UKTV Rolls Out New Men’s Channel

LONDON, September 20: UKTV
is evolving UKTV G2 into Dave, a male-skewing comedy and factual entertainment
channel, launching on all digital platforms in the U.K., including Freeview, on
October 15.

The idea behind the
channel’s new name is that “everybody knows a bloke called Dave,” because the
aim of the name change is to create viewer affinity among the key target
audience of men aged 16 to 34. Along with changing its name, the channel will
also move to Freeview, which makes it available in 20 million homes throughout
the U.K. for the first time.

Dave’s channel head,
Steven North, explained: “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-to-34 male audience.”

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

Launching October 15, Dave
will broadcast from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Freeview channel 19 (replacing UKTV
Bright Ideas), Sky channel 111 and Virgin TV channel 125. UKTV History remains
at channel 12 on Freeview, transmitting from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Sky 537 and
Virgin TV 203 the channel will be available from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.