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HGTV (British and Irish TV channel)

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HGTV
CountryUnited Kingdom
Broadcast areaUnited Kingdom, Republic of Ireland
Programming
Picture format576i SDTV
Timeshift serviceHGTV +1
UKTV Style +2 (defunct)
Ownership
OwnerUKTV (1997–2019)
Discovery Inc. (2019–2022)
Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA (2022–present)
Sister channels
History
Launched1 November 1997; 27 years ago (1 November 1997)
Former namesUK Style (1997–2004)
UKTV Style (2004–2009)
Home (2009–2020)
Links
WebsiteHGTV
Availability
Terrestrial
See separate section
Streaming media
See separate section

HGTV (formerly Home) is a British free-to-air interior home and garden-orientated lifestyle television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel originally launched on 1 November 1997 as UK Style and then was rebranded to Home on 30 April 2009 and was rebranded to its current form on 21 January 2020. HGTV is broadcast 24 hours a day on Sky. UK Style was transmitted by terrestrial provider ITV Digital 24 hours a day until the company's collapse in 2002. After a slight rebrand to UKTV Style, the channel made a return to terrestrial screens for a time in the mid-2000s as part of the now-defunct Top Up TV system. Before 2016, HGTV was a pay channel. Home became available as a free-to-air linear service on Freeview from 1 March 2016.[1]

History

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The channel originally launched on 1 November 1997 as UK Style, broadcasting lifestyle programming from the archive of the BBC and from external producers. The channel was launched as part of the initial creation of the UKTV network, following the success of sister channel UK Gold. The channel broadcast 24 hours a day on analogue cable, while it initially shared a transponder with its sister channels on Astra satellite.

UK Style was one of the launch channels on the OnDigital service in November 1998, sharing a slot with UK Horizons.[2] Prior to this, it was one of the launch networks on Sky Digital, allowing satellite viewers to view the network at any time.

The channel rebranded alongside all the other UKTV networks on 8 May 2001. Further on, the channel's success was noted when it was announced that a new spin-off network – UK Food was announced on 11 July 2001.[3] The channel launched on 5 November of that year, allowing UK Style to focus more on lifestyle programming.

On 1 February 2002, UKTV announced UK Style +, a timeshift service, which launched on Sky Digital on 11 February 2002,[4] initially airing from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm and timesharing with UK Gold 2.[5] A week later, UK Style + launched on Telewest with UK Horizons +1, where they timeshared with each other on the platform.[6] and on 29 May, launched on NTL as well.[7]

In January 2003, another new channel called UK Bright Ideas was created to showcase programming from UK Style and UK Food on the digital terrestrial network Freeview. This was later extended to all networks, allowing repeats of some programmes to air on this channel only. On 7 July, UK Style + extended broadcast hours to end at 2:00 am.[8]

On 8 March 2004, in line with the rest of the UKTV network, UK Style and UK Style + were renamed to UKTV Style and UKTV Style +1.

In January 2005, another offshoot network was announced - UKTV Style Gardens, moving all the landscape and gardening programmes over to the new channel. The channel launched on 21 February 2005 on Sky and Telewest.[9] The channel was added to NTL in May 2005 as part of a new carriage deal between Flextech and NTL.[10] The channel name was later shortened to UKTV Gardens in 2007.

In December 2007, a two-hour timeshift service - UKTV Style +2, was launched on Sky, using UKTV Bright Ideas' former slot. The temporary service was closed on 15 September 2008 to make way for Watch.

On 24 March 2009, as part of the rebranding of UKTV's channels to unique names and identities, it was announced that UKTV Style would be rebranded as Home on 30 April 2009 and reposition itself to include programming based around home improvement, gardens and home lifestyle programmes.[11] Other female lifestyle programmes were transferred to newly created channel Really, and all gardening programmes were transferred from UKTV Gardens to Home as part of the rebrand.

On 1 April 2019, it was announced that UKTV co-owner Discovery, Inc. would acquire the BBC's stake in Home.[12]

In June 2019, Discovery announced that Home would be rebranded as a local version of the U.S. channel of the same name, this took place on 21 January 2020, the first programme to air on HGTV was Homes Under the Hammer at 7 am.

On-air identity

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UKTV Style logo

The channel's original identity revolved around the screen split in half horizontally with two objects coming together to form one object. Examples of these idents include an ornament added on top of a flower and still retains that image, wine pouring into a glass, with the base of glass formed out of pouring paint from a tin and a boater hat forming the bowl for some strawberries and cream. These idents were accompanied by a logo consisting of 'UK' inside a box and the channel name 'Style' written after on a line in upper case. The channel also had a digital on-screen graphic (DOG) of the same logo.[13]

During July 2002, the channel relaunched in image along with the rest of the UKTV network. The box and line logos were replaced with the channel name stylised UK Style with a four-box pattern positioned to the right of the logo. This style had been adopted by the majority of the UKTV channels, with each channel's symbol representing the idents simplified and the channel focus in some ways. The boxes were arranged with one rectangle down the left-hand side, one running along the top half of the screen, a third in the centre bottom and a fourth in the bottom right corner. This arrangement was also reflected in the relaunched idents in 2001, with a different image in each section of the four-part arrangement.[13] The idents were changed again in January 2003, with the same pattern used again. This time the pattern would appear integrated within the neutrally coloured home space, occasionally in shades of red and yellow. The pattern against the logo was also changed to shades of red and yellow at this time.[13]

With the rebrand to UKTV Style, the idents changed to a neutrally coloured house interior and occupiers, which when looked through a mirror is improved and brightly coloured. This was however replaced in 2006 to a stream of purple moving across the screen. In both cases, the double lined UKTV Style logo would be aligned to the left of the screen. Then in 2007, the idents were changed to a new set featuring people painting or dancing in front of the purple background while their silhouette opens up showing pictures of various lifestyles before it closes back, followed by the UKTV Style logo. The channel also adopted purple as the channel's colour at the same time, and three different shades of the colour would appear at the ending of promotions for programmes on the channel and for promotions for the channel on the UKTV network itself.

Home logo (former)

Following the rebrand to Home, the idents now feature a virtual tour of a home of varying sorts, with various features pointed out by text, usually of a comical nature. These include identifying the pet cat as "5th Flatmate", dirt on the floor as "Old carpet, new mud", a carpet as a "trip hazard", some old suitcases as the "DVD cabinet" and an ornament having "survived 3 moves and 2 extensions". The home logo outside of the circle then forms up over the centre of the scene.[14] Scenes from homes are also used in promotion graphics and 'stings' which show the channel name during advert breaks.[15][16]

Home became HGTV on 21 January 2020.[17]

Availability

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Cable

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Online

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Satellite

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  • Freesat UK: Channel 166 and Manual (+1)
  • Sky UK: Channel 158 and Channel 258 (+1)
  • Sky Ireland: Channel 162 and Channel 262 (+1)

Terrestrial

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Programming

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The output of the channel shows lifestyle programmes, mainly gardening, home improvements and DIY shows, that are a combination of internally produced shows, repeats of shows from the BBC archive and international imports. Notable shows include:

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Home to join Freeview". a516digital.
  2. ^ "ONdigital Announces Channel Packages and Launch Date - the Media Leader". 28 September 1998.
  3. ^ "UKTV announces UK Food launch". Digital Spy. 11 July 2001.
  4. ^ "Uktv to Air Timeshifted UK Style on Sky".
  5. ^ "New services, channels launch on DSat". Digital Spy. 11 February 2002.
  6. ^ "Telewest adds more channels to lineup". Digital Spy. 15 February 2002.
  7. ^ "New channels launch on NTL:home digital". Digital Spy. 29 May 2002.
  8. ^ "UK Style + now available evenings". 9 July 2003.
  9. ^ "UKTV Style Gardens joins Sky, Telewest lineup". Digital Spy. 23 February 2005.
  10. ^ "NTL renews Flextech, UKTV carriage deal". Digital Spy. 16 May 2005.
  11. ^ "UKTV unveils Home and Really in latest phase of its rebrand". Retrieved 24 March 2009.
  12. ^ White, Peter (1 April 2019). "Discovery & BBC Reignite Global Content Deal With SVOD & UKTV Agreement, Six Years After Ending Previous Pact". Deadline. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  13. ^ a b c "UK Style". TVARK: The Online Television Museum. Archived from the original on 5 January 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2011. Contains authentic videos of UK Style idents and presentation.
  14. ^ "Home April 2009 – present Idents". The TV Room. Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  15. ^ Walker, Hayden. "Home". TVARK: The Online Television Museum. Archived from the original on 5 January 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  16. ^ "Home April 2009 – present Promotions". The TV Room. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  17. ^ "Freeview Updates - RXTV Log". RXTV Log. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
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