This article is about the television channel in Australia and New Zealand. For the UKTV network of channels in the UK and Ireland, see UKTV. For the Middle Eastern channel owned by ITV plc, see Granada UKTV. UKTV is a subscription television channel in Australia and New Zealand, screening British entertainment programming, sourced mainly from the archives of the BBC, RTL Group (mainly talkbackTHAMES material) and ITV plc. The company is now owned solely by BBC Worldwide, although it was originally a joint venture with FOXTEL (60% ownership) and the RTL Group (20% ownership).
History
It was first launched in Australia in August 1996, and became available in New Zealand via SKY Television, in November 2003.
It shows a mix of old series like Are You Being Served?, Dad's Army, The Jewel in the Crown, Never the Twain, The Sweeney and The Bill that have already been seen on free-to-air terrestrial television in Australia. It also screens popular soap operas like the BBC's EastEnders and Granada's Coronation Street. UK soap opera Family Affairs, which has never been screened on free-to-air Australian television, ran on UKTV from 1998 to 2007. In July 2006 UKTV began screening 2006 episodes of UK soap opera Emmerdale.
It also screens other current shows such as Casualty, Holby City, Shameless, and the original version of The Weakest Link.
In addition to British programming it has repeated Australian soap operas Sons and Daughters and Prisoner (known in the UK as Prisoner Cell Block H) which were both produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation (now owned by RTL). In both cases the entire series was shown; the Sons and Daughters repeat run was from 1997 until 2000 and Prisoner ran from 1997 until October 2004. It also showed the TVNZ soap opera Shortland Street for several years in the 1990s, after that series had briefly been screened by SBS on free-to-air television in Australia.
Apart from comedy and drama series being aired, UKTV has also shown British sci-fi shows such as Doctor Who and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
In Australia, UKTV, like all pay TV drama channels, is legally required to spend 10 per cent of their total program expenditure on funding new eligible (Australian and New Zealand) drama programs [1]. One such production was miniseries Changi.
UKTV now has separate services in Australia and New Zealand, partly to reflect different local tastes, but also for rights reasons, as many programmes, particularly EastEnders and Coronation Street, are shown on free-to-air in New Zealand on Prime and TV One respectively.
Changes
As of 1 July 2008, BBC Worldwide will assume full control of UKTV and have the addition of three BBC Worldwide channels being added to the Foxtel lineup over the next 12 months.
BBC Worldwide had previously had a 20-percent stake in UKTV, in a three-way partnership with Foxtel and Fremantle Media. BBC Worldwide will launch two new Foxtel channels, BBC Knowledge (documentary and non-fiction programming) and CBeebies (an advertising-free channel for 0 to six year-olds), which will both launch in mid-2009.[1]
References
- UKTV Website 2006 [2]. Retrieved Jan. 16 2006.
External links
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