Challenge (TV channel)




























































































Challenge
Challenge logo 2016.png
Launched 1 September 1993 (1993-09-01)
Owned by Sky
Picture format
16:9 576i SDTV
Audience share 0.67%
0.03% (+1) (August 2018 (2018-08), BARB)
Slogan The home of gameshows
Country United Kingdom
Formerly called The Family Channel (1993–97)
Challenge TV (1997–02)
Challenge? (2002–03)
Sister channel(s)
Pick,
Real Lives,
Sky One,
Sky Two,
Sky Arts,
Sky Atlantic,
Sky Cinema,
Sky News,
Sky Sports,
Sky Sports Box Office,
Sky Sports F1,
Sky Sports News,
Sky Sports Racing,
Sky Witness
Timeshift service Challenge +1
Website challenge.co.uk
Availability
Terrestrial
Freeview Channel 46
Satellite
Freesat Channel 146
Channel 147 (+1)
Sky Channel 145
Channel 245 (+1)
Astra 2E 11836 H 27500 5/6
11836 H 27500 5/6 (+1)
Cable

Virgin Media (UK)
 Channel 139
Channel 180 (+1)
WightFibre Channel 73
Channel 86 (+1)

Virgin Media (Ireland)
 Channel 157
IPTV
Freewire Channel 125
Streaming media
Sky Go
Watch live (UK and Ireland only)

Challenge is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Sky, a division of Comcast. The channel mostly transmits game shows from the UK and around the world, with some original productions.




Contents






  • 1 History


    • 1.1 The Family Channel UK


    • 1.2 Challenge


    • 1.3 Sky takeover




  • 2 Programming


    • 2.1 Programming blocks


    • 2.2 Other programming




  • 3 Presenters


    • 3.1 Continuity announcers




  • 4 References


  • 5 External links





History



The Family Channel UK


The channel was originally launched 1 September 1993 as The Family Channel, a British version of the American cable network of the same name, owned by U.S. firm International Family Entertainment. Earlier in the year, IFE had acquired the assets of the defunct ITV franchise TVS for US$68.5 million (which included the MTM Enterprises library, and The Maidstone Studios). In June 1993, prior to its launch, IFE sold a 39% stake in the channel to Flextech.[1] The Family Channel did produce some UK original programming, but heavily relied upon content from MTM and TVS's archives, and other U.S. imports. It was claimed that the channel produced more original series worldwide than any other cable or satellite network.


In April 1996, IFE sold its remaining 61% share to Flextech,[2][3] giving them full ownership of the venture and production studio in Maidstone.[4] The deal did not include any of the programme archive which included many TVS game shows, such as Catchphrase and All Clued Up, but the channel did continually broadcast these series until 2000.



Challenge


Flextech planned to re-launch the channel as The Challenge Channel during the autumn of 1996, with daytime targeted towards housewives, and evening and weekend programming focused on game shows. However, Flextech decided to delay the full re-launch of The Family Channel so it would not compete with the October 1996 launch of Granada Sky Broadcasting's suite of channels—which included the potential competitor Granada Good Life.[5] Instead, The Family Channel began transitioning to the new brand by introducing a weekend game show strand known as Family Challenge Weekend.[6][7]


On 3 February 1997, The Family Channel re-branded as Challenge TV, devoting the majority of its lineup to game shows. The channel was originally a primetime block from 17:00 to 00:30 and shared its channel slot with The Children's Channel (which closed on 3 April 1998) and TV Travel Shop until 1999, which resulted in Challenge being able to broadcast 24 hours a day. From 3 February 1997 to the end of 1998, between 00:30 and 06:00, the channel was branded as "Family Late", which continued to air its previous entertainment programming.



Sky takeover


On 7 April 2009, Virgin Media, the then current owner, formally began the sale of its content operation.[8] On 13 July 2010, Sky and Virgin Media announced that Sky had completed the acquisition of Virgin Media Television (VMtv) following regulatory approval in the Republic of Ireland.[9]


On 15 September 2010, Sky announced a number of its sister channels Bravo, Bravo 2 and Channel One, were closed, which resulted in a small number of programmes being moved. On 25 January 2011, it was confirmed that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling programming would start broadcasting on Challenge from 3 February 2011.[10]


On 1 February 2011, Challenge replaced Channel One's Freeview space on the Freeview multiplex.[11][12][13][13][14]


Challenge launched on the free-to-air satellite platform Freesat on 3 December 2012.[15]


On 7 October 2013, the channel went through a revamp, which included a new logo, and a set of animated characters, named the "Challengers", as idents to represent each type of show; such as Les Play for classics, Ellie for lighter physical shows or Cecil the Geek for science shows.[16][17]


On 23 June 2016, the channel went through another revamp, discarding the "Challengers" and introducing a new logo which features a segmented C. The new idents for the channel work in elements of game shows that are broadcast by the channel including Deal or No Deal and Pointless, and include commercial bumpers which feature famous game show sayings such as Blockbusters ' "Can I have a P please, Bob?", Bullseye's "You can't beat a bit of Bully" and Robot Wars' "3...2...1... Activate!" alongside the hashtag #ChallengeAccepted. Bumpers framing breaks sometimes also include general knowledge questions or rebuses, referencing shows like Blockbusters and Catchphrase.



Programming


Main article: List of programmes broadcast by Challenge


Programming blocks


Challenge have had various programming blocks, for example, Fully Loaded!, a former morning programming block from around 2007 which consisted of Win, Lose or Draw, Wheel of Fortune, Catchphrase, Bullseye and Family Fortunes.



Other programming


Although the bulk of Challenge's schedule consists of game shows, the channel also broadcasts some other entertainment programming. Challenge was the UK rights holder for TNA Wrestling, airing Impact Wrestling, TNA Xplosion and delayed coverage of pay-per-view events, alongside original home-produced output for the channel, including BWC: British Wrestling Round-Up, Wrestle Talk TV and the reality series TNA British Boot Camp. As of January 2017, however, they will no longer be broadcasting any TNA programming.


A gaming review show, Videogame Nation, also aired on Saturday mornings (originally Sundays). In August 2014, Challenge aired its first coverage of championship darts - delayed broadcasts of the PDC Sydney Masters.



Presenters











Continuity announcers




  • John Anderson (2016)


  • Trish Bertram (1999–2000)


  • Tony Green (2015)


  • Kirsten O'Brien (2013–2016)


  • Myma Seldon (2003–05)


  • Chris Tarrant (2017)

  • Sarah Cawood



References





  1. ^ "UK media group Flextech. (invests in UK Family Channel) (Brief Article)". Broadcasting & Cable. 7 June 1993. Retrieved 13 January 2016 – via Highbeam Research..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}


  2. ^ "Flextech absorbs Family's U.K. assets. (Flextech PLC; International Family Entertainment Inc.)".


  3. ^ "Buy-up strategy covers all exits | Archive". Marketing Week. 5 April 1996. Retrieved 30 May 2014.


  4. ^ "International Family Entertainment Agrees To Consolidate The Family Channel Uk into Flextech Plc. - Free Online Library". Thefreelibrary.com. 20 March 1996. Retrieved 30 May 2014.


  5. ^ "Family Channel hands relaunch task to TBWA | Archive". Marketing Week. 15 November 1996. Retrieved 30 May 2014.


  6. ^ The times newspaper and the Guardian newspaper October 1996[better source needed]


  7. ^ "Family Channel". TV Live. Archived from the original on 29 January 2016.
    [unreliable source?]


  8. ^ "Virgin Media begins sale of its content operations". Media Week. 7 April 2009.


  9. ^ "BSkyB and Virgin Media Complete Sale of VMtv". Virgin Media. 13 July 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2013.


  10. ^ "WWE News, TNA News, WWE Payback Results (6/1)". WrestlingNewsSource.Com. Retrieved 30 May 2014.


  11. ^ Sweney, Mark (15 September 2010). "BSkyB to close Bravo and Channel One". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 15 September 2010.


  12. ^ "BARB reported channels". overnights.tv. 17 January 2011.


  13. ^ ab "TNA set for Freeview". The Sun. 25 January 2011.


  14. ^ Paul (26 January 2011). "Entertainment Interactive". Entertainment-iuk.com. Retrieved 30 May 2014.


  15. ^ "Challenge TV launching on Freesat". Join Freesat. 1 December 2012.


  16. ^ "Challenge and Pick get an exciting new look". Skymedia.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2014.


  17. ^ "An Exciting New Look On". Challenge. Archived from the original on 9 May 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2014.


  18. ^ https://identcentral.co.uk/idents/sky/challlenge/challenge-tv-1999-2002/


  19. ^ https://identcentral.co.uk/idents/sky/challlenge/family-channel/


  20. ^ https://identcentral.co.uk/idents/sky/challlenge/challenge-tv-1997-1998


  21. ^ https://identcentral.co.uk/idents/sky/challlenge/family-channel/




External links



  • Official website Edit this at Wikidata








-

Popular posts from this blog

Eastern Orthodox Church

Image
Not to be confused with Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Christianity, or Eastern Catholic Churches. "Eastern Orthodoxy", "Orthodox Church", "Orthodox Catholic Church", and "Orthodox Christian Church" redirect here. For other uses, see Orthodox (disambiguation). This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably . The readable prose size is 132 kilobytes. Please consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding or removing subheadings. ( January 2018 ) Part of a series on the Eastern Orthodox Church Mosaic of Christ Pantocrator, Hagia Sophia Overview Structure Theology (History of theology) Liturgy Church history Holy Mysteries View of salvation View of Mary View of icons Background Crucifixion / Resurrection / Ascension of Jesus Christianity Christian Church Apostolic succession Four Marks of the Church Orthodoxy Organization Autocephaly Patriarchate ...
Read more

Zagreb

Image
This article is about the Croatian capital city. For other uses, see Zagreb (disambiguation). City in City of Zagreb, Croatia Zagreb City Grad Zagreb City of Zagreb Clockwise, from top: St. Mark's Square, Croatian State Archives, Zagreb Tram, Art Pavilion, Cibona & HOTO towers and Croatian National Theatre. Flag Coat of arms Zagreb Location of Zagreb in Croatia Show map of Croatia Zagreb Zagreb (Europe) Show map of Europe Coordinates: 45°49′N 15°59′E  /  45.817°N 15.983°E  / 45.817; 15.983 Coordinates: 45°49′N 15°59′E  /  45.817°N 15.983°E  / 45.817; 15.983 Country   Croatia County City of Zagreb RC diocese 1094 Free royal city 1242 Unified 1850 Subdivisions 17 city districts 218 local committees (70 settlements) Government  • Type Mayor-Council  • Mayor Milan Bandić (BM 365)  • City Assembly 51 members BM 365, ZL, NS-R (14) SDP, GLAS, HNS, HSS, NH-PS (13) ...
Read more

Understanding the information contained in the Deep Space Network XML data?

Image
up vote 1 down vote favorite NASA's Deep Space Network activity can be viewed conveniently at https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html but if you would like data in a more raw XML form, it can be accessed as described in this answer Below is a small Python script that reads the XML into a list of dictionaries, and saves it to disk as a JSON. The dictionaries are organized at the higher level by dish, then by spacecraft per dish. Question: What are the most-likely meanings of all the data field contained in the Deep Space Network XML data? This is the example url from the other answer, used in the script below: https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/data/1365107113.xml def dictify(r,root=True): # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2148119/how-to-convert-an-xml-string-to-a-dictionary-in-python/30923963#30923963 if root: ret...
Read more