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A former member
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Last edited by A former member on 17 September 2018 12:48am
:-(
A former member
https://www.a516digital.com/2018/09/uktv-deal-could-lead-to-6040-split.html
A fortnight after a possible split was first reported, a deal could involve a 60:40 break-up of the broadcaster.
Under the potential deal between UKTV's two shareholders, BBC Studios and Discovery, the BBC would pay Discovery £100million in return for securing 60% of UKTV's assets, including TV channels Dave, Drama and Gold, with Discovery taking the remaining 40% and lifestyle channels including Good Food and Home.
That's according to a report in The Times, citing sources close to the broadcaster (paywall, or 29/09/2018 print edition).
The BBC and Discovery currently have a 50:50 share of the broadcaster, which is valued at £1billion. While any payment would leave the BBC open to criticism, the revenue from the channels are expected to cancel out the cost within a year and pave the way for future income for its commercial arm BBC Studios.
As initially reported by The Guardian on 16th September, the break-up of UKTV would help pave the way for the creation of a British rival to Netflix, backed by the main public service broadcasters, as some of the anomalies over broadcasting rights would be resolved - some BBC programmes are licensed for broadcast on UKTV linear channels, while on-demand rights lie elsewhere.
UKTV has its origins in UK Gold, launched in 1992 showing programmes from the BBC and Thames Television archives. UKTV in its current multi-channel form began life in 1997, with the arrival of a four-channel, multi-genre service that later grew to encompass ten channels, half of them available as free-to-air channels.
Any deal would have to be approved by the board of the BBC.
The BBC, Discovery and UKTV have remained tight-lipped over the reports.
Thread link to that other buy out is here:
https://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/discovery-buys-scripps-42839/page-5#post-1103151
Quote:
A fortnight after a possible split was first reported, a deal could involve a 60:40 break-up of the broadcaster.
Under the potential deal between UKTV's two shareholders, BBC Studios and Discovery, the BBC would pay Discovery £100million in return for securing 60% of UKTV's assets, including TV channels Dave, Drama and Gold, with Discovery taking the remaining 40% and lifestyle channels including Good Food and Home.
That's according to a report in The Times, citing sources close to the broadcaster (paywall, or 29/09/2018 print edition).
The BBC and Discovery currently have a 50:50 share of the broadcaster, which is valued at £1billion. While any payment would leave the BBC open to criticism, the revenue from the channels are expected to cancel out the cost within a year and pave the way for future income for its commercial arm BBC Studios.
As initially reported by The Guardian on 16th September, the break-up of UKTV would help pave the way for the creation of a British rival to Netflix, backed by the main public service broadcasters, as some of the anomalies over broadcasting rights would be resolved - some BBC programmes are licensed for broadcast on UKTV linear channels, while on-demand rights lie elsewhere.
UKTV has its origins in UK Gold, launched in 1992 showing programmes from the BBC and Thames Television archives. UKTV in its current multi-channel form began life in 1997, with the arrival of a four-channel, multi-genre service that later grew to encompass ten channels, half of them available as free-to-air channels.
Any deal would have to be approved by the board of the BBC.
The BBC, Discovery and UKTV have remained tight-lipped over the reports.
Thread link to that other buy out is here:
https://www.tvforum.co.uk/tvhome/discovery-buys-scripps-42839/page-5#post-1103151
NW
That would make the most sense, I’d be quite surprised if they were allowed to keep the Good Food name unless the BBC sub licenced this to Discovery. Surely there’d be some agreement with content too? As there’s no value to Discovery taking on its share of the UKTV channels with no BBC content. Whilst repeats of lifestyle programmes would probably end up on a Discovery service, the likes of Planet Earth, or anything that would fall under ‘BBC Earth’ would certainly be of value to the BBC’s streaming service once it gets going.
Another point is that Discovery will get a further two and lucrative Freeview slots, in addition to the ones inherited from Scripps.
So the BBC would get Dave, Drama, Gold, Alibi, W, and Really, and Discovery would get Good Food, Home, Eden, and Yesterday?
That would make the most sense, I’d be quite surprised if they were allowed to keep the Good Food name unless the BBC sub licenced this to Discovery. Surely there’d be some agreement with content too? As there’s no value to Discovery taking on its share of the UKTV channels with no BBC content. Whilst repeats of lifestyle programmes would probably end up on a Discovery service, the likes of Planet Earth, or anything that would fall under ‘BBC Earth’ would certainly be of value to the BBC’s streaming service once it gets going.
Another point is that Discovery will get a further two and lucrative Freeview slots, in addition to the ones inherited from Scripps.
IS
There's a lot of crossover between the channels Discovery would get and the ones they already own, I wonder how many and which would survive
KE
If Good Food, Home, Eden, and Yesterday went to Discovery, I can't see them staying as they are, as there's too much overlap with existing Discovery channels (Food Network, Discovery Home and Health, Animal Planet and Discovery History), so as already mentioned, there would probably be more value in the slots and programming rights, which could be transferred to existing Discovery channels.
LL
London Lite
Founding member
There's a nice high Freeview EPG number there courtesy of Yesterday which I wouldn't be surprised to see swap with Quest.
ZE
So if there was a deal to break up UKTV Discovery would also acquire the BBC lifestyle/nature shows? But what else could they use the channel slots for or what broadcaster would buy them? Discovery have to many channels in the UK as it is.
If Good Food, Home, Eden, and Yesterday went to Discovery, I can't see them staying as they are, as there's too much overlap with existing Discovery channels (Food Network, Discovery Home and Health, Animal Planet and Discovery History), so as already mentioned, there would probably be more value in the slots and programming rights, which could be transferred to existing Discovery channels.
So if there was a deal to break up UKTV Discovery would also acquire the BBC lifestyle/nature shows? But what else could they use the channel slots for or what broadcaster would buy them? Discovery have to many channels in the UK as it is.