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With CITV about to meet it's maker thought it worth a look back at some former demises. Some go out quietly, but a few make a bigger deal.
ITV News Channel is the first example that springs to mind - they gave themselves a half hour goodbye.
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And three years earlier the ITV Sport Channel weren't so blatantly acknowledging it's imminent demise.
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And Granada Plus didn't even know it was ending until it's final day IIRC.
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(31-08-2023, 07:57 PM)Brekkie Wrote: And Granada Plus didn't even know it was ending until it's final day IIRC.
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I believe they had sent out their regular highlights email around 1550, when ITV bought out Sky's 49.5% in GSB around 1300 and the channel closed at 1630. (Plus was terminated in the transmission chain at 1715, ITV3 launched at 2100)
IIRC on analogue cable, the Plus closedown slide remained until April 2011.
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ABC1 closed in September 2007, its last programme being an episode of Home Improvement. The channel went out with the regular ident and that was that:
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Absolutely no fanfare at all, though it turned out they closed five days earlier than they said they would, for some reason that we never found out.
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Here's the really sweet final continuity announcement from BBC Two Scotland, prior to the launch of BBC Scotland. And, tangentially, before one of the best documentaries I've seen on the channel. Frank Williams was a fighter, I recommend tracking it down.
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I know it’s 21 years ago, different times, but hard to believe that someone thought it appropriate to broadcast what looks like an unsolicited bum slap (3:19 ITV Sport Channel video) on a girl walking up some steps by a male fan!
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Forces TV’s closedown in June last year was definitely among the ‘gold standard’ of channel closures, IMO.
To be honest, I wasn’t too surprised they went to the effort to do this because you could tell from watching day in, day out that there was a lot of due care and attention from the BFBS team who ran the channel - something that feels quite rare among multi-channels these days (not expecting CITV to bow out with a bang tomorrow, personally)
Always liked how they pointed towards BFBS’ other services, too.
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(This post was last modified: 01-09-2023, 05:07 PM by
Cappuccino.)
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I always liked how Carlton Cinema bowed out in March 2003. The promo from this clip was shown frequently in the run up to the closure. It’s a clip that seems to rate well on my channel all these years later. Whilst I no longer have the video tape itself, the blank screen and DOG remained on screen for at least 20-30 minutes after closure. At this time the channel was on NTL only, having suffered from the ITV Digital collapse, and not being able to get onto Sky.
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(31-08-2023, 07:57 PM)Brekkie Wrote: And Granada Plus didn't even know it was ending until it's final day IIRC.
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That Granada Plus closedown is mocked (and very badly for that matter)- the closure happened during an advert break mid-programme, not at the end of a show, and the Granada Sky Broadcasting caption they put out didn't look like that either (the fact it's 16:9 is alone a giveaway that it's mocked, G+ was only ever 4:3).
I've never seen any recordings of the actual closedown, I'm guessing as it was so short notice nobody was prepared to specifically record it, and there weren't too many people who were recording a repeat of Pie In The Sky.
(This post was last modified: 31-08-2023, 09:53 PM by
James2001.)
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Two for the price of one, here - L!VE TV’s final, typically irreverent closedown (News Bunny and all) on Bonfire Night 1999 - preceded just a few hours earlier by the more strait laced end of its opt-out service in Birmingham (featuring the recently departed Tony Butler)
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And on the subject of cable-only local channels, the last hour or so of Channel One in London from September 1998.
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(This post was last modified: 31-08-2023, 10:25 PM by
lookoutwales.)
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I didn't even know L!ve TV even had any local opt outs!
That final closedown was shown on Channel 4's 100 greatest TV moments from hell back in 2000- though the clip they showed was timecoded.
I don't think that final revamp and logo was in use for long at all. When L!ve TV made a return a few years later (seemingly only showing repeats of old content), they went back to using older idents.