Timeline Of Cable Television In The United Kingdom
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Timeline Of Cable Television In The United Kingdom
This is a timeline of cable television in the United Kingdom. The first part of the timeline covers the development of cable across the country, including details of the cable-exclusive channels which launched in the 1990s as part of cable television's attempt to compete with BSkyB's satellite television. The merger of NTL and Telewest effectively resulted in a single national network, covering just over half the country. The second part of the timeline covers Virgin Media.__FORCETOC__ Pre-Virgin Media * 1928 ** The foundations for cable television are laid in Swindon when a company called Radio Relay starts transmitting two audio channels on a wire that runs around the town to a relatively small number of homes. * 1936 ** Rediffusion, a supplier of cable radio services since 1928, starts providing "Pipe TV" to customers, to coincide with the BBC's launch of the world's first regular high-definition television service. * 1950 **A cable network is launched in Gloucester, to ...
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Cable Television In The United Kingdom
The distribution of cable television around the world: Asia Mainland China Cable television is the most common transmission method in all urban areas of mainland China – television aerials are an extremely rare sight. Cable systems in China usually carry all the CCTV channels in Mandarin, along with all the channels of municipal, provincial or regional networks in question. The remaining slots carry the main channels from several other province-level stations, and may carry additional channels from metropolitan stations such as BTV and Shanghai Media Group. They may also carry a local channel for a particular sub-provincial municipality, prefecture or county. Individual compounds (hotels, housing estates, etc.) often add a request channel showing karaoke music videos and animations. An extremely small number of compounds with many foreign residents and/or tourists (for example, five-star hotels in Beijing) will also carry selected channels from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the West. ...
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Movie Channel
{{Redirect, Movie channel, the American premium television network, The Movie Channel Movie channels are television specialty channels that present film content. Popular movie channels: * AMC Networks ** AMC ** IFC (United States and Canada) ** SundanceTV (United States) ** Legend (United Kingdom) part of the CBS-AMC Networks UK Channels Partnership * Aruj TV (Pakistan) *Aflam TV (Morocco) * Al Hayat Cinema (Egypt) *Al Bait Baitak Cinema (Egypt) * Al Masraweya Cinema (Egypt) * Al Nahar Movies (Egypt) *Al Nahar Cinema (Egypt) * Amazon/MGM ** Epix (United States) ** MGM HD (United States) ** This TV (United States) *ART Aflam 1 (MENA) *ART Aflam 2 (MENA) *ART Cinema (MENA) *ART Movies (MENA) *ART Movie World (MENA) *Cima (Egypt) *beIN MOVIES HD 1 (MENA) *beIN MOVIES HD 2 (MENA) *beIN MOVIES HD 3 (MENA) *beIN MOVIES HD 4 (MENA) * Bioskop Indonesia (Indonesian) * C More Entertainment ** C More First (Scandinavia) ** C More Hits (Scandinavia) ** C More Stars (Scandinavia) ** SF-kanalen ...
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WHSmith
WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery. The company was formed by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in 1792 as a news vendor in London. It remained under the ownership of the Smith family for many years and saw large-scale expansion during the 1970s as the company began to diversify into other markets. Following a rejected private equity takeover in 2004, the company began to focus on its core retail business. It was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book identifier. WHSmith is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Formation In 1792, Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna established the business ...
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The Children's Channel
The Children's Channel, also known as TCC, was a British-based pan-European children's television channel in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which was owned by Flextech in London, England, UK. It began broadcasting on the original Eutelsat satellite on September 1, 1984. History Early years The Children's Channel was launched on the original Eutelsat satellite on September 1, 1984, almost exclusively to cable households owing to the low proliferation of domestic satellite dishes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at the time, and originally operated by ''Starstream'' who were backed by British Telecom, DC Thomson, Thames Television and Thorn EMI. In March 1989, The Children's Channel started airing free-to-air on the SES-owned Astra 1A satellite, airing from 5am to 10am on weekdays and from 5am to 12pm on weekends, time-sharing with Lifestyle. Following the launch of the Astra 1B-satellite in 1991, The Children's Channel expanded to broadcast until 7pm each day, t ...
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Screensport (TV Channel)
Screensport was a Pan-European identity, pan-European cable and satellite sports television network that was on air from 1984 until 1993 before merging with Eurosport. History 1984–1986: Early years Screensport was founded in 1981 by Bob Kennedy — who had started up BBC Radio Leicester, Sky Television (1984–1990), Sky Channel (operators of the UK's first satellite television network which later became known as Sky One) and several independent commercial radio stations, backers included the American networks American Broadcasting Company, ABC and ESPN. A programming deal with IMG (company), Trans World International allowed access to events taking place around the world. The channel began broadcasting on 29 March 1984, with Media Communications controlled the studios and transmission facilities in Knutsford, while its administration office was based in London. Apart from American sports, the station aired regular and weekly British sports including Speedway in the Unite ...
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Music Box (TV Channel)
Music Box was a pioneering Pan-European identity, pan-European 24-hour cable and satellite television channel that ran from 29 March 1984 to 30 January 1987, and was operated by Music Box Limited. It was originally one of three services (along with Premiere (TV channel), Premiere and The Children's Channel) that formed Thorn EMI's venture into satellite television as a British version of MTV, and later became part of Virgin Group, Virgin Vision as one of Richard Branson's business ventures launched in 1983. A special Italian version of Music Box was created in the spring of 1988, and some other shows were also re-transmitted by Japanese broadcaster NHK. The network was originally based in the heart of London, in a building where Virgin Vision and NBC Europe, Super Channel were also based, and later gave home to the offices of CNN International until 2007. The address during the satellite years was 19-21 Rathbone Place. History Background As a 24-hour television channel during ...
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Premiere (TV Channel)
Premiere (also known as PREM1ERE on air) was the first subscription movie channel launched on 1 September 1984, which broadcasts to Europe via satellite alongside the other services of that time including Sky Channel, Music Box and The Children's Channel. History The Entertainment Network The Entertainment Network – also known as TEN and The Movie Channel – launched on 29 March 1984 by Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor Robert Maxwell, it was jointly owned by UIP Pay TV Group (MGM/ UA, Paramount and MCA/Universal), Visionhire, Plessey and The Rank Organisation, which also developed in-house by Rediffusion Cablevision. The station went bust on 1 June 1985, but was later relaunched as Mirrorvision in the following day. Mirrorvision Mirrorvision was a film channel from the stable of the ''Daily Mirror'' launched on 2 June 1985, whether Mirrorvision and Premiere were merged but continue to be called from the same name on 1 April 1986. Star Channel Star Channel was ...
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Thorn EMI
Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Comics characters * Thorn (Marvel Comics), a fictional character from Marvel Comics * Thornn, a fictional character from Marvel Comics * Thorn (''Inheritance''), a dragon from the ''Inheritance cycle'' * ''Thorns'' (novel), a 1967 science fiction novel by Robert Silverberg * ''Thorn'', a 1982–1986 comic strip by Jeff Smith * Thorn Harvestar, a main character in Jeff Smith's ''Bone'' series * "The Thorn", a poem by William Wordsworth in ''Lyrical Ballads'', 1798 Companies, organisations and teams * Thorn (organization), an anti-human-trafficking organization * Thorn Electrical Industries, an electrical engineering business * Thorn EMI, a major British company involved in consumer electronics, music, defence and retail * Thorn Lighting, lumi ...
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Swindon Cable
Swindon Cable was the UK's first commercial Cable TV franchise. It was originally set up by Thorn Ltd as Radio Rentals Cable Television; the local company name was later changed to Swindon Cable. As well as relaying satellite channels it operated its own local cable TV channel known as Swindon's Local Channel. It closed permanently in 2000, after 16 years of broadcasting mostly local programming on the Wiltshire town's cable network. Early history The roots of cable TV in Swindon go back to 1928, when a company called Radio Relay transmitted two audio channels on a wire that ran around the town to a relatively small number of homes. Since radio sets were not freely available and some houses did not have electricity, this was the answer to the new radio invention – a loudspeaker on the wall and a volume control. In 1961 a new cable network was used to transmit black and white television pictures. Once again, due to general poor reception, this proved enormously popular, espe ...
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Sky One
Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, it became Sky One and broadcast exclusively in the United Kingdom and Ireland as British Sky Broadcasting's flagship channel, being the most watched television service in history. It existed until 1 September 2021, when it closed down as part of a restructuring with its EPG position taken by Sky Showcase and much of its content library moved to Sky Max. Sky One included some very popular broadcasts both the original programmes such as '' An Idiot Abroad'', '' Brainiac: Science Abuse'', ''The Russell Howard Hour'', ''Battlestar Galactica'', and many imported from North America – including: '' 24'' (seasons 3–9, and its spinoff '' Live Another Day''), '' X-files'', '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'', ' ...
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Starview
Rediffusion Starview was an early premium cable television channel in the United Kingdom, operated by Rediffusion. History Operation The Home Office had granted several experimental licenses to broadcast subscription television services, of which Rediffusion also received licenses for five different areas – Burnley, Hull, Pontypridd, Reading and Tunbridge Wells. Starview was the first of these services launched on 9 September 1981, with its first showing of ''The Sea Wolves'' which had been only for cinema release a year earlier. The subscription cost varied from several towns – £8 in Hull and £12 in Reading – were available around 22,000 homes served by Rediffusion's cable service, although it is illegal to copy this film onto domestic recorders (such as VHS, Betamax and Video 2000) by preventing piracy. Schedules for weekdays consisted of two daily slots (7.00pm and 9.00pm) with Fridays and Saturdays also featuring an 11.00pm slot for X-rated films, whilst Sundays o ...
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