This article is about the television channel in Australia and New Zealand. For the UKTV network of channels in the UK and Ireland, see UKTV. For the Middle Eastern channel owned by ITV plc, see Granada UKTV.
UKTV is a subscription television channel in Australia and New Zealand, screening British entertainment programming, sourced mainly from the archives of the BBC, RTL Group (mainly Talkback Thames material) and ITV plc. The company is now owned solely by BBC Worldwide, although it was originally a joint venture with FOXTEL (60% ownership) and the RTL Group (20% ownership).
UKTV's episodes of EastEnders are approximately four weeks behind the United Kingdom. Coronation Street is approximately one year three months behind. Emmerdale is about seven 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. 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 [1]. One such production was miniseries Changi.
UKTV now has separate services in Australia and New Zealand, partly to reflect different local tastes, but also for rights reasons, as many programmes, particularly EastEnders and Coronation Street, are shown on free-to-air in New Zealand on Prime and TV One respectively.
Changes
On 1 July 2008 BBC Worldwide assumed full control of UKTV. BBC Worldwide previously had a 20 per cent stake in UKTV in a three way partnership with Foxtel and Fremantle Media. BBC Worldwide launched two new Australian channels, BBC Knowledge (documentary and non-fiction programming) and CBeebies (an advertising-free channel for 0 to six year-olds) on November 1, 2008. [1]
