The previously announced rebranding of the BBC’s UK commercial channels will happen next month, with viewers seeing the new names on screen from July 16th.
In addition to its Licence Fee funded channels, the broadcaster owns a portfolio of advert-funded and subscription channels, including Gold, Drama, Eden, Yesterday and Dave, plus the UKTV Play streaming service.
The channels offer a mixture of new commissions, international acquisitions and shows from the BBC’s archives and are operated by UKTV, a subsidiary of the BBC’s commercial arm which generates additional income to supplement its core Licence Fee funding.
The firm is rolling out a new ‘masterbrand’ which will see UKTV Play renamed ‘U’ and the names of the free to air channels prefaced by ‘U&’ – for example, Drama will become U&Drama and Dave will become U&Dave.
Its subscription channels, including comedy channel Gold, will be rebranded in the same style “at a later date”.
Penny Brough, Chief Marketing Officer at UKTV, said: “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.”
Andrea Amey, the firm’s Chief Digital Officer, added, “U will be home to almost 8,500 hours of free content, comprising new programming, exclusive shows, award-winning originals and premiere acquisitions.
“We can’t wait to give our viewers even more choice and a service that is easy to navigate, so they can enjoy our free and varied offering.”