NJ
The TVS programming issue has been discussed before.
Family Channel (and later Challenge) came from Maidstone, where Meridian are based. Whether it still does is anybody's guess now the parent company's gone through various takeovers. Set up in the UK by an American company who bought TVS after it went of the air, Flextech initially bought a minority share in the new venture and later bought it out, rebranding it. The original venture was bought by Disney including the bulk of the TVS archive.
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This is the issue you have with archive programming. Most of it is tied up in complicated rights that was good at the time, which would have, in the case of Krypton, been good for what would have only been one main transmission, with a view that it would probably never be seen again. The concept of repeat airings on, of all things, a satellite channel, was almost unheard of in the 1980s. BSB didn't launch until 1988, Sky was losing money hand over foot and even with the merged company BSkyB in 1990, no profit was made until 1994.
It's only relatively recently, since around the time of the original Family Channel, that the concept of selling transmission rights to another company up the road came into being. Previously you'd offer it to other terrestrial broadcasters in other countries. Now you can offer it to all manner of broadcasters on all kinds of weird and wonderful transmission platforms in every part of the world. I dare say repeat fees are effectively built in to today's contracts whereas the concept was unheard of 30 years ago.
Neil Jones
Founding member
Quote:
Wasn't The Family Channel originally set up by the company that bought out TVS (before they themselves were swallowed by Disney)? Hence originally just showing TVS programming?
The TVS programming issue has been discussed before.
Family Channel (and later Challenge) came from Maidstone, where Meridian are based. Whether it still does is anybody's guess now the parent company's gone through various takeovers. Set up in the UK by an American company who bought TVS after it went of the air, Flextech initially bought a minority share in the new venture and later bought it out, rebranding it. The original venture was bought by Disney including the bulk of the TVS archive.
Quote:
It's the same for pretty much everything else on Challenge, I remember hearing a radio interview with Gordon Burns several years ago and he basically said that he didn't get any repeat fees for The Krypton Factor as no-one knew that the shows would be repeated in years to come. So I guess that policy has been carried on since, especially as they show the same Family Fortunes, Catchphrase and Bullseye on loop, as well as their own programmes, including their version of Bullseye.
This is the issue you have with archive programming. Most of it is tied up in complicated rights that was good at the time, which would have, in the case of Krypton, been good for what would have only been one main transmission, with a view that it would probably never be seen again. The concept of repeat airings on, of all things, a satellite channel, was almost unheard of in the 1980s. BSB didn't launch until 1988, Sky was losing money hand over foot and even with the merged company BSkyB in 1990, no profit was made until 1994.
It's only relatively recently, since around the time of the original Family Channel, that the concept of selling transmission rights to another company up the road came into being. Previously you'd offer it to other terrestrial broadcasters in other countries. Now you can offer it to all manner of broadcasters on all kinds of weird and wonderful transmission platforms in every part of the world. I dare say repeat fees are effectively built in to today's contracts whereas the concept was unheard of 30 years ago.
PT
Why are they showing reruns of 'In It To Win It'...? Of all the things they could show on the channel!
NW
They've been showing it for sometime I believe, I think they've shown either Winning Lines or Jet Set too, quite cheaply. I can't see Sky adding more content to the channel other than TNA and Bitesize Brainiac.
Why are they showing reruns of 'In It To Win It'...? Of all the things they could show on the channel!
They've been showing it for sometime I believe, I think they've shown either Winning Lines or Jet Set too, quite cheaply. I can't see Sky adding more content to the channel other than TNA and Bitesize Brainiac.
DA
They've been showing it for sometime I believe, I think they've shown either Winning Lines or Jet Set too, quite cheaply. I can't see Sky adding more content to the channel other than TNA and Bitesize Brainiac.
I think they are showing newer episodes of Family Fortunes now too. I am not sure if these episodes have been shown on Challenge before. They have even updated the EPG to call the programme "Family Fortunes - Series 21" on some occasions although the description is still the same generic nothingness for each episode so you never know which one they are going to show.
Why are they showing reruns of 'In It To Win It'...? Of all the things they could show on the channel!
They've been showing it for sometime I believe, I think they've shown either Winning Lines or Jet Set too, quite cheaply. I can't see Sky adding more content to the channel other than TNA and Bitesize Brainiac.
I think they are showing newer episodes of Family Fortunes now too. I am not sure if these episodes have been shown on Challenge before. They have even updated the EPG to call the programme "Family Fortunes - Series 21" on some occasions although the description is still the same generic nothingness for each episode so you never know which one they are going to show.
SP
I hear that Challenge had an interesting breakdown last night, during TNA, which just happened to coincide with one of the most violent sections, and the "fault" was fixed going into the next part after an ad break.
Suggestion is that this was a similar ruse to when Channel 4 appeared to fake a breakdown to allow them to drop a sketch from TNT on the night Michael Jackson died
Suggestion is that this was a similar ruse to when Channel 4 appeared to fake a breakdown to allow them to drop a sketch from TNT on the night Michael Jackson died
JV
James Vertigan
Founding member
The Crystal Palace would be a lot more fun though. Going through the different 'zones' of the transmitter hall before collecting gold and silver envelopes while scaling the mast! 
IM
They've been showing it for sometime I believe, I think they've shown either Winning Lines or Jet Set too, quite cheaply. I can't see Sky adding more content to the channel other than TNA and Bitesize Brainiac.
I think they are showing newer episodes of Family Fortunes now too. I am not sure if these episodes have been shown on Challenge before. They have even updated the EPG to call the programme "Family Fortunes - Series 21" on some occasions although the description is still the same generic nothingness for each episode so you never know which one they are going to show.
Yes Challenge have shown the newer 2000 onwards series before, except the last Daytime series with Andy Collins and the current format with Vernon Kay.
In It To Win It is actually one of my favourite programmes, it is a shame they have butchered it with a badly dubbed opening and terrible integration of the extra advertisement stings.
Why are they showing reruns of 'In It To Win It'...? Of all the things they could show on the channel!
They've been showing it for sometime I believe, I think they've shown either Winning Lines or Jet Set too, quite cheaply. I can't see Sky adding more content to the channel other than TNA and Bitesize Brainiac.
I think they are showing newer episodes of Family Fortunes now too. I am not sure if these episodes have been shown on Challenge before. They have even updated the EPG to call the programme "Family Fortunes - Series 21" on some occasions although the description is still the same generic nothingness for each episode so you never know which one they are going to show.
Yes Challenge have shown the newer 2000 onwards series before, except the last Daytime series with Andy Collins and the current format with Vernon Kay.
In It To Win It is actually one of my favourite programmes, it is a shame they have butchered it with a badly dubbed opening and terrible integration of the extra advertisement stings.
JA
The rebrand was on February 1st 1997.
Challenge TV is pretty awful now, no where near as good as say 1995 when it revamped from the then Family Channel.