Topic summary
UK Play
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Play UK.
History
The channel had originally been planned as part of the BBC's plans with Flextech to launch a series of BBC-branded channels and was conceived as a television version of BBC Radio 1 but conflicts over advertising on BBC-branded channels saw the UKTV partnership transitioned over to BBC Worldwide and the channel launched as UK Play on 10 October 1998, and without any formal ties to Radio 1. It changed its name to Play UK on 27 November 2000. Like the now‑defunct 4Music and Viacom's old Freeview channel Viva, the channel had music programming through the day, while broadcasting comedy during its primetime and evening hours. Most of the comedy programming on Play UK had already been broadcast on the BBC's terrestrial channels, with Play UK adding a few original UKTV-produced comedy programmes as well as a number of American comedy and animation shows towards the end of its broadcast life.