[PATV Scunthorpe]

UKTV has announced that next year they'll become 'U'.

UKTV Play will rename to just U, and the channels will become prefixed by 'U&', i.e. U&Dave, U&W, U&YESTERDAY. The press release says the free-to-air channels will adopt the rebrand first before later being adopted to the pay channels.

corporate.uktv.co.uk 

UKTV announces creation of ‘U’ - a new brand to unite its free TV and digital po…
UKTV today announced its intention to launch ‘U’ next year
  Source: corporate.uktv.co.uk

[TVenthusiasm]

Hmm, U& (channel name)? I'm not sure with that naming structure to be honest

[James2001]

Two questions:

1. What were they on when they thought this was a good idea?

2. Where can I get some?

[Transmission]

Not great, is it? I certainly can't imagine anyone using the names like "U&Yesterday".

I can see why they're trying to do something. The UKTV brand was pretty well known originally in the days of UK Gold, UK Style and so on. But then when they moved on to individual channel brands it meant that some like Dave became incredibly successful while others like W were less so, but the UKTV branding itself fell into the background. In this age when broadcasters are trying to push their streaming services I can understand the attempt to make that overarching brand more prominent.

But I'm not so sure "U" is a good idea. I like the channels so good luck to them, I hope it does well, but I feel it somehow manages to both be quite bizzare and at the same time quite forgettable.

[VMPhil]

Are they trying to get in early for winner of Worst Rebrand 2024?

[Brekkie]

Well I misread this as UTV to become U, so there is the first confusion.

How we mocked though when they announced Dave, but that was replacing a clumsy channel name (UKTV G2) and needing to get noticed on Freeview. Feels like UKTV is a recognisable enough brand for people to connect to their content - and it feels like it's got a bit of heritage behind it too. I get what they're trying to do with U&Drama etc - but that ideas works just as well, if not better, as UKTV&Drama.

Perhaps if people already referred to it as U for shorthand or had the logo emphasised the U it might make more sense. This feels like though it'll make their service get lost amongst the smart TV apps rather than become more prominent.

[James2001]

Still haven't learned from how ridiculous G.O.L.D. was.

[TesTVWhirl]

Ignoring the renaming of the main channels for a moment as that's just the latest iteration of the long running 'add a network prefix', 'take off the network prefix' thing UKTV have done for years, and focussing solely on the online rebrand. It never ceases to amaze me how many of the broadcasters still seem to think the solution to build up their streaming service brand is to just keep renaming them completely every few years (see also ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5). Establishing a name for your streaming service was really something that needed to be done years ago now, with the focus now being more on building out content and getting the eyes on it through promotion rather than spreading that already thin brand recognition even thinner by renaming it all and starting again.

[radiorebel]

I can hear the echoes of UKTV G2 and UKTV Bright Ideas.

[Stooky Bill]

Still haven't learned from how ridiculous G.O.L.D. was.

It was silly and didn't catch on but I can see why they did it. Problem is UK Gold was a very well known brand but the channel doesn't exist in that form any more. So now they've a brand that doesn't really make sense for what the programming is. And it's one that is used elsewhere in broadcasting for something totally different. They should have ditched it when it became G.O.L.D


I can see what they're doing with the U& and it's quite clever... 'you and Dave' is trying to build a connection between the channel and audience. But I think U is too vague a brand, it's going to be a bugger to Google. 

Just like people still talk about UK Gold and 4OD everyone's going to call it UKTV