From 1997, stylised breakdown captions were introduced in the event of programme outages. Previously, programme slides had been used during a crash. Here's an early outing for BBC2's slide (based on Optics) before the rebrand.
Is this correct?
73 days later
:-(
A former member
Can anyone remember anything about UK living from 1993? Did thames have its fingers in this pie aswell?
Can anyone remember anything about UK living from 1993? Did thames have its fingers in this pie aswell?
Yes they did, and it originated from Thames' studios at Teddington. I had a bit of involvement in the channel in the mid 90's so know a bit about it, what else do you want to know?
:-(
A former member
Thank you very much, I'l get back to you this evening. I dont want to just rush in
Cheers!
:-(
A former member
I would like to know any of the following:
* Who owned UK living in 1993?
* How did TCI get involved.
* What was the premise behide creating the channel.
* When Flextech become invold how long before the opeations were moved to Maidstone?
* How many idents and break bumpers were there in 1993?
As for Maidstone, I'm fairly certain the channel never came from there. It came from Teddington from launch until 1997 when all of Pearson's operations moved to a new HQ in Stephen Street. The daily studio based programme moved there as did channel playout, where it stayed under various owners until Red Bee took over the contract to play out all of Flextech's channels, whenever that was.
Of course the channel's management might have had offices at Maidstone
As for how many idents were there, I've no idea, and I wouldn't have thought that any record of that would exist anywhere. They had a fair few when I worked on it. I remember seeing a recording session where they filmed some more... some of which were very odd and not used. I have some on a tape somewhere I think
:-(
A former member
Thank you very much, good to see some records are online. At last count around 1 idents were used in 1993,(including a shopping trolley) it would be nice to see what the unused versions were?
I take it you worked on a few of the live daytime shows? I cant remember the names, but the shows did have a continues flow of people. Were there any mishaps? Im sure I can remember one day everything went wrong.
I think the ones from 1995 were a different set from the originals, but still in a similar 'Carlton' style. Looking at TV Ark they had a smaller, white logo. The set I saw introduced they filmed by just getting a load of props and filming them on a turntable in front of a green screen... some were a little odd - one with gonks.
I didn't work on the live afternoon daytime show. I think it went through several names and formats along the way. I remember Jayne Irving from TVam being the host for a long time. I assume it was a Thames production, originally from studio 3 at Teddington which was dedicated just to UK Living. Then I assume it moved to one of the studios at Stephen Street but if it did it wasn't for long.
Random fact - UK Living was the first channel in the UK to show a TV advert for a religious group, they showed an advert for Scientology in 1996
A report from 1996 says Cox Enterprises had a near-majority share with 49.6%, TCI held 35.4% and Thames 15%. The percentages were probably similar when UK Living launched in 1993.
The ownership was consolidated into Flextech in 1997, with Cox and Pearson being given shares in Flextech in exchange for their shares in UK Gold and UK Living.
Last edited by Thinker on 6 March 2014 1:07pm
:-(
A former member
In January 1994 Tele-Communications Inc. past over to Flextech as part of a deal with the company. I believe TCI had shares in Flextech.
