Memories of the launch of BBC Digital 1998 onwards

[johnnyboy]

As happens with many people as they get older, they look back to events and other things in their younger days which were important to them.

3-4 years before I found the blue place in my mid-20s, I was very excited first about the new BBC logo.

Then I was even more excited about the launch of BBC News 24 (although i couldn't get it at the time because I didn't live in a cable area).

And then, suddenly it seemed in the glorious, warm, World Cup summer of 1998 (pre-internet for me), digital TV seemed to become a "thing" that was looming.

In around August of that year, the BBC began running the following promo...

https://youtu.be/V5qd_YF8qAY

It's hard to state to our younger members that, even in analogue satellite days, the launch of a new channel was a big thing, especially a BBC channel.

And then BBC Knowledge was to come, the bbc.co.uk website is growing in popularity, and a raft of radio services were on their way.

For those of you aware of the launch of BBC Digital services, particularly those in the industry, what are your memories of the time?

And how could I not mention the still-magnificient-23-years-later BBC Digital Widescreen Test Transmission...

https://youtu.be/Ok06G7E07Ik

[Rdd]

Dare I mention BBC Quirke!?!?

https://youtu.be/3HFL_65R86w

[JetixFann450]

I feel it's crazy knowing how many gimmicks the Digital era of TV used to be of (seeing radio [possibly alluding to UK Play/Play UK or something?], seeing a match in any camera you want [not really much of a gimmick, more so why would you want to?] and interacting with the TV [a cool idea for that era but grew heavily outdated, the only interactivity nowadays is social media and the like]) and the fact that much of what the BBC were proposing are now standard, like on-demand viewing and catching up.

Still though, the amount of stuff digital TV had and the fact the BBC were pioneers of it makes sense, and it could've been way more if the BBC weren't stingy about commercials being on their pay-TV services (which would later become UKTV).

[Inspector Sands]

I feel it's crazy knowing how many gimmicks the Digital era of TV used to be of (seeing radio [possibly alluding to UK Play/Play UK or something?],

No, the idea was to have a visual element to DAB and radios similar to the one in the advert with a screen that would display information such as news, pictures and info about the programmeq

It never really happened like that, although they did transmit some data on their DAB multiplex - news items and schedule information - they might still do.

Of course there's now 'Now playing' information for all their radio channels on BBC Sounds and DAB and a lot of 'visual radio' content on both the web and the Red Button. So it has kind of come to fruition, but it turns out that people just like listening rather than watching radio. The same as how we all prefer to watch TV rather than interact with it. I notice how the ad says about watching 'what we want, when we want' but of course the BBCs listen again service came a long time before the TV equivalent


What became UK Play was planned early on in the BBCs plans, at one point there was to be a TV version of Radio 1, confusingly with the working title 'BBC ONE TV' (this was when the TV channel was still called BBC 1!). That eventually did turn up as UK Play

[Cassia Tuna]

BBC News and ITN covering the launch of digital TV in 1998:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHXpN0586IU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agkCgxcf1e4

[deejay]

Memories - the original BBC Choice with schedule variations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.


The original BBC Knowledge with it’s ‘Junction Enhancement Device’ JED


The replacement for BBC Knowledge, BBC Four with it’s amazing and every-ident-unique brand identity
https://youtu.be/AwilgQ3IdUM

The quarter screen BBC Parliament on onDigital

[Markymark]

Remember the evening show on BBC Choice, Backstage with Kaye Adams (and others)?

Presented live from a different BBC building or office everynight, by using an equipment rack on wheels if I recall!?

[Inspector Sands]

Remember the evening show on BBC Choice, Backstage with Kaye Adams (and others)?

Presented live from a different BBC building or office everynight, by using an equipment rack on wheels if I recall!?

Yes, a friend of mine was once walking through the 'Stage Door' area of TV Centre and saw someone he used to know from his time in hospital radio. He went to walk over to say hi and then realised he was presenting Backstage

[Cassia Tuna]

Who else remembers the BBC's various attempts at launching interactive TV during the late 90s and early 00s?

Certainly, I can remember the BBC having a hand with Kingston Interactive TV (KIT) in Hull, a cable service operated by local telecommunications provider Kingston Communications, as well as there being other pilots around the country around this time:

Some early attempts at interactive TV from 1998:

https://youtu.be/3cyITGj1s_E

BBC Hull Interactive Television

Video description:

BBC Hull Interactive Television was a pioneering broadband to TV trial on the Kingston Interactive Television (KIT) platform in Hull.

The project was just one part of a much larger £25m investment initiative the BBC made in Hull, East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire - The BBC Connecting Locally - also known as Project Hull.

The project won an award for Interactive TV Services from the EMMA Foundation and was nominated for the Technical Innovation award from BAFTA.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaKqRCo_Nbk

BBC Interactive Drama and Entertainment (2004):

By the time the noughties came around attention was rightly being focused on the WWW, but it is still interesting nonetheless to see the work that went into developing the various programme websites that the BBC had at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mipDm_gU_Us

As we all know, interactive TV never really took off, but it was certainly an interesting experiment!

[johnnyboy]

Great find, Cassia Tuna. I was unaware of either of those so thanks for sharing.

Sky, iirc, were the pioneers of choose your own camera angle functionality with Sky Sports Xtra and F1 Interactive, both of which were discontinued.

In the early days of BBC Digital, I loved the 'extended remixes' of popular shows on BBC Choice, particularly EastEnders Revealed and the Watchdog spin off.

I think my particular favourite BBC digital showcase was the "Walking With Beasts" interactive service in 2001. The show repeated every half hour on the red button with 3 extra sound and video channels, much like DVD extras. You could use the colour buttons to switch between feeds.

It all felt so futuristic at the time.

[James Martin]

Who remembers PlayerCam? That was a bit of a novelty that never really caught on.

It was SkyDigital in our house for the first decade.

The main thing I remember is Open... - I think in the early days you could order Domino's Pizza from your TV, and of course there were the games - notably Beehive Bedlam! There was also the ability to send and recieve e-mail through your TV and for a tenner you could buy a wireless Open.... keyboard, which I think doubled as a remote for SkyDigital. I used to like it for the CD reviews but it took bloody forever to load.

The Box in all its NTSC glory was quite something.

I used to like Music Choice as well - which was initially ten themed music playlists on ten different channels, but with the appropriate song MetaData on screen. Later on this moved to a "red button" style system.

Having radio stations through the TV was cool, but obviously this was nothing entirely new thanks to the audio subcarriers on analogue (Radio 2 was on UK Gold IIRC, Virgin was on another, I think SkyRadio from the Netherlands was also on there too. Asda FM definitely was - I assume their distribution platform at the time!)

Was also the first time "normal" TV came down via satellite. But this in turn made it a PITA to access ITV, as it was the only thing you needed to leave the SkyDigital ecosystem for. That was such an own goal from ITV looking back.

The move to digital was actually a quantum leap for us moreso than others as we had one of the earliest analogue recievers that couldn't pick up Astra 1D. So it was the first time I could enjoy channels I'd previously been unable to pick up.

I do remember wondering if my parents would grasp the idea of an EPG, but actually they did!

[thegeek]

And how could I not mention the still-magnificient-23-years-later BBC Digital Widescreen Test Transmission...

https://youtu.be/Ok06G7E07Ik

The description on YouTube has a great story of how it came about. It was last used on air in 2012 as test content for the 24 extra streams (or was it 24 SD and 24 HD?) Sky lent to the BBC for the Olympics, as it was free content - and if anything's going to test your statmuxer, it's this.

[Inspector Sands]

The main thing I remember is Open... - I think in the early days you could order Domino's Pizza from your TV, and of course there were the games - notably Beehive Bedlam! There was also the ability to send and recieve e-mail through your TV and for a tenner you could buy a wireless Open.... keyboard, which I think doubled as a remote for SkyDigital. I used to like it for the CD reviews but it took bloody forever to load.

Yes Open.. was a nice idea but way ahead of its time technically and made obsolete by the web. They were bought up by Sky and disappeared totally.

They were one of two interactive TV companies I went for jobs at in the early 90s, them and an outfit called Two Way TV who did games on cable TV. Didn't get either which was a lucky escape.


The best use of interactive was the play along of Banzai. I remember it popping up on day 1 of E4 and it was a great use of the technology and most importantly it worked well even in the onDigital box I had at the time. It was probably very simple compared with some of the stuff they were trying but it didn't need to be complicated or have return paths etc to work

Having radio stations through the TV was cool, but obviously this was nothing entirely new thanks to the audio subcarriers on analogue (Radio 2 was on UK Gold IIRC, Virgin was on another, I think SkyRadio from the Netherlands was also on there too. Asda FM definitely was - I assume their distribution platform at the time!)

On analogue Radios 1-5 were on UK Gold and UK Living, some in stereo and some in mono. Virgin 1215 was on Sky News and I think Sky Radio was on Sky One,. I think everyone assumed they were linked but although it wasn't part of Sky TV it was apparently owned by News Corp

[Markymark]

The main thing I remember is Open... - I think in the early days you could order Domino's Pizza from your TV, and of course there were the games - notably Beehive Bedlam! There was also the ability to send and recieve e-mail through your TV and for a tenner you could buy a wireless Open.... keyboard, which I think doubled as a remote for SkyDigital. I used to like it for the CD reviews but it took bloody forever to load.

Yes Open.. was a nice idea but way ahead of its time technically and made obsolete by the web. They were bought up by Sky and disappeared totally.

I bought an 'Open' keyboard in Dixons. Translucent blue plastic ?
It was about a Tenner. I recall the salesman attempting to sell me an extended warranty for it for 25 quid !

[Steve in Pudsey]

No, the idea was to have a visual element to DAB and radios similar to the one in the advert with a screen that would display information such as news, pictures and info about the programmeq

It never really happened like that, although they did transmit some data on their DAB multiplex - news items and schedule information - they might still do.

There was also the short-lived BT Movio service which streamed a handful of TV services to mobile phones via a data feed broadcast via DAB. For some reason.

https://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/lobster700tv.html