Timeline of cable television in the United Kingdom facts for kids

This is a timeline about cable television in the United Kingdom. Cable TV sends TV signals through wires directly to your home.

This timeline shows how cable TV grew across the UK. It also talks about special channels that were only on cable in the 1990s. These channels tried to compete with BSkyB's satellite television, which sends TV signals from space.

Later, two big cable companies, NTL and Telewest, joined together. This created one large network covering more than half of the country. The second part of this timeline is all about Virgin Media, the company that came from that merger.

Cable TV: The Early Days

• 1928
  • The idea for cable TV started in Swindon. A company called Radio Relay began sending two audio channels through a wire to homes in the town.

• 1936
  • Rediffusion, a company that had been providing cable radio since 1928, started offering "Pipe TV." This happened when the BBC launched the world's first regular high-quality TV service.

• 1950
  • A cable network opened in Gloucester. It helped people get better TV pictures than they could with a rooftop aerial. Over the next 30 years, more systems like this were built. By the late 1970s, 2.5 million UK homes got TV through cable.

• 1961
  • A new cable network started in Swindon to send TV signals. TV reception there was poor, so many people signed up. By the end of the 1960s, about 15,000 homes paid for cable TV. But only channels already available in the area could be shown.

• 1964
  • The company running Swindon's cable service was bought by Radio Rentals. It was then called Radio Rentals Cable.

• 1968
  • Thorn Electrical Industries bought Radio Rentals.

• 1969
  • 15,000 people in Swindon were paying for cable TV. But interest in cable began to drop. This was because more BBC and ITV transmitters made regular TV reception clearer.

• 1972
  • The UK government allowed five experimental community cable TV channels. The first one to start was Greenwich Cablevision.

• 1973
  • Sheffield Cablevision, The Bristol Channel, and Swindon Viewpoint all launched.

• 1974
  • March – The last community station, Wellingborough Cablevision, began broadcasting.

• 1975
  • 14 March – The Bristol Channel closed after less than two years.
  • 24 March – Wellingborough Cablevision also closed.

• 1976
  • 2 January – Sheffield Cablevision closed when it ran out of money.
  • Greenwich Cablevision stopped being a full-time service. Volunteers kept it going in a limited way until the early 1980s.
  • Swindon Viewpoint's experimental phase ended when EMI stopped funding it. However, the channel continued after it was sold to the people of Swindon for £1.

• 1980
  • April – Regular shows on Swindon Viewpoint ended due to lack of money. It continued off and on for the next 10 years with shows made by volunteers.

• 1981
  • Radio Rental Cable Television launched the UK's first pay-per-view movie channel, 'Cinematel', for cable viewers in Swindon. This channel later expanded to Chatham. Besides movies, it showed local programs, including documentaries and a live news show called Scene in Swindon. It also offered a local teletext service with film info, horoscopes, recipes, bus times, and job openings.
  • 9 September – Rediffusion launched a movie channel called Starview. They got permission after the Home Office allowed several experimental licenses for subscription TV.

• 1982
  • Plans were made to make cable TV rules less strict in the UK. Before this, cable networks could only relay regular TV channels, except for the 1981 experiments.

• 1983
  • Before the new rules, the government gave licenses to 11 temporary broadband systems. Each covered a town or city with about 100,000 homes.

• 1984
  • 16 January – Satellite Television Ltd launched in the UK on Swindon Cable as Sky Channel. Kate Bush helped open it. It first broadcast for five hours each night. As more cable operators carried it, its hours slowly grew.
  • Thorn EMI, which ran Swindon Cable, launched four channels: movie channel The Entertainment Network, music channel Music Box, sport channel Screensport, and The Children's Channel. Even though they were sent by satellite, they were made for the planned growth of cable across the UK.
  • The Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 became law. This allowed cable companies to offer as many channels as they wanted. It also let them offer phone services, competing with British Telecom.
  • 1 December – The Cable Authority was created. On 1 January 1985, it took on its duties from the new law. This paved the way for commercial cable licenses to be given out city by city.

• 1985
  • 20 December – United Artists Programming launched Bravo. It mostly showed old black & white B-movies from the 1950s and 1960s. It was only on cable until it launched on satellite in July 1993.
  • Swindon's cable service was renamed Swindon Cable. Its news program was also renamed Focus on Swindon. The show then aired three times a week instead of two.

• 1986
  • 4 February – Thorn EMI sold its share in Swindon Cable to British Telecom. The new owners stopped Focus on Swindon and other local shows. They replaced them with bought-in content.
  • May – Ealing Cable launched Indra Dhnush. This was a paid Asian service for Hindi films and TV shows, with some content in other Indian languages.
  • August – Star Channel launched as another film service. It broadcast from 6:30 PM to 2:00 AM. It was sent to cable operators on videotape, not by satellite.

• 1987
  • March – Ealing Cable sold HVC to Premiere. The new owner kept the channel running the same way, including tape distribution, and increased its broadcast hours.
  • July – Bravo and Home Video Channel were the remaining film services after Star Channel merged with Premiere.

• 1988
  • United Cable of Denver bought Croydon Cable. It later merged with United Artists Cable International.
  • Swindon cable's TV channel was relaunched as Swindon's Local Channel. This brought back local news, sports, and special documentaries.

• 1989
  • 5 February – Satellite TV service Sky Television launched. Its new channels – Sky News, Sky Movies, and Eurosport – were also available on cable.

• 1990
  • 25 March – British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) launched its five-channel service. For the first five weeks, these channels were only on cable. In November, BSB and Sky TV merged. A month later, two of BSB's channels – Galaxy and Now – closed.
  • The Cable Authority's final report said that by the end of 1990, nearly 15 million homes were in areas with cable licenses. But only 828,000 of these had cable wires, and only 149,000 were paying for cable.

• 1991
  • 1 January – The Independent Television Commission took over licensing and regulating cable from The Cable Authority.
  • 8 June – United Artists merged with its biggest shareholder, Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI).
  • United Artists Programming started a test project. It provided coverage of Yesterday in the Commons to cable networks across the UK.

• 1992
  • Major cable companies formed 'Cable Programme Partners One (CPP1)'. They wanted to offer different content from the satellite-dominated channels.
  • 13 January – After the success of Yesterday in the Commons, United Artists Cable launched a full-time channel. It provided live and recorded coverage of the British Parliament, called The Parliamentary Channel.
  • April – The on-demand music video channel The Box launched. It started in four cable areas and slowly spread across the entire cable network. It first appeared on satellite in 1998.
  • May – Wire TV launched. It called itself 'The Cable Channel' and was CPP1's main channel. Wire TV showed entertainment, lifestyle, and sports from 1 PM to 11 PM. It also included two hours of local programming daily.
  • October – Country music channel CMT Europe launched on cable. The next year, it also started part-time broadcasts on Astra. It didn't get a full-time satellite service until later in the 1990s.
  • December – The Performance Channel launched in the UK. It showed arts programs every night from 7 PM until early morning. It stayed a cable-only channel until 2003 and stopped broadcasting in July 2008.
  • After TCI and United Artists merged, they started a joint company called Telewest Communications.

• 1993
  • Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal founded International CableTel. They had also founded Cellular Communications, Inc.

• 1994
  • January – TCI bought 60.4% of Flextech. Flextech then bought all of Bravo, 25% of UK Gold, 31% of UK Living, and 25% of The Children's Channel.
  • February – Travel launched only on cable. It broadcast daily from midday to midnight.
  • 2 March – Wire TV's supporters outbid BSkyB for the rights to the 1996 Cricket World Cup. This was part of a plan to create a sports channel to compete with Sky Sports. Wire TV's evening shows were then focused on sports, called Sportswire. Daytime entertainment was called LiveWire.
  • 30 November – Associated Newspapers launched Channel One. This was a network of city news channels. The first one started in London.

• 1995
  • 16 January – Mirror Group plc launched Mirror Television by buying Wire TV. It planned to launch Sportswire as a full-time channel and replace Wire TV with a new channel called L!VE TV.
  • May – Wire TV closed before Sportswire was planned to launch as a full-time channel.
  • 1 June – SelecTV launched. It was a general entertainment channel that broadcast weekday evenings and started at midday on weekends.
  • June – TCI (owners of Telewest) and NYNEX, two main CPP1 players, made a deal with BSkyB. This deal included a rule that cable operators would not launch channels that competed with Sky's existing ones. This ended CPP1 and caused the sports channel Sportswire to collapse, just days before its launch.
  • 12 June – L!VE TV launched as Mirror Television's only TV channel.
  • June – Telewest merged with SBC Communications. This added cable areas in the Midlands and North West, serving 1.3 million homes.
  • 3 July – Bell Cablemedia was formed when several cable companies, including Jones Cable UK, merged.
  • 1 October – The Sci Fi Channel launched in the UK. But its full hours (8 AM to 4 AM) were only on cable because there wasn't enough space on satellite. It broadcast on satellite for only three hours each evening. Satellite viewers had to wait until Sky Digital launched in 1998 to see the channel's full schedule.

• 1996
  • Several cable companies stopped carrying CMT Europe. This reduced its reach, and the channel closed 18 months later.
  • 1 September – The Weather Network and The Weather Channel launched on various cable networks. They used cable's regional nature to provide local weather forecasts. However, both channels were gone within two years due to low viewership.
  • 2 September – Carlton Food Network launched. It broadcast on weekday afternoons and shared space with SelecTV.
  • 23 October – NYNEX, Vidéotron, and Bell Cablemedia merged with Cable & Wireless's subsidiary, Mercury Communications. The new company was called Cable & Wireless Communications.

• 1997
  • 14 February – SelecTV was renamed Carlton Select after Carlton Television bought Pearson Television.
  • 9 November – As part of its move into digital TV, the BBC launched BBC News 24. However, the channel launched almost a year before digital TV started in the UK. It was only available 24 hours a day on cable. Other viewers could only watch it overnight on BBC One.
  • Front Row was created to offer a nearly on-demand pay-per-view movie service for cable TV. However, Cable & Wireless chose not to carry it, opting for Sky Box Office instead.

• 1998
  • March – Telewest and General Cable merged.
  • Telewest also bought the remaining part of Birmingham Cable. This added another 1.7 million homes in Yorkshire, west London, and Birmingham.
  • 19 May – CableTel changed its name to NTL.
  • 2 September – The BBC bought The Parliamentary Channel and relaunched it as BBC Parliament.
  • 25 September – Local news channel Channel One closed at 6 PM.
  • 1 October – Sky Digital launched, becoming the UK's first digital TV service. This meant many channels that were only full-time on cable could now broadcast their full schedule on satellite.
  • 15 November – Rival digital TV service ONdigital launched. Two of its channels – Carlton Food Network and Carlton Select – had been exclusive to cable since the mid-1990s.

• 1999
  • NTL bought Cambridge Cable. Over 11 years, this company had grown to cover all of Cambridgeshire and Essex.
  • 1 May – After 14 years on air, HVC closed.
  • August – Telewest bought the remaining 50% of Cable London from NTL. This added 400,000 homes in North London.
  • 5 November – LIVE TV closed.
  • Towards the end of 1999, Cable & Wireless Communications launched its digital TV service.
  • After launching on satellite, The Box closed its regional versions and became a single national channel.

• 2000
  • March – After Carlton Select closed, Carlton Cinema launched in its place on cable. Carlton Select had shared space with Carlton Food Network. This arrangement continued, meaning Carlton Cinema was only available on cable in the evenings and overnight.
  • 19 April – Telewest and Flextech merged.
  • 17 May – NTL finished buying Cable & Wireless’ cable assets. This happened two months after the sale was approved.
  • 1 August – The ITN News Channel launched. It was a joint project between ITN and NTL, which owned 35% of the channel.
  • 2 November – Telewest bought Eurobell. This brought the total number of homes passed to 4.9 million.
  • Telewest and NTL launched their digital TV services.
  • After 16 years on air, Swindon's Local Channel closed.

• 2001
  • January – Cable TV came to the Isle of Wight. The operator, Isle of Wight Cable and Telephone Company, launched its service. The island remains the only part of the UK's cable network not owned by Virgin Media.
  • 1 February – NTL launched movie channel The Studio with Vivendi Universal.

• 2002
  • May – Less than a year after being founded, Omne Communications went into administration (meaning it faced financial difficulties).
  • June – Carlton Television and Granada Television bought ITN's 65% share in the ITN News Channel. On 30 September, it was renamed the ITV News Channel. NTL kept its 35% share.
  • After CLS Holdings bought Isle of Wight Cable and Telephone Company, the service was renamed WightCable.

• 2003
  • 1 January – The Studio closed.
  • 1 February – CLS Holdings, owners of WightCable, bought a 76% share in Omne Communications for £4.1 million, saving it from closing. Later in 2003, Omne was renamed WightCable North.
  • 29 December – Ofcom replaced the Independent Television Commission as the UK's TV regulator.

• 2004
  • April – The newly created ITV plc bought NTL's 35% share in the ITV News Channel.

• 2005
  • January – Both NTL and Telewest started offering video-on-demand services. This lets you watch shows and movies whenever you want.
  • CLS Holdings sold Wightcable's assets to private investors in 2005. They formed WightCable (2005) Ltd. In 2012, WightCable was renamed WightFibre.
  • 1 December – Telewest launched its first personal video recorder called TV Drive. This allowed customers to record TV shows.

• 2006
  • At the start of 2006, Telewest became the first UK company to launch a high-definition (HD) service. It offered 10 to 30 hours of on-demand content in HD. That summer, it provided HD access to some 2006 FIFA World Cup matches for customers with the TV Drive box.
  • January – CLS Holdings sold WightCable North to Netfonics. Just over a year later, WightCable North was renamed Smallworld Media, then Smallworld Cable (2009), and Smallworld Fibre in 2013.
  • March – NTL and Telewest merged.

• 2017
  • 31 March – Wrights Radio Relay, the last CATV system in the UK that still carried both old analogue and newer digital signals, closed after 57 years in Newtown, Mid Wales.

Virgin Media: A New Era

• 2006
  • 8 November – Virgin Media was created when NTL and Telewest made a deal to use the Virgin brand name.

• 2007
  • February – The Virgin Media brand officially launched.
  • 20 February – Virgin launched its new on-demand channel, Virgin Central.
  • 1 March – The Sky Basics channels stopped broadcasting on Virgin Media. The two companies could not agree on a new deal.
  • 1 June – To encourage more people to get its V+ personal video recorder, XL TV customers received the V+ box for free as part of their package.
  • 26 July – Virgin Media and Setanta Sports signed a deal. This gave Virgin Media's XL customers free access to Setanta Sports.
  • 1 October – Virgin1 launched during the ongoing disagreement between Virgin Media and BSkyB. This channel was meant to replace Sky One.
  • 29 November – Setanta Sports News launched. For Virgin Media customers, this directly replaced Sky Sports News.

• 2008
  • 30 April – The BBC iPlayer became available on Virgin Media for the first time.
  • May – Virgin Media started turning off its old analogue television service region by region. It began in Coventry and Glasgow.
  • 13 November – The Sky Basics channels returned to Virgin Media.

• 2009
  • 23 June – Setanta Sports stopped broadcasting.
  • 3 August –
    • ESPN launched its UK sports channel. It was available to all of Virgin's XL TV customers.
    • More than three years after launching on Sky Digital, ESPN Classic began broadcasting on Virgin Media.
  • 24 November – Virgin Media partnered with TiVo. TiVo would create a new TV and internet interface for Virgin Media's next-generation HD set-top boxes. Virgin Media would be the only company to offer TiVo services and technology in the UK.

• 2010
  • 1 March – Virgin Media turned off its analogue cable service in Manchester.
  • 4 June – British Sky Broadcasting and Virgin Media announced that Sky would buy Virgin Media Television. The deal was completed on 13 July.
  • 20 July – Film4 HD launched only on Virgin Media. It remained exclusive until it launched on Sky in 2013.
  • 3 September – Virgin 1 was renamed Channel One. This was because the Virgin name was not licensed to Sky.
  • December – Virgin Media released its first product co-branded with TiVo.

• 2011
  • 1 February – Sky Atlantic launched. However, the channel did not launch on Virgin Media and is still not available on the cable platform today.
  • Early 2011 – Video on demand content from ESPN Classic started appearing on the Virgin Media platform.
  • May – Virgin Media showed Eurosport's 3D coverage of the French Open tennis tournament.
  • July – BSkyB’s on-demand service Sky Anytime became available on Virgin Media.
  • 15 August – Virgin Media agreed to sell its 50% share in UKTV to Scripps Networks for £339 million.
  • 19 December – Virgin Media signed a deal with BBC Sport. This allowed the cable company to provide extra coverage of sports events, including live video streams of the 2012 Olympic Games.

• 2012
  • January – Virgin Media shut down its analogue service in Westminster. Due to a disagreement with BT, which owns the cables, Virgin could not get the access needed to launch its digital service there.
  • February – The V+ box was no longer available to new customers. It was being replaced by TiVo boxes.
  • 8 February – For the first time, a UK cable company made a profit. Virgin Media announced a small profit for 2011.
  • 13 September – Movies-on-demand service FilmFlex was renamed Virgin Movies.

• 2013
  • 6 February – Virgin Media was bought by Liberty Global for £15 billion.
  • 15 August – BT Sport started broadcasting on Virgin Media, a month after the channel launched. Virgin made the channel available in its XL package, just like with Setanta Sports and ESPN.
  • 25 October – Four years after launching, Premier Sports finally became available on Virgin Media. It launched one day before the 2013 Rugby League World Cup and was available to all viewers until early 2014.
  • 28 November – Virgin Media shut down its analogue service in Milton Keynes. As in Westminster, BT and Virgin Media could not agree on allowing Virgin the physical access needed to launch its digital service.

• 2014
  • 3 February – Virgin Media bought Smallworld Fibre.
  • 12 May – Virgin Media signed a new five-year agreement with Sky. But the deal still did not include Sky Atlantic.

• 2015
  • 5 January – The HD versions of Sky News and Sky Sports News HQ launched on Virgin Media.

• 2016
  • 12 January –
    • Virgin Media launched four music channels. They were only available as an app for TiVo customers by pressing the red button on channel 345. This was the first time Virgin Media launched channels this way. Later in 2016, one channel – Clubland TV – became a regular channel, viewable by non-TiVo customers.
    • Virgin Media added the Vevo streaming music service, again only for TiVo customers.
  • 24 August – Sky Sports Mix launched and was available on Virgin Media from day one. Also launching around this time were channels already on Freeview, including Spike, truTV, and Movie Mix.
  • November – Virgin Media launched a new set top box, the TiVo-powered Virgin V6 Box. It was only available to customers who also had Virgin Media's internet service.

• 2017
  • 10 April – Virgin TV Kids launched, replacing Tiddlers TV.
  • 1 June – Talking Pictures TV appeared on Virgin Media, two years after it launched on other platforms.
  • 18 July – Sky Sports was updated. The numbered services were replaced with channels dedicated to specific sports. Other sports moved to two new channels – Action and Arena. Sky allowed customers to subscribe to specific channels, but Virgin Media customers had to take all the channels or none.

• 2018
  • 8 February – Virgin Media signed its first deal with a US streaming service. It announced a partnership with Amazon to help fund a sci-fi series called The Feed.
  • 21 July – Several channels started broadcasting on Virgin Media. These included FreeSports, Paramount Network, YourTV, Vice, and Horse & Country TV, which had been on other platforms for a while. Now 80s, previously available via the red button on Clubland TV, launched as a regular channel. Also, two channels from Canadian company Blue Ant Media – Love Nature and children's channel ZooMoo – launched. Both were exclusive to Virgin Media in the UK.
  • 22 July – The UKTV channels stopped broadcasting on Virgin Media. This dispute received a lot of media attention.
  • 27 July – Virgin Media agreed to a new three-year deal with ITV after more than a year of talks.
  • 30 July – BT Sport’s 4K HD channel launched on Virgin Media.
  • 11 August – The UKTV channels returned to Virgin Media. The long-term deal included the HD versions of Dave and Gold launching on Virgin Media.
  • 17 September – Virgin Media launched a regular UHD channel. This was Virgin's first regular TV channel since it sold its channels to Sky in 2010. It broadcast drama, documentaries, and music to customers with its premium V6 set-top box.
  • 25 September – For the first time, Virgin Media removed standard definition (SD) channels. Gold's SD channel was removed from the platform.
  • 4 December – Virgin Media removed the SD versions of BT Sport.
  • 11 December – BBC Two in SD was replaced on channel 102 by the high definition version. BBC Two continued to be available in SD as BBC Two England on channel 862.

• 2019
  • Virgin Media stopped broadcasting many more channels in standard definition. These included BBC Four, BBC News, CBBC, and CBeebies (SD channels removed on 19 February). Also, Lifetime, History, H2, and Crime & Investigation (removed on 14 May). The Sky Cinema channels (except Sky Movies Premier +1, removed on 1 August). And Eurosport and Discovery (removed on 26 September).
  • March – Now 90s, which was previously only available via the red button on Clubland TV and Now 80s, launched on Virgin Media's channel guide. Sister channel Total Country also launched the same day.
  • 18 July – Virgin Media signed what it called an "extended deal" with Sky. But again, Sky Atlantic was not included. However, the deal meant Sky's UHD content would launch on Virgin Media in 2020.

• 2020
  • 7 January – Almost a decade after it was removed, MTV Classic reappeared on Virgin Media. It relaunched after VH1 closed.

• 2021
  • 25 February – The UHD content from Sky, announced in 2019, appeared. This followed the launch of Sky Entertainment and Sky Cinema Ultra HD on Virgin Media.
  • 1 September – CNN International was removed from Virgin Media. The reason given was "WarnerMedia’s plans to move [the channel] to a subscription model."

• 2022
  • 26 January – Virgin Media removed all remaining standard definition versions of BBC channels. However, BBC Parliament in SD wasn't removed until 12 April.
  • 27 September – Channel 4 HD moved to channel 104 and removed the standard definition version of the channel.

• 2023
  • 24 January – Virgin Media made its biggest removal of standard definition channels yet. It removed SD channels from, among others, ITV, Channel 5, and most Sky channels.
  • 4 July – Virgin Media made its largest-ever set of changes to its channel guide, with over 80 channel moves. The changes grouped the +1 channels together lower down the guide and combined entertainment, lifestyle, and documentary channels.
  • 1 August – Virgin Media became the first UK TV provider to launch FAST channels on its channel guide. However, these channels were only available to customers with Virgin Media's newest set-top boxes.