| Sky Living | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 1 September 1993 |
| Owned by | British Sky Broadcasting |
| Picture format | 16:9, 576i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Audience share | 0.5% 0.2% (+1) (August 2011, BARB) |
| Slogan | TV to talk about |
| Formerly called | UK Living (1993–1997) Living TV (1997–2004) LIVINGtv (2004–2007) Living (2007–2011) |
| Sister channel(s) | Challenge, Pick TV, Sky1, Sky2, Sky Arts, Sky Atlantic, Sky Livingit, Sky Living Loves, Sky Movies, Sky Movies Box Office, Sky News, Sky Sports, Sky Sports News |
| Timeshift service | Sky Living +1 |
| Website | sky.com/skyliving |
| Availability | |
| Satellite | |
| Sky | Channel 107 Channel 107 (HD Customers) Channel 172 (Standard definition channel for HD Customers) Channel 121 (+1) Sky Anytime |
| Cable | |
| Virgin Media | Channel 109 Channel 110 (HD) Channel 111 (+1) Sky Anytime |
| UPC Ireland | Channel 124 Channel 125 (+1) |
| WightCable | Channel 40/113 |
| Smallworld Cable | Channel 109 (SD/HD) Channel 135 (+1) |
| IPTV | |
| Freewire | Channel 140 |
| Internet television | |
| Sky Go | Watch live (UK and Ireland only) |
| Virgin Media Player | Watch on demand (UK only) |
Sky Living is a UK television channel owned by British Sky Broadcasting, who purchased the Living TV Group group in 2010. Originally launched as UK Living in 1993, the channel changed its name to Living TV in 1997 and then to Living in 2007. On 1 February 2011 Living changed its name to Sky Living. The channel's programming was aimed mainly at women and young adults, but with new shows such as CSI, Close to Home and Boston Legal, the channel is now broadening its audience reach to a wider range of demographics including men aged 18–45.
The most watched shows on the channel are Ghost Whisperer, Cougar Town, Criminal Minds, America's Next Top Model, Hot In Cleveland, Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. The channel is set to broadcast the first episode of the 7th series of Bones on the 16th of November.
The channel also aired Yvette Fielding's Most Haunted and Most Haunted Live, in which Fielding and the team, that at one point included medium Derek Acorah, investigate haunted locations in the UK and abroad. The show had brought some of the channel's biggest ratings to date.
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The channel began broadcasting in 1993 as UK Living. This came about as it was established by the firm then known as Flextech (now Living TV Group), who also owned a half-share in the established entertainment channel UK Gold.
In 1997, when the BBC and Flextech launched UK Style, UK Horizons and UK Arena to form the UKTV network, it was decided that UK Living would remain a separate channel. As such, it had to remove the 'UK' branding to avoid being confused with the UKTV services; thus UK Living became Living.
Living subsequently launched a website at livingtv.co.uk, and to complement the website's branding, the channel was renamed LivingTV in 2001. This was initially represented on-screen by the addition of the letters 'TV' to the established logo. In a 2004 branding relaunch, the way the name was displayed changed to LIVINGtv.
In a further change in 2007, the channel name reverted from LIVINGtv back to LIVING (still officially spelt all in capitals, though some media write the name in normal case). In 2009, the idents were changed to a 3D logo, with glass on the side of the 'L' in either pink or blue. Other idents show the logo covered in paint, while Livingit adopts a slightly different appearance.
BSkyB announced on 25 October 2010, that Living would be rebranded as Sky Living in early 2011 and moving EPG positions on Sky from channel 112 to 107 after Sky1 and before Sky Atlantic, in order to improve their entertainment line-up.[1]
In 2001, the channel helped to launch a whole new genre of paranormal programming with such shows as Crossing Over with John Edward, 6ixth Sense with Colin Fry, Scream Team, Jane Goldman Investigates, Dead Famous, I'm Famous and Frightened! and Most Haunted, which continued to be a ratings winner.
The channel has also launched a number of successful US television shows in the UK market. Past successes include Charmed, Will & Grace, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Miss Match, Joan of Arcadia, CSI, and Just Shoot Me!. At present the channel currently has first run UK rights to Boston Legal, Criminal Minds, Grey's Anatomy, Ghost Whisperer, The L Word, Men In Trees and the Australian comedy Kath and Kim. In 2008 the channel also debuted the first seasons of Army Wives, Lipstick Jungle, and Viva Laughlin.
Brian Dowling was put forward as one of the public figures to represent the channel - by presenting programming including Celebrity Extra, Trolley Dollies, and a spin-off to I'm Famous and Frightened!. However in recent years, he has been mostly absent from the channel apart from the occasional Celebrity Extra presenting duties. Instead fellow Big Brother contestant Jade Goody became the channel's newest public face, with three different shows devoted to her life, Jade's Salon, Just Jade and Jade's PA, but in January 2007, she was dropped due to the racist row on Celebrity Big Brother. In 2009, when Jade discovered that she had terminal cancer, the channel acquired the exclusive rights to film a documentary through her final days followed by the show producing two hour long tribute shows a week after her death followed by a further two tribute shows in 2010 and 2011.
To continue the list of Reality TV stars hosting programmes, Jodie Marsh announced that she would be presenting a new programme called Get A Life starting on 1 March 2007. However, the channel announced that the show was to be cancelled and discussions got under-way as to whether the remaining four episodes would be aired.[2]
The channel announced in February 2007 that Abigail Clancy, the runner up Britain's Next Top Model (cycle 2) signed a deal with the channel to make a new reality show with Janice Dickinson as her mentor, on trying to crack into America.
The channel announced in June 2010 that model Katie Price had signed a £5 Million, 2 year contract to make and broadcast Series 3 and 4 of her fly on the wall show, What Katie Did Next after turning down a weaker offer from rival channel, ITV2 to continue making further series of the show. This will be the first time that her show will be broadcast in HD.[3]
Many of the channel's original programming are available on demand through Virgin Media and will soon be available on BT Vision. Living and its sister channels are run by ex-ITV Controller of Entertainment Claudia Rosencrantz.
In July 2010, Virgin Media Television and Living itself were acquired by British Sky Broadcasting, under Sky's ownership the company was subsequently rebranded as the "Living TV Group", with a logo similar to the channel itself.
Sky Living is also available in the Republic of Ireland via Sky and UPC Ireland[4] and UPC Digital.[5] The Irish opt-out feed features localized advertising and sponsorship. The channel has been further trying to appeal to the Irish market with outdoor advertising in urban areas. Previously, Irish television channel TV3 were in charge of overseeing the Irish advertising, but Sky Media Ireland now operates the Irish opt-out feed.[6]
Living is broadcast on 11.739 GHz, vertically polarised at 28.2°E. It is encrypted using Videoguard.[7]
Living +2, a two hour timeshift of the channel ran from 1 April 2009, after replacing Trouble,[8] until 1 July 2010, ahead of the launch of Living Loves.[9]
Living along with the BBC, Channel 4, HBO and Bravo has an on demand service which is available on cable via Virgin Media. It offers access to a number of shows which viewers may have missed first time around. It also allows a whole series catch-up of particular original programming such as Most Haunted, Rehab and Dirty Dancing: The Time of Your Life. The shows are available for free.
Certain programmes from the channel are also accessible to Freeview viewers who use Top Up TV Anytime.
On demand content from Living was added to BT Vision's library on 15 January 2009. 38 hours of programming from six of the channel's shows; Extreme: Skinny Celebrities, Dirty Dancing, Living with the Cheeky Girls, Ibiza 2008 and Most Haunted were available from launch. Subscribers to BT Vision taking the TV and Value Packs were be able to access the content with no additional cost; others were be able to view it on a pay per view basis with prices starting at 77p.[10] Living programming was removed from BT Vision on 13 January 2010.[11]
The channel's on-demand offering was revamped during Autumn 2009 as Living Player on Virgin Media.[12] Living Player offers dedicated seven-day catch-up on shows such as Ghost Whisperer and Grey's Anatomy, as well as hours of archive content previously shown on the channel. Living Player will be made available on PCs, the player will also offer HD programming for free to all customers on the Virgin Media's XL TV package. Original commissions will be made available longer term.[13]
On 12 June 2009, Virgin Media managing director Johnny Webb revealed that a high-definition version of the channel would be rolled out during 2009 as part of a cross-platform strategy to boost the channel's brand and said that taking it into HD was "an absolute priority", to kickstart a HD roll-out of all of the Virgin Media Television channels.[14]
On 13 August 2009, Virgin Media added a placeholder for Living HD on channel 110, however it only showed a static 'coming soon' slate.[15] A standard-definition preview was added on 20 August 2009.
The channel launched on 6 October 2009 exclusively on Virgin Media.[16] The channel shows programming such as Criminal Minds, CSI, Ghost Whisperer and Private Practice in HD and is "a significant step forward in Virgin Media Television's cross-platform entertainment strategy".[17]
On 2 September 2010, it launched on Sky channel 224.[18]
On 1st February 2011, the Living HD channel was relaunched as Sky Living HD. It now broadcasts on channel 107 for Sky+ HD customers with the HD channel swap. It continues to broadcast on Virgin Media channel 110.