'E', things ain't what they used to be

As the next UKTV channel succumbs to a jaunty rebrand (UKTV History becoming Yesterday), Dominic Small is back with another examination of multichannel fortunes.

This time he’s looking at why networks continually tinker with their onscreen identities – from UK Living, to Living, to LivingTV, back to Living… and beyond. Read the story »

Oh, and does anyone know why the lowercase ‘e’ in YeSTERDAY?

The latest iteration of that logo

A two-parter, Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, is set to premiere on Friday 10 April at 9pm on Dave. Written and directed by Doug Naylor, it reunites RD cast members Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn (nothing has yet been confirmed regarding Norman Lovett or Hattie Haybridge). Shooting starts on Monday 16 February.

The two episodes will be joined by a couple of one-offs: Red Dwarf: Unplugged (“A no holds barred episode that delivers the cast as they’ve never been seen before – no sets, no effects… and no autocue!) and Red Dwarf: The Making of Back to Earth.

Dave promises it’ll have regular updates for RD fans on its website, joindave.co.uk, with a new piece of production gossip revealed every Wednesday.

Revealed today to the press at – yes – this afternoon’s UKTV launch, the First Couple of Television spoke about why decided their time was up at C4.

“About a year ago,” said Richard, “we’d finished the last series of the Channel 4 show, and signed a new one year contract. Judy looked at me and said, ‘What if they’d given us a two-year contract, would you have wanted to sign that?’. My first reaction was, ‘Yeah’, but then I thought, ‘Hold on…’

“Then we had a week’s conversation,” he continued, “and we realised that actually we’d done This Morning for 13 years, and we’d done the Richard & Judy show for C4 for six years, at that point, with another one to go. And that format – it’s a magazine format, not a chat show – well, we couldn’t really take it anywhere else. We phoned C4 and gave them lots of notice that we were thinking of moving on.”

Having turned down an offer from ITV to go to the south of France for a year to run a vineyard for a reality show, the duo then opted for a deal with UKTV and their new channel, Watch, which launches on October 7.

Richard again: “This UKTV thing began to emerge. It seemed like the very best offer on the table, for two reasons. We’ve never really done a chat show, only a magazine show. We tried a few on ITV some years back, but they were only half-hours, and you need an hour. UKTV offered us an hour, and 8pm, a brilliant slot. But the main thing was, as far as we’re concerned – and we’re not trying to be political here – everything’s going to be digital in a few months time. That’s how everyone’s going to be watching television.

“I think, and Judy thinks, it’s a good move at the right time.”

Have a look at the brilliant R&J trailer on Watch’s official website: www.justwatch.co.uk

It was confirmed this afternoon at UKTV’s press launch for new channels Watch, Alibi, GOLD and the autumn season of shows on Dave (where RD will screen).

Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) told assembled journalists: “It’s very new news to me. I really only fully heard the details yesterday. We’re doing four new shows – two of them are going to be proper new episodes of Red Dwarf. [The third programme] is so exciting I’ve been asked not to say anything because other people will steal the idea. And it is a great idea, quite challenging for us as performers. The [final programme] is a kind of behind-the-scenes… the truth… there’s been so many rumours and gossip about Red Dwarf, so all those things.”

He also let slip Doug Naylor will be writing. Expect blast off some time next year.

Set to become the network’s premiere entertainment channel, Watch will launch in the next few weeks, with Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan’s new prime time series as the jewel in its crown.

The logo – a scary 1984-esque eye (which UKTV describe as “huggable”) has resulted in a series of idents filming right now, featuring a 20ft by 20ft peeper roving around Oxfordshire, Hastings and shooting today in Bedford Square, London.

Here’s the pictures from the first shoot at Burrows Farm, Hastings. Click the images for a larger version.

UKTV unveils its new entertainment channel brands – Watch, GOLD and Alibi

UKTV today announces the launch of three distinct channel brands: Watch (previously UKTV Gold +1), GOLD and Alibi (previously UKTV Drama). All three channels will launch on Tuesday 7 October 2008.

Carrying the cream of contemporary programming, Watch promises to deliver simply great TV. Operating as a linear catch-up service for modern classics including Torchwood, Mistresses and Larkrise to Candleford, the bold entertainment channel will sit next to GOLD in the pay section of the EPG. The crown in its enviable schedule will be Watch’s brand new commission, the Richard and Judy primetime show, which will air on weekdays.

GOLD – Go On Laugh Daily – becomes a dedicated comedy channel with a clear mission: to make people laugh. Offering uplifting and infectious comedy from Only Fools and Horses, Fawlty Towers to the Vicar of Dibley, GOLD unashamedly celebrates all Britain’s fantastic comedy and guarantees its viewers a well earned giggle. Launching as part of its new look will be two brand new commissions – Blackadder Exclusive: The Whole Rotten Saga and Blackadder’s Most Cunning Moments.

UKTV Drama will be transformed into Alibi, the World’s Number 1 Detective Agency. Dedicated exclusively to the best crime shows, Alibi promises to bring together the greatest investigative minds from Sherlock Holmes to DCI Taggart to Waking the Dead’s CID team.

Matthew Littleford, UKTV Controller explains, “The fact we’ve taken the bold decision to re-brand our entire entertainment portfolio in one swoop demonstrates the magnitude of our ambition and our commitment to Pay TV. Watch, GOLD and Alibi are dynamic channel brands that are clearly identifiable, full of personality and I believe will future-proof our business as we head towards 2012.”

Christian Drobnyk, Director of Entertainment, who is leading the editorial strategy adds, “With its innovative marketing and strong schedule, Dave became, almost overnight, a top ten channel in multi channel homes; a success that cannot be attributed solely to Freeview as Dave grew by 56% in Pay TV. This success can be replicated across the network with Watch, GOLD and Alibi and enables us to exploit the potential of our real estate.”

Tom Lucas, Director of Marketing and Communications who is leading the re-brand explains, “We’ve undertaken an incredibly ambitious brand overhaul with rigorous analysis of audience needs informing all our changes. Watch addresses the problem of media fragmentation by putting our viewers in the picture and enabling them to catch up on modern TV classics.” He continues, “Meanwhile GOLD is a perfectly timed antidote to credit crunch Britain. As we face bleak news story after bleak news story, Go On Laugh Daily gives us all permission to seek escape in great comedy and enjoy a belly laugh or two.”

The new channel idents and positioning were developed by UKTV’s marketing team in conjunction with Red Bee Media.

I guess that’s all quite sensible, although I’m not sure I really buy “Go On Laugh Daily”. Although I can’t think of a wittier acronym …

From ’70s instalments of Blue Peter and Record Breakers in the mornings, to complete episodes of Match of the Day and Top of the Pops late at night, with the likes of The Innes Book of Records and Carrott’s Lib along the way. Indeed, so committed was this channel to classic TV that it raided the archives for Frankie Howerd’s previously unbroadcast Then Churchill Said To Me and was even, with a fair amount of context-setting, prepared to screen Love Thy Neighbour which gets a (tentative) thumbs up for at least crediting the audience with the intelligence to make their own mind up.

Alas, by the time I’d finally arrived in the world of multichannel television, UK Gold had, bar Saturday morning repeats of Doctor Who, completely given up on any genuinely interesting archive shows to become, basically, BBC1-and-a-Half, showing the likes of Only Fools and Horses and Fawlty Towers on an endless loop, as well as stuff like My Hero which was only about six months old.

In recent months, though, things had brightened up a bit with Wogan: Now and Then and The Generation Game: Now and Then proving a tad more imaginative than stringing the same old repeats together. But news has now been released about a rebranding of the channel, which will now be known as simply Gold, and a change to the programming mix.

According to Media Guardian, “In its new guise, Gold’s programming mix will move away from retro towards comedy, focusing more tightly on shows such as Only Fools and Horses, Fawlty Towers and Little Britain… the Gold channel has generally focused on classic British programming, [but] the rise of broadband video-on-demand services means Gold is no longer the only place viewers can watch such repeats.”

So, because there are too many places you can watch repeats, Gold is going to show even more repeats of Little Britain, because of course you can’t see that anywhere else! Eh? Who came up with that idea? If anyone can tell me where on “broadband video-on-demand services” I can watch more ’80s episodes of Top of the Pops than the two or three VHS copies currently up on YouTube, I would love to know.

It baffles me why, with all the hundreds of channels available, not one follows the same approach as the original UK Gold and concentrates on genuinely interesting programmes from the archive. The best bet might be Paramount 2 with the likes of George and Mildred and Spitting Image (although I wish, when a channel repeated that series, it didn’t always opt for the atrocious first series, which even the production team thought was awful, rather than some episodes from later in the run when it was actually good), and of course the occasional archive show on BBC4 and ITV4. But these are only very rare occurances and most of them show the same old stuff over and over again.

Clearly, though, it makes more sense to have another channel showing nothing but non-stop Little Britain. Well done everyone.

UKTV is strengthening its channel line up by evolving UKTV G2 into Dave, a comedy and factual entertainment channel. Launching on 15 October, the channel is aimed at a young male audience and will be available on all platforms including Freeview (DTT). The core aim of the name change is to create viewer affinity among a key target audience of ABC1 men aged 16-34 years.

And there’s more …

Dave Channel Head, Steven North explains, “With a schedule for which most broadcasters would give their eye teeth, UKTV G2 is an incredibly successful channel with 10 million viewers in pay homes each month, but with relatively low brand awareness. Changing the channel name to Dave enables us to create a strong and noisy personality for the channel that immediately aligns us with our core 16-34 male audience.”

Julia Jordan, UKTV’s Executive Director Business and Operations, added, “In a cluttered multi-channel environment channel branding is crucial, and Dave offers us a new and innovative way to create audience connections and a commercially desirable channel to maintain our viewing share.

The name change and move on to Freeview allows UKTV to further realise the potential of the channel proposition, making it available to view in 20 million homes nationwide for the first time. 

“There’s a definite opportunity for a channel like Dave on Freeview. The younger male audience is of very high value commercially and this demographic is currently under-served in Freeview homes,” added Julia.

Marketing activity to launch Dave will commence on 1 October with an on-air campaign created by Red Bee Media, which will play across the UKTV and Virgin Media networks. 

With a brief to establish Dave as the home of witty banter and as a refuge from the everyday, the award-winning Red Bee’s innovative and original creative juxtaposes traditional weekend retreat imagery with contemporary talent from the channel’s key content in a humorous and irreverent way to represent the channel’s key brand values.

So there it is. I’m sat here right now looking at the first of Dave’s promotional pictures: “Dave: the home of witty banter” superimposed over a panelled wood wall, with a giraffe edging in to shot.

Dave?!

More interestingly, as revealed at their press launch this morning, they’re unveiled the next show for the Now and Thentreatment: The Generation Game.

“We’ll be giving it the UKTV Gold treament,” promised channel head James Newton, “revisiting games from the past, and creating new ones for today. And, even better than that, we’ve got Mr Generation Game himself, Bruce Forsyth to present it… We haven’t got anything to show you [today] because it’s literally hot off the press. Unfortunately, Brucie can’t be here with us, but he’s sent a few words all the way from Puerto Rico. He says, ‘I’m so looking forward to bringing back the wonderful memories and highlights of The Generation Game. It was always a good game, good game’.”

At the moment, it sounds like the format is up for grabs, with Newton unable to confirm how the new elements will mix with the old. But there it is. Should be fun.

For all Tel’s claim he doesn’t like to bog himself down with research prior to meeting his guests, he was remarkably well informed, quizzing Christopher Lee on what it felt like to be Hollywood’s “most valuable player” in 2005, and taking Ulrika Jonsson to task for various unkind comments she made about Sven-Göran Eriksson’s (lack of) prowess under the covers.

The showpiece encounter of the evening was patently Terry’s reunion with David Icke, 15 years after the former sportscaster came out as the “son of the Godhead” on Terry’s teatime show.

The atmosphere in the studio was postively icy, despite Tel’s efforts to take a concillatory tone, expressing his misgivings about his own “they’re laughing at you” comment from 1991. Alas, Icke isn’t known for his magnanimity, and used this as an opportunity to berate the audience for its lack of maturity. Apparently we all should have been thinking “something really interesting is happening to this guy”, rather than pouring scorn on the notion Saturday Superstore’s sports desk anchor was some kind of modern day Messiah.

Although I was inclined to feel sympathy for Icke, I found that – and my patience – fast ebbing away as he launched into an ill-focussed ramble about bloodlines and a secret ruling class manipulating things from behind-the-scenes. “It’s written down, Terry!” he bellowed on various occasions, as though this in itself gave his theories credence.

For his part, Wogan valiantly battled to get some sort of concrete statement from Icke; name names – who exactly are “the illuminati”? Instead, all he got was confusing bluster and, with the floor manager desperately signalling it was time to cut to a break, things became somewhat fractious as our host challenged David on why he seemed to be the only person coming forward with all this stuff, particularly if it was apparently all so well documented – or “written down”. “So, you know it all?” said Terry. David bristled: “Oh, now that was a cheap jibe!”

“It seems nowadays we can’t have the word ‘conspiracy’,” railed Icke, “without the word ‘theory’.” Well, in this case all we did get is the conspiracy – any essence of a theory was lost in all the fuzzy polemic about world powers and secret orders.

“I hope he didn’t scare you!” shouted an audience-member to Tel, during a break in recording (and with Icke safely back in the green room). Much laughter.