Anyone missing UKTV Gardens as much as me?

[annie o nemys]

I am so upset that I can't fire myself into action on a Saturday or Sunday (or whenever really) by watching a couple of half-hours of Gardening TV on UKTV Gardens before getting dressed and going out there!  Where else can we see Geoff Hamilton re-runs?  His advice doesn't go out of date after all. 

If you are as bothered as me about this then I sent an e-mail expressing my dismay to tamsyn.zietsman@uktv.co.uk who is the contact for head of publicity (in the absence of details for someone more suitable on their website).

Hoping for support....
Annie.

[annie o nemys]

[Hector]

I've emailed her :)

[xlynettex]

i emailed them yesterday.  i had a reply last night saying it didn`t have enought viewers to keep it going :(

[manicscousers]

sent an e mail off, the only semi-gardening thing on tv  :o

[Duke Ellington]

Maybe we should boycott the new Home channel  then they would have even fewer viewers !!

Duke

[skyblu]

I never even knew it existed!  ::)

[Deb P]

The channel they have replaced it with is a horrific mix of rubbish and no replacement at all. Fed up! >:(

[betula]

I miss it. :(

[daileg]

i looked last night for the next few days and not one decent gardening program on im going to email uktv as its not fare concidering cancelling my sky over this nothing but c**p on now

[betula]

I will miss the big dig and the Victorian kitchen garden.Liked the old gardeners'world too. :)

[Kea]

Thanks for the link to the email, I have emailed and told them how delighted my husband is that he will get to keep the extra £5 a month he pays to have this package on our sky subscription!

[daileg]

emailed the link and UKTV to add my content to there lack of content

[MissTibbs]

Hi everyone - I'm a newbie but I actually found this forum the other day whilst trying to find out what had happened to our beloved UKTV Gardens.  We are so fed up that they have removed this - I can't believe that it had less viewers than some of the other utterly tatty channels that they have going.

I too have written to express my disgust - it's such a shame, my young 8 year old daughter absolutely loved it and we recorded many programmes - it was a real inspiration and very educational for younger viewers.  She particularly enjoyed Monty's "Round the World in 80 Gardens" - she found it fascinating (as did I).

We definately won't be watching the other rubbish that they've offered as a poor replacement.

>:( 

[manicscousers]

my reply from the channel makers  ::)
We are sorry to hear of your disappointment at the closure of .  I am sure you will understand it was not an easy decision to make.  UKTV is a commercial business and unfortunately, was under-performing significantly.  There are just not enough viewers who share your (and our) love of the channel.

 

Ground Force was the most popular of the programmes, which is why it now part of our Home channel, along with City Gardener, , Home Front in the Garden. We are dedicated to getting the right mix of gardening programming on the new Home channel. Because of this, we are asking people to submit their requests for shows that they would like to keep on the new channel. From your previous email, we will put your suggestions directly forward to the Head of UKTV Lifestyle Channels. Gardeners' world is a common request so we would like you to know that UKTV is aware of this. We would welcome your feedback on any other titles we are showing to help inform our schedules on both these channels going forward.

 

Our factual channel Blighty, is now showing some of the more 'outdoors' programmes that were on UKTV Gardens (Coast, Wye: Voices from the Valley, Passion for Plants, Bill Oddie Goes Wild, Birding with Bill Oddie, Castle in the Country).  I hope that you will enjoy these and more. 

 

We have transferred the online content from the website over to www.lovehome.co.uk with some new content if you are interested.


Again, we are sorry that you are disappointed and hope that you are not pout off watching UKTV channels completely. With the feedback that we are getting on the recent changes, we hope to keep the core gardening programmes still going. Unfortunately, there were not enough viewers to support a whole channel financially

[Hector]

Manicscousers....got the same reply :)

[manicscousers]

trouble is, I never watch any of the other uktv programmes, they're a load of rubbish  ::)

[annie o nemys]

Having e-mailed Tamsyn and getting the standard reply as follows...

"We are sorry to hear of your disappointment at the closure of UKTV Gardens. I'm sure will understand it was not an easy decision to make. UKTV is a commercial business and unfortunately UKTV Gardens was under-performing significantly"

I replied with the following...

"I am struggling to decide where the culpability lies here.  I pay SKY and yet you provide the programs so when you say that UKTV Gardens was underperforming, it doesn't make sense to me.  I paid them to provide gardening programs so why has this been taken away from me?"

I mentioned that I pay a LOT of money to Sky and expected UKTV Gardens to go HD ...rather than GO altogether!!  I should say that I have SKY + Multiroom with HD so pay £57 a month for my telly and as an avid gardener watched UKTV Gardens for about 30-40% of my viewing time.  How does that fit into the underperforming spectrum?  Perhaps they are asking the wrong questions?

Anyway...  Tamsyn's reply was as follows....

"The best thing to do is to email uktvinfo@bs.org and they will process your complaints. You could also try and complain to Sky but I am sorry I don't know who the best person there to direct you to. If you call their reception they should be able to help you out."

I e-mailed SKY's "contact me" type e-mail and entitled the e-mail "complaint" about "programming" from the drop down menus.  I will also try this new address given by Tamsyn.

Makes me wonder how "horse and country" or any similar minority channels survive?

Anyway, if you believe Gardeners are a different breed from DIY'ers who expect results in 60 minutes, (and therefore deserve a different channel) then please follow your heart and stand up for us now. 

"The Victorian Kitchen Garden" was an 80s science experiment in the vein of the Open University; a world away from the "City Gardener" which is a small-space makeover show and more geared towards the property market than allotment'eers.

And there was me thinking growing veg had become trendy?  I must have been wrong..?

Thanks for any support guys and gals...
Annie.

[Kea]

trouble is, I never watch any of the other uktv programmes, they're a load of rubbish  ::)

Ditto