Gold (TV Channel) - History

History

The channel launched on 1 November 1992 as a joint venture between the BBC, through commercial arm BBC Enterprises, and outgoing ITV London weekday franchisee Thames Television. The channel, named UK Gold, was to show repeats of the 'classic' archive programming from the two broadcasters. The rights to the BBC programmes previously were held by the BSB entertainment channel Galaxy, prior to the merger with Sky Television plc to form BskyB in November 1990. The channel was initially broadcast on an analogue transponder from an SES satellite at 19.2°E which was less well suited for UK reception. As a result, the channel used to be notorious for being marred with interference, known as 'sparklies', in large parts of the UK. Another initial drawback was the cutting of programming down to fit commercial time slots, and the intensive use of commercial breaks. Reception improved however with the channel added to BSkyB's basic subscription package in 1993, and the launch of the channel on cable services.

The channel's success led to the launch of the UKTV network on 1 November 1997, owned by BBC Worldwide and Flextech, and consisting of three other channels: UK Arena, UK Horizons and UK Style, focusing on the arts, factual and lifestyle programmes respectively. The UKTV network would expand to include numerous more channels as the years progressed.

The UK Gold brand was expanded in October 1998 with the launch of the digital only channel UK Gold Classics, broadcasting some of the older comedy serials that were being lost from the UK Gold schedule, as the channel moved towards more modern programming. UK Gold Classics was not to last however, and was rebranded as UK Gold 2 on 2 April 1999, which acted as a time shift of the original channel, showing the daytime programmes from UK Gold in the evening on UK Gold 2. In 2003 however, UK Gold 2 was rebranded and repositioned as UK G2, with some programming transferring to the new channel.

On 8 March 2004, the channel was rebranded as UKTV Gold in line with the other channels in the UKTV network. At approximately the same time, Granada run archive channel Granada Plus closed to make way for ITV3. The channels had always been the main rivals to Gold due to the direct mix of archive BBC and ITV programming. ITV3 currently has a higher viewer share; often put down to the fact that the terrestrial platform Freeview shows ITV3 but not Gold.

Gold began transmitting in widescreen on 31 January 2008, although some programmes made in 16:9 format are screened in the compromise 14:9 semi-letterbox ratio for a short while, before the 16:9 format became standard later in the year. The channel has been criticised by some, particularly in recent years, for featuring many recent programmes as opposed to 'classics' as was the original concept, with some shows appearing on the channel mere months or weeks after their first television broadcast.

In 2008, UKTV began a process of rebranding and expanding its channels, removing "UKTV" from their name, following the rebranding of UKTV G2 as Dave in October 2007. On 7 October 2008, UKTV Gold became G.O.L.D., exclusively showing comedy, both old and new. This is reflected by its new slogan, which now represents Gold as a backronym—"Go On Laugh Daily". Unlike the complete name change for Dave, the Gold name was retained as having a resonance with viewers. The same day also saw the rebranding of UKTV Drama as Alibi, and the launch of a new channel, Watch. In Spring 2010, the channel dropped the acronym and is now known simply as Gold.

In October 2011, Virgin Media, owner of half of Gold and the rest of the UKTV network, sold their share to Scripps Networks Interactive, with the remaining half still retained by the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide.