One of the United Kingdom's largest TV companies, UKTV is a joint venture between the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and the cable television company Flextech.
UKTV's channels are available via satellite and cable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. In the UK, on digital terrestrial television, UKTV History and UKTV BrightIdeas are available on the Freeview platform, and selected parts of UKTV Gold, UKTV Style and UKTV Food are available through Top Up TV.
Most programmes on UKTV's channels are repeat broadcasts of BBC productions (although the entertainment channels also feature programmes made by other companies) and the channels themselves are played out by Red Bee Media (formerly BBC Broadcast) from their 'Broadcast Centre' in West London.
None of the UKTV channels operates in widescreen — programmes made in widescreen are always horizontally cropped into 9, though during coverage of the 2006 World Cup pictures were transmitted in the 9 aspect ratio. Factual programmes are almost always cut for commercial timing although dramas and comedies are not.
UK Horizons and UK Arena were named after the BBC's flagship science and arts documentaries, Horizon and Arena.
Note that there was a channel called UK Living that was originally affiliated with UK Gold but did not become part of the UKTV network, it changed its name to LivingTV before the UKTV network launched.
British television | UKTV channels | UKTV programmes | Companies based in London