The UK's most famous broadcaster, the BBC, will not get the chance to show Enterprise on any of its channels. A new report yesterday broke the news that Channel 4 has bought the rights to the series.

This will end the BBC's status as the home of Trek for over 30 years, when it showed the Original Series in the 1960's. It was expected that the broadcaster would continue it's commitment to Trek by showing Enterprise. But a BBC spokesman said that the corporation was not approached over the rights to the new series. The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager will continue to be shown on the BBC.

The full rights to air the series in Britain are owned by Sky TV. Sky is a satellite broadcaster, and its services are only available to homes with a satellite dish, cable or digital capabilities. Enterprise will be seen first in Britain on Sky One early next year.

Most television programmes in the UK are still received on an analogue signal through an aerial, and the standard channels transmitted in this way are known as 'terrestrial' TV. It is these rights to show Enterprise on terrestrial TV that Sky has sold. Four is one of five such channels available across the country.

Channel Four is already the home of fellow genre show Stargate SG-1 and showed Babylon 5 throughout its five year run. It was also rumoured to be interested in Gene Roddenberry's: Andromeda earlier this year. The channel's cable and satellite spinoff channel, E4 currently shows the Original Series every weekday. It is not yet known when or how the channel plans to show Enterprise.

More information can be found in the original report at BBC News Online.

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