Television Affair 14: Sky Digital's launch Channels from 1998 (Part 1)
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- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- The television affair is back for 2024! And this time we're taking on the challenge to get SKY Digital done.
In the first part, we're tackling the first year, 1998. We weren't in the digital boom just yet, but this is where it all started. In part 1 we look at the general channels on the platform along with Sports and movies, and in part 2 we'll be looking at Music, Kids, Shopping and the rest.
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That Beehive Bedlam theme, so many memories
Thanks for mentioning Granada Men and Motors. It has a special place in my heart because I had my first...masculine awakening while watching it as a young lad.
Jo Guest ??😅
I love your channel, inspired me to do research into the history of cable television in the united states. great stuff!
Oooh I would be really interested to see what you come out with! From doing this and a bit of over researching it, it soubdss like fun
Iactually love cable television and over here many of the cable companies were offshoots from the US. Where I currently live in Manchester, there are NYNEX on all the telephone ... (drains??) On the floor and one of the stadiums used to be called the NYNEX stadium. Where I grew up in Swindon (In Wiltshire, which is the south west and near Wales) they were one of the early pioneers in cable and community TV. I have a video planned down the line at some point where I attempt to pick it apart. Let me know what comes of it 😀
One of the reasons I’ll be switching Sky off when my contract comes up for renewal is why are we paying an extra £10 a month for HD all these years on. I got it when it started but everything is made in bloody HD now. A very easy monthly profit!!!
Yes, that is crazy. Seems the real reason they do it is so they can understate the real subscription cost in their adverts because the headline figure doesn't include add-ons. Ofcom need to step in, or the ASA because it's very misleading.
@@rachel.mcgowanYes I never thought of it that way that it’s effectively the full subscription price as they know damn well nobody would want SD as their first choice.
Happy Flash backs of the old simple but fast Blue Sky Digital EPG even some modern TV still have awfully slow guides.
I'm really excited for part 2 were I wonder what channel numbers that the kids TV channels like Fox Kids, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network were on.
I remember them from 2001 so I'm looking forward to how different it was at launch.
The initial EPG placings were based on the popularity of the channel on analogue satellite, this was a rule from the ITC rather than Sky's decision. They left 2 EPG places between each for spin off channels. Hence the most popular channel, Sky One was on 106, the 2nd most popular, UK Gold was on 109, then Living on 112 etc. The gaps became channels like Sky 2, UK Gold 2 etc.
A lot of the slots have been swapped or sold and shuffled since then, but the older channels still follow that pattern
Sky Digital didn't have all the BBC Regions for a long while - I remember we switched from analogue NTL to Sky Digital (because we were promised a free digital upgrade which never happened) and we were told to press the Red Button for our own regional news, all other programming was just the national BBC One. Only problem is that we were covered by Look East from Cambridge, and the red button only had Look East from Norwich.
We also missed out on Northants TV, but that wasn't really missing much.
I seem to remember for the first year or so there was a pregame called UK today which was a roundup of local stories from all over the regions. Eventually this was dropped and replaced with bbc London with red button options for a few of the regions
Both fascinating and confusing at the same time - great Video
Thanks to you, I finally understand the difference between Sky and Sky Digital. I also finally understand why channels went from Pan-European to focusing more insularly to their markets...interesting...
great video
Thank you :) Thanks for watching
Thanks for this, the Beehive Bedlam theme tune was a classic
I can't believe you made me look up those bus routes as the 309 goes near my house and I thought you might live nearby 🤦
Ah yes, those Jonkasonic screens. I remember you could by them at Ketchup's
we still use our original white "amstrad fidelity" dish, but now with new lnb & pointing towards astra 28.2 east
hell yea, digital baby
YES! ANOTHER!
Beehive Bedlam music, not heard that in ages. Wasted many an hour playing that on my Satellite Box... Love the vids, keep them coming 🙂
I had forgotten how much I like Kate lawler
I got on the 304 once not realising it wasn’t the 301. 40 minutes had passed and I’d made it about a 16 minute walk. Nightmare. I’m still on it now as it goes
fantastic stuff
I met Gilbert the alien when I was a kid and was on Get Fresh 😂
That's Pretty cool. I've always wondered if you see the puppet being controlled or whatever when they are in person. I have seen the videos of Hacker on CBBC but I know there are different ways of controlling the puppets. This is probably where you say that it wasn't a puppet :P
@@jonkasonic yeah the guy who did Gilbert was Phil Cornwell and he was cool made sure he got snot on me 😂
What's interesting is that in Ireland with a sky box using just the free channels you could get all the BBC channels, I think we had BBC Scotland on the favourites for some reason
Even today in Ireland, unless you can go onto Other Channels, you can’t receive ITV channels. Ireland had Sky Digital since it started in 1998 but at the start, there was no RTE channels or TV3 and T na G. I think BBC 1, BBC 2, Channel 4 and Channel 5 were at the top of the channel listings until 2002 when Irish channels were carried on Sky. Now even Channel 5 can only be seen on Other Channels. I think up to the 2000s, most people would have used cable services, MMDS systems or illegal deflector systems to receive more than the national channels.
UK Horizons, Style and Arena did launch on analogue satellite (and cable) but they timeshared a transponder. That later became just Horizons.
The BBC regions didn't come to Sky until about 2002, but even then then it was just 5 regions and they were accessed via the red button
The Travel Sick was on Bravo around the early days of Sky Digital I'm sure.
Both of a mad show but not saw it mentioned since early 2000s.
I remember watching UK Gold back in the 90s on analogue satellite and it had very poor signal and was speckling- I used to love BBC Choice, think they should get rid if BBC 3/4/CBBC/CBeebies and just go back to BBC Choice- also I remember paying £5 for Disney on Sky Digital
Hi. Will you be covering all genres of old sky and cable channels?
I'd like to but cable is more complicated because the network was so fragmented. I feel like the most interesting cable will have been in the 80s and 90s with local channels, but I'd imagine there wasn't many people recording that back in the day. Plus the info isn't as easy to come by.
With sky digital I'm thinking of going through the channels every few years, so maybe 2000/2001 next. I'm also doing the odd defunct channels one too every so often as they are quicker to make
@@jonkasonic Thanks for the extensive reply. So much TV from 25+ years ago that has been discarded or no longer shown due to content or low grade quality. Your background in working in television will help this channel grow.
On Tara TV, if only Ireland had "Rural Irish TV networks", Ireland has no regional networks, the main broadcasters have no regional opt-outs, RTÉ, VMTV (TV3) and TG4 are all national, and unfortunately none of TV3's or TG4's programming made it on to Tara, might have made a strong mix of programming. But at least ye got Telly Bingo!
I live in Ireland but still found myself watching stuff on Tara rather than RTE. Simple reason, the picture quality on Tara was better. But Tara was eventually geoblocked, so it was removed from the Irish EPG and gave a 08 error if you tried to manually tune it. So I went back to ghosty RTE analogue.
Where did you get the Sky Cinema 2 footage at 16:59 from?
1 Minute in --> ua-cam.com/video/kCLz3zIlxsQ/v-deo.html&ab_channel=rt316
Actually, the digital switchover isn't just the shut down of SD channels, it's also the switchover from satellite to IPTV. That's what Freely is supposedly about and what I wish -BT- EE TV was about.
Also, the First Five were added to digital satellite and cable, on analogue, they were entirely separate on terrestrial.
I stil miss Lifestyle, especially the Lifestyle Satellite Jukebox, where can I see Twinkle's masterpiece Hello nowadays!
I remember Tara on Telewest cable. Shame they went away, RTE is still a bother to get on Freesat or Sky.
I also remember Rapture, extreme sports and dance music. I miss it.
Was The Racing Channel the successor to the SIS service I used to see advertised in adeverts for bookmmakers?
I love classic sky debts 0lus we got sky magazine as a supplement
all those years back myself was one of few that had sky to when the channels were just coming about .sky were just launching then.
I own sky digital abd ir was awesome
Subcribe?
Hell yeh!
You forgot a sky moviemax channel (Sky Moviemax 4)
Should do one on tv tax. How people chased
How many spelling mistakes in the video?!
Dunno, I'm dyslexic so... yeah
you brits are already mandating a HD switchover? lucky bunch, here in Australia a good majority of channels still don't even have HD feeds 😭 shoutout to my fellow ABC TVPlus enjoyers and our crusty 576i
NIKELODEON
Why did you have to say mutha F***aaaaa?! 🤔🤷♂️ No need to add offensive language in your video 🙄👎 It's been reported! 😛👍
I got on the 304 once not realising it wasn’t the 301. 40 minutes had passed and I’d made it about a 16 minute walk. Nightmare. I’m still on it now as it goes
On Tara TV, if only Ireland had "Rural Irish TV networks", Ireland has no regional networks, the main broadcasters have no regional opt-outs, RTÉ, VMTV (TV3) and TG4 are all national, and unfortunately none of TV3's or TG4's programming made it on to Tara, might have made a strong mix of programming. But at least ye got Telly Bingo!