 | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Europe Middle East Africa |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Starstream (Flextech) Warner (partner) |
| History | |
| Launched | 1 September 1984; 40 years ago (1984-09-01) |
| Closed | 3 April 1998; 26 years ago (1998-04-3)(Europe, Middle East and Africa) 5 October 1998; 26 years ago (1998-10-5)(UK cable,Nordic feed) 30 September 2000; 24 years ago (2000-09-30)(Nordic) |
| Replaced by | Trouble Nickelodeon(Cablelink) Fox Kids(Cable & Wireless) |
| Links | |
| Website | Wayback Archive |
The Children's Channel, also known asTCC, was a British-based pan-European children'stelevision channel in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which was owned byFlextech inLondon, England, UK. It began broadcasting on the originalEutelsat satellite on 1 September 1984.
The Children's Channel was launched on the originalEutelsat satellite on 1 September 1984, almost exclusively to cable households owing to the low proliferation of domestic satellite dishes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at that time. The channel was owned by Starstream (a joint venture ofBritish Telecom,DC Thomson,Thames Television andThorn EMI) and worked closely withWarner-Amex. The channel was directed by Richard Wolfe, who had previously worked at Warner. "The Children's Channel" was created according to the oldNickelodeon concept (previously owned byWarner-Amex Cable Communications).[1][2] The office was located in London at 6/7 D'Arblay Street.[3]
In March 1989, The Children's Channel started airingfree-to-air on theSES-ownedAstra 1A satellite,[4] airing from 5.00am to 10.00am on weekdays and from 5.00am to 12.00pm on weekends, time-sharing withLifestyle. Following the launch of theAstra 1B satellite in 1991, The Children's Channel expanded to broadcast until 7.00pm each day, time-sharing withJSTV.
In 1990,Flextech acquired its first stake in the company,[5][6] beating United Artists Cable International to gain a stake. In 1991, United bought its own stake in The Children's Channel and won the management contract to run it.[7] In late 1993, Flextech held talks with Tele-Communications and acquired TCI's European programming business in exchange for shares, giving TCI a 50%-60% stake in the enlarged Flextech group.[8] The deal was completed which resulted in Flextech increasing its stake from 50.1%[9] to 75%.[10] ad by 5 June 1995, Flextech had completed its acquisition of The Children's Channel when it purchased the remaining 25.1% stake in Starstream for £15 million.[11][12]
In 1992, The Children's Channel launched an evening block showing programming of greater interest to older children and teenagers. The segment, called simplyTCC, aired from 5.00pm to 7.00pm, and featured a number of home-produced programmes, such asCDQ andTVFM, as well as American imports includingSaved by the Bell. During the day, The Children's Channel continued targeting younger children, and a large amount of its programming output was still archive animated series from the 1980s. As time went on, the TCC block extended its hours, initially starting half an hour earlier at 4.30pm, until the focus on teen programmes eventually became more prominent across The Children's Channel, which became known asTCC all day long. The demographic shift repositioned the channel away from its newly established competitorsNickelodeon UK andCartoon Network Europe, to a market not adequately covered by others.[13]
On 1 September 1993, theSky Multichannels package was launched and it became a pay channel on satellite for the first time. Its on-air hours were cut back to 6.00am to 5.00pm so that it could share satellite space withFamily Channel.
On 11 September 1995, The Children's Channel introduced a strand for toddlers and preschoolers calledTiny TCC, which aired every morning from 6.00am until 9.00am. This block was then transferred over toUK Living on 3 February 1997 and renamedTiny Living with its airtimes being changed to 7.00–9.00am on weekdays, and 7.00–10.00am during the weekend.
In mid-1996, Flextech were in talks withFox andNews Corp to sell off a 50% stake in The Children's Channel; however, extremely lengthy negotiations made it impossible to secure a deal. Flextech tried to undertake negotiations to secure a different form of investment in The Children's Channel, but decided to refocus on the teen and youth markets instead.[14] News Corp went on to launchFox Kids in a joint venture with sister companySky.[15][16] This strongly affected TCC as they no longer had access to most of Fox andSaban Entertainment's library. On 3 February 1997, all the programmes targeting older children was by then airing were split off intoTrouble with TCC reverted to the original name ofThe Children's Channel and continuing to screen programmes for younger children, running side by side with Trouble.
On 3 April 1998, the original pan-European operations of The Children's Channel onEutelsat'sHot Bird both unexpectedly and silently closed after 14 years. Ratings had fallen massively due to competitorsNickelodeon UK,Cartoon Network Europe,Disney Channel UK andFox Kids UK launching within three years of each other. These launches had reduced TCC's viewer share to 0.2% by its closure. The exodus of teen programmes to Trouble only accelerated its decline. Flextech officially stated that it only wished to focus on the teen market, and there were "so many other channels designed for [TCC's former target audience]". After the closure, Trouble's hours expanded to start at 7.00am.[17] Upon the closure of the pan-regional TCC Europe channel,Cable & Wireless carried the localized TCC Nordic feed for a few months due to the company's anger at the closure of TCC at such short notice. On 5 October 1998, it was taken off the service and its slot was filled by Fox Kids.[18]
However, due to a pre-agreed contract signed some years before to air The Children's Channel inScandinavia until October 2000, Flextech created an advertisement-free version of TCC known asTCC Nordic to fulfil this requirement to air until 2000 as arranged before finally ceasing transmission. As this service was only fulfilling a contractual requirement, it was totally automated and showed exactly the same four weeks of programming on a constant loop where technical difficulties were frequent.[citation needed] On 30 September 2000, when the Nordic feed's contract expired, TCC closed entirely, more than two years after the original channel's closure.[19] The website stayed running until late 2005.
In its day, TCC created some original programming.Connect 4 andThe Super Mario Challenge were popular tea-time quiz shows. Some other 'in-between' show segments includedLink Anchorman, featuring Chuck the Chimp and Hopper the Penguin. All of the puppets were created and performed by Hands Up Puppets, primarily Marcus Clarke and Helena Smee. Other television talent made an appearance or got an early break working on these series, includingKonnie Huq, then awaiting news of her university place.
During school holidays,RatKan was aired between 7.00am and 12.00pm, withIt's Droibee Time off air.[citation needed]
Some of today's producers also got valuable early television introduction experience on these series including Lisa Opie, Tim Lowe, Karen Ward, and Mike Crosby. A live-action quiz programme,Around the World in 80 Seconds is produced for the channel in 1993–94 was hosted byTimmy Mallett as Captain Everything, schoolchildren participated in a quiz based on geography and general knowledge of particular countries, before "replaying" famous scenarios from the history of their chosen country as the top team received a prize of a four-day trip to the then-newEuro Disney.
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