1987–1993: Super Channel Launched on 30 January 1987, replacing the 24-hour music channel
Music Box, it was co-owned by all but one of the
ITV companies at the time in the
United Kingdom.
Virgin Group had a majority stake in Music Box (60%) and would own 15% of the equity with the rest being split between ITV franchise holders including
Granada,
Yorkshire,
LWT,
Central,
Anglia,
Tyne Tees,
Ulster,
Grampian,
Scottish,
Border,
HTV,
TSW and
TVS, while
Thames and
TV-am were the only two of the contractors not to participate. It competed with
Sky Channel (forerunner of
Sky One), which was the only other major pan-European satellite television network around at the time. Unlike Sky Channel,
syndicated output was less
American and more
European. Much of its programming was sourced from ITV or the
BBC as part of "Best of British", and it also featured
ITN-produced news bulletins. It also broadcast syndicated non-British European programmes, including the
Dutch sitcom ''
Zeg 'ns Aaa'' (broadcast on the original station
VARA, with
English subtitles). Super Channel fared poorly, due to United Kingdom-based programming seen as unsuitable for European audiences, such as drama being seen as "too violent" or "too realistic", as well as a dispute with the British actors' union who demanded additional fees for viewing by audiences which meant that it could no longer offer the 'Best of British to a European audience'.
1993–1998: NBC steps in On 2 October 1993, the station which was in severe financial difficulties was taken over by the American company
General Electric, then-owner of the
NBC television network, and became
NBC Super Channel. From 9 September 1996, the channel was renamed
NBC Europe, but was from then on almost always referred to as simply "NBC" on the air, although the network (along with its sister station
CNBC Europe launched on 11 March earlier that year) was transmitted from the GE building in
Hammersmith. The transmission suite used cutting edge Pro-Bel COMPASS and MAPP automation at the time, and Profile video servers for all
commercials and promotions, within programmes continued to be played from tape automatically. Most of NBC's prime time programming was produced in Europe, but after 10.00pm (
CET) on weekday evenings as the channel aired
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Later to hence its slogan "Where the Stars Come Out at Night". Most news programmes were broadcast on NBC Europe including Dateline, Time and Again and NBC Nightly News, which was aired live. The Today Show'' was also initially shown live in the afternoons, but was later broadcast the following morning instead, by which time it was more than half a day old. This meant that all the
NBC News portions had to be replaced with European updates produced by
ITN in London, also supplied the network with the main newscasts before and after the GE takeover. European
weather forecasts was produced by the
BBC at first, but was later taken over by NBC in the United States occasionally. NBC Europe carried virtually no
prime time entertainment programmes shown in the United States, because they were usually owned and distributed by other studios under the
fin-syn rules (which did not apply in Europe). NBC would have had to buy the rights for each country in order to show which would have been too expensive. Even for shows that
NBC Studios owned itself, it was generally more financially viable to sell the rights by country either to broadcast or cable and satellite channels than to air them on NBC Europe. The most notable exceptions to this rule were brief runs of
Profiler and
The Pretender, as well as short-lived American sitcoms
Union Square and
Mr. Rhodes. That is widely considered to be one of the main reasons why NBC Europe was ultimately not a success.
1998–2005: As a German network NBC Europe stopped broadcasting to most of Europe on 30 June 1998, when the Deutsche Fernsehnachrichten Agentur took it over and moved to
Düsseldorf. Most of the satellite feeds became either
National Geographic Channel or
CNBC. NBC Europe continued to operate on Germany's cable television networks, fed by one digital satellite link from
Eutelsat II-F1 (later Hot Bird 5). On 30 November, the first German programming started airing, assembled from content from
GIGA and
CNBC Europe, as well as other shows. In 2004,
NBC Universal took over the DFA and consequently NBC Europe. On 29 September 2005, NBC Europe was split into GIGA and later replaced by the new channel
Das Vierte. The service continued broadcasting with its licence on cable, satellite,
IPTV and
digital cable. It broadcast a special version on cable television including CNBC Europe and GIGA (up until 31 March 2006). This was necessary to keep both the licence and the cable channel. On 25 September 2012,
The Walt Disney Company acquired Das Vierte and closed the service from 31 December 2013. On 17 January 2014, the network was replaced by
Disney Channel Germany switching from
pay television to
free-to-air. ==Programming==