BBC Choice, which was launched on 23rd September 1998, has the honour of being the UK's first channel to broadcast exclusively on digital - and for the first week was only available to people inside BBC Television Centre! From 1st October it became available to the general public when Sky Digital began, when widescreen versions of BBC1 and BBC2 also launched, and then 'through an aerial' from the start of ONdigital on 15th November.  The channel had the working titles of BBC Showcase, BBC Catchup and Catchup TV, and was part of a suite of channels planned by the BBC in the late 1990s to spearhead its move into subscription broadcasting. According to the Radio Times dated 30 November-6 December 1996, eight new channels were planned, covering education, the arts, leisure and lifestyle, news and entertainment, as well as 'services showing classic programmes from the BBC archive'. Radio 1 was also set to make its move into television, with a music channel named One-TV which would 'feature the station's presenters and live events'.
Then early in 1997 the BBC announced a tie-up between their commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and the cable operator Telewest's 'content' division, Flextech, to run five subscription channels - BBC Horizon (documentaries), BBC Style (lifestyle), BBC Arena (arts), BBC Learning (education) and BBC Showcase (entertainment). They would be based around past and present BBC programming, and would initially only be available through cable. One-TV was one of three further channels also under discussion, along with BBC Catchup/Catchup TV and BBC Sport/BBC Sports Entertainment. It was planned that, unlike their existing subscription channel UK Gold, the BBC would retain full editorial control of these new channels. But there was one sticking point - Flextech wanted them to be supported by advertising, but the BBC did not want commercials to appear on BBC-branded channels. And so a compromise was reached. When they launched on cable on 1st November 1997, the joint venture channels with Flextech were placed under the umbrella of UKTV. Hence BBC Horizon became UK Horizons, BBC Style became UK Style and BBC Arena became UK Arena. These joined a revamped UK Gold. Each of the channels would carry advertising, but the BBC would retain full editorial control, providing the programming and deciding the schedules and on-screen presentation. Before long, UK Horizons joined UK Gold on the Sky's analogue satellite service, and then in the autumn of 1998 all four channels became available on digital services, along with two new additions - UK Play (a transmogrified One-TV), and UK Gold Classics (later renamed UK Gold 2).   
  
The BBC's remaining new channels, meanwhile, would be licence fee-funded, free-to-air services. The 24-hour news channel, which had also been in the works for some time, began on cable on 9th November 1997. BBC Learning eventually became BBC Knowledge and started on 1st June 1999, offering a line-up of educational programmes aimed at a wide age range, from toddlers to adults.   
BBC Showcase and BBC Catchup became one and the same, and was eventually christened BBC Choice. Launching in September 1998, and run on a shoestring budget, it would operate as a 'back-up' channel for BBC1 and BBC2 with repeats, theme nights, behind the scenes features and some original programming. Plus, for two hours each evening from 10.00, the channel would split into four variants for each of the nations of the UK, which included regional news, sport and discussion prgorammes. The launch was relatively low-key, with only a trailer featuring Pauline Quirke used to promote the channel on the analogue services around launch time. The digital widescreen versions of BBC1 and BBC2 had separate continuity to the analogue versions, and this was used to cross-promote the digital-only channels much more. Unfortunately, right from the start, the cheap-and-cheerful BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge both scored pitifully low ratings. So BBC Knowledge was sent upmarket to become a serious documentary channel, while the 26 year-old Stuart Murphy was drafted in from UK Play to try and sort Choice out. Under his direction, the channel began to change its focus dramatically, and from late 1999 targeted 25-34 year olds with a line-up of quirky original programmes and 'catch-up' repeats from its bigger brothers. Then in August 2000, plans were announced to transform Choice and Knowledge into more substantial channels, to be named BBC3 and BBC4 respectively. The arts-based BBC4 had little trouble getting government permission, and went on air in March 2002, but it took a great deal more kerfuffle to get the plans for the youth-orientated BBC3 approved.  
Stuart Murphy's dream was finally realised on 8th February 2003 when BBC Choice transformed into BBC3, much bigger budgeted than its predecessor but sadly, as it has turned out, considerably blander. The UKTV network, meanwhile, has gone through a bewildering array of changes. UK Arena was replaced by UK Drama in March 2000, UK Play was renamed Play UK in November 2000, and then in May 2001 all of the other UKTV channels moved away from BBC-style presentation. UK Food launched in November 2001, and Play UK closed in September 2002. The latter's place on satellite and cable was taken by UK History, however it also became the first UKTV channel to appear on the newly-launched Freeview platform. It was joined in January 2003 by the clunkily-named UK Bright Ideas. Conceived primarily for Freeview, though available on other platforms, this channel showed original commissions taken from the subscription-only UK Style and UK Food. In November 2003 UK Gold 2 was replaced by the comedy-based UK G2, which partly made up for the demise of Play UK.   
In March 2004 all of the channels were rebranded as 'UKTV' (eg UKTV Gold), and UK Horizons closed, to be replaced by UKTV Documentary and UKTV People. UKTV Style Gardens launched in February 2005, changing its name to UKTV Gardens in 2007. UKTV Drama extended its hours and broadened its output to include comedy programmes. In October 2007 UKTV Bright Ideas closed, and UKTV G2 was renamed Dave. Yes, that's right - a channel called Dave. The success of this rebranding, only partly attributed to its availability on Freeview, has led UKTV to the decision to rebrand its entire network, losing the 'UKTV' from each channel name in the process. And so from October 2008 UKTV Gold becomes the dedicated comedy channel GOLD (which apparently stands for Go On Laugh Daily), and UKTV Drama becomes the crime channel Alibi. They will be joined by a brand new channel called Watch, with Richard and Judy as its centrepiece. It is expected that the remainder of the UKTV network will be rebranded during the course of 2009. |
