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Channel 213 on Sky

What's the point? (March 2009)

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FN
FromtheNorth
Anyone seen channel 213 on Sky lately?
On the EPG it's called Elite TV, the dog says Young At Heart TV while their idents show as Bonanza!

All they seem to show is old Sherlock Holmes and The Lone Ranger.

What's the point? Must cost a fortune and make little money
WE
Westy2
I'm pretty sure theres loads of SKY channels that we could apply the same question to!
LL
Larry the Loafer
Speaking of pointless, IIRC, there was/is a channel called InfoTV or something like that, with a sister station InfoTV2 - both showing exactly the same shows at the same time.
DA
David
FromtheNorth posted:
All they seem to show is old Sherlock Holmes and The Lone Ranger.

What's the point? Must cost a fortune and make little money


How do you work out that old Sherlock Holmes and The Lone Ranger cost a fortune? Both shows are likely to be well out of copyright so this channel is probably only paying EPG and bandwidth costs.

I would guess that the point of this channel is to get Psychic Interactive in to the main part of the EPG where it will be seen by more viewers than it would in its regular home towards the arse end of the EPG.

Personally, these kind of channels are the reason I have Sky/Satelite rather than cable. There is something nice about the democracy of the whole thing. Anyone can start a channel and start broadcasting with only the viewers deciding which ones stay and which ones go.

A recent channel launch I enjoyed was Cupid TV (now 879). When it first got its EPG slot (then 887) it wasn't ready to launch but to keep their slot on the EPG they had to broadcast a certain amount of content (2 hours a day I think). The kept to this rule by showing several episodes of Agony (the L!ve TV show) at 2am everyday. This was a great chance to see a bit of TV history that you would probably never see again if it wasn't for satelite television.

More of this kind of stuff, please.
TV
tvmagman
Westy2 posted:
I'm pretty sure theres loads of SKY channels that we could apply the same question to!
I know some that do it most of them on sky's epg start with the number 9
JO
Johnny83
Smile TV, Smile TV 2, Gems TV, GEMSTV1 & National Lottery Extra have to be five of the most pointless channels to grace Freeview, especially the first four.
TV
tvmagman
Johnny83 posted:
Smile TV, Smile TV 2, Gems TV, GEMSTV1 & National Lottery Extra have to be five of the most pointless channels to grace Freeview, especially the first four.
it think the new channel called partyland
NW
nwtv2003
Johnny83 posted:
Smile TV, Smile TV 2, Gems TV, GEMSTV1 & National Lottery Extra have to be five of the most pointless channels to grace Freeview, especially the first four.


Smile TV2 has been taken off now, Partyland is now appearing on FIVE USA overnight. National Lottery Extra is a good idea, but it's hardly prime time from 8.45-9.45am.
TV
tvmagman
nwtv2003 posted:
Johnny83 posted:
Smile TV, Smile TV 2, Gems TV, GEMSTV1 & National Lottery Extra have to be five of the most pointless channels to grace Freeview, especially the first four.


Smile TV2 has been taken off now, Partyland is now appearing on FIVE USA overnight. National Lottery Extra is a good idea, but it's hardly prime time from 8.45-9.45am.
i think the lotto channel is one of the channels that could be on 24hr a day and with a live show talking to the winners of the draw
IS
Inspector Sands
davidlees posted:

Personally, these kind of channels are the reason I have Sky/Satelite rather than cable. There is something nice about the democracy of the whole thing. Anyone can start a channel and start broadcasting with only the viewers deciding which ones stay and which ones go.


They do have a certain charm I suppose, but they do clog up the gaps between the 'proper' channels. They annoy the heck out of my whenever I'm flicking around on Sky Digital
FN
FromtheNorth
I never said the programmes were expensive, they're clearly not.
The cost of running the channel, epg slot, uplink etc will however be costly.

Viewing figures must be very small, so what's the point?
DA
David
FromtheNorth posted:
I never said the programmes were expensive, they're clearly not.
The cost of running the channel, epg slot, uplink etc will however be costly.

Viewing figures must be very small, so what's the point?


As far as I know this channel doesn't have advertising so viewing figures aren't important anyway. Its the people who call in to Psychic Interactive who will fund this channel (or not). The point is to make money.

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