Drama (British TV channel)
Drama is a British free-to-air television channel broadcasting drama (and, to a lesser extent, comedy, sci-fi) programming in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of the UKTV network of channels.
This article is about the British television channel. For the channel formerly known as UKTV Drama, see Alibi (TV channel).History[edit]
The channel launched on 8 July 2013,[1] replacing Blighty.[2] The channel was initially launched on Freeview channel 20, which was previously occupied by Gold,[3] and on Sky the channel was launched on channel 291, in the overspill area of the Entertainment section. It was moved to channel 166 on 24 July after purchasing the slot used by PBS America (formerly named PBS UK in 2011).[4] The channel launched on Virgin Media on 14 August on channel 190. In September 2014, UKTV blamed the channel for their 7% profits fall. In September 2018, Drama and Really were added to Virgin Media Ireland.
A timeshift channel, Drama +1, was launched on Sky and Virgin Media on 16 September 2019, replacing Travel Channel +1. On 25 January 2021, it was announced that the timeshift channel would be taking over CCXTV's Freeview slot (channel 73) on 1 February 2021, with CCXTV ending transmission.[5] On 1 February 2022, BBC Three relaunched on Freeview channel 23 which shifted all the channels from that slot until Freeview 82 down a place, meaning that Drama +1 was now on channel 74.[6]
On 28 March 2022, Drama +1 moved to Freeview 60[7][8] as a limited reach channel, as channel 25 was used by UKTV for their female skewing W channel,[9][10][11][12][13] which means that Dave ja vu took the COM4 slot from Drama +1 on Freeview channel 74.[7]