Quest is a British and Irish

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

television channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It provides factual, lifestyle and entertainment programmes and other imported material, as well as films and sports coverage. It is operated by

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Outline of entertainment, entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It was formed from WarnerMedi ...

History

Launch

In October 2008, Discovery announced that they would launch a channel on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

in early 2009, but without using the "Discovery" name. A placeholder appeared on Freeview channel 47 on 5 January 2009 and Tiscali TV channel 109 on 14 May 2009. Although the channel planned to launch on 14 May 2009 at 10am, after broadcasting a promo loop on the planned launch morning, at 10am the channel returned to displaying a "Coming soon" message. The Quest website displayed a message reading: "Regrettably we have made the decision to postpone the launch of Quest. Due to a number of commercial factors we have had to make this difficult decision. We did not make this decision lightly and we are working towards launching Quest in the near future. We would like to apologise wholeheartedly to any of you that have been looking forward to this launch." In August 2009, Discovery Networks announced that it planned to launch the channel on 30 September 2009. At the same time the channel moved to channel 38. Quest launched on

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

, on 1 October 2009, after acquiring an EPG slot from Information TV 2. Quest +1 launched on Sky, replacing DMAX +1.5 on 2 November 2009. Quest launched on

Virgin Media Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...

on 25 March 2010 on channel 179. Quest moved to channel 12 on Freeview, a space previously occupied by

Dave Dave may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the 1993 film * ''Dave'' (TV series), a 2020 American comedy series * ...

, due to its owner

Discovery, Inc. Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1982, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chan ...

acquiring

Good Food Good Food (formerly UK Food and UKTV Food) was a British pay television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, latterly as part of the Discovery, Inc. network of channels. The channel originally launched on 5November 2001 and ...

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

and Really from the

UKTV UKTV Media Limited, trading as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 through a join ...

network (which owns U&Dave) as part of a deal with

BBC Studios BBC Studios Limited is a British content company. It is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC that was formed in April 2018 through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Wor ...

. Quest HD has been available on Swisscom TV (IPTV) in Switzerland since November 2019. In November 2022, Quest Red +1 closed on Freeview and Quest moved from the COM4/SDN multiplex to the COM6/ArqB multiplex, but the timeshift service of

Quest Red Quest Red is a British free-to-air television channel in the United Kingdom broadcasting factual, lifestyle, crime and reality programming aimed at a female audience. The channel is operated by Warner Bros. Discovery and runs as a sibling to Di ...

was removed from the Freeview EPG on 14th December 2022.

Full-time

On 15 October 2010, Quest began broadcasting a 24-hour schedule on all platforms except Freeview. On 30 June 2011,

Gems TV Gems TV was a jewellery manufacturer and reverse auction TV shopping network headquartered in Chanthaburi, Thailand. It began its operations in October 2004 in the UK, and then expanded to Germany, America, Japan and China. Gems TV was formed fr ...

acquired a 24-hour Freeview slot, ending their timeshare with Quest, allowing Quest to begin broadcasting for 24 hours a day on Freeview as well.

Quest +1 on Freeview

At the beginning of March 2014, Quest +1 appeared on Freeview channel 57. On 27 May 2014, Quest moved on Freeview to channel 37 and Quest +1 moved to channel 38. On 15 March 2017 it moved to channel 92 due to the launch of sister channel

, and later channels 76 and 69 following closures. Quest +1 and Quest Red +1 received changes in 2019 as Quest Red +1 moved to 72 while Quest +1 increased broadcast hours to 24 hour rather than 7pm to 7am.

Programming

Sports coverage

On 21 July 2014, Quest announced that they would be broadcasting live football in the form of the 2014 Schalke 04 Cup - a pre-season tournament featuring the likes of

Newcastle United F.C. Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Since the formation of the club in 1881 ...

and

West Ham United F.C. West Ham United Football Club is a professional football club based in Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, having moved from their ...

Five months later the channel broadcast live coverage of the

Dubai Challenge Cup Dubai Challenge Cup, also known as the Dubai Football Challenge, is a friendly football tournament founded by Mohammed bin Rashed and the United Arab Emirates national football team. It was first held in January 2007, with another tournament sche ...

. Speedway highlights are also shown on Quest. Since 2016, Quest has shown coverage of the

British Superbike Championship The British Superbike Championship (BSB), known for sponsorship reasons as the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, is a road racing championship for superbike class machines in the United Kingdom and acknowledged as the premier domestic s ...

live, free-to-air. Originally, it was to avoid a clash with other events being shown on Eurosport's normal broadcast channels, but subsequently the event has regularly been shown on the channel either live or by highlights. In late 2016, Quest broadcast live coverage and highlights of the new Home Series International Snooker Series, Quest broadcast afternoon sessions live of the English, Scottish and Northern Irish Opens with evening coverage exclusively on Eurosport and highlights. Both Eurosport & Quest cover the final sessions of each tournament live. The coverage is presented by Andy Goldstein or

Colin Murray Colin Murray (born Colin Wright on 10 March 1977) is a Northern Irish radio and television presenter. He has hosted the Channel 4 game show '' Countdown'' since 2022. Born and raised in Dundonald, east of Belfast, Murray first trained and wor ...

alongside

Jimmy White James Warren White (born 2 May 1962) is an English professional snooker player who has won ten ranking events. Nicknamed "The Whirlwind" because of his swift and attacking style of play, White has reached six World Snooker Championship finals ...

Neal Foulds Neal Foulds (born 13 July 1963) is an English former professional snooker player and six-time tournament winner, including the 1986 International Open, the 1988 Dubai Masters and the 1992 Scottish Masters, as well as the invitational Pot Bla ...

Ronnie O'Sullivan Ronald Antonio O'Sullivan (born 5 December 1975) is an English professional snooker player. Widely recognised as one of the most talented and accomplished players in snooker history, he has won the World Snooker Championship seven times, a m ...

with commentary by the usual Eurosport commentators Joe Johnson,

, Dave Hendon & Philip Studd. In 2019 and 2020, Quest showed live coverage and highlights of the

BDO World Darts Championship The BDO World Darts Championship was a professional darts tournament organised by the British Darts Organisation (BDO) and held annually from 1978 to 2020. The championship was first held at the Heart of the Midlands Nightclub in the Englis ...

BDO World Trophy The BDO World Trophy was a major darts tournament run by the British Darts Organisation, hosted originally in February 2014 at Blackpool Tower, before it was held in May from 2016–18 in various locations. In 2019, it was held in King George's ...

and the

World Masters The World Masters, known for sponsorship reasons as the Mita/Sky World Masters, was a snooker tournament held between 13 and 26 January 1991. Conceived by promoter Barry Hearn, the tournament had a similar format to the Grand Slam (tennis), Gran ...

. Quest shared coverage with sister channel

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia, owned and operated by Warner Bros. Discovery through its WBD Sports unit, it operates two main channels—Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

. Quest also shows parts of the

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

each year along with its sister channels

Eurosport 1 Eurosport 1 is a television sports network channel which is a division of Eurosport and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA, EMEA version of Warner Bros. Discovery. Discovery took a 20% minority interest share in December 2012, and becam ...

and

Eurosport 2 Eurosport 2 is a sports television channel and a sister channel to Eurosport 1. Both are part of the Eurosport network which is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA, EMEA version of Warner Bros. Discovery. Several different versions of the chan ...

and also broadcast highlights of the

MotoGP World Championship Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on Road racing, road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held sin ...

along with Moto2 and Moto3 beginning in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

=English Football League (EFL)

= Kicking-off from the 2018–19 season, the four-year deal will see Quest provide 90 minutes of extensive match highlights of the

English Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divis ...

, League One and League Two, hosted by

, in primetime at 9pm every Saturday night. As a result, the channel announced an HD version would launch in July 2018. It launched on 21 July 2018 on Virgin Media channel 217 but was removed on 24 July 2018. It officially launched on 2 August 2018 on Virgin Media, on 3 August on Freesat and Sky, and on 14 August on Freeview. The EFL said in its news release on 4 May 2018 that "the partnership between the EFL and Quest will guarantee accessible high quality, free-to-air coverage for football fans across the country". When the first show was broadcast on 4 August 2018, viewers experienced frequent breakup of picture and the screen aspect was reduced to the obsolete 4:3 ratio. Numerous complaints were made and ''

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

'' ran a feature on the impact of the "technical difficulties". Quest claimed that "some" viewers experienced problems but the ''Digital Spy'' investigation strongly suggests that everyone was impacted. Quest added that they were working to resolve the issue.

Movies

On 25 May 2023, Quest began broadcasting movies. Action thrillers are broadcast Thursdays at 10 pm and repeated on Sundays at 11 pm, and westerns are shown Saturdays at 2 pm and repeated on Sundays at 6 am. They are mainly sourced from the

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

film libraries. The broadcasting of movies on Quest began after it was decided, and announced, that sister channel

TCM Movies TCM Movies (formerly TNT and Turner Classic Movies) was a British pay television channel, focussing mostly on classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and Warner Bros. film libraries, which included many MGM titles, along with mov ...

would close - TCM stopped broadcasting on 7 July 2023.

=Sky channel moves

= On 17 October 2013, Quest moved from 154 to 167 on Sky, while TLC +1 moved from 195 to 154, and Quest +1 moved from 167 to 195. On 16 July 2015, Quest moved from 167 to 144 on Sky, switching places with sister channel DMAX. Quest and Quest Red removed their encryption and began broadcasting free-to-air on satellite in June 2017, and were added to the Freesat guide early in July. As part of the major EPG reshuffle on 1 May 2018, Quest +1 moved from channel 195 to 244 (due to Quest not moving from channel 144).

Logos

File:Quest logo.svg, Quest logo used from 30 September 2009 - 14 April 2014 File:Quest logo 2014.svg, Quest logo used from 15 April 2014 – present File:Quest 2018.svg, 2014 version without checkpoint

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quest (Tv Channel) Television channels and stations established in 2009 English-language television stations in the United Kingdom Warner Bros. Discovery networks 2009 establishments in the United Kingdom Warner Bros. Discovery EMEA