Cable exclusive channels
 

Whilst contributing to the analogue cable topic, I got thinking about the cable exclusive channels of the analogue era. This is my list of the cable exclusives:

Wire TV: which was seen as the flagship cable TV channel
L!ve TV
SelecTV
The Weather Network
The Parliamentary Channel
Channel One (city-based local news stations)
HVC
Knowledge TV

Cable exclusive channels during the analogue period but ended up on other platforms they launched their digital services:

Performance
The Box
Carlton Select
Carlton Food Network
Travel

There are probably many others but I thought this would be a good start so that we can maybe get a full list of cable exclusive channels from the analogue era.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

You had the film channels: 'Prem1ere', 'TEN: The Movie Channel' and 'MirrorVision'.
There was 'The Cable Jukebox' too.
A short lived horse racing info channel called 'Sporting Facts'.
'Yesterday in the Commons'

Until the late 1980s, Sky Channel was cable exclusive and was enctypted to prevent unauthorised viewing. But well before the 1989 Astra launch the channel had done clear.

HVC was actually played out at each headend. A tape was sent for each night of programming.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

You missed the NBC Superchannel!

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

NBC Superchannel was available free on satellite - just not on Astra.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

I don’t think that was always the case. I remember one year when they were showing the Super Bowl and a couple of my relatives were annoyed because I could pick it up on cable but they couldn’t get it on Sky.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

Use to watch Super Channel here - it later became NBC Super Channel. Had a motorised dish. It wan't on Sky (Astra) but was freely available on Eutelsat.

Super launched in 1987 - NBC name didn't appear until 1993 by which time the channel was not worth watching.

It was carried on quite a few cable networks in the UK and showed a lot of BBC and Thames TV programming.

They actually showed several times the episode of The Professionals which ITV has never shown.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

'Prem1ere', 'TEN: The Movie Channel' and 'MirrorVision' are going back a bit - I must admit that my selections were based on the 1990s period.

Yesterday in the Commons was, I believe, the forerunner to The Parliamentary Channel and the live coverage it provided from 1992 until it was taken over by BBC Parliament in 1998, which was also available on analogue cable. Was it a specific length programme or was it seen as a channel in its own right? and if so how was it broadcast? ie was it part of another channel or was it a channel in its own right with the same programme broadcast as a continuous loop until the next programme was ready.

Sporting Facts is a channel I've never head of. When was that on the air? Similarly with The Cable Jukebox, which i presume was similar to The Box, but was on air before The Box started in 1992.

---------- Post added at 19:06 ---------- Previous post was at 19:06 ----------

This is why I did not include this in my list. Same with Euronews.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

The Cable Jukebox was the same format as Lifestyle Satellite Jukebox - both were from W H Smith. It was 24 hour on cable but only overnight and was a different selection on satellite.

'Yesterday in the Commons' was an overnight channel for cable operators to record and playout the following day. It launched on 4th Novermber 1990 and was on air from 11pm to 5am.

'Sporting Facts' was around in early 1991 and was from SiS - the company providing live horse racing.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

Thank you for the information.

Did Yesterday in the Commons share space with another channel?

For how long did Sporting Facts last?

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

This transponder was used by Kindernet between 06:00 and 09:00, and by Discovery Channel between 15:00 and 23:00. Also found it ran from November 1990 to July 1991.

No more info on Sporting Facts - seems to have just been a text service.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

Wasn't playtv exclusive too before becoming bravo2?

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

No,. UK Play/Play UK was also on other platforms.

---------- Post added at 19:33 ---------- Previous post was at 19:32 ----------

Makes sense for it to share space with Discovery.

Can you recall what was shown between 0900 and 1500?

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

No there was a channel called "play tv" which later changed to bravo 2.
I think it may have been called player though not play.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

Colour bars

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

I've just found notes that later The Learning Channel was on from 12pm to 3pm.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

Makes snese, as TLC and Discovery were sharing space throughout their time on analogue.

This therefore means that the line-up as:

0600 Kindernet
0900 Closedown
1200 TLC
1500 Discovery
2300 Today in the Commons

And did they all share the same channel number?

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

You didn't have such things as channel numbers on satellite until EPGs like Sky appeared.

Most of these transponders were feeds for cable operators to take at times where they had agreements and were not part of any package. So Kindernet was for Dutch cable but 'Yesterday in the Commons' was for UK cable.

It was known as 'The Learning Channel' which launched in 1992 - TLC name wasn't really used in Europe until it's latest incarnation which started in 2003.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

yes but you still had to enter a channel number to get to a specific channel and i was wondering if, these channels were available on the same channel number, like Cartoon Network and TNT and like TLC and Discovery were or whether the above were broadcast on different channel numbers.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

As 'Kindernet' was only in Netherlands and 'Yesterday in the Commons' was only in the UK - they would not share a channel number.

All cable companies had their own numbers -so for example 'L!ve TV' in Oxford would be different to 'L!ve TV' in Swindon and different again to 'L!ve TV' in Reading.

Cartoon Network and TNT would only share a number in an area where they were both on the same channel number.

Going back to my files in 2006:
In Norwich on channel 19 was 'Cartoon Network' from 5am to 9pm and TNT from 9pm to 5am
In Milton Keynes on channel 22 was 'Cartoon Network' from 5am to 7pm and TNT from 7pm to 5am
Some areas have 'Granada Men & Motors' on its own channel but other areas had it sharing a channel number.

Channel numbers only came into line with digital platforms on cable.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

Very true, as they all started as individual franchises and it would have caused a lot of confusion for viewers for all the channel numbers to have changed every time there was a merger.

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

Thinking back, I remember that my local cable company (Bell Cambemedia) had JCN and I never understood at the time why an American channel called Jones Computer Network was on Bell Cablemedia until I recently found out that Bell was originally Jones Cable before Bell was formed as the first merger which later saw it become Cable & Wireless, ntl and finally Virgin Media.

I also remember that it was replaced by a channel called Knowledge TV which I think was also a cable exclusive.

And also I remember that The Landscape Channel was a 24/7 channel on cable and that channels with limited hours on satellite had full hours only on cable. These included Sci-Fi, Country Music Television and European Business News (which merged with CNBC) and also the UKTV channels launched in 1997 also were only full time on cable as on satellite, only one transponder was available and each channel was on air at various times of the day. they shared

Re: Cable exclusive channels
 

Picking this back up again. and I remember that the channel number which broadcast JCN and later Knowledge TV originally broadcast a channel called Mind Extension University.