Quest (TV channel)

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Quest is a television channel available in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Quest provides factual, lifestyle, entertainment programmes and other imported material. The channel is operated by Discovery Networks Northern Europe.

Video Quest (TV channel)

History

Launch

In October 2008, Discovery announced that they would launch a channel on Freeview in early 2009, but without using the "Discovery" name. A placeholder appeared on Freeview channel 47 on 5 January 2009 and Tiscali TV channel 109 on 14 May 2009. Although the channel planned to launch on 14 May 2009 at 10 am, after broadcasting a promo loop on the planned launch morning, at 10 am the channel returned to displaying a "Coming soon" message.

The Quest website displayed a message reading: "Regrettably we have made the decision to postpone the launch of Quest. Due to a number of commercial factors we have had to make this difficult decision. We did not make this decision lightly and we are working towards launching Quest in the near future. We would like to apologise wholeheartedly to any of you that have been looking forward to this launch."

In August 2009, Discovery Networks announced that it planned to launch the channel on 30 September 2009. At the same time the channel moved to channel 38. Quest launched on Sky, on 1 October 2009, after acquiring an EPG slot from Information TV 2. Quest +1 launched on Sky, replacing DMAX +1.5 on 2 November 2009.

Quest launched on Virgin Media on 25 March 2010 on channel 179.

Notable features

It is notable for cropping the top and bottom from 4:3 programming in order to make it 16:9. Furthermore, if the channel is viewed with a receiver set to 4:3, the sides are cropped from the image (including cutting the channel logo in half) meaning only the very centre of the original picture is viewable.

Full-time

On 15 October 2010, Quest began broadcasting a 24-hour schedule on all platforms except Freeview. On 30 June 2011, Gems TV acquired a 24-hour Freeview stream, ending their timeshare with Quest, allowing Quest to begin broadcasting for 24 hours a day on Freeview as well.

Quest +1 on Freeview

At the beginning of March 2014, Quest +1 appeared on Freeview channel 57. On 27 May 2014, Quest moved on Freeview to channel 37 and Quest +1 moved to channel 38. On 15 March 2017 it moved to channel 92 due to the launch of sister channel Quest Red, and later channel 83 following closures.

Sports coverage

On 21 July 2014, Quest announced that they would be broadcasting live football in the form of the 2014 Schalke 04 Cup - a pre-season tournament featuring the likes of Newcastle United F.C. and West Ham United F.C. Five months later the channel broadcast live coverage of the Dubai Challenge Cup.

Speedway highlights are also shown on Quest.

On 22 May 2016, Quest showed coverage of the British Superbike Championship live, free-to-air, due to a scheduling clash with the Giro D'Italia and French Open tennis being shown on Eurosport's normal broadcast channels and the rest of the season went to be shown on the channel either live or by highlights. Quest is owned by Eurosport's parent company, Discovery.

In late 2016 Quest broadcast live coverage and highlights of the new Home Series International Snooker Series, Quest broadcast afternoon sessions live of the English, Scottish and Northern Irish Opens with evening coverage exclusively on Eurosport and highlights. Both Eurosport & Quest cover the final sessions live of each tournament live. The coverage is presented by Andy Goldstein or Colin Murray alongside Jimmy White, Dennis Taylor & Ronnie O'Sullivan with commentary by the usual Eurosport commentators Dave Hendon, Neal Foulds & Phil Yates.

Sky channel moves

On 17 October 2013, Quest moved from 154 to 167 on Sky, while TLC +1 moved from 195 to 154, and Quest +1 moved from 167 to 195.

On 16 July 2015, Quest moved from 167 to 144 on Sky, switching places with sister channel DMAX.

Quest and Quest Red removed their encryption and began broadcasting free-to-air on satellite in June 2017, and were added to the Freesat guide early in July.

As part of Sky's major EPG reshuffle on 1 May 2018, Quest +1 moved from channel 195 to 244 (due to Quest not moving from channel 144).