Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

UKTV to launch masterbrand U on 16th July 2024

22/07/2024

Battle in the Box, Whitstable Pearl series two, Sons of Anarchy and the UK premiere of Orlando Bloom: To the Edge head up launch

Brand new original commissions including Outrageous and Bergerac coming in 2025, and first picture released from set of The Marlow Murder Club series two

Thursday 6th June 2024: UKTV has announced that U - its new masterbrand - will launch on 16th July, including a quality line-up of content of nearly 8,500 hours on its free streaming service, an uplift of almost 1,500 hours from the start of the year.

The masterbrand will unite UKTVs family of free-to-air channels becoming U&Dave, U&DRAMA, U&YESTERDAY and U&W. Its free streaming service will transition from UKTV Play to U.

Penny Brough, Chief Marketing Officer, UKTV said, The launch of U on 16th July is an important step for UKTV, defining our age of transformation. U will present our viewers with an extraordinary range of free quality content, allowing them to connect the dots between the streaming service and our family of TV channels.Andrea Amey, Chief Digital Officer, UKTV added, U will be home to almost 8,500 hours of free content, comprising new programming, exclusive shows, award-winning originals and premiere acquisitions. We cant wait to give our viewers even more choice and a service that is easy to navigate, so they can enjoy our free and varied offering.Alongside viewer favourites, audiences will be able to benefit from new programming around launch, including:

Brand new original comedy reality gameshow Battle in the Box (8x60) on U and U&Dave, hosted by Jimmy Carr. Based on a hit Korean format, pairs of comics and celebrities will battle it out for pride, prizes and most importantly, floorspace, in this comedy entertainment and reality hybrid.

Second series of Whitstable Pearl (6 x45) will be available as a boxset on U from 16th July before launching on U&DRAMA. The crime drama returns for a new season, following series one record ratings. Pearl Nolan (Kerry Godliman), single mother of a grown son, is a private detective who runs the Whitstable Pearl, a seafood restaurant in the coastal town of Whitstable.

Series one to seven of Sons of Anarchy (92x60) the hit American action crime drama, created by Kurt Sutter for FX, starring Charlie Hunnam will launch on U alongside the UK premiere of Orlando Bloom: To the Edge (3x120) which follows actor and adventure enthusiast Orlando Bloom embark on a physical, mental and spiritual journey of self-discovery as he undertakes three extreme sports to push himself to the edge of whats possible. Both shows will premiere on U before airing on U&Dave later in the year.

Earlier in the year, UKTV announced that it had licensed Mike (8x30) from Disney Entertainment, which follows the dynamic and controversial story of Mike Tyson. The eight-episode limited series explores the tumultuous ups and downs of Tysons boxing career and personal life - from being a beloved global athlete to a pariah and back again, and will stream on U, and air later in the year on U&Dave.

Other new programming includes SisterS, which sees two women, one from Canada and the other from Ireland discover they are half-sisters and embark on a road trip to find their alcoholic father, and FTA premiere of American scripted comedy sci-fi show Future Man (starring Josh Hutcherson and Seth Rogan).

A record tenth series of Bangers & Cash (15x60) on U and U&YESTERDAY following the Mathewsons family-run historic car auction business in Yorkshire. One of U&YESTERDAYs most popular shows, it has spawned a live event - Bangers & Cash Live, with over 15,000 people expected to attend in August.

Plus, popular back-catalogue hits such as The Bill and Classic EastEnders.

In recent months, UKTV has also announced a host of new original titles that will launch from the end of this year and throughout early 2025 including:

A second series of Robert Thorogoods The Marlow Murder Club (6x60) following the best ever series premiere of the last decade for series one, will launch early next year on U and U&DRAMA. Filming of the next chapter commenced in picturesque Marlow this week, and saw the reunion of Samantha Bond (Judith Potts), Jo Martin (Suzie Harris), Cara Horgan (Becks Starling) and Natalie Dew (DCI Tanika Malik).

A re-imagining of Bergerac (6x60) which sees Detective Jim Bergerac return to the iconic setting of Jersey in the new series, written by Toby Whithouse, will air in 2025 on U and U&DRAMA.

Outrageous (6x60) is the true story of six sisters who refused to play by the rules and whose often-scandalous lives made headlines around the world. Set against the gathering storm clouds of the 1930s, Outrageous will bring the full, uncensored story of the Mitford sisters to the screen for the first time in 2025 (U and U&DRAMA).

U and U&Dave are also set for a third series of Worlds Most Dangerous Roads (6x60).

U and U&W will be joined by a fourth series of Emma Willis: Delivering Babies (6x60) plus new true crime shows including Back From The Dead: Who Kidnapped Me? (3x60) and Lies, Deceit & Betrayal (6x60).

Last year, UKTV announced the launch of four Free Ad-supported Streaming TV (FAST) channels on Samsung TV Plus, Amazon Freevee and Pluto TV, which marked the broadcasters debut in the FAST market. These channels also launched on Virgin earlier this year. As part of the new masterbrand, UKTVs FAST channels will be rebranded, with UKTV Play Heroes becoming U&Real Heroes; UKTV Play Laughs will move to U&Laughs; UKTV Play Full Throttle will transition to U&Transport; and UKTV Play Uncovered will be known as U&The Past.

UKTV has an ambitious growth strategy, focussed on supercharging its streaming service and growing its linear channels. A key driver of this is connecting and better leveraging the brands within UKTVs estate. The launch of this new masterbrand supports this strategy by making it easie
LINK: https://corporate.uktv.co.uk/newsroom/uktv-to-launch-masterbrand-u-on-...
See more stories from uktv

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

13/06/2026

Rhythmic Filters for Devious Machines' Infiltrator

Latest expansion pack includes 252 presets Devious Machines have recently introduced another expansion for their powerful multi-effects plug-in, Infiltrator...

13/06/2026

MetaGrid Pro gains AI Builder

Create custom DAW/plug-in controllers using prompts MetaGrid have recently introduced an all-new AI Builder function to their touchscreen-based control surf...

13/06/2026

Spectrum Reach Taps Anoki AI for Contextual Intelligence

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

13/06/2026

Google TV Launches Soccer Hub, New Voice Command Features

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

YES Network and Gotham Sports App to Air Seven Athletes Unlimited Softball League Games

YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...

12/06/2026

UFL to Feature FAST Innovation Suite at 2026 United Bowl

The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...

12/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: PTZOptics and LayerJot to Demo AI-Driven Camera Control

PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...

12/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: MultiDyne to Debut VF-9100 Fiber Transport Platform and Crescendo Audio Monitor

MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...

12/06/2026

Eurovision Services Deploys Ateme Software-Based Frame-Rate Conversion

Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...

12/06/2026

Bitmovin, Simplestream, and Xperi Partner to Support OTT Services on TiVo OS

Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...

12/06/2026

Net Insight Deploys Nimbra 520 and Nimbra Edge for Multinational Corporate Live Production Workflow

Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...

12/06/2026

MLB Players Inc., Athletes First Announce Content Partnership

MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...

12/06/2026

G&D and VuWall Announce CommandKeyboard-Advanced for Network-Independent Control Room Operations

Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...

12/06/2026

Philadelphia Union and Comcast Deploy Smart Technology at Subaru Park and WSFS Bank Sportsplex

Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...

12/06/2026

Elevation Worship Completes First Leg of 2026 Tour Using SSL Live Consoles and New UMD192 Interface

Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...

12/06/2026

AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Transkoder and On-Set Dailies

AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...

12/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Audinate To Exhibit With New AVIO Install Adapters and Iris Camera Control Platform

Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...

12/06/2026

Pac-12 Appoints Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer

Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...

12/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Grass Valley Introduces AMPP Edge Live for Enterprise Production

Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...

12/06/2026

University of Texas's Brandon Rudy on a New Era of Live Sports Production in Austin

At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...

12/06/2026

Ratings Roundup: NBA Finals Game 3 Hits 28-Year High; Stanley Cup Final Is Best Since 2015 Through Four Games

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...

12/06/2026

Chyron Releases PAINT 10.4 with Pro Football Data Integration and AI Player Cutout

Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...

12/06/2026

ESPN's MLB Productions Heat Up in June as Core Summer Schedule Gets Rolling

SVP, Production, Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it has given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what o...

12/06/2026

Televisas IBC Team Delivers for Opening Mexico Match

For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...

12/06/2026

GearExpo UK: Home Studio Acoustics Talk

Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...

12/06/2026

Meris introduce the Ottobit X

Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...

12/06/2026

Sonora Cinematic release Movimento Strings Inflections

Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...

12/06/2026

Research: Mixed Picture for FIFA World Cup Broadcast Revenues

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

Viant Launches Enhanced Publisher Solutions for CTV, Programmatic

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software

AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software Brie Clayton June 12, 2026 0 Comments Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...

12/06/2026

URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert

URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert Brie Clayton June 12, 2026 0 Comments Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...

12/06/2026

MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services From Set to Screen

MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...

12/06/2026

AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro

AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026 0 Comments The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...

12/06/2026

Bitmovin Partners with Simplestream and Xperi to Support...

Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...

12/06/2026

Jigsaw24 Signs Deal to Resell Leostream Remote Desktop Ac...

Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...

12/06/2026

Study: 2026 Election Cycle to Hit Record $11.6 Billion Ad Spend

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

NAB Elects Leadership at June Board of Directors Meeting

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

FCC Believes World Cup Communication Will Score Highly

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

Broadcasters Back NO FAKES Act

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

Scripps Unveils Coverage Plans For America's 250th Anniversary

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

12/06/2026

How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP

How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026 Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...

12/06/2026

NVIDIA Blackwell Leads on First Agentic AI Infrastructure Benchmark

AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...

12/06/2026

Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film

Back to All News Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film Entertainment 12 June 2026 GlobalArgentina Link copied to ...

12/06/2026

Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm in The East Palace', Premiering July 17

Back to All News Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...

12/06/2026

The Future of Studio Grading. Tokyo. 23 June 2026

With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm Restar Corporation Tokyo Register here John Daro is the ...