CBM was a potential

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

owned by the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Li ...

company, CBM Media, to be broadcast in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It was to be carried on

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

multiplex Multiplex may refer to: * Multiplex (automobile), a former American car make * Multiplex (comics), a DC comic book supervillain * Multiplex (company), a global contracting and development company * Multiplex (assay), a biological assay which measur ...

D using the slot now filled by

Ideal World Ideal World is a British TV shopping channel, broadcasting on Freeview, Satellite, Cable and online, with transactional websites, broadcast from studios in Peterborough. History Ideal World has its origins in the 1980s as a mail order compan ...

. The channel was to provide business news from

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and ma ...

(including a daily 5am-10am simulcast), independent movies and minor sports to anyone with a Freeview receiver. Its placeholder, originally named "Ch 22" was added from Freeview's launch in 2002 and was expected to host

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

. However, from 1 May 2003, the placeholder was renamed "CBM" and a test transmission banner was shown, informing viewers "New Service Launching Soon!" However, this screen was shown until 6 August 2003, when the plug was pulled on the channel, the static caption was removed and the channel was relabelled as "Channel 22" on the

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 ...

Termination of contract

On 8 August 2003,

Crown Castle Crown Castle is a real estate investment trust and provider of shared communications infrastructure in the United States. Its network includes over 40,000 cell towers approximately 85,000 route miles of fiber supporting small cells and fiber solu ...

(now

National Grid Wireless Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquarters ...

) being the owner of the multiplex, terminated CBM's broadcasting contract, stating that CBM Media were having trouble "reaching strategic milestones", and "no movement had occurred in the channel's launch". Crown Castle then anticipated that the slot was to be filled up by

timeshare A timeshare (sometimes called vacation ownership) is a property with a divided form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each owner ...

broadcasters, each having a certain amount of time on air. This was abolished in April 2004, when the 24-hour shopping channel,

, filled the channel 22 spot. After the collapse of the deal, CBM Media began considering its options, which included taking legal proceeding for breach of contract by Crown Castle and making a formal complaint to the

Independent Television Commission The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003. History The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...

on competition grounds, with a spokesman for CBM Media said that Crown Castle had "no valid basis for termination." Meanwhile, CBM Media persisted with plans to launch a new channel on Freeview, for launch in 2004. The channel would have been devoted entirely to sports, with the working title "Freesport". CBM had reached agreements with 12 national sports bodies for coverage of low profile sports such as rowing, swimming, badminton, canoeing, cycling and netball. Like CBM TV, nothing came of the plans.

References

{{reflist Defunct British television channels