Open Access, Open Access 2 and Open Access 3 were a set of television channels 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 European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and broadcast on the
Sky Digital satellite platform. They broadcast old films and also sought to broadcast new work from small independent producers.
OFCOM listed the licences for Open Access and Open Access 2 as registered to Open Access Group Limited, while the licence for Open Access 3 was registered to Trace TV (UK) Limited. Both companies had the same address in
Hoxton Square
Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digit ...
, London.
The company structure is quite complicated, although not unusually so. The formal registered address of all the companies is that of a firm of chartered accountants in
Friern Barnet
Friern Barnet is a suburban area within the London Borough of Barnet, north of Charing Cross. Its centre is formed by the busy intersection of Colney Hatch Lane (running north and south), Woodhouse Road (taking westbound traffic towards North ...
, north London, however, as is common, this is not the operating address but the address of representatives who handle accounting and legal matters.
Documents available through the companies' associated websites state that Open Access is a trading name of Definition Broadcast Limited.
[See the "Open View Agreement" for submitted content, which is downloadable in Microsoft Word format from the openview.tv site, which is in turn a sub-site linked from the home page o]
openaccess.tv
Definition Broadcast is a company providing various technical services for digital television broadcasting and has an address in
Regent Street, central London.
However the address of the registered contacts for the firm's internet domain "definition.tv" is the same Hoxton Square address as that of the Open Access companies.
The main content on the Open Access channels were old films, broadcast under the ''Hollywood Classics Network'' brand, which appeared to be a separate operation with a postal address in
Brixworth
Brixworth is a large village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. The 2001 census recorded a parish population of 5,162, increasing to 5,228 at the 2011 census. The village's All Saints' Church is of Anglo-Saxon origin.
Loca ...
,
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
.
Another brand is ''Open View'', which was described as a "rolling film competition available to all film makers and media artists". Applicants were charged a fee of £50 to enter their work into the scheme and have it broadcast.
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
Sprint Cup Series.Information TV
Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random, a ...
for Information TV +1. Finally, Open Access 3 closed on 4 April 2011 after its Sky EPG slot of channel 190 was purchased by Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainme ...
for Sony Entertainment Television
Sony Entertainment Television (SET) is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel, that was launched on 30 September 1995, and is owned by Culver Max Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese Sony.
SET India's ...
.
Between 17 December 2007 and 1 September 2010 the Open Access Group also operated OMusic TV
oMusic TV was a British music television channel. It was a classical/chill out music channel, and was available free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person ...
.
References
{{Reflist
External links
*Open Access TV website
Definition Broadcast website
Television channels in the United Kingdom
Defunct television channels in the United Kingdom
Television channels and stations established in 2007