Premium channel on Sky and Virgin Media is now FREE for everyone – with shows from David Attenborough and more
Date: 2024-10-21FREEVIEW and Freesat watchers have gained an extra channel that was only available via Sky and Virgin before today.
The premium channel is a big name in world of nature and documentaries, with hits from beloved personalities such as Sir David Attenborough.
Eden has gone free-to-air as of Wednesday – and undergone a revamp to mark the occasion.
The channel is now known as U&Eden, following a shake-up by owner UKTV – itself owned by the BBC.
Sister stations Dave, Drama and W have already shifted to the new unified brand, as well as streaming service UKTV Play which is now simply U.
U now boasts nearly 8,500 hours of content, which is up from roughly 1,500 hours at the start of 2024.
UKTV recently announced that it and Sky had renegotiated their pay TV carriage deal, which now only covers comedy channel Gold and crime drama channel Alibi.
It is the first time Freeview, Freesat and Freely viewers will be able to access Eden.
The channel was formally launched in 2009 as a natural history channel, and features episodes of Expedition with Steve Backshall and Shipwreck Secrets.
However, it has recently pivoted to include medical reality and other factual series and documentaries, airing shows like Inside the Ambulance, Dr Christian Will See You Now, Abandoned Engineering and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.
U&Eden can be found on Freeview channel 57.
According to RXTVInfo, it’s only available for Freeview Play or Freeview HD receivers, even though it’s broadcast in SD.
And as part of the launch, U&Dave Ja Vu has moved to channel 74, replacing U&Yesterday+1.
U&Eden can be found on channel 160 via Freesat.
Viewers have been warned they may need to rescan their TV boxes to benefit from the channel.
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