Watch Dave

Dave is a free-to-air channel owned by UKTV and subordinated to BBC Studios that broadcasts various types of comedy and entertaining content, from TV series to live shows and a podcast, and offers some factual programming along the way.

Dave is an ‘heir’ of two previously existing channels, UKTV Gold Classics and UK Gold 2 that were regularly rebranded and transformed to attract more viewers. As a result, the Dave channel was launched in 2007, the name reflecting the idea of fun enjoyed and shared by friends, since "everyone knows a bloke called Dave."

Dave has its separate podcast The Dave Weekly that is available at joindave.co.uk. The podcast features interviews with comedians, their mini-live gigs in the studio, standup features, and similar entertaining content.

To underscore its comedian concept, the channel was given a conspicuous tagline: ‘the home of witty banter.’ The tagline is voiced by Ralph Ineson, the official channel announcer, and other known entertainers regularly show up as presenters, including David Flynn, Phill Jupitus, and Iain Lee.

Although quite rarely, Dave airs important sports events, the major broadcasts being boxing matches and cricket tournaments in 2016 and live MMA airing since 2017.

Dave became extremely popular right from the start and just a month after its launch in 2007 gained the position of the tenth largest channel in the UK in the pay TV service.

The most successful show on the channel ever is Red Dwarf: Back to Earth (2009), the newly scripted continuation of the 1980’s sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf. The show broke records of total views not only for Dave, but for digital television as a whole; and in 2012, 2016, and 2017, new installments of the show were produced.

For viewers who prefer HD format, the Dave HD channel was launched in 2011. The HD channel programming is an absolute repetition of the standard-definition Dave.

Movie fans can watch on Dave a few films, but they are usually repeats of famous dramas and thrillers, and most of them come from the archive of Columbia Pictures.

Dave has its own time shift service channel, Dave +1 that airs with the 1-hour shift. The channel mirrors the Dave programming and has a witty name ‘Dave ja vu’ (referring to a phrase déjà vu) that playfully highlights the repetitive nature of this additional channel.