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+--- Thread: Best channel launches (/showthread.php?tid=26)
Best channel launches - KK! - 29-03-2021
Surprised nobody mentioned the UK Gold launch. That was really impressive, if arguably a bit anticlimactic to what the channel would eventually become.
Best channel launches - CCFG - 29-03-2021
Brekkie post_id=627 time=1617042733 user_id=976 Wrote:Has nobody mentioned Merit? :lol:
I don't think Merit had a paticularly good launch.
Best channel launches - Roger Darthwell - 29-03-2021
Just as they said good luck to Meridian back in 1993, I say a very good luck to TV Live Forum! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alLgV_Gvza4
Best channel launches - James Martin - 29-03-2021
Big Centre TV.
I joke, of course. I want to say Channel 5 just because it's the only one of the "main" ones I was alive for.
One of the worst has to be TSW's "opening show" - which I think aired later on New Year's Night displacing a Hollywood premiere. My goodness, that was grim.
Best channel launches - TheIdiotFromWales - 29-03-2021
More4, just More4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k8mxlYUGjg
It was my personal favourite!
Best channel launches - JAS84 - 30-03-2021
I remember when Fox Kids Network launched, October 19th 1996. For the previous seven weeks, they'd been airing a promo loop advertising new programmes. The loop contained a major spoiler for Power Rangers, as they used clips from Zeo, when Sky One still hadn't finished Mighty Morphin season 3. The channel launch itself was disappointing. Ident plays, and a voiceover says Fox Kids presents... and then the name of the programme. Every ident announcement was like that. Boring. Still, at least 12 year old me enjoyed a lot of their shows!
Best channel launches - Vanilla Vip3r - 30-03-2021
Flux post_id=326 time=1617014848 user_id=766 Wrote:The majority will probably disagree with me, but as a massive Spice Girls fan at the time I thought (and still think) the Channel 5 launch was a brilliant idea:
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBxOVp6ix20[/media]
It was very clever PR. The group was everywhere back then, and having them officially open the channel really helped the PR and buildup in the preceding weeks. They teased the "performance" whenever they did any other appearances and promo work, and it generated some extra excitement further afield amongst people who weren't necessarily already interested in the fact a new channel was launching.
I was just a young teenager in the hills of Wales back then, so we knew we wouldn't be able to get Channel 5 on launch. But with some testing, I worked out that I could catch a dim signal of Channel 5's pre-launch test screens in grainy black and white whilst using a portable TV and holding an aerial above my head in a specific corner of our attic, so I made sure I was up there to catch the actual launch! I only actually saw it in full in colour a few years ago thanks to YouTube.
Channel 5 was the first launch that came to mind when I saw this thread. I clearly remember watching the test transmissions and the promo loop in all of their fuzzy glory and made a point of tuning into the launch night. I absolutely loved the idents which were, (and still are in fact) like nothing else on TV.
The channel is unrecognisable these days compared to the bright, brash and colourful C5 of 1997.
Best channel launches - Kunst - 30-03-2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KTZFlaAeZ4
I also think the Disney Channel UK launch was quite good, for such a small channel.. there actually was a lot of creativity in the idents of the channel in general, especially before 2003, but the fact that it was a premium channel, did not help its visibility
Best channel launches - paul_hadley - 30-03-2021
dbl post_id=391 time=1617021706 user_id=966 Wrote:They certainly don't fly a comedian/talent to the US for a channel launch anymoreRussell Kane certainly sounded different then!
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r06ECneWvko[/media]
Five US's launch
Best channel launches - Whataday - 30-03-2021
Brekkie post_id=627 time=1617042733 user_id=976 Wrote:Has nobody mentioned Merit? :lol:
ITV4 or More4 probably the last really noteable channel launch (can't remember which came first) - but for those of us of a certain generation Channel 5 was the channel launch to remember - or the pre-launch was at least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7Q4B3_Uu4k
I always felt Channel 5's launch owed a bit to Janet Street Porter's L!VE TV, which is actually the first channel launch I remember:
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrAw-MS0NT4[/media]
Even the studio has a hint of 5 News about it.
Best channel launches - Ghost - 30-03-2021
I’m a fan of MTV’s launch, it’s quite cool and sets the channel’s tone very well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NBhuf1g-rY
Best channel launches - Mateus Honrado - 31-03-2021
I'd say the launch of BBC Choice (now BBC Three) was pretty clever, especially with the countdown sequence.
https://youtu.be/gJbIpi4l-Rg
Best channel launches - Robert Williams - 31-03-2021
Mateus Honrado post_id=1197 time=1617168858 user_id=992 Wrote:I'd say the launch of BBC Choice (now BBC Three) was pretty clever, especially with the countdown sequence.The launch of BBC Choice might well be unique in that it was a launch of a television channel - that wasn't actually broadcast on television (at least not publicly).
It wasn't available to the public until over a week later when Sky Digital launched. Despite this, the Radio Times still published a programme schedule that no one could watch!
Best channel launches - TheMightyTRex - 31-03-2021
I came across the 3 Ireland launch on YouTube years ago - thought it was really well put together - for the life of me I cant find it.
The choice of "The magic number" is obvious but it was a good cover of it.
Best channel launches - BBC TV Centre - 31-03-2021
Vanilla Vip3r post_id=1016 time=1617115684 user_id=1269 Wrote:Me too! I was a similar vintage as yourself Flux, so I remember the C5 launch very well, with the Spice Girls and their specially written song. Must have cost an arm and a leg to have it all launched with a pop group of the era. Did anyone remember the entire campaign to get people to come round to your house to retune your TV/VCR?Flux post_id=326 time=1617014848 user_id=766 Wrote:The majority will probably disagree with me, but as a massive Spice Girls fan at the time I thought (and still think) the Channel 5 launch was a brilliant idea:
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBxOVp6ix20[/media]
It was very clever PR. The group was everywhere back then, and having them officially open the channel really helped the PR and buildup in the preceding weeks. They teased the "performance" whenever they did any other appearances and promo work, and it generated some extra excitement further afield amongst people who weren't necessarily already interested in the fact a new channel was launching.
I was just a young teenager in the hills of Wales back then, so we knew we wouldn't be able to get Channel 5 on launch. But with some testing, I worked out that I could catch a dim signal of Channel 5's pre-launch test screens in grainy black and white whilst using a portable TV and holding an aerial above my head in a specific corner of our attic, so I made sure I was up there to catch the actual launch! I only actually saw it in full in colour a few years ago thanks to YouTube.
Channel 5 was the first launch that came to mind when I saw this thread. I clearly remember watching the test transmissions and the promo loop in all of their fuzzy glory and made a point of tuning into the launch night. I absolutely loved the idents which were, (and still are in fact) like nothing else on TV.
The channel is unrecognisable these days compared to the bright, brash and colourful C5 of 1997.