Play UK


Play UK was a music and comedy television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom as part of the UKTV network of channels. Play UK broadcast 24/7 on digital platforms, but on the Sky Analogue platform on the Astra 19.2°E satellite system, it broadcast during UK Horizons's overnight downtime of 1am and 7am, when UK Horizons was not broadcasting.

History

The channel had originally been planned as part of the BBC's plans with Flextech to launch a series of BBC-branded channels and was conceived as a television version of BBC Radio 1 but conflicts over advertising on BBC-branded channels saw the UKTV partnership transitioned over to BBC Worldwide and the channel launched as UK Play on 10 October 1998, and without any formal ties to Radio 1. It changed its name to Play UK on 27th November 2000. Like the nowdefunct 4Music and Viacom's old Freeview channel Viva, the channel had music programming through the day, while broadcasting comedy during its primetime and evening hours. Most of the comedy programming on Play UK had already been broadcast on the BBC's terrestrial channels, with Play UK adding a few original UKTV-produced comedy programmes as well as a number of American comedy and animation shows towards the end of its broadcast life.

Closure

On 30 June 2002, it was announced that Play UK would shut down at the end of the year, with the closure of ITV Digital being the reason for its demise. The channel closed on 30September 2002 at 12am, with its EPG space later being used to launch UK History the following month as part of the launch of Freeview.
Some of the channel's comedy programming like The Office, The Fast Show and Shooting Stars were moved to UK Gold following the closure. Other programs were later added to UKG2 upon its launch the following year in November 2003.

Former programmes

Music programming

The majority of the music programmes broadcast on Play UK were produced by UKTV. Play UK also used to air repeats of TOTP2, which were originally broadcast on BBC Two.