UK History was launched on 30 October 2002, the same day the the new terrestrial television platform Freeview launched. The launch identity was on of the first channel identities designed by the newly launched BBC Broadcast.
In 2009, UKTV's rebrands came to their factual channels. UKTV History was renamed Yesterday on 2 March 2009, the new tagline was "Where the past is always present". Red Bee Media was behind the new look and produced six new idents.
On 29 November 2023, UKTV announced its intention to launch 'U' - a new masterbrand that will unite its family of free-to-air channels and its streaming service in 2024.
Launching in Summer 2024, the move will see its current streaming service UKTV Play transition to U and UKTV's family of free-to-air channels will become U&Dave, U&Drama, U&Yesterday and U&W. Its pay channels will transition to U&Alibi, U&Gold, U&Eden at a later date.