.tv (formerly The Computer Channel, pronounced as Dot TV and referred to on-screen as .tv - the technology channel) was a

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 channel dedicated to technology. .tv was owned and operated by

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

. The channel first broadcast on 1 September 1996 and broadcast between 18:00 and 20:00. The broadcasting hours were increased to midday-midnight when the channel started broadcasting on British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite platform, Sky Digital in 1998. In 1999 the channel interviewed then

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...

CEO

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

. Towards the end of its run, .tv implemented several new shows heavily sponsored by online technology store

dabs.com dabs.com was an e-commerce retailer in the United Kingdom. It was one of the UK's largest internet retailers of IT and technology products. From 2006 until its closure in 2016, it was a subsidiary of BT Group. History As an independent compan ...

, promoting products which were available at that site. .tv was closed on 2 September 2001 because of low audience ratings. Most of the programmes were produced by Hewland International.

Programming

* ''Buyers Guide'' - 20 minute weekday show that reviewed gadgets (such as PDAs and

printers Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer ( fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * Jam ...

), computers and software (such as

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

s and

photo manipulation Photograph manipulation involves the transformation or alteration of a photograph using various methods and techniques to achieve desired results. Some photograph manipulations are considered to be skillful artwork, while others are consider ...

). Presented by

Will Hanrahan William Hanrahan is a British television/radio producer and presenter best known for working on BBC programmes such as ''Watchdog'' and ''Good Morning''. Since 1994 he has headed an independent TV company which currently produces studio prog ...

. Guests included: Lydia Jones, Chris Long, and Ashley Jones. * ''Chips with Everything'' - 20-minute weekday show presented by Kate Russell with guests trying to answer computer-related questions that were sent in by viewers. Guests included: Roger Gann, James Morris, Simon Smart, Nigel Whitfield, Guy Clapperton, and Charles Bocock. * ''Ex Machina'' - 30-minute weekly show that went behind the scenes of digitally produced entertainment (video games, films and television programmes). * ''Game Over'' (originally ''Games World'') - variable-format video game magazine show. The show was presented by Andy Collins and co-presented by

Matt Berry Matthew Charles Berry (born 2 May 1974) is an English actor, comedian, musician, and writer. He is best known for his roles in comedy series such as '' The IT Crowd'', ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'', ''The Mighty Boosh'', ''Snuff Box'', ''What ...

, Richard Pitt, Helen Hartley & Kellie Priestley. In November 2000, Matt Cuttle took over as the sole presenter. * Games Republic - A question-based video game quiz show, presented by Trevor and Simon. * ''404 Not Found'' - An offbeat news and reviews show with regular viewer letters and emails, written and hosted by Dave Green and Danny O’Brien, with additional script-writing by James Wallis. * ''Global Village'' - 30-minute weekly show that looked at how technology was revolutionising our homes from an international perspective. Presented by Will Hanrahan * ''Masterclass'' - 20-minute weekday show that gave tutorials on how to use features from programs like

Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor, word processing software developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name ''Multi-Tool Word'' for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other pla ...

, Adobe Photoshop and

Nero Burning ROM Nero Burning ROM, commonly called Nero, is an optical disc authoring program from Nero AG. The software is part of the Nero Multimedia Suite but is also available as a stand-alone product. It is used for burning and copying optical discs such ...

. For the majority of the run, the show was presented by

Richard Topping Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

, affectionately known as "Toppers." He left the show to pursue a successful career in writing. His replacement was comedian

Marc Haynes Marc Haynes is an English comedy writer, radio broadcaster and podcaster. Biography Marc Haynes was brought up in London and won the 1998 edition of the Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award for stand-up comedy, the finals of which also featured Ste ...

, who fronted the show until the channel closed. * ''Nexus'' - A puzzle game show hosted by

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed (; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor, presenter, writer and mountaineer. Blessed is known for portraying PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars'', Augustus in the 1976 BBC television production of '' I, Claudius'', King Richard I ...

''Buyers Guide, Masterclass'' and ''Chips with Everything'' were repeated as omnibus editions (the weekday editions broadcast as one programme) on weekends.

References

External links

Archived website

Videogame coverage-centric potted history of the channel
Imdb page for an episode of Buyers Guide includin
Bryn Firkins
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tv Defunct television channels in the United Kingdom Sky television channels Computer television series Television channels and stations established in 1996 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2001

Programming

See also

References

External links