BBC Select (1992–1995)

British Medical Television A spiritual predecessor of BBC Select intended for members of the British health care profession, called British Medical TV (BMTV), based in Woking and active in the internal video market for GPs initially producing monthly video tapes aired encrypted health care-related programming during the overnight hours of BBC1 and 2 between 1988 and 1990. BBC2 started carrying engineering tests in late 1987; these tests were encrypted as the BBC was eyeing the potential for the launch of a specialist subscription service. These tests were not mentioned in the press, leaving the intent unclear. To this end, doctors who were subscribed to BMTV received a direct television recorder to decrypt the scrambled signals and send a signal to the doctor's VCR to start recording. Once the BMTV broadcast finished, the DTR would instruct the doctor to rewind the tape, and play it in the following morning. The BBC showed confidence in starting a niche subscription service influenced by BMTV. In September 1989, it was announced that Michael Checkland, at the time Director-General of the BBC, would give the corporation a 15% share in BMTV and expanded the existing subscription service, by setting up a subsidiary company. On 31 January 1990, BMTV made its last broadcast; at closing time, it had 4,000 subscribers, each one paying £90 per year to receive the service. Moreover, encryption problems and the overall failure of the service have cost the BBC £500,000. shortly before the shutdown of BMTV; it was already gaining momentum for a subscription service to achieve Checkland's goals. John Radcliffe, head of the planned subscription service, said that, from the experience of the BMTV service, there was a demand for niche subscription television. and ran on both BBC1 and 2. Early in BBC Select's run, Quay Subscription Television, who was due to provide Farming Now, had entered liquidation in April 1992 after BBC Worldwide paid an unsecure loan to Quay. Farming Now was postponed to 1993, after which it was never materialised. In March 1992, the Executive Business Club started broadcasting with initial free previews. These previews were initially mooted for BBC2, but were intermittently toggling between it and BBC1, likely due to scheduling issues. The Executive Business Club became encrypted in June 1992, the first such service on BBC Select. Much like BMTV, EBC had also started earlier as a video cassette service, thanks to an agreement between the BBC and Management TV International, EBC's production company. Accounting Television followed in November 1992 and Legal Network Television launched in February 1993. By that year, supervisor John Radcliffe had left. The final encrypted programmes were shown in December 1994, by then the service had lost £18 million to the BBC. The name BBC Select disappeared in September 1995, being replaced by BBC Focus in its last few weeks on air and the service was closed on 8 October 1995 with the launch of The Learning Zone. ==BBC Selector==

To watch programming, a set-top box, or BBC Selector and BBC Select viewing card was required which both decoded and unscrambled the programme. The box also received signals, sent out prior to the programme start, that would alert the box to the fact the programme was starting. The box would then trigger VCRs to begin recording by sending out a pulse of Infrared to set off the VCR's recorder, as if the viewer had pressed the record button. ==Presentation==

The new service had differing presentation to the BBC channels that they broadcast on. The presentation featured a single gold circle in centre screen with the BBC Select caption beneath. The 'S' in Select of the caption has a circle around it. The channel featured no announcements, promotions or captions for upcoming programming, with presentation featuring only the ident, filler and promotions of the service itself. The ident featured the circle that began rotating, becoming a coin, City of London seal, a rotating machinery part, a retracting telescope, stage light, aeroplane Jet engine and film reel before finally becoming the circle again. The ident could also form out of the background, as the circle drew itself from the top clockwise. This was occasionally used at the startup of the service. Because the service was designed to be played back on VCR, the breaks between programmes were deliberately long, the average gap was five minutes and gaps could easily reach ten minutes, so that programmes could be set to overrun for 5 minutes so the end would not be missed, but it would avoid disrupting recording of a subsequent programme. In these five-minute breaks, a filler was used that composed the static ring logo against a background that constantly and gradually changes colour, to an extended version of the ident music. This would then usually fade into the ident. ==See also==