| Blighty | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 8 March 2004 |
| Owned by | UKTV (BBC Worldwide/Scripps Networks Interactive) |
| Picture format | 16:9, 576i (SDTV) |
| Audience share | 0.0% (June 2011, BARB) |
| Slogan | One nation under a channel |
| Country | United Kingdom and Ireland |
| Formerly called | UKTV People (2004-2009) |
| Replaced | UK Horizons |
| Sister channel(s) | Alibi Dave Eden GOLD Good Food Home Really Watch Yesterday |
| Website | loveblighty.co.uk |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| Sky | Channel 534 |
| Cable | |
| Virgin Media | Channel 206 |
| Smallworld Cable | Channel 534 |
| IPTV | |
| TalkTalk TV | Channel 118 |
Blighty is a television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom as part of the UKTV network of channels. The channel originally launched on 8 March 2004 and relaunched in it's current format on 17 February 2009. The channel is only available on Sky, TalkTalk TV and Virgin Media, and is not available on the digital terrestrial service Freeview.
Contents |
The channel launched on 8 March 2004 as UKTV People, showing repeats of factual programming of a lighter nature, based on the people of the world with programmes such as Top Gear and the docusoap Airport. Much of this programming had come from the former channel UK Horizons, which had closed down the day before. The channel itself, along with UKTV Documentary, replaced this channel formally.
On 9 October 2008, UKTV announced plans to rebrand UKTV People and UKTV Documentary in early 2009.[1] The news came just two days after UKTV's entertainment channels were rebranded to Watch, GOLD and Alibi. They announced that UKTV People would be rebranded as Blighty and this rebrand took place on 17 February 2009.[2] As part of the rebrand, some programmes were transferred to channels such as Dave, while the channel acquired some other programmes looking at British life.
From launch until 18 April 2006, the channel ran a time shift service called UKTV People +1. The service ran the UKTV People schedule one hour later and received no special branding, promotions or coverage - usually a change of DOG Logo was all that changed. When the service closed, its bandwidth was taken by the newly launched UKTV Drama +1.
When the channel launched as UKTV People, the idents all featured people depicted from different angles set against a sceen split in four, before fading into the stacked UKTV People ident over a three striped red background. This same background also featured on promotions for the channel, both on the channel and across the network.[3]
When the rebrand to Blighty occurred, a new logo was designed consisting of a brightly coloured Union Flag. This would be seen on a large scale flying behind the scenes depicted in front. These scenes include many people and centre on a number of typically british themes: Rain, with large wellies, business men with umbrellas and people camping; Sun with beach scenes, and other summer activites; Tea, with all methods of making tea celebrated alongside cakes and buscuits and Multi Cultural, featuring foreign dances and Indian food and spices.[4]
Much of the channels programming focuses on repeated programming, mainly but not exclusively from the BBC, who hold a 50% stake in the channel through commercial arm BBC Worldwide. Additionally, BBC programmes were edited to fit the time slot as an original broadcast for an hour long programme on the BBC might be as much as 58 minutes long, whereas the same programme on Blighty might be 42 minutes long without the commercials.
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