Sky Witness

UK Living began broadcasting on 1 September 1993, as part of the Sky Multichannels network. It was originally owned by a three way partnership; former ITV London franchise holder Thames Television, Tele-Communications Inc. and fellow cable communications company Cox Enterprises, with a budget of £25million.[1] The channel was mainly aimed at women aged between 25 and 45, broadcasting films, dramas, chat shows and soap operas. Most of its original programming came from the programme libraries of Thames Television and the BBC. A unique aspect was the repeats of programmes such as Kilroy, Anne and Nick, and Floyd, which were all shown within a week of being transmitted on mainstream television.

By January 1994, Flextech (later known as Virgin Media Television and Living TV Group), took over TCI's shares in UK Living as part of a deal between the two companies[2][3]

By 1996, Telewest's Flextech division gained full control, after buying out the now-defunct Thames and Cox Enterprises.[4][5][6] Shortly afterwards the channel moved away from its reliance of BBC programming, and increase its output of American programming.

In 1997, when the BBC and Flextech launched the UKTV Network: UK Style, UK Horizons and UK Arena, it was decided that UK Living would remain a separate channel. As such, it had to remove the 'UK' branding to avoid being confused with the UKTV services; thus UK Living became Living.

The most watched shows on the channel are The Blacklist, Elementary and The Enfield Haunting.

The channel has also aired Yvette Fielding's Most Haunted and Most Haunted Live!, in which Fielding and the team, that at one point included medium Derek Acorah, investigate haunted locations in the UK and abroad. The show had brought some of the channel's biggest ratings to date.

In 2001, the channel helped to launch a whole new genre of paranormal programming with such shows as Crossing Over with John Edward, 6ixth Sense with Colin Fry, Scream Team, Jane Goldman Investigates, Dead Famous, I'm Famous and Frightened! and Most Haunted, which continued to be popular.ŵ

The channel has also launched a number of successful US television shows in the UK market. Past successes include Charmed, Will & Grace, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Miss Match, Joan of Arcadia, CSI, and Just Shoot Me!. At present, the channel currently has first run UK rights to Boston Legal, Criminal Minds, Blindspot, Grey's Anatomy, Ghost Whisperer, The L Word, Men in Trees and the Australian comedy Kath & Kim. In 2008, the channel also debuted the first seasons of Army Wives, Lipstick Jungle, and Viva Laughlin.

Brian Dowling was put forward as one of the public figures to represent the channel – by presenting programming including Celebrity Extra, Trolley Dollies, and a spin-off to I'm Famous and Frightened!. However, in recent years, he has been mostly absent from the channel apart from the occasional Celebrity Extra presenting duties. Instead, fellow Big Brother contestant Jade Goody became the channel's newest public face, with three different shows devoted to her life, Jade's Salon, Just Jade and Jade's PA, but in January 2007, she was dropped due to the racism row on Celebrity Big Brother. In 2009, when Jade discovered that she had terminal cancer, the channel acquired the exclusive rights to film a documentary through her final days followed by the show producing two-hour-long tribute shows a week after her death followed by a further two tribute shows in 2010 and 2011.

To continue the list of reality TV stars hosting programmes, Jodie Marsh announced that she would be presenting a new programme called Get A Life starting on 1 March 2007. However, the channel announced that the show was to be cancelled and discussions got underway as to whether the remaining four episodes would be aired.[11]

The channel announced in February 2007 that Abigail Clancy, the runner up of Britain's Next Top Model (cycle 2), signed a deal with the channel to make a new reality show with Janice Dickinson as her mentor, on trying to crack into America.

The channel announced in June 2010 that model Katie Price had signed a £5 million, 2-year contract to make and broadcast Series 3 and 4 of her fly-on-the-wall show, What Katie Did Next, after turning down a weaker offer from rival channel ITV2 to continue making further series of the show. This was the first time that her show was broadcast in HD.[12]

Living launched its website in 2001 as livingtv.co.uk, prior to the channel being renamed LivingTV in early 2002. This was initially represented on-screen by the addition of the letters 'TV' to the established logo. In a 2004 branding relaunch, the way the name was displayed changed to LIVINGtv.

In a further change in 2007, the channel name reverted from LIVINGtv back to LIVING (still officially spelt all in capitals, though some media write the name in normal case). In 2009, the idents were changed to a 3D logo, with glass on the side of the 'L' in either pink or blue. Other idents show the logo covered in paint, while Livingit adopted a slightly different appearance.

• List of television stations in the United Kingdom
• Sky Krimi, a crime-themed German television channel operated by Sky plc as a part of its Germany and Austria portfolio.

• Sky Witness at sky.com