Dave and Alibi bought by BBC in record £173 million takeover deal

The BBC has announced a £173 million takeover of UKTV channels from Discovery as part of the “largest ever” deal in the broadcaster’s history.

The Dave and Gold provider, which is jointly owned by Discovery and the BBC’S commercial arm BBC Studios, will be divided up between the US and UK broadcasters, with the BBC retaining the UKTV brand.

The publicly funded corporation will pay Discovery £173m in the takeover deal, which will see seven channels come under BBC control.

Discovery will take Good Food, Home and Really under its brand, while the BBC will gain Alibi, Dave, Drama, Eden, Gold, Yesterday and W.

Discovery has also agreed a new ten-year deal to air the BBC’S flagship natural history shows, including Planet Earth and Blue Planet, outside the UK and Ireland.

BBC director-general Lord Hall said: “The BBC makes outstanding natural history and science programmes.

“They are ground-breaking and demonstrate the quality and depth of our know-how. It is vital that we keep investing and growing them for the future. This is our largest ever content sales deal.

“It will mean BBC Studios and Discovery will work together to take our content right across the globe through a new world-beating streaming service.

“Global subscribers are in for a real treat, the best content on a great new platform.

“This is brilliant news for audiences here as it will enable the BBC to invest even more.”