U&Eden is a British free-to-air television channel owned by UKTV, and broadcasts factual entertainment and drama programming. It originally launched on 8 March 2004 and relaunched in its current format on 27 January 2009. Eden was a pay television channel until 2024.
On 29 November 2023, UKTV announced its intention to launch 'U' – a new masterbrand that will unite its family channels and its streaming. Eden rebranded to U&Eden on 16 October 2024.
Launched on 16 July 2024, UKTV's streaming service UKTV Play became U; and its family of free-to-air channel adopted the "U&..." branding: U&Dave, U&Drama, U&W, and U&Yesterday.
On 16 August 2024, Ofcom gave UKTV a new broadcasting licence for U&Eden to become a free-to-air channel. U&Eden launched on Freeview on 16 October, replacing U&Yesterday+1.
Gold and Alibi rebranded to U&Gold and U&Alibi on 7 November 2024.
History
The UKTV channels were all rebranded on 8 March 2004. At the same time, Eden was launched as UKTV Documentary, showing factual documentaries, mainly from the BBC archives, on a variety of subjects if not covered by another channel in the UKTV network, such as Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man. Much of this programming had come from the former UKTV channel UK Horizons, which had closed down the day before and which the channel, and spun off a sister channel called UKTV People. UKTV Documentary occupied the same broadcasting slot as UK Horizons.
On 9 October 2008, UKTV announced plans to rebrand UKTV Documentary and UKTV People in early 2009. The news came just two days after UKTV's entertainment channels were rebranded to Watch, Gold and Alibi. They announced that UKTV Documentary would be rebranded as Eden and this rebrand took place on 26 January 2009. As part of the rebrand, the channels programming output changed from all documentaries to primarily documentaries focusing on the natural environment. All other documentaries were transferred to UKTV History or UKTV People, depending on their subject matter.
In August 2024, it was reported that Eden had secured a licence to broadcast on Freeview, following the secure of a DTPS (Digital Television Programme Services) licence by Ofcom.
Eden was rebranded as U&Eden and launched on Freeview, Freesat and Freely on 16 October 2024. The channel effectively became free-to-air on 7 October 2024, when its encryption was dropped on satellite in preparation for its addition to Freesat.
Subsidiary channels U&Eden +1 From launch, the channel has had a timeshift service, called Eden +1 and UKTV Documentary +1 before it. The service ran on Sky and Virgin Media and broadcast the channels schedule one hour later than usual. The timeshift was removed from Virgin Media in October 2008 to allow bandwidth for new channel Watch, however the timeshift service was restored on 7 October 2011.
U&Eden HD Eden HD launched on 4 October 2010 on Sky channel 559, running a high-definition simulcast of the main channel. As part of Virgin Media's deal to sell its share of UKTV, all five of UKTV's HD channels were added to Virgin's cable television service by 2012. Eden HD was added to Virgin Media on 7 October 2011. On 3 October 2016, Eden HD was added to BT. On 2 October 2017, Eden HD was removed from the Sky lineup and replaced with Gold HD.
On-air identity The UKTV Documentary identity focused around scenes from the landscape of Britain. The ident would first feature a close up shot, for example of a person or a stone, before pulling back to reveal the bigger picture: such as a busy rail station or a stone circle. This was then overlaid with the UKTV Documentary logo, consisting of the UKTV logo on top, and an upper case 'DOCUMENTARY' tag below, aligned to the left of the screen. Alongside the idents, the channel had a digital on-screen graphic (DOG) of the same design and also featured a generic UKTV design for all promotions for the channel. The channels house colour was a blue, similar in shade to Azure, and would feature in numerous changing shades on the end boards of promotions.
The 2009–2024 Eden identity featured explorers in an unknown environment, such as the deep jungle or the Antarctic, before coming across a landscape, which the logo then forms onto.
The 2024 identity films introduced in the rebrand to U&Eden utilise aerial photography, similarly to those of Sky Mix.
Programming
The programming used on the original pay-TV Eden channel was mostly from the BBC archives, and so was therefore edited to fit the time slot: an original broadcast for an hour-long programme on the BBC might be as much as 58 minutes long, while the same programme here might be 42 minutes long without the commercials. Eden was renowned for showing blue-chip natural history but then moved into more scientific programmes, while keeping the blue-chip, cinematic identity. Eden has also produced its own exclusive programming, with the most recent series David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities, produced by Humble Bee Films, broadcasting from January 2013.
Programmes on U&Eden From January 2024, Eden began to show a wider range of programming and now airs a range of reality, gameshows, drama and history programming from U&W, U&Drama, U&Dave and U&Yesterday, and since early 2025, nature programming was no longer aired on the channel but by the start of 2026, some natural history programming had returned.
Name of show Original channel(s) Original run 10 Things You Didn't Know About... BBC Four 2007–2008 Africa BBC One 2013 An African Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby BBC Two 2010 Animal Armageddon Animal Planet (United States) 2009 Amazing Planet National Geographic Channel (United States) 2007 Amazon BBC Two 2008 Arctic with Bruce Parry BBC Two 2011 Are We Changing Planet Earth? BBC One 2006 Ask Attenborough Eden 2011 Attenborough and the Giant Egg BBC Two 2011 Attenborough's Paradise Birds BBC Two 2015 Australia: The Time Travellers Guide ABC1 (Australia) 2012 The Ballad of Big Al BBC One 2000 BBC Wildlife Specials BBC One 1995–present The Bear Family & Me BBC Two 2011 Bahama Blue Animal Planet 2015 Bang Goes the Theory BBC One 2009–2014 Biggest and Baddest with Niall McCann Animal Planet 2012–2014 Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery BBC Four 2008 The Blue Planet BBC One 2001 The Brain: A Secret History BBC Four 2011 Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life BBC One 2009 Chased by Dinosaurs BBC One 2002 The Code BBC Two 2011 David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities EdenW 2013–2017 Deadly 60 CBBC 2014–2017 Death of a Sea Monster National Geographic Channel (United States) 2011 Deserts and Life Eden 2012 Dino Stampede BBC Two 2011 Do We Really Need the Moon? BBC Two 2011 Earthflight BBC One 2011–2012 Earth: The Power of the Planet BBC Two 2007 Eden Shorts: From Lens to Screen Eden 2015 Equator BBC Two 2006 Expedition Borneo BBC One 2007 Favourite Attenborough Moments UKTV Documentary 2006 First Life BBC Two 2010 Forecasting the End The Weather Channel 2013 Frozen Planet BBC One 2011 Galápagos BBC Two 2006 Ganges BBC Two 2007 Great Barrier Reef BBC Two 2012 The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart BBC Two 2010 Hainan Adventure with Nigel Marven Eden 2012 Himalaya with Michael Palin BBC One 2004 Horizon BBC Two 1964–present How to Grow a Planet BBC Two 2012 Human Planet BBC One 2011 Humpbacks: From Fire to Ice ABC1 (Australia) 2008 The Incredible Human Journey BBC Two 2009 Inside Nature's Giants Channel 4 2009–2012 Inside the Human Body BBC One 2011 James May's Things You Need To Know BBC Two 2011–2012 Killer Whale Islands with Nigel Marven Channel 5 2007 Killer Whales: Beneath the Surface BBC Two 2013 Last Chance to See BBC Two 2009 Life in Cold Blood BBC One 2008 Life in the Freezer BBC One 1993 Life in the Undergrowth BBC One 2005 The Life of Birds BBC One 1998 The Life of Mammals BBC One 2002–2003 Life on Earth BBC Two 1979 Life on Fire Arte (France) 2009–2010 Life BBC One 2009 Lion Country ITV 2010–2011 The Living Planet BBC One 1984 Lost Land of the Jaguar BBC One 2008 Lost Land of the Tiger BBC One 2010 Lost Land of the Volcano BBC One 2009 Madagascar BBC Two 2011 Monsters We Met BBC Two 2004 Monster Bug Wars Science (United States) 2011–2012 Mountain Gorilla BBC Two 2010 Museum of Life BBC Two 2010 Natural World BBC Two 1983–2020 Nature's Great Events BBC One 2009 Nature PBS (United States) 1982–present Nigel Marven's Rhino Adventure Channel 5 2006 Nova PBS (United States) 1974–present Oceans BBC Two 2008 Ocean Giants BBC Two 2011 On Thin Ice BBC Two 2009 Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey BBC Two 2012 Origins of Us BBC Two 2011 Planet Dinosaur BBC One 2011 Planet Earth BBC One 2006 The Polar Bear Family & Me BBC Two 2013 The Private Life of Plants BBC One 1995 Ray Mears' Bushcraft BBC Two 2004–2005 Ray Mears Goes Walkabout BBC Two 2008 Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness BBC Two 2009 Reconstructing T-Rex National Geographic Channel (United States) 2010 Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds BBC One 2010 Sea Monsters BBC One 2003 The Secrets of Everything BBC Three 2012 South Pacific BBC Two 2009 The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion BBC Two 2010 Super Giant Animals BBC One 2013 Swarm: Nature's Incredible Invasions BBC One 2009 Ten Deadliest Snakes: China Animal PlanetEden 2013 Ten Deadliest Snakes with Nigel Marven Animal PlanetEden 2013–2017 Termites - The Inner Sanctum ORF (Austria) 2011 Through Hell and High Water BBC OneBBC Two 2006 The Trials of Life BBC One 1990 Tribal Wives BBC Two 2008–2010 Tribe BBC Two 2005–2007 Tropic of Cancer BBC Two 2010 Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor: The Link BBC One 2009 Voyage of the Continents Arte (France) 2012 Walking with Beasts BBC One 2001 Walking with Dinosaurs BBC One 1999 Walking with Monsters BBC One 2005 Whale Adventure with Nigel Marven Channel 5Eden 2013 Wild Arabia BBC Two 2013 Wild Brazil BBC Two 2014 Wild Britain with Ray Mears ITVEden 2010–2013 Wild Canada CBC (Canada) 2014 Wild Caribbean BBC Two 2007 Wild China BBC Two 2008 Wild Colombia with Nigel Marven Eden 2012 Wild Down Under BBC Two 2003 Wonders of the Solar System BBC Two 2010 Wonders of the Universe BBC Two 2011 Yellowstone BBC Two 2009 Yunnan Adventure with Nigel Marven Eden 2012
U&Eden programming U&Eden launched as a rebranded free-to-air service on Freeview on ,Unknown with its programmes, usually scheduled in multi-episode blocks, now including:
Abandoned Engineering Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (repeats started from season 12 on 16 October 2024) The Architecture the Railways Built Bargain Hunt The Bill Campion Celebrity Mastermind Cutting It David Attenborough's Natural Curiosities Doctor Who Doctor Who: Terror of the Autons Doctor Who: The Claws of Axos Doctor Who: The Mutants Dr Christian: 12 Hours to Cure Your Street Expedition with Steve Backshall Hornby: A Model World Impossible Engineering Inside the Ambulance The Missing Mistresses The Onedin Line Parkinson Pointless Red Dwarf Secret Army Sorry! Steam Train Britain The Two Ronnies Top of the Pops Warbird Workshop
Notes
See also UKTV Television in the United Kingdom
References
External links