U&Eden is a British

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

channel broadcasting factual entertainment and drama programming in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of the

UKTV UKTV Media Limited, trading as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through a join ...

network of channels. The channel originally launched on 8 March 2004 and relaunched in its current format on 27 January 2009. Eden was a

pay television channel Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but ...

until 2024. On 29 November 2023, UKTV announced its intention to launch 'U' – a new masterbrand that will unite its family channels and its streaming. Eden rebranded to U&Eden on 16 October 2024. Launched on 16 July 2024, UKTV's streaming service UKTV Play became U; and its family of free-to-air channel adopted the 'U&...' branding: U&Dave, U&Drama, U&W, and U&Yesterday. On 16 August 2024, Ofcom gave UKTV a new broadcasting licence for U&Eden to become a free-to-air channel. U&Eden launched on Freeview on 16 October, replacing U&Yesterday+1. Gold and Alibi rebranded to

U&Gold U&Gold is a British pay television, premium television channel from the UKTV network that was launched in late 1992 as UK Gold before it was rebranded UKTV Gold in 2004. In 2008, it was split into current flagship channel Gold and miscellaneous ...

and U&Alibi on 7 November 2024.

History of U&Eden

The UKTV channels were all rebranded on 8 March 2004. At the same time, Eden was launched as UKTV Documentary, showing factual

documentaries A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill ...

, mainly from the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

archives, on a variety of subjects if not covered by another channel in the UKTV network, such as

Jacob Bronowski Jacob Bronowski (18 January 1908 – 22 August 1974) was a Polish-British mathematician and philosopher. He is best known for developing a humanistic approach to science, and as the presenter and writer of the thirteen-part 1973 BBC television ...

's ''

The Ascent of Man ''The Ascent of Man'' is a 13-part British documentary television series produced by the BBC and Time-Life Films first broadcast in 1973. It was written and presented by Polish-British mathematician and historian of science Jacob Bronowsk ...

''. Much of this programming had come from the former UKTV channel

UK Horizons UK Horizons was a television channel broadcast in the United Kingdom, as part of the UKTV network of channels, showing mainly BBC documentaries. Most programmes were abridged for commercial timing purposes. It took its name from the BBC series ' ...

, which had closed down the day before and which the channel, and spun off a sister channel called

UKTV People Blighty was a British pay television channel broadcasting as part of the UKTV network of channels. The channel was originally launched on 8 March 2004. History of Blighty The channel launched on 8 March 2004 as UKTV People, showing repeats of ...

. UKTV Documentary occupied the same broadcasting slot as UK Horizons. On 9 October 2008, UKTV announced plans to rebrand UKTV Documentary and UKTV People in early 2009. The news came just two days after UKTV's entertainment channels were rebranded to

Watch A watch is a timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another type of ...

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and

Alibi An alibi (, from the Latin, '' alibī'', meaning "somewhere else") is a statement by a person under suspicion in a crime that they were in a different place when the offence was committed. During a police investigation, all suspects are usually a ...

. They announced that UKTV Documentary would be rebranded as Eden and this rebrand took place on 26 January 2009. As part of the rebrand, the channels programming output changed from all documentaries to primarily documentaries focusing on the natural environment. All other documentaries were transferred to

UKTV History U&Yesterday is a British free-to-air television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland specialising in history, documentaries, and culture. It launched on 30 October 2002 as UK History and relaunched in its current format on 2 ...

, depending on their subject matter. In August 2024, it was reported that Eden had secured a licence to broadcast on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

, following the secure of a DTPS (Digital Television Programme Services) licence by

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

. Eden was rebranded as U&Eden and launched on Freeview,

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Everyone TV (itself owned by all of the four UK Public broadcasting, public service broadcasters, BBC, ...

and

Freely Freely is a British free-to-air IPTV service launched in 2024 by Everyone TV, a joint venture between the country's public broadcasters BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and 5. The service offers the ability to watch live television and on demand media from t ...

on 16 October 2024. The channel effectively became free-to-air on 7 October 2024, when its encryption was dropped on satellite in preparation for its addition to Freesat.

Subsidiary channels

U&Eden +1

From launch, the channel has had a timeshift service, called Eden +1 and UKTV Documentary +1 before it. The service ran on

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

and

Virgin Media Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...

and broadcast the channels schedule one hour later than usual. The timeshift was removed from Virgin Media in October 2008 to allow bandwidth for new channel

, however the timeshift service was restored on 7 October 2011.

U&Eden HD

Eden HD launched on 4 October 2010 on Sky channel 559, running a high-definition

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

of the main channel. As part of Virgin Media's deal to sell its share of UKTV, all five of UKTV's HD channels were added to Virgin's cable television service by 2012. Eden HD was added to Virgin Media on 7 October 2011. On 3 October 2016, Eden HD was added to BT. On 2 October 2017, Eden HD was removed from the Sky lineup and replaced with Gold HD.

On-air identity

The UKTV Documentary identity focused around scenes from the landscape of Britain. The ident would first feature a close up shot, for example of a person or a stone, before pulling back to reveal the bigger picture: such as a busy rail station or a stone circle. This was then overlaid with the UKTV Documentary logo, consisting of the UKTV logo on top, and an upper case 'DOCUMENTARY' tag below, aligned to the left of the screen. Alongside the idents, the channel had a

digital on-screen graphic A digital on-screen graphic, digitally originated graphic (DOG, bug, network bug, or screenbug) is a watermark-like station logo that most television broadcasters overlay over a portion of the screen area of their programs to identify the channel ...

(DOG) of the same design and also featured a generic UKTV design for all promotions for the channel. The channels house colour was a blue, similar in shade to

Azure Azure may refer to: Color * Azure (color), a hue of blue ** Azure (heraldry) ** Shades of azure, shades and variations Arts and media * ''Azure'' (Art Farmer and Fritz Pauer album), 1987 * Azure (Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell album), 2013 * ...

, and would feature in numerous changing shades on the end boards of promotions. The 2009–2024 Eden identity featured explorers in an unknown environment, such as the deep

jungle jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅgala'' ...

or the

Antarctic The Antarctic (, ; commonly ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the South Pole, lying within the Antarctic Circle. It is antipodes, diametrically opposite of the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antar ...

, before coming across a landscape, which the logo then forms onto. The 2024 identity films introduced in the rebrand to U&Eden utilise

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other flight, airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wi ...

, similarly to those of

Sky Mix Sky Mix (formerly Sky Three, Sky3, Sky 3, Pick TV and Pick) is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Sky UK. The channel originally launched on 31 October 2005 as Sky Three. The channel's current name, which was adopted in 202 ...

Programming

The programming used on the original pay-TV Eden channel was mostly from the

archives, and so was therefore edited to fit the time slot: an original broadcast for an hour-long programme on the BBC might be as much as 58 minutes long, while the same programme here might be 42 minutes long without the commercials. Eden was renowned for showing blue-chip natural history but then moved into more scientific programmes, while keeping the blue-chip, cinematic identity. Eden has also produced its own exclusive programming, with the most recent series '' David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities'', produced by Humble Bee Films, broadcasting from January 2013.

Programmes on U&Eden

From January 2024, Eden began to show a wider range of programming and now airs a range of reality, gameshows, drama and history programming from U&W,

U&Drama U&Drama is a British free-to-air television channel broadcasting drama (and, to a lesser extent, comedy, sci-fi) programming in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of the UKTV network of channels. History of U&Drama The channel launched on ...

U&Dave U&Dave is a British free-to-air television channel owned by UKTV, a subsidiary of BBC Studios. It is known for broadcasting mainly 21st-century comedy and factual programming, with both original production and repeats. Launched in October 19 ...

and

U&Yesterday U&Yesterday is a British free-to-air television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland specialising in history, documentaries, and culture. It launched on 30 October 2002 as UK History and relaunched in its current format on 2 ...

, and as of April 2025, nature programming is no longer showing

U&Eden programming

U&Eden launched as a rebranded free-to-air service on Freeview on , with its programmes, usually scheduled in multi-episode blocks, now including: *''Abandoned Engineering'' *'' Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown'' (repeats started from season 12 on 16 October 2024) *''

The Architecture the Railways Built ''The Architecture the Railways Built'' is a British Factual television, factual documentary series presented by the historian Tim Dunn (historian), Tim Dunn, first broadcast in the United Kingdom from 28 April 2020 on Yesterday (TV channel), Yes ...

'' * ''

Bargain Hunt ''Bargain Hunt'' is a British television programme in which two pairs of contestants are challenged to buy antiques from shops or a fair and then sell them in an auction for a profit. It has aired on BBC One since 13 March 2000 in a daytime ...

'' * ''

The Bill ''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, "Woodentop (The Bill), Woodentop" (part of the ''Storyb ...

'' * '' Campion'' * ''

Celebrity Mastermind ''Celebrity Mastermind'' is a celebrity version of ''Mastermind'', a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. ''Celebrity Mastermind'' began in 2002 as a one-off special hosted by Magnus Magnusson, the original host of the main ...

'' * ''

Cutting It ''Cutting It'' is a BBC television drama series set in Manchester, England, focusing on the lives and loves of the team running a hairdressing salon. It ran for four series between 2002 and 2005. The show features a number of actors who subsequ ...

'' * '' David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities'' * ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' * ''Doctor Who: Terror of the Autons'' * ''Doctor Who: The Claws of Axos'' * ''Dr Christian: 12 Hours to Cure Your Street'' * '' Expedition with Steve Backshall'' * ''Hornby: A Model World'' * '' Impossible Engineering'' * ''Inside the Ambulance'' * '' The Missing'' * ''

Mistresses Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to: Romance and relationships * Mistress (lover), a female lover of a married man ** Royal mistress * Maîtresse-en-titre, official mistress of a ...

'' * ''

The Onedin Line ''The Onedin Line'' is a BBC television drama series that ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham. The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886 and covers the rise of a fictional shipping company, the Onedin Line, nam ...

'' * '' Parkinson'' * ''

Pointless ''Pointless'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British television quiz show produced by Banijay Entertainment subsidiary Remarkable Entertainment for the BBC and hosted by Alexander Armstrong. In each episode, four teams of two contestan ...

'' * ''Steam Train Britain'' * ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

'' * ''Warbird Workshop''

Notes

References

External links

*
UKTV at The TV Room
{{Authority control Television channels and stations established in 2004 UKTV UKTV channels

History of U&Eden

Subsidiary channels

U&Eden +1

U&Eden HD

On-air identity

Programming

Programmes on U&Eden

U&Eden programming

Notes

See also

References

External links