Could have got in a line about GOLD being devalued!

Not an additional freeview channel and addition UKTV channel.

There are currently 10 UKTV channels:
Alibi
Blighty
GOLD
Eden
Really
Good Food
Yesterday
Dave
Watch
Home

They said Drama would be the 11th channels but if Blighty is closing down then it is not.

Sorry, as this is the Freeview forum it didn't occur to me you were talking about anything else - I should have realised from the high number of channels.

Seems like a win-win for everyone (except anyone still subscribing to TUTV), as Drama will replace the current TUTV Gold on LCN 20, and is probably going to be at least as good as Blighty.

The sooner TUTV is consigned to the grave it deserves to be buried in, the better. A few premium channels can be tolerated for now, but even those will soon be obsolete with decent IPTV subscription services and broadband connections.

It would seem, at the moment, that GOLD will move to 26 with Home going to 54.

The upside for GOLD is that if it ever gets to Freeview then it would still have a fairly good position on the EPG.

The only down side to BT sports replacing Sky Sports and TUTV on the way out is that I doubt if anyone will be interested in taking up the freed up air time.

After all this will equal about three SD quality channels and if I had my wish we'd have TCM, GOLD and CBS Drama plus Viva replaced by a timesharing Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. It would add an extra mix to the current set up and off set the loss of TUTV very nicely.

It won't happen but that's want I'd like to see.

If you want to know what's on the pprogramme schedule is here:- http://www.locatetv.com/uk/listings/drama#08-Jul-2013

Thanks for that. Anyone looking at this site, remember to set your location to UK

They've still got Drama listed as the originally proposed LCN of 25. Might watch Birds of a Feather again, but there's nothing else on the first day that takes my fancy.

Some of the content maybe but Viacom are unlikely to use those brand names for FTA channels.

Is GOLD leaving TUTV then or what's happening with it? Is TUTV even closing? What services do they provide anyway now that linear channels broadcast for so little each day? I wonder how many subscribers they actually have, I can't imagine it's that many.

Gold is changing channel number for now. The long term plans of TUTV remain to be seen. As they aren't taking new subscriptions for the Anytime service, they don't have any obvious long term survival strategy.

Hopefully they will update the name to Gold from G.O.L.D. at the same time.. but that's probably a little too optimistic.

A deal has been struck between the broadcaster and Sky, under which Top Up TV subscribers will be offered the chance to switch to Sky at a discounted rate if they wish to continue receiving the pay TV giant's sports channels. No replacement services have been announced so far, making the future of Top Up TV somewhat unclear.
http://www.cable.co.uk/news/top-up-t...els-801604440/

The above information was posted on the cable.co.uk website today and TUTV recommending to their subscribers that they now go to Sky for their sports and entertainment TV needs is an indication that they could very well be exiting the Freeview/DTT platform entirely.

Given what's also been posted in this thread so far, I do not for one moment expect UKTV to put either GOLD or Home on Freeview full time. It'll either be a token hour a week max or just a placeholder/vacant slot.

That just about the sports channels not entertainment can you please keep to the facts.

You are somewhat late with this news, most people have been aware of this for quite a while. It affects TUTV's sports channel subscriptions, which has nothing whatsoever to do with TUTV Anytime.


For the moment, the TUTV Gold / Home streams will continue as normal, although with new channel numbers. So clearly more that a token hour a week for Gold, although hardly a full time service. It remains to be seen what TUTV will decide to do the extra hours due to be released when ESPN is removed at the end of July.

I think that TelevisionUser likes to bang the drum about UKTV not bringing Gold to freeview even though nobody is suggesting that they will.

As we can see right here, the very letter from TUTV themselves makes it quite clear that viewers should now go to Sky for "Sky's fantastic sports and entertainment packages". The implication is quite clear.


However, there are those in this forum who understandably want to see GOLD and Home go full time on Freeview but, realistically, that is just not going to happen. Instead, we should be grateful that UKTV are providing four free to air channels for us all to watch that cover a variety of genres.

This thread is about UKTV Drama so why you are going on about sorts channels i dont no.

Once again, this is old news. It may well mention "entertainment packages", these are clearly available on Sky. The point you are failing to grasp is that the letter was sent out to TUTV's sports channel subscribers NOT to TUTV Anytime subscribers, which is continuing as normal at the moment.

If you wish to speculate about the future of TUTV, do it in the TUTV section, not in a freeview thread.


In fairness to the members of this forum, I'm not actually seeing the masses suggesting that they would like to see either Gold or Home go full time on freeview. All I'm seeing is you hijacking the thread with comments that they aren't coming. Clearly not as UKTV hasn't even suggested that they will.

Now please, accept that this thread is about UK Drama, not a platform for you to create your own drama.

Kindly direct that remark to those who brought up the other channels in the first place.


When you resort to yet more bitchy, waspish, pompous and nescient comments, all that does is reflect badly upon your own character and judgement.


Thank you for that link, Bizman, and it is good to see that they are showing a variety of programmes throughout the day.

UKTV Drama now has its own specific set of dedicated webpages which can be seen here http://drama.uktv.co.uk/ and the list of series and one-off programmes that they will show is here http://drama.uktv.co.uk/shows/.

You'd probably be better refraining from making comments about judgement as I've already picked you up on several factual inaccuracies in your statements. And oh dear, I think someone may have missed a smiley.

Thanks for proving my point about you using the thread to create drama. You should be aware, however, that I'm not here to please you. Have a nice day.

Okay, that was all rather heavy.

Anyway having looked at the first couple of days UKTV seem to be following their normal approahc of running more or less a (as I call it) a half and half where they repeat the bulk of the morning output in the afternoon evening so as to allow those who work during the day to still see their shows.

Not that much there I would be jumping up and down for at the moment but it will be handy to have another channel available.

I suppose there will be no chance of them expanding to cover some of the older content from Alibi and Watch (Mainly as this is American stuff and Drama is Blighty in all but name).

Equally it will be interesting to see how Yesterday changes around it's line up now that Summer Wine etc. will be on Drama along with Mr Sharpe and according to the inital line up Miss Marple with Joan Hickson (Maybe this time they will broadcast all the episodes and not cho them up so much to shoe horn into a two hour slot including adverts). I would also like Inspector Alleyn, after all they also plan to broadcast Mrs Bradly so that covers all the main, newer period detectives.

Of course it would be nice if they put on Campion or even the Anna Lee series from the 1990's with Imogen Stubbs. Well you never know how things might develop.

Even though Gold and Home are broadcasting as part of the TUTV service, isn't the space ultimately owned by Channel 5? So, if TUTV folds, all the space goes back to them to use as they wish? UKTV won't be able to simply go FTA unless they strike up a deal with Channel 5 for the space. What's to say Channel 5 won't just let the space go for more shopping / porn channels?

Very true I just wonder what Channel 5 will do with the channel once Top Up goes.

I really hope someone else other than home shopping or porn takes the space. We have enough ads for hosepipes, hair removal and less than pretty girls waving phones at you.

It was a part of Channel 5's gifted space on SDN, I'm not sure how the arrangements to move Channel 5 to a PSB multiplex will have affected this arrangement. Ultimately, ITV now owns the multiplex having bought it outright some time ago.

It's a little too early to think about TUTV folding. As stated previously, they have a history of rising like a phoenix from the ashes.

UKTV, as far as I know haven't publicly expressed an interest in the slot but then again, nobody can until TUTV's intentions become clear. If TUTV does sell the space, at least it would stop the practice of EPG squatting, with a couple of encrypted programme segments being treated as channels.

Your point about shopping channels is interesting, I've already stated that there is a shopping segment "Marketplace" included in the stream timeshare. It could easily have its hours extended to mop up any space cleared by the departure of ESPN. As for porn channels, possibly overnight assuming that TUTV doesn't want to expand the Anytime service. Again, it's all speculation until it becomes clear what plans TUTV has for the space. Although, I believe, TUTV had some involvement in sales of TVX, so there could be some question over how that could continue on the platform without TUTV.

Everything will become clear when ESPN departs and the space is reallocated. Who knows, there could even be a Drama +1 slot up for grabs.

I would think they will conduct audience research and make changes as necessary as the channel develops. Technically it isn't Blighty at all, although reusing Blighty's playout facilities will be a cost saving. Blighty will close completely on pay tv platforms, carriage hasn't yet been agreed for Drama on those platforms, so it looks like being a freeview exclusive initially.


Agreed but, unfortunately, extended hours for Marketplace is probably the best bet to fill the gap left by ESPN, at least for the short term.