UKTV (Australia and New Zealand) - History

History

The channel was first launched in Australia in August 1996, becoming available on Austar in April 1999 and on Optus in December 2002. A New Zealand version with different programming launched on SKY Television, in November 2003.

It shows a mix of repeats of old UK shows previously screened in Australia or New Zealand and new episodes of programs not shown before in Australia or New Zealand. Repeated series include Doctor Who, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Are You Being Served?, Dad's Army, Torchwood, Torchwood Declassified, The Jewel in the Crown, Never the Twain, The Sweeney and The Bill that have already been seen on free-to-air terrestrial television in Australia. New series include Shameless, new episodes of popular soap operas Coronation Street and EastEnders and the original UK version of The Weakest Link which have not otherwise been screened in Australia. UK soap opera Family Affairs, which has never been screened on free-to-air Australian television, ran on UKTV from 1998 to 2007. In July 2006 UKTV began screening 2006 episodes of UK soap opera Emmerdale which had never before been screened in Australia.

UKTV's episodes of EastEnders are approximately twelve weeks behind the United Kingdom. Coronation Street is approximately 3 months behind. Emmerdale is about nine months behind.

In addition to British programming UKTV has repeated Australian soap operas Sons and Daughters and Prisoner which were both produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation (now owned by RTL). In both cases the entire series was shown; the Sons and Daughters repeat run was from 1997 until 2000 and Prisoner ran from 1997 until October 2004, Prisoner is now screening on 111 HITS from March 2011. It also screened the TVNZ soap opera Shortland Street for several years in the 1990s, after early episodes of that series had briefly been screened by SBS on free-to-air television in Australia.

In Australia, UKTV, like all pay TV drama channels, is legally required to spend 10 per cent of their total program expenditure on funding new eligible (Australian and New Zealand) drama programs . Such productions include Changi, Supernova, Make or Break and False Witness.

UKTV has separate services in Australia and New Zealand, partly to reflect different local tastes, but also for rights reasons, as many programmes, are shown on free-to-air channels in New Zealand . For example, Coronation Street has been shown on TV One for many years, while until May 2009, EastEnders was shown on Prime, before moving to UKTV.

On 3 October 2009 UKTV revealed a new logo, displaying that of the BBC, although its name remained unchanged. On 15 November 2009 the channel launched an HD simulcast, replacing BBC HD.