SKY, Virgin Media and Freeview viewers may notice something a tad different about four major channels tomorrow.
It all concerns Drama, Dave, W and Yesterday – but fear not, the group aren’t going anywhere.
Owners UKTV are going through a huge revamp that will see the channels tweaked and more closely aligned as one.
The broadcaster has already implemented the shake-up to its streaming service UKTV Play, which is now simply known as U.
From Tuesday, Drama, Dave, W and Yesterday will all take on refreshed names as well – and there are some new shows to mark the occasion too.
They will all come under the new U banner, so Dave will become U&Dave, Drama will be known as U&DRAMA, Yesterday switches to U&YESTERDAY and W transitions to U&W.
Channel numbers will remain unchanged so you don’t need to rescan any boxes.
As a reminder, they are:
- U&Dave – Freeview 19, Virgin Media 127, Sky satellite 111, Sky Glass/Stream 132,
- U&DRAMA – Freeview 20, Virgin Media 116, Sky satellite 143, Sky Glass/Stream 134
- U&YESTERDAY – Freeview 27, Virgin Media 129, Sky satellite 155, Sky Glass/Stream 161
- U&W – Freeview 25, Virgin Media 125, Sky satellite 132, Sky Glass/Stream 133
“The launch of U on 16th July is an important step for UKTV, defining our age of transformation. U will present our viewers with an extraordinary range of free quality content, allowing them to connect the dots between the streaming service and our family of TV channels,” said Penny Brough, Chief Marketing Officer at UKTV.
The new U will be home to almost 8,500 hours of free content, including new programming, exclusive shows, award-winning originals and premiere acquisitions.
There are a number of new shows to mark the revamp too.
A brand new original comedy reality gameshow called Battle in the Box, hosted by Jimmy Carr, will be shown on U&Dave.
It’s based on a hit Korean format, where pairs of comics and celebrities battle it out for pride, prizes and most importantly, floorspace.
The second series of Whitstable Pearl will be available as a boxset on U from tomorrow, before launching on U&DRAMA.
The crime drama returns for a new season, with Kerry Godliman playing lead Pearl Nolan, a single mother of a grown son, who’s a private detective and runs the Whitstable Pearl, a seafood restaurant in the coastal town of Whitstable.
