NBC Europe (formerly Super Channel, and later NBC Channel) was a

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna com ...

network based 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 ...

that broadcast across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and it was picked up by various European

cable systems 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 broadc ...

where available. The network was based in the heart of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, 19-22

Rathbone Place Rathbone Place is a street in central London that runs roughly north-west from Oxford Street to Percy Street. it is joined on its eastern side by Percy Mews, Gresse Street, and Evelyn Yard. The street is mainly occupied by retail and office pr ...

in the same building as

Music Box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc to pluck the tuned teeth (or ''lamellae'' ...

, would later become the home of

CNN International CNN International (CNNI, simply branded on-air as CNN) is an international television channel that is owned by CNN Global. CNN International carries news-related programming worldwide; it cooperates with sister network CNN's national and inter ...

until 2007. For a number of months, the transmission facilities were provided by Molinare at Fouberts Place, and returned briefly until the Marcucci family acquired Melrose House, 14 Lanark Square in Limeharbour where it set up as a state of the art broadcasting centre.

History

1987–1993: Super Channel

Launched on 30 January 1987, replacing the 24-hour music channel

, it was co-owned by all but one of the ITV companies at the time in the

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding co ...

had a majority stake in Music Box (60%) and would own 15% of the equity with the rest being split between ITV franchise holders including

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, LWT,

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

, Anglia, Tyne Tees,

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

Grampian Grampian ( gd, Roinn a' Mhonaidh) was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994. The region t ...

, Scottish,

Border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

, HTV, TSW and TVS, while

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

and

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchis ...

were the only two of the contractors not to participate.''Transnational Television in Europe: Reconfiguring Global Communications Networks''
Jean K. Chalaby, I.B.Tauris, page 25 It competed with Sky Channel (forerunner of

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, ...

), which was the only other major pan-European satellite television network around at the time. Unlike Sky Channel, syndicated output was less

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

and more

an. Much of its programming was sourced from ITV or the BBC as part of "Best of British", and it also featured ITN-produced news bulletins. It also broadcast syndicated non-British European programmes, including the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

sitcom ''

Zeg 'ns Aaa ''Zeg 'ns Aaa'' (''Say Aah'') was one of the longest running and most popular Dutch sitcoms, situated in the medical practice of a general practitioner and revolving around herself, her family, and her housekeeper. The title refers to the imperat ...

'' (with

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

subtitles Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informa ...

). Super Channel fared poorly, due to United Kingdom-based programming seen as unsuitable for European audiences, such as drama being seen as "too violent" or "too realistic", as well as a dispute with the British actors' union who demanded additional fees for viewing by audiences which meant that it could no longer offer the 'Best of British to a European audience'. Within a year, the ITV companies sold the network to the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Marcucci family, owners of

Videomusic Videomusic was an Italian music channel and one of the first music channels in Europe. It was launched in early 1984 and was owned by Marialina Marcucci and Pier Luigi Stefani (VM's Managing Director). It used to air from a location called "Il C ...

, the first music channel in Italy, with a minority stake being held by

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

's Virgin plc. The programming changed from British to

pan-European Pan-European can refer to: * Pan-European identity * Pan-European corridors ** Pan-European Corridor X ** Pan-European Corridor Xa * Pan European Game Information * Pan-European Institute * Pan-European nationalism * Pan-European Oil Pipeli ...

, although it continued carrying '' ITN World News'' bulletins.

1993–1998: NBC steps in

On 2 October 1993, the station which was in severe financial difficulties was taken over by the American company

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

, then-parent of the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

television network, and became NBC Super Channel. From 9 September 1996, the channel was renamed NBC Europe, but was from then on almost always referred to as simply "NBC" on the air, although the network (along with its sister station

CNBC Europe Consumer News and Business Channel Europe (referred to on air simply as CNBC) is a business and financial news television channel which airs across Europe. The station is based in London, where it shares the Adrian Smith (architect), Adrian S ...

launched on 11 March earlier that year) was transmitted from the GE building in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London ...

. The transmission suite used cutting edge Pro-Bel COMPASS and MAPP automation at the time, and Profile video servers for all

commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

and promotions, within programmes continued to be played from tape automatically. Most of NBC's prime time programming was produced in Europe, but after 10.00pm ( CET) on weekday evenings as the channel aired ''

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014. The fourth incarnation of the ...

'', ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and music ...

'' and ''

Later Later may refer to: * Future, the time after the present Television * ''Later'' (talk show), a 1988–2001 American talk show * '' Later... with Jools Holland'', a British music programme since 1992 * ''The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts'', or ...

'' to hence its slogan "Where the Stars Come Out at Night". Most news programmes were broadcast on NBC Europe including ''

Dateline A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services, the distributing organization i ...

'', '' Time and Again'' and ''

NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NB ...

'', which was aired live. ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It ...

'' was also initially shown live in the afternoons, but was later broadcast the following morning instead, by which time it was more than half a day old. This meant that all the

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...

portions had to be replaced with European updates produced by ITN in London, also supplied the network with the main newscasts before and after the GE takeover. European weather forecasts was produced by the BBC at first, but was later taken over by NBC in the United States occasionally. NBC Europe carried virtually no

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

entertainment programmes shown in the United States, because they were usually owned and distributed by other studios under the fin-syn rules (which did not apply in Europe). NBC would have had to buy the rights for each country in order to show which would have been too expensive. Even for shows that

NBC Studios NBC Studios may refer to: * NBC Studios (New York City), 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, home of NBC TV, NBCUniversal, MSNBC, WNBC * 10 Universal City Plaza in Los Angeles, home of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment * NBC Tower, office building i ...

owned itself, it was generally more financially viable to sell the rights by country either to broadcast or cable and satellite channels than to air them on NBC Europe. The most notable exceptions to this rule were brief runs of '' Profiler'' and '' The Pretender'', as well as short-lived American sitcoms '' Union Square'' and '' Mr. Rhodes''. That is widely considered to be one of the main reasons why NBC Europe was ultimately not a success.

1998–2005: As a German network

NBC Europe stopped broadcasting to most of Europe on 30 June 1998, when the Deutsche Fernsehnachrichten Agentur took it over and moved to

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

. Most of the satellite feeds became either

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney General ...

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk s ...

. NBC Europe continued to operate on Germany's cable television networks, fed by one digital satellite link from Eutelsat II-F1 (later Hot Bird 5). On 30 November, the first German programming started airing, assembled from content from

GIGA Giga ( or ) is a unit prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of a short-scale billion or long-scale milliard (109 or ). It has the symbol G. ''Giga'' is derived from the Greek word (''gígas''), meaning "giant". The ''Oxford English Dic ...

and

, as well as other shows. In 2004,

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primar ...

took over the DFA and consequently NBC Europe. On 29 September 2005, NBC Europe was split into GIGA and later replaced by the new channel Das Vierte. The service continued broadcasting with its licence on cable, satellite,

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...

and

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previ ...

. It broadcast a special version on cable television including CNBC Europe and GIGA (up until 31 March 2006). This was necessary to keep both the licence and the cable channel. On 25 September 2012,

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...

acquired Das Vierte and closed the service from 31 December 2013. On 17 January 2014, the network was replaced by

Disney Channel Germany Disney Channel is a German free-to-air television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company Germany. The channel is based in Munich and for children. Aimed at all ages, its programming consists of original first-run television series, theatrica ...

switching from

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

Programming

Due to limitations on the amount of entertainment shows on the network, NBC Europe (including

) aired a number of original programming in tandem with

content that had not been aired in Europe beforehand. These include: * ''49win'' * ''Agenda'' * ''Best of the Ticket'' * ''Blue Night'' * ''

Bonanza ''Bonanza'' is an American Western television series that ran on NBC from September 13, 1959, to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 432 episodes, ''Bonanza'' is NBC's longest-running western, the second-longest-running western series on ...

'' * '' Business Insiders'' * '' Business Tonight'' * '' Business Weekly'' * '' Chinese News Europe'' * '' CNBC Business Weekly'' * '' CNBC European Squawk Box'' * '' CNBC U.S. Squawk Box'' * ''

'' * ''Daybreak'' * '' The Detectives'' * ''Disaster Chronicles'' * ''Eco Record'' * ''

Equal Time The equal-time rule specifies that American radio and television broadcast stations must provide equivalent access to competing political candidates. This means, for example, that if a station broadcasts a message by a candidate in prime time, ...

'' * '' European Business Today'' * ''

Father Murphy ''Father Murphy'' is an American western drama television series that aired on the NBC network from November 3, 1981, to September 18, 1983. Michael Landon created the series, was the executive producer, and directed the show in partnership wit ...

'' * ''Film Europe'' * '' FT Business Today'' * '' FT Business Tonight'' * '' FT European Business Today'' * ''GIGA green'' (later ''GIGA@ the gate'') * ''GIGA Games'' * ''GIGA Heartbeat'' * ''Holidays'' * ''Hotline'' * ''

Inside Edition ''Inside Edition'' is an American news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed in first-run syndication by CBS Media Ventures. Having premiered on January 9, 1989, it is the longest-running syndicated-newsmagazine program that is no ...

'' * '' ITN Super Channel News'' * '' ITN World News'' * '' Kinowelt-De News'' * ''

'' * ''

Mancuso, F.B.I. ''Mancuso, F.B.I.'' is an American crime drama television series created by Steve Sohmer, which was aired by NBC from October 13, 1989 to April 24, 1990, as part of its 1989–90 schedule. ''Mancuso, F.B.I.'' stars Robert Loggia as Nick Mancus ...

'' * ''Max's European Home Video Show'' * '' MediaTelevision'' * ''The Mix'' * ''

Money Wheel Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...

'' * '' European Money Wheel'' * '' U.S. Money Wheel'' * '' Mr. Rhodes'' * '' MSNBC - The Site'' * '' MSNBC Internight Live'' * ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widel ...

'' * ''NBC GIGA'' * ''NBC GIGA Real'' * ''NBC Music Legends'' * '' NBC News Special Reports'' * '' NBC News Today'' * ''

'' * '' NBC Sports News'' * '' NHL International Weekly'' * '' On the Air'' * ''

Personal Personal may refer to: Aspects of persons' respective individualities * Privacy * Personality * Personal, personal advertisement, variety of classified advertisement used to find romance or friendship Companies * Personal, Inc., a Washington, ...

'' * ''

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

'' * '' The Pretender'' * '' Profiler'' * '' Real Personal'' * ''

Riviera ''Riviera'' () is an Italian word which means "coastline", ultimately derived from Latin , through Ligurian . It came to be applied as a proper name to the coast of Liguria, in the form ''Riviera ligure'', then shortened in English. The two area ...

'' * '' The Rolonda Watts Show'' * ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

'' * '' The Selina Scott Show'' * ''Super Channel Documentaries'' * ''Super Channel Sports Specials'' * ''SMS Challenge'' * '' Super Shop'' * ''Talkin' Blues'' * ''Talkin' Jazz'' * '' Time and Again'' * ''

'' * ''Today's Business'' * ''

'' * ''Travel Express'' * '' U.S. Market Wrap Up'' * '' Union Square'' * ''Victory'' * ''Videofashion'' * ''West of Moscow'' * ''Young Soul Rebels''

References

External links

Superchannel Launch - Complete and in full

Uphill Struggle for Pan-Europe Stations : Televising to a Continent
article from ''

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be said ...

''; 16 March 1994 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nbc Europe History of television in the United Kingdom Defunct British television channels Defunct German television channels Defunct television channels in the Netherlands Television channels and stations established in 1987 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1998 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2005 2005 disestablishments in Germany National Broadcasting Company Satellite television 1980s in Europe 1980s in British television 1980s in Dutch television 1980s in German television 1990s in Europe 1990s in British television 1990s in Dutch television 1990s in German television 2000s in Europe 2000s in German television