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Challenge TV - Printable Version

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RE: Challenge TV - mixchris - 12-02-2024

(12-02-2024, 09:26 PM)Neil Jones Wrote:  Ftn was the old Flextech "shop window" on Freeview for the Flextech channels (so Challenge, Trouble, Bravo, Living), so it was owned by the same company as Challenge was at the time. So it'll probably be the same prints they've had for the last 25 odd years, including the ones Virgin butchered.

Although Challenge is the only one left out of all those services, as most were closed not long after Sky bought them, the exception being Living which lasted a while before being folded and replaced with I think it was Sky Witness.

Living eventually morphed in to Sky Living , Living Loves to Sky Living Loves and Living 2 (IIRC) to Sky Livingit. Rebranded to Sky Witness eventually.

RE: Challenge TV - WillPS - 12-02-2024

Trouble was already closed under VMTV.

There was also Challenge Jackpot (which I think was just a licensed name stuck on what later became Jackpot 247) , and I think before that a shortlived channel called something like Player which carried all the poker stuff which had a moment in the sun on Challenge in the mid-00s. All history by the time VMTV was sold off.

Bravo and Bravo 2 closed soon after Sky took over Living TV Group

Ftn -> Virgin 1 -> Channel One - closed a month later when Sky merged the Living TV Group in fully

Living -> Sky Living -> Sky Witness, still going
Living 2 -> Livingit -> Sky Living It -> Real Lives, closed 2019
Living Loves -> Sky Living Loves, closed 2012

RE: Challenge TV - RegularCapital - 13-02-2024

Makes me think that Trouble would've been doomed anyway when the VM channels were sold to Sky, as Sky wasn't allowed to operate a Kids/Teen channel under their agreement with Nickelodeon.

I do like watching Classic Who Wants To Be A Millionaire now and again on Challenge, but the channel feels as if it's a shadow of its former self.

RE: Challenge TV - Neil Jones - 13-02-2024

(13-02-2024, 12:03 AM)RegularCapital Wrote:  Makes me think that Trouble would've been doomed anyway when the VM channels were sold to Sky, as Sky wasn't allowed to operate a Kids/Teen channel under their agreement with Nickelodeon.

I think that was more they couldn't launch such a service.

If they inherited one such as Trouble had it still been operating at the time when they bought the Virgin channels, that's different, but it wasn't the same market/target audience as Nickelodeon, as Trouble was aimed at teenagers. Plus you could always flog it a short distance down the line (or not buy that entity).

Mind you that being said, when News Corp wanted to buy Fox Kids in 2001, Viacom said yeah, not going to happen, so Disney got it instead. They objected to Fox Kids launching at all apparently, but it didn't stop said launch so...

RE: Challenge TV - RegularCapital - 13-02-2024

(13-02-2024, 12:51 AM)Neil Jones Wrote:  I think that was more they couldn't launch such a service.

If they inherited one such as Trouble had it still been operating at the time when they bought the Virgin channels, that's different, but it wasn't the same market/target audience as Nickelodeon, as Trouble was aimed at teenagers. Plus you could always flog it a short distance down the line (or not buy that entity).

Mind you that being said, when News Corp wanted to buy Fox Kids in 2001, Viacom said yeah, not going to happen, so Disney got it instead. They objected to Fox Kids launching at all apparently, but it didn't stop said launch so...

At the time when Fox Kids announced its UK launch, Saban didn't own a 50% share in Fox Kids Worldwide at the time, it was 100% owned by Fox/News Corp hence why Viacom raised the issue, by the time of the launch it did, hence diluting News Corp's share, which is likely the reason why there wasn't an issue.

I've looked into it in some detail.

https://regularcapital-audiovisual-research.fandom.com/wiki/Sky_Was_Restricted_From_Launching_A_Kids_Channel_In_The_UK_For_Nearly_30_Years 

RE: Challenge TV - SuperSajuuk - 14-02-2024

Spotted this via a Facebook fan page, but Series 1 - 4 of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? is getting another outing on Challenge, the repeats begin on Tuesday, with two episodes per day (first episode at 10pm, the second at 10.30pm). These come round very very rarely, so this is welcome.

Its also another repeat for what would be deemed "old content" in an era of the channel being obsessed by The Chase, after the Crystal Maze came back round for a full re-run, so has Sky decided to go and buy up broadcast rights again for a lot of older stuff? It would be interesting if so, considering the lean ad market, so this is all welcomed by me and probably many nostalgic fans in the UK.

I will be semi-interested if they've found any of the previously "lost" episodes from when these were New back in 2016, or if those lost episodes are still deemed "lost".

RE: Challenge TV - Neil Jones - 14-02-2024

I suspect because The Chase generates ratings, it subsequently generates dosh.

When Sky won the last round of Premier League action (not December 2023, the previous one) the feeling was they'd effectively ripped the lining in their wallet, and most of the other output had some budget cuts (Challenge of course being pretty much back of the queue for anything) to counterbalance that spending. Never confirmed, but it was around that point the output on Challenge was pretty much becoming a one trick pony.

Since the last deal, Sky are still paying more for the football, but for more content/matches now that Amazon are out of the picture, which in the grand scale of things makes it better value and subsequently cheaper per game and they have a virtual monopoly again. So I suspect that somebody's decided to loosen the purse strings a bit. Possibly.

They probably still have the prints from last time they aired the original series (which of course they had to edit), so its probably just a case of a BACS payment and update the playout schedule. Be interesting to see if they go for anything else, as the oldest thing they have now is Bullseye, which they air from the start in 1981 and the next oldest thing is I want to say Strike It Lucky, which started in 1986.

RE: Challenge TV - lookoutwales - 14-02-2024

(14-02-2024, 10:15 PM)Neil Jones Wrote:  They probably still have the prints from last time they aired the original series (which of course they had to edit), so its probably just a case of a BACS payment and update the playout schedule. Be interesting to see if they go for anything else, as the oldest thing they have now is Bullseye, which they air from the start in 1981 and the next oldest thing is I want to say Strike It Lucky, which started in 1986.

That sounds about right - and I think they were running the Max Bygraves episodes of Family Fortunes (c. 1984-85) till fairly recently (when did they last run the Central episodes with Monkhouse?)

RE: Challenge TV - JAS84 - 15-02-2024

FF is usually Les Dennis from what I've seen lately.

RE: Challenge TV - Jon - 15-02-2024

(15-02-2024, 05:43 PM)JAS84 Wrote:  FF is usually Les Dennis from what I've seen lately.
Well that’s probably because there’s a lot more of them. I’m pretty sure they have shown episodes from the earlier hosts in the last few years.

To be honest I think if people were to see a random Les Dennis and a Bob Monkhouse episode pop up YouTube, I think most people would be more intrigued by the latter.