Popular Sky and Freeview channels are changing on your TV in major UK shakeup

Staff
By Staff

There’s a big change coming to UK homes next month and here’s how it will affect your Freeview and Sky TV devices.

Millions of UK TV users are going to notice a major change to their planner next month with a swathe of popular channels getting a rebrand. The update is being pushed out by the team behind the UKTV network – that’s a platform which includes services such as Dave, W and Yesterday.

In a bid to make things less confusing for users – and to make it clear that all the channels are under one roof – everything is being switched to a new U branding.

That means from July, you’ll start seeing channels now named U&Dave, U&DRAMA, U&YESTERDAY and U&W – this will all happen automatically and you won’t need to restart your devices.

That’s not the only change as the current UKTV streaming website and app are also being switched over to U as well.

Along with a new name, the team is also promising nearly 8,500 hours of on-demand content is being made available, that’s up by around 1,500 hours currently available.

As well as changing things up on Freeview and Sky, those who tune in via Samsung TVs, the Freevee app on Fire devices and the Pluto TV platform will also notice a difference.

Last year, UKTV announced the launch of four Free Ad-supported Streaming TV (FAST) on these platforms and all are getting that U branding as well.

That means UKTV Play Heroes will switch to U&Real Heroes; UKTV Play Laughs will move to U&Laughs; UKTV Play Full Throttle will transition to U&Transport; and UKTV Play Uncovered will be known as U&The Past.

Speaking about the update, Penny Brough, Chief Marketing Officer, UKTV, said: “The launch of U on 16th July is an important step for UKTV, defining our age of transformation. U will present our viewers with an extraordinary range of free quality content, allowing them to connect the dots between the streaming service and our family of TV channels.

And Andrea Amey, Chief Digital Officer, UKTV added, “U will be home to almost 8,500 hours of free content, comprising new programming, exclusive shows, award-winning originals and premiere acquisitions. We can’t wait to give our viewers even more choice and a service that is easy to navigate, so they can enjoy our free and varied offering.”

The changes will come into force from mid July.

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