channel with all new programming will be cheapened.

Ironically though I would suggest renaming UKTV Gold to simply UKTV because that brand would probably best represent what the channel is. I think numbering channels is becoming a bit cheap these days too, Virgin 1 and ABC 1 both didn't need the extra numeral.

Remembering the rumour/story on BBC Worldwide buying out VMTV's share of UKTV, doubt that'd affect anything given how the BBC networks can't actually be commercial operations on the level of UKTV or at least not publically facing as such. Doubt we'll be seeing a BBC Gold anytime soon but don't ignore it completely, just acknowledge and leave as a far-off occurence.

Just pre-empting anyone who remembers that issue also.

They couldn't brand it BBC "anything" if it was broadcast here though. That's the whole reason why UKTV was created in the first place.

There is no reason why BBC Worldwide can't buy out VMTV's share of UKTV, but it wouldn't make commercial sense. It seems to be quite a good partnership that provides alot of cross-channel promotion.

This may be all the more important once FreeSat arrives later this year. There will be capactity for Virgin 1 and UKTV History to be 24 hour. I'm sure some of the other VMTV channels are FTA at the moment (Challenge etc) but they may take the C4 route and go for broke with FTA for everything.

Surely if the rebrand UKTV Gold, won't the bouncy balls identity go out of the window, and I don't think it's been around for long....

For me the whole set of channels cheapened when they introduced TV to the network name i.e. UKTV. What was wrong with UKGold, UKPlay, UKFood, UKLiving etc....

UKTV for me just spelt disaster and seemed very clumsy for channel names. Even to this day I call their main channel UKGold and not UKTGold (a bit of a mouthful!!!)

I agree that gold should go and give it a more general modern name such as UK Prime or UK One (non numeric!!!), whilst Drama should be re-branded as Gold as it does seem all "classic" shows tend to be on that channel nowadays - and I would have a caveat on that channel by not showing anything younger than 7 years old!!!!

After some thought, I would agree, UK Prime is a solid name to change to, just as relevant and removes the unnecessary 'TV' (the other channels should follow suit in that regard to network name).

And, while 'Dave' was an attempt at being a bit silly and witty, the name 'Prime' to me has the opposite (but still very positive) effect of probably being suited to a more serious identity than current Gold - the gold Space Hoppers would be rendered useless in any case. But somehow I don't think we'll see it become UK Prime; they'll probably keep the UKTV name sooner than ditch the whole thing, and who knows how channel names will change? I'm willing to bet they'd be a bit phobic towards a 'Prime' - it is likely considered far too sensible an approach!

Oh for the love of science.

Call it UKTV 1 for physics sake.

Why do some people always seem to believe that a channel number rather than a name that gives some sort of description/identity is such a good thing?

I give you BBC Four vs BBC Knowledge...

I stand by UKTV1 because its a generic name. Obviously UKTV Gold currently show a mix of comedy, drama and movies. These genres, amongst more, are also found on BBC 1 , ITV 1 , Sky 1 , Virgin 1 , abc 1 ...

Note the generic form of the number "1".

It may be generic, but it doesn't stand out like it once did. Nowadays there are just far too many channels named 1, so IMO it's no longer a strong brand name for a channel. It works for BBC One, ITV1 and Sky One, but all the other new ones just seem like cheap imitations. If they're going to bother re-naming UKTV's channels, they're going to want to choose something that will stand out! Especially as they're taking "Dave's" lead!!

'UKTV Factual' and 'UKTV Documentary' are too ronseal (does exactly what it says on the tin). 'UK Horizons' was a good name, but in the eyes of some BBC people it devalued the 'Horizon' brand.

It's interesting to remember that the original names of the UKTV network - Arena, Horizons, and to a lesser extent, Style were all named after BBC programmes at the time.

Quite. Which was my point.

These days channels other than those long established should avoid numbers and try to identify themselves in a memorable way (and yes, I do think Virgin 1 should have avoided he number)