UKTV Gold, (previously known as UK Gold until March 8 2004), is a British television channel that shows mainly classic BBC entertainment programmes. It launched on November 1, 1992, currently available on Sky Digital, Virgin Media, and terrestrial subscription via Top Up TV. History channel launched on November 1, 1992 as a joint venture between Thames Television and the BBC to show reruns of their 'classic' archive programming (UKTV Gold and its sister stations (see below) are now part of the UKTV network, owned jointly by Virgin Media Television (formerly Flextech) and the BBC). The channel's major drawbacks in its early years were the insensitive placement of commercial breaks in BBC shows, poor timekeeping, and the heavy-handed editing of BBC programmes to fit commercial timeslots. The channel joined Sky's basic subscription package in 1993. Initially broadcast on an analogue transponder from a SES Ast