On 29 November 2023, UKTV announced its intention to launch 'U' – a new masterbrand that will unite its family channels and its streaming.

[2] The news came just two days after UKTV's entertainment channels were rebranded to Watch, Gold and Alibi.

[3] The channel effectively became free-to-air on 7 October 2024, when its encryption was dropped on satellite in preparation for its addition to Freesat.

The service ran on Sky and Virgin Media and broadcast the channels schedule one hour later than usual.

The 2009–2024 Eden identity featured explorers in an unknown environment, such as the deep jungle or the Antarctic, before coming across a landscape, which the logo then forms onto.

The 2024 identity films introduced in the rebrand to U&Eden utilise aerial photography, similarly to those of Sky Mix.

The programming used on the original pay-TV Eden channel was mostly from the BBC archives, and so was therefore edited to fit the time slot: an original broadcast for an hour-long programme on the BBC might be as much as 58 minutes long, while the same programme here might be 42 minutes long without the commercials.

U&Eden launched as a rebranded free-to-air service on Freeview on 16 October 2024,[12][13] with its programmes, usually scheduled in multi-episode blocks, now including: