Yesterday turning into UK Gold?

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  • YouViewYouView Posts: 2,361
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    I have got Gold on Now TV and think it should be on Freeview. When you have Gold and see the content on the channel you realise it could be on free to air. If Yesterday is showing content from Gold even less reason to take a Sky Subscription out to watch it. The only reason Gold is popular because it is in the same entertainment pack as Sky 1, Sky Atlantic and Sky Living. People would not just take a subscription out to watch BBC Comedy repeats like Only Fools and Horses where they are commercially available on Download and DVD.

    The reason that Gold is so popular is not because it is in the same entertainment pack as those other channels, there are plenty of much less popular channels in the same pack! It is popular because it's audience like watching it's progranmming, and it has great EPG slots, which also helps.

    The pay TV operators know how good a brand it is (out of the hundreds of channels available, Sky have picked it for NOW TV), and if people will happily pay for it there is no reason to give it away for free.

    Any pay TV channels struggling for ratings, that the pay TV operators are no longer willing to pay for, are good candidates to join Freeview, as we have seen with other UKTV channels.
  • MetalGearRexMetalGearRex Posts: 91
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    YouView wrote: »
    The reason that Gold is so popular is not because it is in the same entertainment pack as those other channels, there are plenty of much less popular channels in the same pack! It is popular because it's audience like watching it's progranmming, and it has great EPG slots, which also helps.

    The pay TV operators know how good a brand it is (out of the hundreds of channels available, Sky have picked it for NOW TV), and if people will happily pay for it there is no reason to give it away for free.

    Any pay TV channels struggling for ratings, that the pay TV operators are no longer willing to pay for, are good candidates to join Freeview, as we have seen with other UKTV channels.
    Great example of this was Really and Home. Both channels were poorly performing on pay TV platforms before UKTV launched them on Freeview, by which the viewing figures rose. I'd imagine that Eden and Good Food will be the next UKTV channels on Freeview.
  • zeebre12zeebre12 Posts: 1,167
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    Why do UKTV need 10 channels anyway or whats the idea. It cant be cheap running 10 channels. Would it not be better to have a solid 5?
  • SonOfPurpleSonOfPurple Posts: 2,637
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    zeebre12 wrote: »
    Why do UKTV need 10 channels anyway or whats the idea. It cant be cheap running 10 channels. Would it not be better to have a solid 5?

    They were originally four/five channels - UK Gold, UK Style, UK Arena, UK Horizons and from '98 UK Play - which over time transformed and expanded into the current network.

    I can foresee more change coming to UKTV. In the past, to add channels to Freeview they'd cut down Dave ja vu to free up capacity - that's how Really and then Drama got on board - so in theory if UKTV wanted to launch a comedy/entertainment channel (GOLD or its successor) FTA they could do this again. Yesterday and Eden content could be combined to form a stronger factual channel to take the Yesterday slots, freeing up the current Eden on pay platforms for a new pay channel. And once Home's on Freesat the homes content can be taken back off Really again. Any and all UKTV core channels could go FTA on satellite subject to contract, now they're on a spotbeam, but my guess is they'll carry on the 'freemium' model - a few pay channels (W, Alibi, the new Eden) for premier content alongside the free channels' breadth.

    Another slot could go free if Scripps finds a way to trade Food Network into UKTV and combine it with Good Food to form a single strong food station, with the current Food Net slots on satellite/cable retained as Scripps' own and used to bring another of their brands to Britain (they've been quite aggressively expanding their portfolio internationally in recent times...)
  • YouViewYouView Posts: 2,361
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    zeebre12 wrote: »
    Why do UKTV need 10 channels anyway or whats the idea. It cant be cheap running 10 channels. Would it not be better to have a solid 5?

    Why do ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky, Viacom, Discovery, Turner, FOX etc all have so many channels... it's just a simple ratings game, more viewers = more profit.
    They were originally four/five channels - UK Gold, UK Style, UK Arena, UK Horizons and from '98 UK Play - which over time transformed and expanded into the current network.

    I can foresee more change coming to UKTV. In the past, to add channels to Freeview they'd cut down Dave ja vu to free up capacity - that's how Really and then Drama got on board - so in theory if UKTV wanted to launch a comedy/entertainment channel (GOLD or its successor) FTA they could do this again. Yesterday and Eden content could be combined to form a stronger factual channel to take the Yesterday slots, freeing up the current Eden on pay platforms for a new pay channel. And once Home's on Freesat the homes content can be taken back off Really again. Any and all UKTV core channels could go FTA on satellite subject to contract, now they're on a spotbeam, but my guess is they'll carry on the 'freemium' model - a few pay channels (W, Alibi, the new Eden) for premier content alongside the free channels' breadth.

    Another slot could go free if Scripps finds a way to trade Food Network into UKTV and combine it with Good Food to form a single strong food station, with the current Food Net slots on satellite/cable retained as Scripps' own and used to bring another of their brands to Britain (they've been quite aggressively expanding their portfolio internationally in recent times...)

    Further change is to some degree inevitable, TV is always changing, with rebranding and reshuffling to maximise viewers and profits. However, any move to consolidate content over fewer channels is very unlikely, as they'll want to continue stretching their content as far as possible.

    Personally I think they've got things well positioned at the moment with a nice even spread of 5 pay TV channels and 5 free TV channels, made up of 6 entertainment (3 pay and 3 free), 2 factual (1 pay, 1 free) and 2 lifestyle (1 pay, 1 free).
  • dave_windowsdave_windows Posts: 5,937
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    I hope not unless W goes onto freeview as like these shows and its nice having these on here and freesat.

    I really hate the way they rebranded Watch to W. one letter is stupid. Just leave it as watch.
  • owl61ukowl61uk Posts: 3,003
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    What is sooooo frustrating is that there are literally hundreds of good comedy and drama programes out there and UK TV contuinually feed us the same old same old year in year out.

    How many times has OFAH been shown on Gold. I reckon it has been on about every day for past 8 years or so. It was funny but for me they have ruined this once great comedy. I mean how many times can you laugh at Del Boy falling through the bar

    there was thread started on here a few weeks ago about rarely repeated comedy and one followed about rarely shown drama and some of the suggestions were first class.

    Quality across all TV networks has suffered in place of quanity
  • DavewwDaveww Posts: 634
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    I'll be very happy if gold goes on Freeview
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