•
1928 • The foundations for cable television are laid in
Swindon when a company called Radio Relay starts transmitting two audio channels on a wire that runs around the town to a relatively small number of homes. •
1936 •
Rediffusion, a supplier of cable radio services since 1928, starts providing "Pipe TV" to customers, to coincide with the
BBC's launch of the world's first regular high-definition television service. •
1950 • A cable network is launched in
Gloucester, to provide better television reception than is possible at the time via a rooftop aerial. Further such systems were built in other cities over the next three decades and by the late 1970s, 2.5 million British homes received their television service via cable. •
1961 • A new cable network launches in
Swindon to transmit television signals. As reception in the area is poor, take-up is high and by the end of the decade around 15,000 homes were paying to receive their pictures via cable television. However, only those channels available in the area are allowed to be carried on the system. •
1964 • The company which provides the cable relay service in Swindon is acquired by
Radio Rentals and is called
Radio Rentals Cable. •
1968 •
Thorn Electrical Industries purchases Radio Rentals. •
1969 • 15,000 people in Swindon are paying to receive their television pictures via cable television. However, because only existing terrestrial programmes could be put on the cable, and in consequence, the interest in cable started to decline as more and more BBC and ITV transmitters made reception clearer. •
1972 • The UK's Minister for Posts and Telecommunications authorises five experimental community cable television channels. The first to launch is
Greenwich Cablevision. •
1973 •
Sheffield Cablevision,
The Bristol Channel and
Swindon Viewpoint launch. •
1974 • March – The final community station,
Wellingborough Cablevision, launches. •
1975 • 14 March – After less than two years on air,
The Bristol Channel closes. • 24 March –
Wellingborough Cablevision closes. •
Greenwich Cablevision closes as a full-time service although programming made by volunteers keeps the station on air in a restricted form until the early 1980s. •
Swindon Viewpoint’s experimental phase ends when EMI decided to pull out of funding the service. However, the channel continues after it was sold to the public of Swindon for £1. •
1980 • April – Regular programming on
Swindon Viewpoint ends when funding dries up. but continues intermittently for the next decade with programmes made by volunteers. •
1981 • Radio Rental Cable Television launches the UK's first
pay-per-view movie channel, 'Cinematel', for cable viewers in
Swindon. The channel later expands to
Chatham in Kent. As well as showing movies, the channel also broadcasts some local programming, including one-off documentaries and shortly after a live news-magazine format programme, called
Scene in Swindon launches. Also provided is a local
teletext service, with pages about film information, horoscopes, recipes, local bus times and job vacancies. • 9 September –
Rediffusion launches a movie channel called
Starview. It is allowed to launch the channel following a decision by the
Home Office granting several experimental licences to broadcast subscription television and Rediffusion had won one of these licenses. •
1982 • Proposals to liberalise cable television in the UK are drawn up. Previously, apart from the 1981 experiments, the cable networks were only allowed to relay the over-the-air channels. •
1983 • Ahead of the enacting of the forthcoming liberalisation, the Government licenses eleven interim franchises for broadband systems. Each covers an individual town or city of around 100,000 homes. •
1984 • 16 January –
Satellite Television Ltd launches in the UK on
Swindon Cable as Sky Channel. The channel initially broadcasts for five hours each night and as more operators start to carry the channel, its broadcast hours slowly expand. •
Thorn EMI, which operates
Swindon Cable, launches four channels – movie channel
The Entertainment Network, music channel
Music Box, sport channel
Screensport and
The Children's Channel. Despite being delivered by satellite, they are created with the planned roll-out of cable across the UK in mind. The Entertainment Network (rebranded as Premiere) and Music Box closed down by the end of the decade, Screensport (purchased by
WHSmith) merged with
Eurosport and moved to their frequencies in 1993, and The Children's Channel closed down at no notice in 1998. • The Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 is enacted. This allows cable companies to offer as many channels as they liked, and also allowed cable companies to offer a telephone service in competition with
British Telecom. • 1 December – The
Cable Authority comes into existence and on 1 January 1985 takes on the functions granted to it by the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984, paving the way for fully commercial cable franchises to be awarded on a city-by-city basis. •
1985 • 1 September – Ealing Cable launches
Home Video Channel, which shows
low-budget movies devoted to horror, action/adventure, science fiction and erotica, and is subsequently rolled out to other cable operators by sending tapes and a copy of the programme schedule so that could be played out locally. • 18 December – Full launch of
Westminster Cable's service. • 20 December – United Artists Programming launches
Bravo. It shows mainly
black & white B-movies from the 1950s and 1960s. The channel remains a cable-exclusive service until it launches on satellite in July 1993. • Swindon's cable service is re-branded as
Swindon Cable and its news programme is renamed as part of this move and became
Focus on Swindon. The channel increases the programme's frequency from twice a week to three times a week. •
1986 • 4 February –
Thorn EMI sells its stake in Swindon Cable to
British Telecom and the new owners axe
Focus on Swindon and other local programming and replaces it with bought-in content. • May – Ealing Cable launches
Indra Dhnush, a subscription-based Asian service devoted to
Hindi films and
television programmes with some material in other
Indian languages. Its distribution method is the same as its sister channel HVC. • August –
Star Channel launches as an alternative film service which broadcasts between 6.30pm and 2.00am, it has been distributed to several cable operators on
videotape form rather than by
satellite. •
1987 • March – Ealing Cable sells HVC to
Premiere. The new owner continues with the channel's existing operational model including the distribution of tapes, and increases its broadcasting hours. • July – The loss for expected closure of Star Channel following its merger with Premiere to reduce the remaining film services include
Bravo and
Home Video Channel. •
1988 • United Cable of Denver purchases Croydon Cable and subsequently merges with United Artists Cable International. • Swindon cable's TV channel is relaunched as
Swindon's Local Channel. This sees the return to the service of local news, sport and one-off documentaries. •
1989 • 5 February – Satellite television service
Sky Television launches. The new channels –
Sky News,
Sky Movies and
Eurosport – are carried on cable. •
1990 • 25 March –
British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) launches its five-channel service and for the first five weeks, the channels are only available on cable. In November BSB and Sky TV merge and a month later two of the five BSB channels –
Galaxy and
Now – are closed down. • In its final annual report, published at its demise, the Cable Authority stated that by the end of 1990, even though almost 15 million homes had been included in franchised areas, only 828,000 of these had been passed by broadband cable and only 149,000 were subscribing. •
1991 • 1 January – The
Independent Television Commission takes over the licensing and regulation of cable from The Cable Authority. • 8 June – United Artists merges with its largest shareholder
Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI). • United Artists Programming initiates a trial project to provide coverage of
Yesterday in the Commons to cable networks across the UK. •
1992 • The major cable companies join to form 'Cable Programme Partners One (CPP1)', to try to provide alternative content to the satellite-dominated multi-channel environment of the time. • 13 January – Following on from the success of
Yesterday in the Commons, United Artists Cable launches a full time channel providing live and recorded coverage of the British Parliament called
The Parliamentary Channel. • 25 April – On-demand music video channel
The Box launches. Initially launched in four cable areas, it slowly rolls out on a regional basis across the entire cable network before getting its first on satellite in 1998. • October – Country music channel
CMT Europe launches on cable. The following year it starts part-time broadcasts on
Astra and it doesn't get a full-time service on satellite until later in the 1990s. • December -
The Performance Channel launches in the UK. It broadcasts arts programming each night from 7pm until the early hours. It remains a cable-exclusive channel until 2003 and ended broadcasting in July 2008. • Following the merger of TCI and United Artists, they launch a joint venture called
Telewest Communications. •
1993 • 4 May –
Wire TV launches. Branding itself as 'The Cable Channel', this is the flagship channel of CPP1. Wire TV broadcasts a mix of entertainment, lifestyle and sport from 1pm until 11pm and includes two hours each day of regional programming. •
Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal, the founders of the cellular network company Cellular Communications, Inc., establish
International CableTel. •
1994 • 3 January – TCI acquires a 60.4% stake in Flextech and Flextech acquires 100% of
Bravo, 25% of
UK Gold, 31% of
UK Living, and 25% of
The Children's Channel. • February –
Travel launches exclusively on cable, broadcasting daily between midday and midnight. • 2 March –
Wire TV’s backers outbid
BSkyB to the rights for the
1996 Cricket World Cup as part of a plan to set up a sports channel to take on
Sky Sports. Wire TV's evening programming is by now devoted to sport under the name
Sportswire with the daytime entertainment programming called
LiveWire. • 30 November –
Associated Newspapers launches
Channel One, a network of city news channels. The first to launch is in London. • AsiaVision, previously
Indra Dhnush, closes due to accumulated debts. •
1995 • 16 January –
Mirror Group plc launches Mirror Television by purchasing
Wire TV. It plans to launch
Sportswire as a full-time channel and replace Wire TV with a new channel called
L!VE TV. • May – TCI (owners of Telewest) and
NYNEX, two of the main players of CPP1, do a deal with BSkyB which includes a clause that the cable operators do not launch any rival channels to those already operated by Sky. This marks the end of CPP1 and causes the collapse of sports channel
Sportswire, days before it was due to launch. • 31 May –
Wire TV closes. • 1 June –
SelecTV launches. It is a general entertainment channel which broadcasts each weeknight from 5pm until midnight, with a midday start at the weekend. • 12 June –
L!VE TV launches as Mirror Television's sole television channel. • June – Telewest merges with SBC Communications, adding franchises in the Midlands and North West serving 1.3 million homes. • 3 July –
Bell Cablemedia is formed when a number of cable companies, including
Jones Cable UK, merge. • 1 October –
The Sci Fi Channel launches in the UK but its full-time hours (8am to 4am) are only broadcast on cable due to a lack of space on satellite. It broadcasts on satellite for only three hours each evening, and satellite viewers have to wait until the launch of
Sky Digital in 1998 to see the channel's full-time output. •
1996 • A number of cable companies drop
CMT Europe. This dents its reach and the channel closes 18 months later. • 1 September –
The Weather Network and
The Weather Channel launch on various cable networks. They use the regional nature of cable to provide regional weather forecasts. However both channels are gone within two years due to low viewership. • 2 September –
Carlton Food Network launches. It broadcasts on weekday afternoons and shares space with
SelecTV. • 23 October –
NYNEX,
Vidéotron and
Bell Cablemedia merge
Cable & Wireless subsidiary,
Mercury Communications. The new company is called
Cable & Wireless Communications. •
1997 • 14 February – SelecTV is rebranded
Carlton Select following
Carlton Television’s purchase of Pearson Television. • 9 November – As part of its foray into digital television, the BBC launches
BBC News 24. However, the channel launches almost a year prior to the launch of digital television in the UK and is only available 24 hours a day on cable, with all other viewers only able to watch the channel overnight on
BBC One. •
Front Row is created to provide a near on-demand pay-per-view movies service for cable television. However,
Cable & Wireless chooses not to carry the service, instead opting for
Sky Box Office. •
1998 • March –
Telewest and General Cable merge. •
Telewest also acquires the outstanding interest in Birmingham Cable, adding a further 1.7 million franchise homes in Yorkshire, west London and Birmingham. • 19 May – CableTel adopts NTL as its new name. • 23 September – The BBC purchases The Parliamentary Channel and relaunches it as
BBC Parliament. • 25 September – Local news channel
Channel One closes at 6pm. • 1 October –
Sky Digital launches, becoming the UK's first digital television service. Consequently, a number of channels which had only been available full-time on cable are now able to broadcast their full schedule on satellite. • 15 November – Rival digital television service
ONdigital launches. Two of the channels –
Carlton Food Network and
Carlton Select – had been available exclusively on cable since the mid-1990s. •
1999 • NTL buys
Cambridge Cable, which over its 11-year history had expanded to cover all of Cambridgeshire and Essex. • 1 May – After 14 years on air,
HVC closes. • 26 August –
Telewest purchases the remaining 50% stake in
Cable London from NTL, adding 400,000 franchise homes in
North London. • 5 November –
LIVE TV closes. • 17 May – The completion of
NTL's purchase of Cable & Wireless’ cable assets takes place two months after the sale was cleared by the
Competition Commission. • 1 August – The
ITN News Channel launches. It is a joint venture between ITN and
NTL, which owns 35% of the channel. • 2 November – Telewest acquires
Eurobell, taking the total number of homes passed to 4.9 million. •
Telewest and
NTL launch their digital television services. • After 16 years on air,
Swindon's Local Channel closes. •
2001 • January – Cable television comes to the
Isle of Wight when operator
Isle of Wight Cable and Telephone Company launches. The island remains the only part of the UK's cable network not to be owned by Virgin Media. • 1 February –
NTL launches movie channel
The Studio in conjunction with
Vivendi Universal. •
2002 • May – Less than a year after being founded and less than six months after launching,
Omne Communications enters
administration. • June – Carlton Television and Granada Television purchase ITN's 65% stake in the ITN News Channel and on 30 September it is renamed as the
ITV News Channel. NTL retains its 35% stake. • Following the purchase of Isle of Wight Cable and Telephone Company by
CLS Holdings, the service is renamed
WightCable. •
2003 • 1 January –
The Studio closes. • 1 February –
CLS Holdings, owners of
WightCable, acquires a 76% stake in Omne Communications for £4.1 million, saving it from closure and later in 2003, Omne is rebranded WightCable North. • 29 December –
Ofcom replaces the
Independent Television Commission as the UK's television regulator. •
2004 • April – The newly created
ITV plc purchases NTL's 35% stake in the
ITV News Channel. •
2005 • 18 January – Both
NTL and Telewest start rolling out video-on-demand services. •
CLS Holdings sells the assets of Wightcable to private investors in 2005, who formed WightCable (2005) Ltd and in 2012 WightCable was rebranded as WightFibre. • 1 December –
Telewest launches its first
personal video recorder TV Drive. •
2006 • At the start of 2006, Telewest becomes the first company in the UK to launch a
high-definition service. It provides between 10 and 30 hours of on-demand content in HD, and that summer it provides HD access to some
2006 FIFA World Cup matches to customers who have the
TV Drive box. • January –
CLS Holdings sells
WightCable North, at a loss of £2.1 million, to Netfonics Just over a year later WightCable North is rebranded as Smallworld Media, then to Smallworld Cable (2009) and to Smallworld Fibre in 2013. • March –
NTL and
Telewest merge. •
2017 • 31 March – Wrights Radio Relay, the last CATV system in the UK which still carried analogue as well as DVB, closes down after 57 years of operation in Newtown, Mid Wales. ==Virgin Media==