Don't forget BSB ! 'Now ( the Channel for Living)' , Power Station, Galaxy, The Sports Channel and The Movie Channel
technically a merger with Sky ....but in reality a total wipe out by the Dirty Digger who just wanted the Sports and Movie rights ....hands up who still has a squarial!
Not really, it was a merger for survival. Both companies were loosing so much money at the time that it was the only option open to them.
If they hadn't have merged I doubt that we'd have had either continuing for much longer
Although the Weather Channel deserves a mention. Didn't it used to be all recorded, at about 4am and then shown 5 times over and over again between 6am and 11am on Sky, or possibly maybe the 6am hour was live. I think i've got the schedule written down somewhere
The Weather Channel still exists in the USA it seems. It was mantioned on Stargate SG-1 yesterday on Channel 4.
Does anyone remember the Lifestyle channel? It had a butterfly logo I think. I just remember coming home from school and watching that channel, it was a long time ago though, about ten years or so.
I remember Lifestyle! It was a late 80's/early 90's version of UK Living with US talkshows etc. but it had a slot called "Great American Gameshows" with shows like Concentration. I loved that show, I still have some on tape. They also had a separate ident for weekends which said "weekend lifestyle" amazingly enough!
Did it used to share with The Children's Channel (TCC)? Because I can't think of how else I would have watched it, I was only 4 or 5 at the time.
No, Lifestyle's frequency was taken by German station Vox when Lifestyle closed. TCCs shared with The Family Channel (which has now been replaced by Challenge).
When TCC started on Astra, it was only on from 5am - 10am Weekdays and 5am - noon weekends on Transponder 5 (shared with Lifestyle - even though there was only a testcard with T.C.C. on it from 5am to 6am). That soon changed when Astra 1B launched in 1991. They moved then to Transponder 24 and broadcast from 6am - 7pm (shared with JSTV), although the service on Transponder 5 continued for many a while after that, in fact right up until Lifestyles closure in 1992. TCC moved then to Astra 1C on 1st Septmeber 1993 (Transponder 35) and encrypted as part of Sky Multi Channels. The rest, as they say, is history.
Digifiend:
"The Family Channel must also have launched on 1/9/1993"
It did.
As did Nickelodeon and QVC.
Before The Family Channel started, for a few months in 1992, the later hours of the Children's Channel were named "TCC", they even had a seperate logo and ident for this strand - it ran from 4:45 to 6:30/7:00 and the strand was catered to a teen audience, and included a music quiz called "CDQ" hosted by David Grant (ex-Linx and now in Fame Academy), and I think "Sweet Valley High" was shown in this slot.
Ah, the days of Paul Dempsey and Anna Walker telling us about the increased channel choice with the Lightning Seeds' "Life Of Reilly" playing in the background...
Raquel:
"Does anyone remember the Lifestyle channel? It had a butterfly logo I think. I just remember coming home from school and watching that channel, it was a long time ago though, about ten years or so."
That's right.
TWO ident:
"I remember Lifestyle! It was a late 80's/early 90's version of UK Living with US talkshows etc. but it had a slot called "Great American Gameshows" with shows like Concentration."
And JACKPOT! I think Lifestyle also showed "The New Newlywed Game".
Lifestyle I think closed down at 7pm, and then came three hours of infomercials, most of them the legendary "Amazing Discoveries" series with that English guy - the main ones I remember were the Juice Tiger, some kind of food processor and the car polish where they would set the car bonnet on fire in the studio!
But best of all, after 10pm came the "Lifestyle Satellite Jukebox", the Euro-wide all night video request service in the days when the Box was only on cable. Which meant a lot of dodgy content videos!
Lifestyle closed on 16th January 1993 IIRC, I remember tuning in to watch the informercials before Satellite Jukebox one day and there was a German channel on instead! I was livid.
Don't forget BSB ! 'Now ( the Channel for Living)' , Power Station, Galaxy, The Sports Channel and The Movie Channel
technically a merger with Sky ....but in reality a total wipe out by the Dirty Digger who just wanted the Sports and Movie rights ....hands up who still has a squarial!
Not really, it was a merger for survival. Both companies were loosing so much money at the time that it was the only option open to them.
If they hadn't have merged I doubt that we'd have had either continuing for much longer
[B]
I beg to differ Larry , (although I bow to your knowledge )- 1100 + people from BSB ( inc the call centres !) were made redundant ...very few got employment at Sky and Sky staff were largely unaffected. A merger, maybe on paper, but in reality ,from the BSB view it was a takeover!
I beg to differ Larry , (although I bow to your knowledge )- 1100 + people from BSB ( inc the call centres !) were made redundant ...very few got employment at Sky and Sky staff were largely unaffected. A merger, maybe on paper, but in reality ,from the BSB view it was a takeover!
Yes, in terms of ownership it was a merger. BSBs shareholders had a 50% stake in BSkyB until only a few years ago......but......
Which side dominated or which channels/staff survived is irrelevant to my point..... both companies were loosing shedloads of cash, there wasn't the room for both and only 1 could survive.
Has anyone mentioned Wire TV? I know it eventually became Live TV somehow - didn't Mirror Group buy the channel or something?
I remember watching Wire when I first got cable in 1994. It'd start at midday with LiveWire - a 2/3-hour live programme which came from a different cabled town each week. I seem to recall the first week I watched came from Swindon. It was a "This Morning"-esque programme, albeit with F-list guests. But the big difference was that it was all outdoors, in shopping centres and suchlike.
The whole programme would be shown again immediately afterwards. I think it may have included some dodgy US game shows and soap operas too.
Then at 6.30, for some bizarre reason the channel would broadcast Anglia News. Apparently this half-hour was dedicated to ITV companies for them to re-broadcast alternative regional news programmes - in this case Anglia News "West" rather than "East". But because of an anomaly with my cabled area (Harlow - in Essex was served by Cambridge Cable, with the service geared towards their main franchise area) that was the service we got anyway so WireTV effectively just simulcast ITV.
But at 7pm the channel became "SportsWire" and began broadcasting some no doubt extremely lame sports programme. I think Mirror Group had a crazy plan to make this the home of Premiership football if they won the rights from Sky. I also think they made quite a hefty bid, actually coming close to the amount Sky was offering.
All in all it wasn't the greatest channel that's ever existed.
