Memories of the launch of BBC Digital 1998 onwards

[johnnyboy]

I remember when they announced BBC3 and BBC4 having discussions on the internet that there was no way they were going to call them that, because it sounded so strange (of course, there's a seventies Doctor Who story that refers to it as a bit of a fantasy) partly because at that point digital channels didn't seem like "proper" channels so it seemed strange to pretend they were the same.

I have some sympathy with that.

When I was growing up in an analogue terrestrial world with 4 channels, a channel was something which had its own frequency on which it could broadcast 24 hours a day if it wanted to.

When GSB launched their "7" channels in late 1996, four of those channels were three-hour programming blocks on one frequency crammed into 12 hours a day.

To me, that's not a channel but that's what they called them in the promo trails. I would have sent an angry email off to them but a) I wasn't that het up about it and b) I didn't get the internet at home for another 4-5 years.

Using GSB's rationale, BBC Learning Zone and BBC Select would have been channels.

To quote Maggie Thatcher, "No! No! No!".

It's the same with CBeebies, CBBC, and BBC Four. While they do have their own EPG numbers, my 1970s/1980s/1990s upbringing can't consider them a channel in the way that BBC1 or BBC2 is.

What the correct term for them would be, I don't know.