UKTV Drama

UKTV Drama is a satellite channel seen in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of the UKTV network.

The channel was launched in November 1997 as UK Arena. It was renamed UKTV Drama in March 2000.

The rights to Doctor Who transferred over from UK Gold; a short run of selected episodes aired in July 2007, including the unaired "Pilot" version of An Unearthly Child. Episodes from the new series were also shown.

Then, between January and October 2008, the station aired all the Tom Baker stories (bar Genesis of the Daleks and The Talons of Weng-Chiang), with some episodes airing twice during the day, and several stories were also later repeated out of sequence.

In October 2008, the station was rebranded as Alibi (aka alibi); and since the new station concentrated on crime dramas, all other shows were moved to Gold or the newly-created Watch. By this time, the run of Doctor Who episodes had recently ended.

THE OTHER UKTV

Australia and New Zealand both had a pay satellite channel called BBC UKTV (launched in 1996) which broadcast Doctor Who, but despite having a similar name, this broadcaster was not affiliated with the UK channel -- see BBC UKTV.