L!VE TV was a
British television station that was operated by
Mirror Group Newspapers on
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
from 12 June 1995 until 5 November 1999. It was later revived for
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
from 2003. In 2006, L!VE TV's name was changed to
Babeworld
Babeworld was a British adult chat television broadcaster on Sky (UK & Ireland) from 2006 until 2011. Both the channel and programme were named ''Babeworld''.
It launched on Sky on 2 March 2006, replacing the revived version of L!VE TV. In ...
to reflect the channel's gradual change of focus towards
"adult material".
Background
L!VE TV was proposed by
David Montgomery as MGN's foray into pay television and due to the dominance on satellite of
Sky Television, the decision was made to launch channels exclusively on cable. In February 1995, Mirror Television, a
Mirror Group plc subsidiary, bought flagship cable channel
Wire TV
Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm
A wire is a flexible strand of metal.
Wire is co ...
which included sports content shown at certain times during Wire's output. Sports programming on Wire had been expanded when several sporting rights were acquired, such as
Vauxhall Conference football, the live broadcast rights to
Lennox Lewis
Lennox Claudius Lewis (born 2 September 1965) is a former professional boxer and boxing commentator who competed from 1989 to 2003. He is a three-time world heavyweight champion, a two-time lineal champion, and the last heavyweight to hold ...
's
WBC title fights and the 1996
Cricket World Cup
The Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Men's Cricket World Cup) is the international championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), e ...
, plus other sporting coverage following a deal with
Chrysalis Sport. Mirror Group planned to turn Sportswire into a separate channel to operate alongside L!VE TV, which would replace Wire. Wire was closed at the end of May 1995 but the proposed Sportswire channel came to nothing after TCI (owners of Telewest) and
NYNEX
NYNEX Corporation was an American telephone company that served five states of New England (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont) as well as most of the state of New York from January 1, 1984 to August 14, 1997.
History ...
did a deal with BSkyB which included a clause that the cable operators did not launch any rival channels to those already operated by Sky. This caused the collapse of Sportswire, days before its launch, leaving Mirror Television with just L!VE TV.
First incarnation (1995–1999)
At its launch in 1995, the station was headed by
Kelvin MacKenzie
Kelvin Calder MacKenzie (born 22 October 1946) is an English media executive and a former newspaper editor. He became editor of '' The Sun'' in 1981, by which time the publication was established as Britain's largest circulation newspaper. Aft ...
with
Janet Street-Porter
Janet Vera Street-Porter (''née'' Bull; born 27 December 1946) is an English broadcaster, journalist, writer, and media personality. She began her career as a fashion writer and columnist at the ''Daily Mail'' and was later appointed fashion e ...
as managing director and a team of young presenters who were new to TV. Street-Porter created a channel based around three blocks of live broadcasting each day from its base on the 24th floor of London's
Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lo ...
building. The output was orientated towards a rolling mix of celebrities, interviews, reviews, lifestyle features and reports from events and happenings across the UK. A typical early show was a two-hour afternoon piece based on viewers' wedding videos. By the second week only one had been sent in, and on phoning the participants to have a live commentary, the presenters were informed that the couple were too busy shopping.
Three months after going on air, Street-Porter left due to clashes with MacKenzie over content. MacKenzie axed the rolling content and replaced it with programmes that received much media coverage but low viewer figures. These included ''Topless Darts'', produced by future ''
Times
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems.
Time or times may also refer to:
Temporal measurement
* Time in physics, defined by its measurement
* Time standard, civil time specific ...
'' journalist
Sathnam Sanghera
Sathnam Sanghera (born 1976) is a British journalist and best-selling author.
Early life and education
Sathnam Sanghera was born to Indian Punjabi parents in Wolverhampton in 1976. His parents had emigrated from India to the UK in 1968.Batt, D ...
with commentary by comedian Jimmy Frinton, the surreal
talent show
A talent show is an event in which participants perform the arts of singing, dancing, lip-syncing, acting, martial arts, playing an instrument, poetry, comedy or other activities to showcase skills. Many talent shows are performances rather ...
''
Spanish Archer
''Spanish Archer'' was a talent show of the 1990s, hosted by Rhodri Williams and occasionally Ruth Madoc.{{when, date=May 2014 It was produced by L!VE TV and filmed at the station's headquarters at Canary Wharf in London.
The title for the sh ...
'', ''Talgarth Trousers'', (a comedy sketch show) and ''
Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lo ...
'', a soap opera which used the station's offices in
London Docklands
London Docklands is the riverfront and former docks in London. It is located in inner east and southeast London, in the boroughs of London Borough of Southwark, Southwark, London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Tower Hamlets, London Borough of ...
as a set. Other features were the weather read in
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
*Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
*Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including the ...
by a blonde model (Eva Bjertnes or Anne-Marie Foss) wearing a bikini, ''Britain's Bounciest Weather'' with
Rusty Goffe
Rusty Goffe (born 30 October 1948) is an English actor, best known for his appearances in ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'', '' Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope'', and the ''Harry Potter'' franchise.
Early life
Goffe was born on 30 Oct ...
(known, although uncredited, for his appearance as an
Oompa Loompa
This is a list of characters in the 1964 Roald Dahl book ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', his 1972 sequel ''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'', and the former's film adaptations, ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' (1971) and ' ...
in the 1971 film ''
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' is a 1971 American musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. It is an adaptation of the 1964 novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' by Roald Dahl. The film ...
'') who due to his small stature bounced on a trampoline while doing the forecast (bouncing higher the further north he was talking about), ''Tiffany's Big City Tips'', in which model Tiffany Banister gave the financial news while stripping to her underwear,
[ ''Painted Ladies'', which involved topless girls "painting" on large sheets of paper with various body parts and the ]News Bunny
News Bunny was station mascot of the short-lived UK TV Station L!VE TV, under its publicity-seeking boss Kelvin MacKenzie.
Role
During news bulletins an extra dressed as a giant rabbit would stand behind the news presenter, and mime actions rel ...
, a person in a rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit speci ...
suit who stood behind a newsreader making gestures and expressions for each item.[Ashley Hames, "Sin Cities", Tonto Books, 2008, , p.33] Considered cheap and always accused of poor taste, the channel never captured more than 1% of the British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
television audience under MGN, and at its worst was losing around £7 million a year. It was often described as "tabloid
Tabloid may refer to:
* Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism
* Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size
** Chinese tabloid
* Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size
* Sopwith Tabloid, a biplane aircraft
* ''Ta ...
television", in part due to its control by MGN and because MacKenzie had been editor of '' The Sun''.
At the end of 1995 and during 1996 the first local L!VE TV channels were launched in Liverpool and Edinburgh. These channels featured both local content and programming from London. A local version was also carried on BT-owned Westminster Cable, featuring local headlines but fewer and shorter opt-outs from than the Liverpool and Edinburgh channels. Around 20 stations had been planned to launch by the end of the 1990s but only a small number made it to air.
L!VE TV had a teletext
A British Ceefax football index page from October 2009, showing the three-digit page numbers for a variety of football news stories
Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipp ...
service, initially operated by Intelfax Ltd.
Shortly before its demise in 1999, it was said that the channel would bid for rights to show FA Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...
football, but given the size of the financial commitment required, it is likely that it was merely a publicity stunt. However, Mirror Television had been a serious contender in 1996 and had formally entered the bidding process with Carlton Television
Carlton Television (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Televi ...
but they were beaten by Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
.
Closure
The station closed on 5 November 1999 at 6 pm with a caption over a black-and-white still of the station's cast and crew in the studio:
"''L!ve TV: 15 August 1995 – 5 November 1999''"
The date displayed was incorrect as the station had launched on 12 June 1995.
Second incarnation (2003–2006)
In 2003, L!VE TV returned as a free channel on Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
, first on EPG
Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...
274, then on 214. Its content was almost entirely archive from L!VE TV. Then in 2004, following competitor channels, its risqué archive of late-night offerings was supplemented with banners advertising adult text messaging.
Towards the end of 2005, the evening and late night were turned over to promoting adult text and phone-in services, involving models stripping to entice viewers into phoning or texting the studio. This was under the pretence that the viewer would get to talk to a studio guest.
By February 2006, content had dwindled to little more than these shows and it was moved to the adult section of Sky's EPG on 28 February 2006. Two days later, the name changed to Babeworld, ending links to the MGN operation. Babeworld closed on 22 October 2011, two days prior to Ofcom
The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom.
Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
publishing a notice of revocation for its broadcast licence, ending eight years of the active Sky channel slot.
2007–present
A number of archive programmes from L!VE TV, including ''The Why Files'' and ''Lie Detector'' were shown on My Channel, formerly known as Eat Cinema, on Sky channel 199.
The entire L!VE TV archive and the rights to the channel's programming were sold on eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
in May 2013. On 3 June 2013, the winner of the sale bought the entire programming archive for £14,100.
Personnel
Presenters
* Matt Arnold
Matthew Fergus Arnold is a British journalist and television presenter who has worked for HTV, GMTV, Sky News, and the BBC.
Life
Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, Arnold attended Gresham's School from 1975 to 1980. He then travelled aroun ...
[Matt Arnold]
at tvnewsroom.org, retrieved 28 March 2019
* Richard Bacon
* Donna Bernard
Donna Bernard (born January 1964) is a British journalist and TV presenter best known for her work at the BBC and GMTV.
Early life
Donna Bernard was born in Basildon, Essex, England. Her parents were migrants from Jamaica. She was educated a ...
* Julia Bradbury
Julia Michele Bradbury (born 24 July 1970) is an Irish-born English television presenter, employed by the BBC and ITV, specialising in documentaries and consumer affairs. Her passion is the outdoors and more recently following her cancer diagno ...
* Simon London
Simon may refer to:
People
* Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon
* Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon
* Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...
* Charlie Stayt
Charles Jeffaries "Charlie" Stayt (born 19 June 1962) is a British newsreader and broadcaster. He is a journalist with the BBC as a presenter for ''BBC Breakfast''.[Rhodri Williams
Rhodri Ogwen Williams (born 10 May 1968) is a Welsh sports journalist from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. He is currently employed by Qatar's Al-Kass Sports Channel and anchors the network's English-speaking studio.
TV career
Williams was a ...]
* Claudia Winkleman
Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman (born 15 January 1972) is an English television presenter, radio personality, film critic and journalist. Between 2004 and 2010, she presented '' Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two'' on weeknights on BBC Two. Since ...
Management
* Nick Ferrari
Nicolo Ferrari (born 31 January 1959) is a British host, television presenter and broadcast journalist.
He is best known as the host of the weekday breakfast show on the London-based radio station LBC, with 1.5 million weekly listeners. He al ...
* Kelvin McKenzie
Kelvin Calder MacKenzie (born 22 October 1946) is an English media executive and a former newspaper editor. He became editor of '' The Sun'' in 1981, by which time the publication was established as Britain's largest circulation newspaper. Aft ...
* Tony Orsten
Tony may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer
* Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leagu ...
* Rachel Purnell
Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aunt ...
* Janet Street-Porter
Janet Vera Street-Porter (''née'' Bull; born 27 December 1946) is an English broadcaster, journalist, writer, and media personality. She began her career as a fashion writer and columnist at the ''Daily Mail'' and was later appointed fashion e ...
* Ruth Wrigley
Ruth (or its variants) may refer to:
Places
France
* Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France
Switzerland
* Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny#Geography, Cologny
United States
* Ruth, A ...
See also
* Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lo ...
* News Bunny
News Bunny was station mascot of the short-lived UK TV Station L!VE TV, under its publicity-seeking boss Kelvin MacKenzie.
Role
During news bulletins an extra dressed as a giant rabbit would stand behind the news presenter, and mime actions rel ...
References
Sources
* Chris Horrie, Adam Nathan, "L!ve TV: tellybrats and topless darts : the uncut story of tabloid television", Pocket Books, 1999,
External links
L!VE TV online
Babeworld.tv website
(contains adult material)
{{Authority control
Television channels in the United Kingdom
Defunct British television channels
Television channels and stations established in 1995
Television channels and stations disestablished in 1999
Television channels and stations established in 2003
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2006
British companies established in 1995
British companies disestablished in 1999
British companies established in 2003
British companies disestablished in 2006