UKTV - the new official thread

Can't say I was overally thrilled when hearing that UKTV are planning to launch a new channel - UKTV Style Gardens, bit of a mouthful eh? What next UKTV we do not know what to call this channel? I think it is about time UKTV got a grip and starting looking at the QUALITY of their channels and programming, not quantity! OK, UKTV Documentary & People I could see a reason for but the soon to become new addition to the UKTV family is just a joke. There are far too many channels and UKTV should scale down the amount of their channels so they can contain the quality of their programming within their channels. I think they need to do something with UKTV Gold. Yes, it is the main flagship channel and from time-to-time has good programmes but is it just me or is the channel called GOLD? Why are they showing episodes of EastEnders from only 3-4 years ago, its pointless and constantly repeating Only Fools & Horses, The Bill, Casualty, Open All Hours, Doctors which most of the above are fairly recent anyway is just a waste of time. I say bring back the REAL gold classics such as Monty Python, Bread, Hi-De-Hi, Citizen Smith, the earlier episodes of 2Point4Children, When The Boat Comes In, Jewel of the Crown, Dallas, Howard's Way, The Mayor of Casterbridge etc.

NEW UKTV CHANNEL LINEUPS

UKTV Gold - make this channel a drama & soap channel
UKTV Comedy - replaces G2, could show comedies old & new?
UKTV Homes - UKTV food, style, bright ideas, & style gardens merged into ONE!!! channel
UKTV Drama - axed
UKTV Food - axed
UKTV Style - axed
UKTV Bright Ideas - axed
UKTV People - axed
UKTV Documentary - stays the same but with a more impressive channel line-up
UKTV History - stays same but better programming, not just world war stuff
UKTV Mix - a new channel repeating shows from UKTV channels?

*ALL +1 CHANNELS AXED*

OK, we now have 6 UKTV channels. IMO this would be a far better UKTV network and would win back those vital ratings.

What you think?

POST HERE.

Agree UKTV Gold needs older programmes

To be honest I don't see the point of UKTV +1 channels especially as they take up unnessecary (sp) space on SKY when Granada Plus could have remained

What? EPG space isn't a problem, when there are 999 channels it *could* be an issue. ITV choosing to close Granada Plus was due to two main reasons, firstly ITV3 was competing for the same audience and that ITV messed up requesting an EPG slot and therefore took the easy way out by replacing Plus.

Axing channels isn't something that UKTV are going to be considering, they also certainly won't be renaming Style > Homes, when they channel grew from Style.

However I agree that a sort out is needed at UKTV, I suggest the following...

UKTV Gold - Going back to roots with older programming, but keeping the newer, along with the introduction of 'Live' programmes if rights could be negotiated.
UKTV Comedy - Renamed, expanded G2, with current range of programmes but taking some from Gold to go 24 hour.
UKTV Drama - Going 24 hour and taking the drama content from Gold.

UKTV Style - Lifestyle content from Style
UKTV Homes - Don't particularly want it, or any of the style range, but it'll probably happen sooner or later. Taking makeover and property programmes.
UKTV Gardens - Any guesses about how long it will take them to drop the style once they've got the EPG place sorted?
UKTV Food - as is.

UKTV History, People and Documentary as is.


Any ideas, I know the parts regarding Gold are an ideal, but it could work.

I think UKTV Gold is great but yes it does need to include older classics, and indeed stop repeating the same programmes. Also they need to show all the episodes of a series from start to finish and not the first couple of years then go back to the begin. A move to free to air would be a fantastic boost for Freeview. It would also leave a space for something like Living TV to take its place on TUTV.

I think UKTV Gold could also be a feeder station of UKTV Drama (which could also tackle old soap) and UKTV Comedy (UKTV G2).

As for lifestyle, well its beyond a joke. Two simple channels, Style and Food would be enough, dump BrightIdeas and timeshare them both on Freeview!

It is an interesting scenario.

Gold should contain more GOLD material as has been said.

I do like the idea of comedy, as this is basically what G2 is anyway. It would be nice if G2/Comedy could stay quite young and recent with their comedies, leaving classics to Gold, then maybe even creating their own comedies, even if they are the cheap made on a street hidden camera type shows.
Then of course they could go and either set up a deal and film stand up gigs from comedy clubs or pick up already created shows.

UKTV Drama, it's a shame that this channel has been neglected in a way. I would love to see them make this if not 24 hours have it running during most of the late afternoon and evening, rather than 9pm!

As for UKTV Style, Bright Ideas, Gardens, Food and the proposed Homes, why?

UKTV Style was created to house everything, but will there be a point of having Style when they've all separated. It'd be ok to separate all of the channels if there was material to fill them all, but somethings telling me that there won't be, especially when Gardens comes along.

I'd say drop Bright Ideas too, but it's there to serve Freeview really, it's a shame that they just can't put Style & Food on Freeview (isn't it to do with them showing BBC shows or something?).

History, People and Documentary are all doing well and all do their jobs well so there's nothing to be changed here.

One channel which I miss, and I didn't see the point in closing was Play UK. Obviously now it would be UKTV Play, but I wouldn't mind seeing it return, even if it's as a music channel that airs videos, aswell as documentaries and programmes such as TOTP.

It could actually be the best music channel if it kept a grip on the amount of programmes to video ratio, and kept the programmes based on music.

As for +1 channels, I quite like them (I know I'm amoungst the minority), but as we just have Sky, and not Sky+ yet then we can watch a programme within the next hour if they clash, or if we forget about a programme we can watch it in the next hour, instead of missing it altogether.

The only other real areas not covered are movies (though what would they show), sports (waste of time with Sky Sports, as they'd buy all of the rights to everything, unless they did the local bowls match), News (which is a tricky area, and perhaps should be left), kids/childrens (everybodies in on that area, so it would be a waste of time), and shopping (they may already be looking into it, I wouldn't put it past them).

And then the only area not covered would be porn, well, who knows!

UK Gold went downhill after the other UKTV channels were launched in 1997 - before then, you had a mix of comedy, drama, music, entertainment, game shows etc.

Bringing back UK Play is a good idea, but as an exclusively music channel, show music videos during the day, bring back shows like TOTP Plus, show archive TOTP (as in 1970s and 1980s), perhaps other music series like The Tube and Later with Jools Holland, and perhaps live concerts like UK Gold used to show. With VH1 being the way it is, and people probably bored of the likes of Magic and Q with non-stop videos, there is a gap in the market for a new, decent music channel that doesn't rely on videos or "celeb" shows.

As I said before, it would allow Style to focus solely on lifestyle programming; Homes would have a wider remit that the previously mentioned DIY as it would be able to cover property as well. I don’t particularly want any of these channels, but as they have gone into the process of splitting style up, they might as well get on with it.

Also didn’t mention before, Bright Ideas is very pointless, I understand that there are some rights issues regarding non-original programming, but a UKTV+ channel, showcasing everything on the network would do much more to promote UKTV.

I agree with the majority, we only really need one lifestyle channel from UKTV. Lets examine the situation:

a) UKTV Bright Ideas shows repeats from UKTV Food & UKTV Style - so no need for UKTV Bringt Ideas anymore.
b) UKTV Style Gardens is only going to show gardening programmes that are already shown (BUT TO BE MOVED OVER FROM) UKTV Style.
c) UKTV Style and UKTV Food repeat their programmes two or three times a day anyway meaning all the programmes could be fitted on to one channel ie. UKTV Lifestyle.

Now, the situation with Gold/G2/Drama.

I think UKTV Drama should be incorporated into UKTV Gold. Then I think some of the more recent comedies from the last five years onwards, the same with quiz shows, dramas and soaps should be moved to UKTV G2 (Making UKTV G2 24hrs or 7am - 1am etc.).

Now the situation with History/Documentary/People.

I think as all three channels repeat their programmes throughout the day, all three should be combined into one channel - UKTV Factual.