As UKTV prepares a further repackaging of its line-up, Julian Clover assesses multichannel’s entertainment fare.
There remains something about the UK multichannel television market that is slightly unsure of itself. The Freeview line-up of channels from broadcasters with a modicum of public service responsibilities, at least on the mother channels, is replicated in the first page or two of the Sky EPG.
In those pages basic channels from Sky, UKTV, and Virgin Media TV (the former Flextech) try to grab the attention. Sky One is going through something of a renaissance. Channel head Richard Wolfe, who previously reinvented Living, has managed to broaden out the appeal of the channel, while retaining its overall character. The US sci-fi and other imported first runs, not least The Simpsons, are still there but now playing a supporting role to documentaries, the occasional drama, studio-based game shows Are You Smarter than a Ten Year Old?, Don’t Forget the Lyrics and Gladiators. Yes, Gladiator’s, ITV’s Saturday night lycra-fest from the early 1990s.
To a certain extent Sky One now has an ITV feel about it, no news of course but that is available elsewhere, indeed it’s more of an ITV of a few years ago than the one of today. But ITV was arguably more successful then, the shareprice at least was yet to descend into the doldrums, and Sky One maintains a contemporary feel.
It used to be the case that while the UK market had a selection of thematic channels there was a shortage of all round entertainment. Today with ITV2, 3, 4; BBC Three, E4, Sky One and its sister channels; and UKTV Gold this is no longer true.
So if Sky One is ITV, maybe Virgin 1 has become Sky One, turn on at any time of the day or night and the chances are you’ll get an episode of Star Trek. The relaunched FTN has begun to fade into the ether once more after an initial burst of publicity, largely achieved because of the Terminator spin-off The Sarah Connor Chronicles and having Virgin in the title.
Television is now much more about events and being talked about, even if the number of people able to do the talking has been reduced by the dispersal of the audience across multichannel television and the internet. Dave, the UKTV relaunch of UKTV G2, has got people talking about it and the aim of the new Watch is to do the same for a slightly broader audience.
Watch, launching October 7, will have chat show hosts Richard & Judy as its centrepiece, moving into primetime, and trying to build an audience around them. It will take some of its content from what is now UKTV Gold, which itself will become a British comedy channel, but the door remains open for further original acquisitions. You have to question the purpose of Virgin 1 particularly given the 50% (currently) held by the company in UKTV, and though its style is clearly more edgy than that planned for Watch, so many others are trying to play the edgy card.
Watch already comes across as having confidence, and is redefining Greg Dyke’s observation that a repeat is only such if you’ve seen it the first time, multichannel means that few of us will have.
