Timeline of That's TV facts for kids

This is a timeline of That's TV, a company that provides local and national TV channels across the United Kingdom. It shows how the company has grown and changed over the years.

The Early Years: 2012-2019

Starting Local TV Channels

• 2012
  • 10 May – Ofcom, the UK's TV and radio regulator, asked companies to apply for licences to run local TV services in 34 areas.
  • August – Many companies, 57 in total, sent in their applications to provide these new TV services.
  • September – That's TV was given permission to broadcast local TV in Oxfordshire. Just two months later, they also won a second licence for the Southampton and Portsmouth areas. They worked with newspaper companies Newsquest and Johnston Press for this.

• 2013
  • 26 November – The very first Local Digital Television Programme Service started broadcasting. This was Estuary TV.

• 2014
  • 26 November – That's Solent began broadcasting, bringing local TV to the Solent area.

• 2015
  • March – That's TV bought a major share in a company called YourTV. YourTV had won licences for Manchester and Preston/Blackpool, but their TV services didn't start within the two years allowed by Ofcom.
  • 17 April – That's Oxfordshire began broadcasting its local programmes.
  • 31 May – That's Manchester started showing its programmes.
  • 24 August – That's Lancashire began broadcasting to the Preston and Blackpool areas.

Expanding Across the UK

• 2016
  • After BBC Three closed down as a traditional TV channel, local stations like That's TV moved to new channel numbers. In England and Northern Ireland, they moved from Channel 8 to Channel 7. In Scotland and Wales, they moved from Channel 23 to Channel 8.
  • 12 July – That's Swansea Bay began broadcasting in Wales.
  • October – That's TV bought the licence for the York local TV service, which used to be called 'Hello York'. They also bought Cambridge TV and launched That's Cambridge on 28 November.

• 2017
  • May – That's Thames Valley started broadcasting to the Reading area of Berkshire.
  • 23 May – That's Hampshire began its broadcasts.
  • 26 June – That's York started showing local programmes.
  • 19 July – That's Salisbury began broadcasting.
  • 25 July – That's Carlisle started its service.
  • 1 August – That's North Yorkshire began broadcasting to the Scarborough area.
  • 2 August – That's Surrey started its programmes.
  • August – That's TV bought the Norfolk station Mustard TV.
  • 29 November – That's Norfolk began broadcasting.

• 2018
  • 30 May – That's Lincolnshire launched its local service.
  • 30 June – That's TV bought the programmes and equipment from STV's STV2 channel in Scotland.
  • 15 October – That's TV Scotland launched. It became the new local TV service for cities like Aberdeen, Ayr, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.

• 2019
  • July – That's TV announced that it would close 13 of its 20 studios. They decided to have fewer, larger production centres (seven in total) to create content for all 20 of their local stations.

The 2020s: New Channels and Changes

Focusing on Music and National Channels

• 2020
  • 12 November – Local news was shortened to just 10 minutes each evening at 6pm. That's TV temporarily changed its name to That's Christmas. They started playing Christmas songs along with 'party classics' from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Earlier in 2020, music had already become the main type of programme they showed.

• 2021
  • 4 June – That's TV launched a new national channel called That's TV Gold. On 9 July, it became available on Freeview. This new channel showed the same programmes as the 20 regional That's TV channels. It mostly kept the pop music video format but stopped showing the evening local news and the TJC shopping channel in the mornings. Instead, it added documentaries and concerts, many from the IMC Vision collection. That's TV also started buying documentaries and classic comedy shows so that the national channel wasn't just old music videos once the local news was removed.
  • 1 November – Ofcom agreed to That's TV's request to reduce the number of places where they gather news. This meant some local news could be made outside the areas they were broadcast in. That's TV planned to make most of its news bulletins in studios in Salford (for England) or Glasgow (for Scotland). They also planned to have extra offices in Reading, Norwich, and Swansea. News for Wales might be made in Salford or Glasgow in the future.
  • 18 November – That's TV Gold changed its name to That's TV Christmas for the festive season. It showed comedy programmes made by Thames TV/Fremantle, including repeats of The Benny Hill Show, and shows with Kenny Everett, Mike Yarwood, and Tommy Cooper. The Carry On... team also appeared in Christmas TV specials. It also showed LWT's hidden camera show Beadle's About.

• 2022
  • 4 January – That's TV removed the word Gold from its national channel name when it switched back from its Christmas schedule.
  • 13 April – That's Music launched. The idea was that when both That's Music and the main That's TV network were showing music, each would focus on a different decade. Music would also continue on the new channel when That's Entertainment was on.
  • 30 June –
    • That's TV's national channel became available to more people on Freeview. It took over FreeSports' channel slot on channel 65 when that channel stopped broadcasting on Freeview.
    • That's Music was renamed Classic Hits. Its Freeview channel number moved up one place to channel 91. The channel moved to a Freeview system that was more widely available, but only at night.
  • 2 August – The 24-hour version of Classic Hits launched on satellite TV. In December, it also launched on Freesat.
  • 24 August – That's TV increased its national broadcasting hours on Freeview. It did this by reducing the music video schedule of its shared channel, Classic Hits, to 4am–7am. This gave That's TV an extra hour of entertainment programming each night between 3am and 4am on Freeview. This time was not covered by local TV rules (as local news usually runs on channel 7/8 between 3am and 6am). Also, the company took over Country Music Entertainment's Freeview licence in Greater Manchester for their music video channel.

• 2023
  • 6 January – Classic Hits was split into several new channels, each focusing on a different decade of music. These were named That's 60s, That's 70s, That's 80s, and That's 90s. A 20-hour broadcast of That's 60s became available nationally on Freeview, using the channel space that became free when the Smithsonian Channel closed.
  • 23 March – That's 70s launched as a full-time channel. It broadcasts nationally on Freeview between 3am and 9am, and as a full-time service in Manchester.
  • 10 July – That's TV and That's 60s launched on Virgin Media.
  • 30 August – That's 90s launched on Sky. Three days later, it also launched on Freeview in Manchester.

See also

• Timeline of local television in the UK