Posts by: David R - UKTV

Hello Mr Slater.

I read that you list eating out as one of life's great pleasures - do you find that the staff/owners tend to recognise you when you're in their restaurant? If so, does this make it more difficult to enjoy eating out? I imagine it might make the atmosphere less relaxed if you've been spotted...?

"Ch-ch-ch changes" sang Mr David Bowie in 1971 and, although he wasn't specifically talking about the UKTV Gold website, he might as well have been. That's right folks - we're planning to make some changes to the UKTV Gold website! And we'd like to know what you think. Specifically - what do you like about the site at the moment? And what would you like to see on a new improved Gold website? We’d love to hear your suggestions…

Calling all Drama lovers! On UKTV Drama we're continually scouring the archives for neglected gems - but are there any shows we've overlooked that you loved first time round and wouldn't mind seeing again? Let us know!

Hi there - this is the line-up for that TOTP 2 show on the 13th:

Steve WRIGHT presents archive and current hits, inc The Damned, Prefab Sprout, Abba, XTC, Chas & Dave, Bill Withers, Seal, Whigfield, Jethro Tull, Marc Almond and Gene Pitney, Martina McBride

I suspect the artist you mentioned might be Bill Withers

Hope that helps!

When you’re a veteran of broadcasting like Terry Wogan, you’re bound to have a few career highs. So what do YOU think are Terry's top triumphs?

That sliver-tongued legend of broadcasting has arrived on UKTV Gold with new chat show Wogan Now and Then...

Marple? Holmes? Morse? Who are the top ten TV sleuths of all time?

Hi all - many many many apologies for not responding to this discussion!!!!! The reason for all the scheduling changes in the past with Howard's Way comes down to one thing I'm afraid - poor ratings. When we get in a series, we obviously want to try our best to maintain scheduling continuity and not mess viewers around. (Honestly, this is a really big priority!!) On the other hand when a show performs really badly in a particular slot, we're being sent a very strong message that it's the wrong slot. I'm afraid we have to go for maximum appeal and the UKTV Drama schedulers wanted to find the time of day that would suit the most people. Unfortunately, this meant, with Howard's Way, that it leapt around quite a bit. Apologies to everyone that was frustrated by this - your comments have been passed on to the UKTV Drama schedulers. I think Howard's Way has been a bit of an extreme case for us in this regard - it really did perform way below expectations, so it's really heartening to hear the enthusiasm for the show in this message thread!

Howard's Way will be returning to UKTV Drama every weekday at 7am starting on 29 May with the first epsiode of the first series. I know it's not the ideal time of day for everyone, but it's the slot that got the best response.

cheers

David

Hi there - no plans of yet I'm afraid

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Hi there - yep you're right - there's only been five Mrs Bradley Mysteries

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Oops - slight mix-up with the listings there. Despite your reference to robots, we are only human (!) and mistakes do happen.

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Hi all - we haven't picked winners yet but will be shortly!!

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Hi there - are you talking about the trail for Easter Movies on UKTV Gold (Meet the Parents, Men in Black, Black Hawk Down, The Mexican)?

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Hi there - we were supplied this content by a third party. I can't really go into any more details about the situation at the moment, but thanks for pointing it out!

cheers

Hi there - I assume that you're referring to the TOTP2 that has the screening of George Harrison's 'My Sweet Lord'? That epsiode will be shown again:

26/04/2006 1pm, 4pm, 7pm
21/05/2006 10am and 8pm

Please check out the listings nearer the time just to double check though, as we sometimes have to move shows around

cheers

He's the G2 gremlin and his name is Jee-tu (see what we did there...) I'm afraid we don't have any images of him on the site at the moment (although he does temporarily appear in the top image on the UKTV G2 homepage - currently it's 100% Buzzcocks Weekend)

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Hi - as far as I know, the 7am slot won't change

cheers!

Hi there - 'Allo 'Allo is going to be back in a regular slot on UKTV Drama every weekday in May at 12.40 and 17.40, beginning 1st May

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Hi there - UKTV Gold is planning to show more movies (we've got a midweek movie season in May for example) but, to be honest, a dedicated UKTV movie channel isn't really on the cards. I personally don't find ad breaks that disruptive in a film but I agree with BIGJC that an online DVD company is a good alternative to subscription channels, as long as you don't mind a bit of planning. If you haven't already, go to
www.uk-dvd-rental-guide.com for a comprehensive overview.

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Glad you liked it! Probably going to do some more galleries - any suggestions for particular shows?

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I think you've used that gag before haven't you rg286? You're not in danger of repeating yourself are you....!?

Hi there - this is a bit of a tricky one. On the one hand we appreciate that on-screen "clutter" can be distracting for some - on the other hand we feel want to try and get messages about the channel and channel events across as well.

We take the lead from research into how people view UKTV channels and it seems that, more often than not, people tend not to mind these messages (sometimes they don't even notice them). We'd always strive to get the balance right though but I do think that, by and large, UKTV's logos tend to be farily discreet compared to other non-terrestrial channels.

Thanks for the feedback though

cheers

Hi all.

Coolkama - rest assured that, if we run a competition across red button as well as SMS and web, we don't ignore web entries!! When we pick a winner it's always completely random. In fact, more than half the competitions that we run are just for web (for example, of the six competitions on the competitions page of the website, only two are being run on web and red button) and only a tiny handful throughout the year are available on SMS (red dwarf being the most recent).
BTW - we don't operate red button and SMS to make a profit, but rather to cover costs.

Tommy - we'll try harder to keep our Are you a Winner? list up to date!

Bluerat - we're going to look to do more tiebreakers for competitions run specifically on Gold and G2.

UK Style user - we've got nothing against Nottingham!! It's just the luck of the draw.

cheers

Hi there - just to clarify, when I spoke about viewer opinions, I wasn't referring to comments in the messageboards, but rather information gathered by our research dept.

I admit that it's unlikely anyone's going to feel moved enough to post a message in favour of these logos or argue their case - just like we wouldn't expect anyone to say that they really, really liked TV ads interrupting their viewing experience. We value any comments posted on the message boards but we also have to look at the bigger picture and research indicates that the vast majority of people don't have a problem with logos, credit squeezes etc.

James 2001 has, in passing, highlighted the problem which UKTV and similiar broadcasters face in that the marketplace is ever expanding, offering more and more choice. This is why we take every opportunity to communicate messages about our programming - and we're hardly alone.

In fact, we're one of the few major TV channels not to use a "Navigation Compass" until now - a lot of our competitors (including companies cited above as models of good practise) have been using these types of communication for a long time. It's also unfair to compare our situation to the likes of funded channels like the BBC and terrestial channels like Ch5 or terrestial extensions like ITV2 as they have a completely different footing in the marketplace.

I think the biggest issue is when there's an event with a long name and a countdown like Makeover on Style. In that kind of situation we have to take a step back and think - this is an important event for us - have we got more to gain in putting up that logo even though it's long, or do we have more to lose? Please be assured that these decisions are not taken lightly.

I realise I haven't answered each and every point in this discussion but hopefully I've got across at least some of our thinking behind these logos.

It's highly unlikely that UKTV will change it's behaviour to the extent that you'd wish but I will pass these comments on to the relevant people so that they're as informed as possible about viewer opinion.

cheers!

We don't have any plans to show Knight Rider I'm afraid, but I believe Bravo are currently showing it.

cheers