There has been rumour about this floating on DS and Wiki for a few days now and I didn't think it was true, but it seems to be.
Doesn't surprise me you know, it's like Disney gave up on the channel a couple of years ago. Nothing new appears to be on there at all, the Tapes for 8 Simple Rules must be worn out by now!
Although I'd like to see what Disney will replace it with, or whether they'll sell their 6am-6pm slot altogether.
There has been rumour about this floating on DS and Wiki for a few days now and I didn't think it was true, but it seems to be.
Doesn't surprise me you know, it's like Disney gave up on the channel a couple of years ago. Nothing new appears to be on there at all, the Tapes for 8 Simple Rules must be worn out by now!
Although I'd like to see what Disney will replace it with, or whether they'll sell their 6am-6pm slot altogether.
Can't say I'm surprised. Seen every episode of Home Improvement at least six times now on ABC1 alone. It's only this, the John Ritter episodes of 8 Simple Rules and the odd Scrubs episode that I bother with. Even then they're repeated twice a day during Freeview hours alone.
Aside from the obvious lack of peak-time viewership on Freeview (something which has dragged the channel down for quite some time now), they buy up all the shows that have short runs, therefore the repeats eventually grate. 8 Simple Rules ran for 3 seasons, Hope & Faith ran for 3 seasons, Rodney ran for just 2, while Home Improvement ran for 8.
Its been obvious for a while now that there's no real interest in this channel now, the amounts of trailers for Playhouse Disney and Disney Channel is ever present in every commercial interlude with next to no sign of any self-programming promotion. It might not make any money because it doesn't run adverts but if Disney Channel does take the old ABC1 slot, then we can all watch endless runs of Recess, Suite Life and High School Musical. Might push the viewership share up a lot and probably contribute to the death of the CITV Channel, but there you go.
I'll miss ABC1. Thanks to it, I saw for the first time and enjoyed 8 Simple Rules and Sports Night, and it was nice to get reacquainted with Home Improvement and Ellen.
At least we can wave goodbye to Rodney, Less than Perfect and Hope and Faith. All of which were atrocious.
They should have shown Grace Under Fire, which I loved when it used to be on BBC2.
I really like Hope & Faith and 8 Simple Rules, but there is only so many times you can watch the same episode. I was only just getting into Less Than Perfect too. It was nice to see Home Improvement again as well.
A channel I will sadly miss, t'was good for daytime entertainment.
If Disney end their contract with SDN, ITV will certainly get ultimate control over the slot and either re-advertise it or launch another new channel. However there can be no changes after 18.00 on that slot, and none at all in Wales, so it would not be possible for a primetime channel such as Virgin 1 to launch.
On the other hand, it could be possible Virgin take either bid tv or price-drop tv onto the ABC1 slot and use one of the 24h slots (preferably price-drop since its fully national) to launch Virgin 1 whilst keeping FTN intact. If FTN is to close, perhaps the slot could be replaced with UKTV G2.
If Disney end their contract with SDN, ITV will certainly get ultimate control over the slot and either re-advertise it or launch another new channel. However there can be no changes after 18.00 on that slot, and none at all in Wales, so it would not be possible for a primetime channel such as Virgin 1 to launch.
What they COULD do in that instance is move CITV (which only broadcasts to 6pm anyway) onto the abandoned abc1 slot, and make ITV4 24hr...
If Disney end their contract with SDN, ITV will certainly get ultimate control over the slot and either re-advertise it or launch another new channel. However there can be no changes after 18.00 on that slot, and none at all in Wales, so it would not be possible for a primetime channel such as Virgin 1 to launch.
What they COULD do in that instance is move CITV (which only broadcasts to 6pm anyway) onto the abandoned abc1 slot, and make ITV4 24hr...
That would be the best idea, then maybe sell the ITV2+1 slot to Virgin TV.
