The best and worst digital TV channels in the UK of all time

When I referred to my earlier post about Channel 5 being one of the better channels out there in the UK. Some of it's content is only available to those who like to watch Reality TV. Benefits programmes, Big Brother, Up late with Rylan are shows that cater for people that want to better themselves but in the form of a supermodel or superstar reality. The people who watch them would have an initial consensus that these shows are meaningful to them in small ways.

But do other people who don't bother watching it have a credible opinion in how it serves it's purpose?

Nearly every TV channel in the entire world has touched on reality TV in some way and to what benefit does it continue. TV in olden days did not have that remit at all & it's environment felt better and felt more aesthetically attractive to it's core audience with shows that catered for everybody of every age. Our minds are there to escape reality with TV programmes that inspire us all to gain a better perspective on life. People working in all forms of media are meant to tell us, the people who watch these shows, that they are meant to establish an objective of maintaining a purpose to their audience to make them become more successful.

Reality TV in my opinion doesn't address these outcomes properly. The complete outcomes of these shows are lackluster in their return to their audience nearly all of the time. Do people in the music industry have a successful outcome after their limelight being contestants on X Factor or Pop Idol is over completely. For most people it does seems their lives have not changed one bit when their limelight is finished. Normal service has resumed in their lives and the people in this world who watched these people unfold on TV in front of their eyes either continue to go on in their merrily way or try to emulate their success even though their outcome could happen in the same way.

The other TV channels that focus on news, drama, documentaries, sports, film & children's TV do try not to damage their objectives in becoming successful or credible. They remain focused mainly on what the general audience wants in applying credibility to their own material. They do a reasonably good job in maintaining that brief.

What would you say to that opinion. You think I'm getting somewhere with it or not?

On the subject of worst digital channels, I'm surprised the venerable 'UK Bright Ideas' has not made it onto this thread. Launched in 2003 in order to boost Freeview's early lineup and provide another 'UK' channel on the platform.

Like much of early Freeview, it was writing cheques its butt couldn't cash - billed as a 'showcase' channel to give Freeview viewers access to the best of UK Style and UK Food programming (themselves not the most exciting channels in the world), it instead was a 2 hour loop of low-end programming, which could be aired on the channel without any extra rights negotiations needed. It did have quite nice idents though IIRC.

I believe the loop was later expanded to 4 hours, and the running time was expanded (on Sky and Cable) to run into the evenings too (but never on Freeview where it timeshared with FTN, a startlingly similar operation to UK BI).

Somehow it managed to survive for almost 5 years, only closing down when UKTV relaunched, and AIUI was the only UKTV channel not directly replaced with anything else (although on Freeview Dave took over LCN 19 which UK BI held along with the UKBI/FTN slot leading to some sources claiming that Dave replaced it when Dave actually replaced G2)

When I referred to my earlier post about Channel 5 being one of the better channels out there in the UK. Some of it's content is only available to those who like to watch Reality TV. Benefits programmes, Big Brother, Up late with Rylan are shows that cater for people that want to better themselves but in the form of a supermodel or superstar reality. The people who watch them would have an initial consensus that these shows are meaningful to them in small ways.

But do other people who don't bother watching it have a credible opinion in how it serves it's purpose?

Nearly every TV channel in the entire world has touched on reality TV in some way and to what benefit does it continue. TV in olden days did not have that remit at all & it's environment felt better and felt more aesthetically attractive to it's core audience with shows that catered for everybody of every age. Our minds are there to escape reality with TV programmes that inspire us all to gain a better perspective on life. People working in all forms of media are meant to tell us, the people who watch these shows, that they are meant to establish an objective of maintaining a purpose to their audience to make them become more successful.

Reality TV in my opinion doesn't address these outcomes properly. The complete outcomes of these shows are lackluster in their return to their audience nearly all of the time. Do people in the music industry have a successful outcome after their limelight being contestants on X Factor or Pop Idol is over completely. For most people it does seems their lives have not changed one bit when their limelight is finished. Normal service has resumed in their lives and the people in this world who watched these people unfold on TV in front of their eyes either continue to go on in their merrily way or try to emulate their success even though their outcome could happen in the same way.

The other TV channels that focus on news, drama, documentaries, sports, film & children's TV do try not to damage their objectives in becoming successful or credible. They remain focused mainly on what the general audience wants in applying credibility to their own material. They do a reasonably good job in maintaining that brief.

What would you say to that opinion. You think I'm getting somewhere with it or not?

On the subject of worst digital channels, I'm surprised the venerable 'UK Bright Ideas' has not made it onto this thread. Launched in 2003 in order to boost Freeview's early lineup and provide another 'UK' channel on the platform.

Like much of early Freeview, it was writing cheques its butt couldn't cash - billed as a 'showcase' channel to give Freeview viewers access to the best of UK Style and UK Food programming (themselves not the most exciting channels in the world), it instead was a 2 hour loop of low-end programming, which could be aired on the channel without any extra rights negotiations needed. It did have quite nice idents though IIRC.

I believe the loop was later expanded to 4 hours, and the running time was expanded (on Sky and Cable) to run into the evenings too (but never on Freeview where it timeshared with FTN, a startlingly similar operation to UK BI).

Somehow it managed to survive for almost 5 years, only closing down when UKTV relaunched, and AIUI was the only UKTV channel not directly replaced with anything else (although on Freeview Dave took over LCN 19 which UK BI held along with the UKBI/FTN slot leading to some sources claiming that Dave replaced it when Dave actually replaced G2)

Holy crap! I almost forgot about Bright Ideas. Terrible, just terrible. It only gained just about awful viewing figures, which says a lot about the closure of the channel.

Also, for the record, CITV is an example of a channel that was once decent, now it's just nothing but gutter tier. I remember the amount of great shows it had, now it's schedule is filled with Horrid Henry and Almost Naked Animals, the latter known to be awful. And that has resonated into declining ratings for CITV as a result.

But CITV's audience fully turns over every few years. The kids grow up, grow out of CITV, find the more mainstream channels, have kids of their own who eventually find CITV, then later grow out of it, and the cycle repeats.

Everybody over the age of about 30 here knows CITV today is nothing like Children's ITV of the 1980s and 1990s. The shows change, the audience change, the presentation changes. In 2025 we'll have a flock of members posting on a web forum like this decrying "CITV today is crap, we had good shows like Horrid Henry, Almost Naked Animals, etc". And we'll go "yeah, we know, we had this discussion in 2016 and said your programmes were crap compared to ours. Welcome to our world".

. I used to watch CITV a lot as a kid

Last week?

Also, for the record, CITV is an example of a channel that was once decent, now it's just nothing but gutter tier. I remember the amount of great shows it had, now it's schedule is filled with Horrid Henry and Almost Naked Animals, the latter known to be awful. And that has resonated into declining ratings for CITV as a result.