TV channels in an alternate timeline

British Satellite Broadcasting 1 (BSB1)

The flagship channel of the United Kingdoms BSB Satellite TV Service, showing homegrown shows and foreign imports, along with it's sports offerings allowed BSB to dominate the UK's pay TV market.

BSB Sports 1

Revolutionised the United Kingdom's Premier League with an influx of television money in the early 90's, sparking the trend which lead to the current financial strength of the League's club sides.
 
BBC 3
An advert-funded BBC channel, launched in the 1960s. BBC 3 was the profit making organ of the BBC for many years. BBC 3 mostly focussed in producing "populist nonsense", but dominated the 'ratings wars' from 1968-83.

The Fourth
The Fourth was established in 1984, and was determined to represent an independent voice in British broadcasting. The Fourth was revolutionary in its programming choices, (artistic discussion, political debate and other counter-cultural elements were commonplace on The Fourth). The Fourth became notorious for broadcasting LGBT-friendly programming; particularly the drama series 'Queer As Folk', which started airing in 1989, and continued until 2002.

Channel Five
Founded by a consortium of European media moguls in 1995. Channel Five started its early schedules with a series of low-grade American imports. The channel finally found its niche in the early '00s, when it started broadcasting nightly erotic films.

SIX
SIX, (all capitals), was founded by News International chairman Rupert Murdoch. SIX, more than any channel before it, focussed on lowest common denominator programming, (Pets Say The Funniest Things!, Kids Are Wacky!, and People Falling Over! being their most prominent early hits). In addition, SIX took a very heavily partisan view towards politics, espousing a very populist, right-wing world-view that many argue heavily influenced the post-Heseltine Conservative Party.

To me that sounds quite intensely like a television dystopia to me- I'm wishing I'd posted my ITV2 idea earlier: rather like ITV used to be in the old days- operating on a regional franchise basis, but as an opportunity for an alternative. I was just now thinking of doing it here, but you leave me little room.

I guess it might be better in this present scenario to keep regional broadcasting on a strictly regional basis for now...


(EDIT: on second thoughts, it might be not so bad. "The Fourth" is this timeline's version of our Channel 4 and apart from the start date sounds almost the same- it has had it's fair share of contoversy IOTL. BBC3 as an advert-funded BBC station sounds like a marginally bette alternative to ITV in some ways, and might offset the licence fee costs. Channel Five eventually finding it's niche as low-grade porn peddlers is not good, though- IOTL it gave the channel its bad reputation which ended up going. As for Six- I'd like a sixth analogue terrestrial channel I suppose, but it still sounds awful.)
 
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BBC Regional Television Service (1954-1964): This was the BBC's first atempt at providing a wider variety of television programming, being organised on a region-by-region basis and folowing the new boom in television follwing the Coronation in 1953. Focusing on somewhat more populist content than the rather more high-brow National Television Service, it also aimed to reflect the character and clture of the local area. Eventually due to a rethinking of broadcasting stretegy in the mid-1960s the local services merged into the newly-formed BBC2, although certain regional strands were maintained.

(This is slightly similar to the way radio was organised pre-war.)

GNTV (originally Great North Television, later Greater Northhumbrian Television): founded in the 1970s, this was originally a commercial station operating (as it continues to do so) in the North-East of England and parts of North Yorkshire, and focussed a lot on local culture and regional pride, straddling the line between populist and more quality programming, and tending to focus on a more left-wing, socialist political bias reflecting the once industrial side of the region.. Due to financial difficulties following the growing success of national commercial television stations and pay-TV, GNTV went into recievership in the late 1990s, before being taken over by a charitable institution, the Northumbrian Broadcasting Trust, with lins to the newly-awakened Northumbrian nationalist movements, as much more of a community-oriented bias and reflecting in its programming a lot of the disaffteded nature of the region's populus in the post-Conservative era of declining industry.

(EDIT: I know, Northumbrian nationalism is probably a long shot as there is no real OTL basis for it- but it only takes someone to think up the idea, and I guess there is a lot of regional pride in this area.)
 
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NomadicSky

Banned
BCBC- British Columbian Broadcast Company.

Hailing from a time-line where British Columbia never became part of Canada.

BCBC was founded in 1932 originally founded largely as a response to the growing broadcast finding their way across the border from the US and more recently Canada (which had created a network over their own only three years prior).

BCBC was created by way of royal charter under the government of Premier Simon Fraser Tolmie originally as a radio network.

BCBC began broadcasting FM in 1946, and Television in 1953.

BCBC is scheduled to shut off analog television broadcast in June of 2012.
 
La Louisianaise de la Télédiffusion/Louisiana Broadcasting Company

-set up by an act of the National Congress in 1957, the LT/LBC's goal was to make sure that both French- and English-language broadcasting was available in all markets of the country. Unlike the other networks, such as TéléNationale and MBS (Mississippi Broadcasting Systems), which air on regional affiliate stations, LT/LBC was given two dedicated frequencies:

-Le 2 (French)
-Channel Three (English)
 
British Ulster Broadcasting Network

Grew out of the anti unionist (ooc: unionist now means in favour of Irish unity) and pro-British Radio Free Ulster launched in '68 on the back of the wave of protests and mini uprisings from Ireland's protestant communities in the north east.

In the nineties growth of satellite and cable broadcasting it was launched with funding from the EU and Britain, as well as the Irish federal government and the newly launched Ulster Regional Executive aimed specifically at empowering minority communities to unite through television.

Broadcasts a mixture of home grown low budget "guerilla" programming, radical evangelical church services, and of course the three hours on Saturday prime time "Rev Dr Paisley's Saturday Night Carry out", as well as shows bought in from British and Scottish regional producers.

Controversial former terrorist and newsreader David Ervine made his TV debut with BUBN before graduating to RTE.
 
Union Broadcasting System (UBS): The first TV network in the US, established in 1939. It was a pioneer in many fields: it was the first to have affiliates in all of the top 10 markets (1950), the first color broadcasts (1954), the first 24-hour cable news network (1981, with the launch of UBS News, to be followed by PTN News in 1989 and Dart24 in 1995), and the first digital broadcasts (2000). It is currently one of the top two TV networks in the Union, competing with Plymouth Television Network (PTN) for the top spot. Its news bureau is probably one of the most trusted in the world, long known for its strict policy of neutrality in political matters, although it has occasionally been accused of leaning in whatever direction the US government is facing, and its neutrality policy was attacked by newscaster Howard Beale in 1976, who delivered an infamous on-air rant lambasting both the Confederacy's Jim Crow system and UBS for refusing to challenge it. Its headquarters, studios, and production facilities are based in New York City.

Plymouth Television Network (PTN): The other of the Union's top two networks, having been established in 1942. Having long played second-fiddle to UBS, PTN's fortunes took off when it pioneered the "reality" television format in the 1970s. Today, it leads in the ratings, and its programming appeals to a more "low-brow" audience than that of its rivals, frequently pushing FCC boundaries. Its news bureau has become a bastion of conservatism in recent years, particularly after the network was bought by Confederate real estate baron Teddy Winstead in 1985. Like UBS, it is based in New York City.

American Public Television (APT): The Union's publicly-funded television network. Established in 1959 in order to provide television programming to places that were underserved by the three commercial networks, particularly in the Western United States, where many cities had only one TV affiliate. However, it would only become a major contender in the '80s, when the government started funding it in earnest. As it is not influenced by the concerns of advertisers, it airs programming that would otherwise never see the light of day on the commercial networks, including nature and science documentaries, the award-winning educational show Discovery [1], offbeat comedies, historical dramas, and since the '80s, a growing amount of science-fiction, horror, and other genre programming. It also gets away with edgier content more readily than the commercial networks, as it does not have to answer to advertisers, although it is still under the close watch of the FCC. From the beginning, APT was barred from having a news bureau, as it was feared that it would be used as a propaganda tool by the government. Its sister radio network is American Public Radio (APR). Its studios and production facilities are based in Philadelphia, the capital of the United States.

Deutsch-American Radio and Television (DART): This network, descended from the old Deutsch-American Radio (DAR) network, was established in 1946, and appealed to the Union's large German-American population. [2] Despite protests by nativists, who felt that the network would slow integration, the DART network was a success, particularly in its base in the Midwest, where there were many places that were unofficially bilingual. In the 1960s, as German-Americans became more integrated into Union society, DART started to add more English-language programming, and broadened its focus into becoming a general multicultural network instead of a German one, adding programming targeted at the Union's French, Dutch, Italian, Algerian, Chinese, Korean, Latino, Native American and black populations. Its news bureau is famously liberal, being among the most strident supporters of immigration, multiculturalism, and social democracy, while taking an anti-Confederate line more often than not. Its headquarters, studios and production facilities are based in St. Louis, which has often been called the "German Hollywood."

Western Television (WesTV): This network was established in 1961 by Global Pictures to fill the holes that many cities in the Western US had in their programming. DART was still largely a German-language network at the time, APT was still in its infancy and had little in the way of quality programming, and few cities had both a UBS and an PTN affiliate, leaving viewers throughout the West with precious little to watch. Being closely associated with a Hollywood studio allowed WesTV to fund big-budget, high-quality shows that quickly gained it a following, allowing it to add affiliates in the rest of the country through the '70s. However, in 1982, the disastrous flop of the bloated, 3-hour Wild West epic Hellfire bankrupted Global Pictures [4], leaving WesTV's future in doubt. The network was bought by a consortium of Silicon Valley [3] entrepreneurs, but without the backing of Global, it couldn't continue funding its lavish shows. WesTV responded to the shift by changing track, focusing on a younger audience than the competition. The teen drama Ewen High [5], which premiered in 1984 (and continues to air to this day), was a smash hit, launching the careers of such actors as Caitlin Mistysyn, Aubrey Brooks, Jason Ali, and Miriam Nelson, and earning both praise and controversy for its realistic depiction of high school life. Since then, WesTV has embraced its reputation as the "teen network."

Confederate Radio and Television (CRT): In the 1950s, radio and television broadcasts from the US would start reaching much of the Confederacy. The states of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, fearing that the broadcasts would spread "subversive" views on labor and race, pooled their resources and established CRT in 1960 in order to provide their people with an alternative to the Union stations. By the end of the decade, all of the other states except Texas [6] had signed onto the network. CRT has suffered from chronic underfunding for decades, and with the development of other national networks, there has been talk of pulling the plug on CRT altogether.

Gulf TV: This network was established in 1972 by Biscayne [7] real estate developer Teddy Winstead. Within ten years, it had affiliates in every Confederate state. Winstead's purchase of PTN in 1985 allowed Gulf TV exclusive rights to PTN's programming, which was often of higher quality than anything that had been produced in the Confederacy, allowing it to dominate the ratings -- as if it hadn't done that before, with its only real competition being TBN. Its headquarters, studios and production facilities are in Biscayne.

Texas Broadcasting Network (TBN): This network was established in 1961 as a subsidiary of the Apollo Oil Company, the largest energy company in Texas. In the '60s and '70s, it began to acquire affiliates in other Confederate states, particularly the western Confederacy, the Gulf Coast, Biscayne, and Virginia. It is the second largest network in the Confederacy (despite not even being based in the country) and the largest network in Texas, competing with TPT.

Texas Public Television (TPT): This network was established in 1956 by the Texas government to provide television programming to its people. It competes with TBN.

[1] TTL's Nova.
[2] ITTL, the US never entered World War I, which prevented the surge of anti-German sentiment that hastened integration for America's Germans. The German victory in World War I also created a massive surge in pride among German-Americans, further stalling integration.
[3] ITTL, Silicon Valley is the Willamette Valley of Oregon, particularly the Portland area. San Jose is much smaller than in OTL as a result of not having the tech boom, and much of the area is still farmland rather than suburban sprawl.
[4] This is based on the Heaven's Gate debacle that bankrupted United Artists.
[5] TTL's Degrassi.
[6] Texas began pulling away from the rest of the Confederacy in the 1920s, as the other states tried to press Texas to share its oil profits with the rest of the country. Texas felt that this was a betrayal of the ideal of states' rights. Instead, these oil profits were invested in Texas, leading to a boom in industry that led to immigration, urbanization, and liberalizing social views, driving a further wedge between Texas and the Confederacy. By 1982, when the Second Republic of Texas was declared, Texas had been de facto independent for quite some time.
[7] TTL's Miami.
 
Sticking with Canada for a bit:

Aboriginal Voices Radio and Television Network (AVRTN)
A public broadcaster designed specifically with Aboriginal/First Nations/Inuit/Métis communities in mind. Programming is in English, French, and various indigenous languages. The television channel, Aboriginal Voices Television, uses a mixture of terrestrial and satellite coverage: terrestrial so that it could be received in northern Canada and Aboriginals living in urban centres through conventional means, and satellite for remote communities where conventional means are more difficult (as well as feeding the pay-TV networks). The radio arm, Aboriginal Voices Radio, mainly broadcasts on AM (MW/LW/SW), though FM is employed in some areas (particularly areas where AM reception is difficult). Among non-Aboriginal people, AVRTN has developed a cult following and thus AVRTN has started to become popular with average Canadians.

Advanced Community Television Station (ACTS)
Originally a local channel in the Canadian province of Jamaica airing religious programming, ACTS has expanded into something akin to SBS in Australia and is now a public broadcaster which airs multicultural, multilingual, and multi-faith programming. Plus, despite the name, ACTS has also expanded into radio quite successfully.

ACTS operates two television channels, each tailored for a specific audience. ACTS One, the original channel, is tailored towards the ethnic European, Latin American, and Caribbean communities, whilst ACTS Two is tailored towards the Asian and African communities. Both are available via terrestrial and satellite TV.

---

OOC Note:
New established fact here - the ten provinces of the OTL Federation of the West Indies are also provinces of Canada.
 
Let me add some TV dystopia ;):

Blackthorne-Carlton Broadcasting (BCB):

This channel originally started as a small satellite television station in 1990 in the UK as Blackthorne Television, named after its owner, "Baron William "Willy" Blackthorne". Although they were almost too late with their program, they managed to gain attention with their early programming. One early hit was the "Fight Talk", where a couple of people, that are in deep hatred towards each other, talk first about their hatred, then fight each other in a cage fight. Of course the show had been critizised, but was very successful, especially among the lower classes.
In 1992, Carlton Communications bought a 50%-stake, thus remaining the TV-station to Blackthorne-Carlton Broadcasting. In the following years, the program would consist on populist news (If you can call them "news"), sensationalist documentaries (For example the live pictures from priest molesting a child!), cheap produced shows, imported series from America and of course sports. And despite the controversies and threats of pulling the plug, BCB has stayed on air since. However, they are behind SIX in viewer rankings.
 

Penelope

Banned
Nova Scotia Broadcasting (NSB)

Founded in 1961 by Nova Scotian Businessmen, twenty years after Nova Scotia gained independance, it took off in the small nation unopposed. All this changed in 1973. After 12 years of unopposed reporting, the Halifax News Reporter's Network went live. This would lead to the downfall of NSB during the Seventies, but NSB would make it's triumphant return in 1979 when the Nova Scotia Worldwide News Network went live over the airwaves. This would be followed by the Nova Scotia News (NSN) and Nova Scotia Entertainment (NSE).

Halifax News Reporter's Network (HN-RN)

Founded in 1973 by Robert Ritchie, a New Brunswick man, who immigrated to Nova Scotia in the '50s, it would take off like a storm during the '70s, but would ultimately fall back down during the '80's with the return of Nova Scotia Broadcasting. It would return in 1995 when HNRN would launch the Halifax Entertainment Network (HEN), which would take off to become Nova Scotia's major entertainment network, even today.
 
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Nova Scotia Broadcasting (NSB)

Founded in 1961 by Nova Scotian Businessmen, twenty years after Nova Scotia gained independance, it took off in the small island nation unopposed. All this changed in 1973. After 12 years of unopposed reporting, the Halifax News Reporter's Network went live. This would lead to the downfall of NSB during the Seventies, but NSB would make it's triumphant return in 1979 when the Nova Scotia Worldwide News Network went live over the airwaves. This would be followed by the Nova Scotia News (NSN) and Nova Scotia Entertainment (NSE).

wow, they blew a strait between them and New Brunswick? Now THAT'S separatism for you!:):D:rolleyes:
 
Let me add some TV dystopia ;):

Blackthorne-Carlton Broadcasting (BCB):

This channel originally started as a small satellite television station in 1990 in the UK as Blackthorne Television, named after its owner, "Baron William "Willy" Blackthorne". Although they were almost too late with their program, they managed to gain attention with their early programming. One early hit was the "Fight Talk", where a couple of people, that are in deep hatred towards each other, talk first about their hatred, then fight each other in a cage fight. Of course the show had been critizised, but was very successful, especially among the lower classes.
In 1992, Carlton Communications bought a 50%-stake, thus remaining the TV-station to Blackthorne-Carlton Broadcasting. In the following years, the program would consist on populist news (If you can call them "news"), sensationalist documentaries (For example the live pictures from priest molesting a child!), cheap produced shows, imported series from America and of course sports. And despite the controversies and threats of pulling the plug, BCB has stayed on air since. However, they are behind SIX in viewer rankings.

One wonders where Carlton actually are ITTL, given there's no obvious ITV for them to grow out of.

(EDIT: well on second thoughts, according to You-Know-Where it has actually existed since 1939, and only later bought Central and sucessfully bid for the London franchise in '91, outbidding Thames. It could still exist ITTL as a production company and maybe more.)
 
British Ulster Broadcasting Network

Grew out of the anti unionist (ooc: unionist now means in favour of Irish unity) and pro-British Radio Free Ulster launched in '68 on the back of the wave of protests and mini uprisings from Ireland's protestant communities in the north east.

In the nineties growth of satellite and cable broadcasting it was launched with funding from the EU and Britain, as well as the Irish federal government and the newly launched Ulster Regional Executive aimed specifically at empowering minority communities to unite through television.

Broadcasts a mixture of home grown low budget "guerilla" programming, radical evangelical church services, and of course the three hours on Saturday prime time "Rev Dr Paisley's Saturday Night Carry out", as well as shows bought in from British and Scottish regional producers.

Controversial former terrorist and newsreader David Ervine made his TV debut with BUBN before graduating to RTE.

:eek::eek::eek:. Need more explanation please, that`s just so shocking three hours of Rev Dr Paisley.:eek:
 
:eek::eek::eek:. Need more explanation please, that`s just so shocking three hours of Rev Dr Paisley.:eek:

Three hours of ENTERTAINMENT with the Rev. Dr.!!! Starting with a witty and incisive monologue and commentary on the issues of the day(1):

"So the President of the US is coming... lock up all the women..."(2)

and his hard-hitting interviews:

"...and with us tonight we have, direct from Rome, the Pope!"
(background music, a cappella by Four Orangemen and a Piano, "I... AM... AN ANTI...CHRIST!" by Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols)

"I am surprised when you called me to your show, but why are you standing up?"
"I told you Gerry that I would not sit down with you, and that you'd sit with anyone, even the Devil."
"Well, yes you did..."
"...and that's why there's an empty chair beside you. Guess who our next guest is?"

and the musical interludes:

"Tonight by contractual obligation, here's a group of singers from Dundalk, called The Corrs, who do some of that modern music young people like so much. I myself I'm going to take a break here. I advise you do the same and not expose yourself to temptation."

and the closing thoughts from the reverend...

"...and remember, Catholics breed like rabbits. Spay or neuter your Catholics today..."

"...save Ulster from sodomy. Let me tell you about sodomy..."(arpeggio,obstinato)(3)

and who could forget his catchphrase?

"NEVERRRRR!!!!!"

(1) The reference being to "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" on the BBC
(2) Surprisingly enough the Rev. Dr. did say all those things more or less at some point in his life.
(3) Meet the Feebles, from Peter Jackson.
 
Three hours of ENTERTAINMENT with the Rev. Dr.!!! Starting with a witty and incisive monologue and commentary on the issues of the day(1):

"So the President of the US is coming... lock up all the women..."(2)

and his hard-hitting interviews:

"...and with us tonight we have, direct from Rome, the Pope!"
(background music, a cappella by Four Orangemen and a Piano, "I... AM... AN ANTI...CHRIST!" by Sid Vicious and the Sex Pistols)

"I am surprised when you called me to your show, but why are you standing up?"
"I told you Gerry that I would not sit down with you, and that you'd sit with anyone, even the Devil."
"Well, yes you did..."
"...and that's why there's an empty chair beside you. Guess who our next guest is?"

and the musical interludes:

"Tonight by contractual obligation, here's a group of singers from Dundalk, called The Corrs, who do some of that modern music young people like so much. I myself I'm going to take a break here. I advise you do the same and not expose yourself to temptation."

and the closing thoughts from the reverend...

"...and remember, Catholics breed like rabbits. Spay or neuter your Catholics today..."

"...save Ulster from sodomy. Let me tell you about sodomy..."(arpeggio,obstinato)(3)

and who could forget his catchphrase?

"NEVERRRRR!!!!!"

(1) The reference being to "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" on the BBC
(2) Surprisingly enough the Rev. Dr. did say all those things more or less at some point in his life.
(3) Meet the Feebles, from Peter Jackson.

There is something odd about the DR Rev doing a three hour tv programme. Although I do like your idea of having
"NEVERRRRR!!!!!" as a catchphrase. The rest of it is just:eek::eek:.
 
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