Metro (Euro Republics)

Metro is a Euro Republican pay television channel, screening mostly British programming, with a particular focus on comedy but also including drama, documentaries, quiz shows and music, sourced mainly from the archives of the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. The channel is owned by EuroMedia.

History
Metro launched as one of the first channels available on ET1 Digital on 1st March, 1996 as UKTV. Originally, it was jointly owned by Modern Times Group (40%), Granada (20%), Channel Four Television Corporation (20%), BBC Enterprises (20%).

During this time, ITV also operated ITV World, which due to being corporate siblings, co-existed with each other and shared programmes.

Originally, UKTV also simulcasted the CBBC strand in tandem with BBC One until 6:35pm with CITV airing afterwards from 6:35pm to 8:15pm, as a lead in to primetime, despite CITV already airing on ITV World at the time. This was later dropped in June 1997 when BBC One & Capital/LWT became available on ET1 Digital. The BBC's Nine O'Clock News would air at 10pm local time, with ITN’s Early Evening News at 6:40pm after CITV was dropped.

UKTV also simulcast the BBC's coverage of the 1997 UK election.

Sometime in 1998, UKTV began to show other programmes that were not from the UK, such as repeats of Shortland Street, Prisoner: Cell Block H and Neighbours.

In 2000, UKTV dropped children's programmes altogether, citing low ratings, replacing them with classic episodes of Coronation Street, EastEnders, Emmerdale Farm, The Bill, Casualty and Brookside.

Channel Four Television Corporation sold their stake in UKTV to CLT-UFA in June 2001, with Doctors taking the place of Brookside in the schedules. ITV plc followed suit in March 2004 to set up a separate channel known as Granada. As a result of the latter, UKTV ceased showing Coronation Street and Emmerdale among other programmes in 2004.

UKTV was rebranded in October 2009, bringing the channel's on-screen branding in line with that of BBC One in Britain.

On 30th January 2023, EuroMedia officially announced the rebrand of BBC UKTV as Metro is to occur on Wednesday 15th February 2023, which will reintroduce ITV & Channel 4 programmes alongside BBC programmes. Metro will focus more on offbeat and quirky British comedy, characters and culture.