I have recently been reading about the early version of Sky One, Sky Channel, which I was surprised to learn was available on cable in the mid-80s. I never realised Sky was on cable back then. Was it quite rare to have a cable TV receiver in the mid-late 80s? I certainly never remember anyone having cable in the days before Sky.
I saw the information about Sky Channel on TV Ark, and there are some interesting shots. I always watched the classic American comedy Green Acres on Sky's fairly short-lived Comedy Channel in 1992, but from the photos on TV Ark, it appears Sky Channel was showing Green Acres as far back as 1987.
Incidentally, Green Acres was never given a full run on UK terrestrial TV and Sky would have been the only place to see this hilarious and rater oddball series in full.
The availablility of Cable within the UK was VERY limited during the 1980's, very few places were Cabelled, I think Swindon was one of them, I'm sure there were more if anyone would like to correct me.
The thing was with Satellite channels in the 1980's is that they were aimed for Europe rather than just one specific country, an increasing amount of the continent was getting cabelled at that time, especially in countries like Germany. ISTR that for some reason the original Sky Channel was very popular in the Netherlands, even though no programmes were shown in Dutch.
Once Astra had launched and the expansion of Cable happened across Europe, most of this was put to bed, with Sky Channel becoming Sky One and becoming more UK oriented. The likes of MTV getting regionalised during the late 1990s.
Although it would have been interesting to see if Super Channel had lived, consdering it had a lot of BBC/ITV involvement, it was a forerunner to UK Gold and Granada Plus in that sense, I wonder if it had been more successful would it have ever transitioned onto Astra? Although I maybe answering my own question that it was more for a pan-European audience, it was available on Cable within the UK at the time.
Ooh I was jammy - back in the mid-80s when I was a kid my parents got Clyde Cable Vision. There was a very limited selection of channels - if I recall rightly about 30, of which 10 were local information teletext channels and three were foreign language channels (RAI UNO, TV5 and Sat1). Thankfully there was also The Children's Channel, which I got a little bit addicted to. The likes of Sky Channel and Super Channel were your key ones, Music Box was there before MTV came along, and other mainstays were Screensport and women's channel Lifestyle.
There were some very odd choices over the years, including the choice of broadcasting Dutch channel RTL 4 because it had a lot of English language programming which was subtitled in Dutch, rather than dubbed.
When BSB and Sky launched it was fantastic for us because we got both. Again, some of the things that happened back then would never happen now, including the SFA demanding live Scottish football was cancelled because there was some Scottish third division game that clashed with it...
I'm pretty sure before our modern fibre-optic cable was laid by Diamond Cable, those in Nottingham enjoyed "Rediffusion Cablevision" which carried Sky Channel, The Childrens Channel and a few others.
I don't have the paperwork to hand, so the following is from memory only.
It was the Cable & Broadcasting Act 1984 that put in place the framework for broadband cable and created the Cable Authority. Up until that time, the handful of cable systems in the UK had been administered directly by the Home Office.
These systems had their origins in the days when TV was difficult to receive. Small 'relay' systems sprang up in towns where reception was poor or non-existent. A high mast would be constructed somewhere where reception could be guaranteed, and the signals carried through amplifiers and coaxial cables to homes in the area, in return for a small fee.
The relay systems simply relayed BBC programmes. Later they carried ITV and often brought in out-of-area signals from adjacent ITV regions. In Wales, where reception was particularly difficult, a number of little systems were built in the valleys, and often these would offer TWW and Westward rather than WWN.
Relay systems were not allowed to originate their own programmes, and could only pass on what was already available.
Then along came the Pay TV experiments in the early sixties. Pay Television launched on cable in London and was later extended to Sheffield. It showed feature films for 7/6 a time, documentaries for just over half a crown.
Further such experiments came along later, with Rediffusion offering a movie channel on some of its systems and others providing similar services. Swindon Viewpoint was one of the first experimental local cable channels, along with MKTV in Milton Keynes, Greenwich Cablevision and a handful of others.
Once the Cable Authority was established, several relay systems took advantage of the new legislation to offer programmes received by satellite - Sky being among the first, along with Music Box and TEN (a movie channel). Because the capacity of these little systems was limited, many of them gave their subscribers free aerials (to fulfil their legal obligation to provide the broadcast channels) and used the relay cables to carry the new stuff!
Meanwhile the Cable Authority was awarding franchises to operate cable systems in all the main towns and cities. First on broadband was Aberdeen Cable in 1987, followed by Croydon (with their Crystalvision local channel), Clyde Cablevision (Glasgow) and others. These were able to carry many more programmes, but it took time before an adequate supply of programming became available. At first all operators ran their own local channels, but that was quickly recognised as a good way of losing money fast. The UK channels Sky, The Children's Channel, Screensport, Lifestyle, and Prem1ere were joined by tape-distributed channels Bravo and Home Video Channel (both of which had flat, fuzzy pictures because they were played out on low band U-Matic machines at the cable headend) and later SuperChannel, MTV Europe and CNN. Cable radio was also experimental, with Radio Six providing a service in Glasgow and Aberdeen, and local cable radio in Greenwich and Milton Keynes.
Hope this helps to explain the origins of cable in the UK.
TONY CURRIE
former Controller of Programmes, Cable Authority
These systems had their origins in the days when TV was difficult to receive. Small 'relay' systems sprang up in towns where reception was poor or non-existent. A high mast would be constructed somewhere where reception could be guaranteed, and the signals carried through amplifiers and coaxial cables to homes in the area, in return for a small fee.
Hard to add anything to a post like this, but I live in Cleethorpes and have cable, and the reason it arrived here was because in the sixties Grimsby Town built a new stand that was so big it rendered the TV aerials of the surrounding houses useless, so the club paid for everyone in the surrounding area to get cable TV.
Birmingham Cable Communications. They were using livered vehicles and their offices had signage long into the Telewest days (and to the ntl:Telewest days).
Birmingham Cable Communications. They were using livered vehicles and their offices had signage long into the Telewest days (and to the ntl:Telewest days).
# birmingham cable, the time is right, the lines are buzzing and the future is inside, share the vision, let the sound be heard - birmingham cable - we'll give you the woooorrllddd #
Birmingham Cable Communications. They were using livered vehicles and their offices had signage long into the Telewest days (and to the ntl:Telewest days).
I live near Wolverhampton and I must admit I have never heard of Birmingham Cable Communications - even though Birmingham is 15 miles away. I'm not sure if they only centred on Birmingham and not surrounding areas of the West Midlands.
It is interesting to hear how limited Cable TV access was. I remember hearing that Lifestyle was another channel originally only on cable, as mentioned in a post and I know it only lasted around 2 or 3 years after the move to Astra.