Dave (TV channel)
Dave is a British free-to-air television channel owned by UKTV, a subsidiary of BBC Studios. It broadcasts mainly comedy, with some factual programming. The channel took the name Dave on 15 October 2007, but it had been on air under various identities and formats since October 1998.
Broadcast area
United Kingdom
Ireland
Isle of Man
Channel Islands
English
Dave ja vu (formerly Dave +1)
2 October 1998
UKTV Bright Ideas (Freeview)
UK Gold Classics (1998–1999)
UK Gold 2 (1999–2003)
UK G² (2003–2004)
UKTV G2 (2004–2007)
Channel 19
Channel 57 (ja vu)
Watch live (UK only)
Watch live (UK and Ireland only)
Watch live (UK only)
Watch live (+1) (UK only)
Watch live (Ireland only)
History[edit]
UK Gold Classics and UK Gold 2 (1998–2003)[edit]
UK Gold Classics, UKTV's first digital-only channel, was launched on 2 October 1998 and was only broadcast from Friday to Sunday on Sky Digital from 6.00pm to 2.00am. Around this time, UK Gold began to move towards newer programmes instead of older ones; the 'classics' line-up included a number of early shows, including some black-and-white programmes, which had been acquired in the early years of the UK Gold service. They also showed some recent shows from the main channel, but the main purpose of the channel was older shows from the early years of UK Gold. On weekdays, the channel was off air, showing a still caption of all the UKTV channels and start-up times.
Some of the programmes that aired on UK Gold Classics throughout its short-lived tenure include a repeat run of the ITV comedy series Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggitt,[1] BBC comedy series Open All Hours, BBC soap opera EastEnders, ITV police drama series The Bill, ITV comedy series Gingerbread Girl and some of UK Gold's original commissioned programming that were recently aired on the main channel at the time such as the game shows Wow-fab-Groovy, Tellystack, Sports Anorak of the Year, stand-up comedy show Live at Jongleurs, Rowland Rivron Bites The Bullet and music show Gold Goes Pop received an airing on the spin-off channel too.
The 'Classics' format lasted just six months; the channel ended on 28 March 1999, and the following day, UKTV announced that the channel would be relaunched as UK Gold 2 from 2 April 1999 and eventually expand broadcast hours.[2][3] The new format for the network essentially functioned as a secondary timeshift service, with UK Gold 2 screening UK Gold's programmes from the morning of that day. On 24 May 1999, it was officially announced that the channel would start broadcasting daily from 1 June.[4]
On 11 February 2002, UK Gold 2's downtime within the day became home to UK Style +.[5] On 29 May, the channel launched on NTL.[6] and eventually on Telewest. On 1 August, the channel moved from 110 to 111 on the Sky EPG, to make room for UK Gold +1, which launched that day.[7] In July 2003, UK Style + vacated the downtime slot used by UK Gold 2 and extended its broadcast hours.
UK G² and UKTV G2 (2003–2007)[edit]
On 28 October 2003, it was announced that UK Gold 2 would be relaunched and rebranded as UK G² on 12 November.[8] The newly revamped network was promoted as being an edgier alternative to UK Gold; airing programmes aimed at an 18-34 year-old youth audience. Some of the programmes that already aired on UK Gold moved to the new network, in addition to some programmes from Play UK, which had closed the year prior. The broadcast hours were also changed, with the channel now operating from 8:00pm to 5:00am.
On 8 March 2004, the channel's "UK" prefix was changed to the full "UKTV" name, renaming the network as UKTV G2, as with the rest of the UKTV network. On 1 November, near the channel's first anniversary, a one-hour timeshift service, UKTV G2 +1, was launched on Sky[9] and Telewest.,[10] broadcasting from 9:00pm to 4:00am.
On 7 October 2005, it was announced that UKTV G2 would pilot a sports programming block titled UKTV Sport. The block would include a new show by the same name, as well as its own logo and DOG. The block was planned to be a pilot for a dedicated TV channel of the same name, which never came into fruition.[11]
Reception[edit]
Within just one month of its launch, Dave was the tenth most viewed television channel in the UK. In November 2007, the broadcaster listed daily viewing averages at around 3 million viewers, although, much of the growth was attributed to its presence on Freeview; nonetheless, it was performing significantly better in pay TV homes than UKTV G2. Over the month since its launch, Dave averaged a 1.32% share in multichannel homes and a 3.2% share in the 16–34 male demographic.[40]
Dave received 4 million viewers throughout 18 November 2007 for its coverage of "Car of the Year", pushing it to second place in multichannel behind ITV2.[40]
The first episode of Red Dwarf: Back to Earth attracted 2,060,000 viewers on the first viewing,[41] though over 4 million viewed the episode at some point over its debut weekend.[23] The highest rating original commission before this had been Red Bull X-Fighters (about 185,000).
Dave Weekly podcast[edit]
In August 2011, Dave launched a regular comedy podcast called The Dave Weekly hosted on joindave.co.uk and accessible via iTunes.[44] Presented by Ben Shires, the podcast comprises interviews with comedians such as Russell Kane, Jo Brand, Adam Buxton, Paul Foot and Alex Horne along with occasional features.
Dave’s Funniest Joke Of The Fringe[edit]
Since 2008 the channel has given the Funniest Joke of the Fringe award. The award is voted on by the public from a shortlist and aims to highlight the best single joke told at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
