Dave is a British television channel owned by UKTV , which is available in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is available on IPTV , Freeview and satellite. The channel took the name Dave in October 2007, but it had been on air under various identities and formats since October 1998.

UK Gold Classics and UK Gold 2 Edit

UK Gold Classics, UKTV's first digital-only channel, was launched on 2 October 1998 and was only broadcast from Friday to Sunday on Sky Digital from 6.00 pm to 2.00 am. Around this time UK Gold began to move towards newer programmes instead of older ones; the 'classics' line-up included a number of early shows, including some black-and-white programmes, which had been acquired in the early years of the UK Gold service. They also showed some recent shows from the main channel, but the main part of the channel was older shows from the early years of UK Gold. On weekdays, the channel was off air, showing a still caption of all the UKTV channels and start-up times.

The 'Classics' format lasted just six months; the channel ended on 28 March 1999, and from 2 April 1999 the channel was renamed to UK Gold 2, and screened morning programmes from UK Gold time-shifted to the evening of the same day instead of classic shows.

UKG2 and UKTV G2 Edit

The UK Gold subsidiary channel was again relaunched with a completely new programme line-up and renamed UKG² on 12 November 2003. The channel was promoted as being an edgier alternative to UK Gold; like that channel, the output was mainly comedy from the BBC with some shows produced inhouse. A fair amount is similar to the comedy output of UK Play/Play UK before that channel's closure; however, unlike Play, the channel did not include music videos.

Along with the rest of the UKTV network, the "UK" prefix was changed to "UKTV" on 8 March 2004 and therefore the channel name changed to UKTV G2.

Initially, the channel broadcast in the evenings only, but during the 'G2' era the decision was made to expand hours into the daytime; to expand the programming line-up, comedy was joined by popular-factual and magazine shows which were already running on UKTV People (then Blighty, now Drama) such as Top Gear and Airport.

G2 programming Edit

On 7 October 2005, it was announced that they would show sports programming. This new line-up was called UKTV Sport and included a new show by the same name. UKTV Sport also had its own logo and DOG. There was talk that this could lead to a channel but it never happened.[1]

In February 2006, they picked up the rights to show highlights of the RBS Six Nations rugby union championship, with a highlights show broadcast on the evening of the games previously shown live on the BBC. On 16 March 2006, they announced a deal to air extensive coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup as a sub licensing of the BBC's rights to the tournament.[2] UKTV G2 simulcast the BBC's live matches, including the opening match between Germany and Costa Rica, England's game with Paraguay and the final. The channel also showed highlights of every match in the tournament.

In April 2006, the channel acquired the rights to the quarter-finals of Euroleague Basketball[3] and in August, UKTV G2 also picked up rights to the 2006 FIBA World Championship[4], forming the programme 'UKTV Slam'.

Dave and Freeview launch Edit

In September 2007, UKTV announced that they would relaunch and rename UKTV G2 as Dave on 15 October.[5] UKTV said the name of the channel was chosen because "everyone knows a bloke called Dave".[6] The rebrand included the channel being available free-to-air on digital terrestrial platform, Freeview, replacing UKTV Bright Ideas which only averaged 0.1% of the audience share.[7] The move to Freeview saw Dave launch in the bandwidth previously used by UKTV History which was moved to the time limited (7.00 am to 6.00 pm) bandwidth once occupied by UKTV Bright Ideas. Dave is available daily, from 7.00 am to 4.00 am, on all platforms. It uses the tagline "the home of witty comedy banter" and uses Ralph Ineson as an announcer, along with David Flynn, Phill Jupitus, Iain Lee and BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James.

To ensure that all Freeview viewers receive the channel on number 19, UKTV briefly placed a re-tuning notice on the programme's information. This later changed to the current location on Channel 12.

From 31 January 2008, the channel began broadcasting in widescreen, along with the other UKTV channels.[8]

In April 2009, they aired three new instalments of Red Dwarf, entitled Back to Earth. This marked the channel's first foray into scripted original programming. During the airing of the Red Dwarf mini-series, the Dave DOG in the top left corner of the screen had the word 'Lister' added after it in the same font, after the show's lead character; during the show it is even suggested that the station is named after him. Back to Earth brought record breaking viewing figures, not just in the context of the channel's past, but for digital television in general.[9]

In June 2009, the logo was updated to incorporate the 'circle' logo branding of all the new UKTV channels (for example Home, GOLD and Really). At the same time, the voice of Dave became Nigel Grover, aka Scott Saunders, who had previously worked at a number of local radio stations. On 29 April 2014, the 'circle' logo was removed and the original 2007 logo was restored.