WH
Not really. L!VE TV bought Wire TV (possibly for sports rights and carriage agreement reasons?) but the Bristol-based WireTV content operation really had nothing really to do with the Canary Wharf Janet Street Porter/Kelvin McKenzie operation that Mirror Group set-up to run L!VE TV and make content for it.
Wire TV was set-up by a consortium of cable companies (in the days before full consolidation of cable provision under the Virgin brand) and was an attempt to create a 'cable only' channel as a USP for cable (a bit like The Parliament Channel in the pre-BBC Parliament days). It ran a lot of lifestyle content during daytime and early evening, but ran sport as well.
There were plans to spin-off the sports output they had under the Sportswire brand to be a separate channel but I don't think anything came of that.
When the channel didn't really get anywhere - it was sold to Mirror Group who wanted to get into running TV channels.
Although "What's in the Box" was certainly a L!VE TV programme at one stage. I remember it well, same format, presented by David Hamilton, no less.
Whataday
Founding member
Isn't Wire TV what became L!VE TV?
Not really. L!VE TV bought Wire TV (possibly for sports rights and carriage agreement reasons?) but the Bristol-based WireTV content operation really had nothing really to do with the Canary Wharf Janet Street Porter/Kelvin McKenzie operation that Mirror Group set-up to run L!VE TV and make content for it.
Wire TV was set-up by a consortium of cable companies (in the days before full consolidation of cable provision under the Virgin brand) and was an attempt to create a 'cable only' channel as a USP for cable (a bit like The Parliament Channel in the pre-BBC Parliament days). It ran a lot of lifestyle content during daytime and early evening, but ran sport as well.
There were plans to spin-off the sports output they had under the Sportswire brand to be a separate channel but I don't think anything came of that.
When the channel didn't really get anywhere - it was sold to Mirror Group who wanted to get into running TV channels.
Although "What's in the Box" was certainly a L!VE TV programme at one stage. I remember it well, same format, presented by David Hamilton, no less.