Living TV Group
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Formerly | United Artists Entertainment (Programming) Limited (1988-1996) Flextech Television Limited (1996-2007)[1] |
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Company type | Broadcast television |
Founded | 9 September 1988[2] |
Defunct | 31 January 2011 23 April 2014 (company)[3] |
Fate | Acquired and folded by BSkyB |
Headquarters | United Kingdom |
Area served | National; also available in Ireland, selected other countries |
Total assets | 2.5% |
Owner | Telewest (2000–2006) Virgin Media (2006–2010) British Sky Broadcasting (2010–11) |
Living TV Group was a British television consortium originally called Flextech before becoming a subsidiary of British Sky Broadcasting, with Challenge still broadcasting.
Living TV Group had several owned channels, available in the United Kingdom on Digital terrestrial television, satellite television and cable television platforms and in Ireland on satellite and cable television. Living TV Group's advertising was handled by former sister company Interactive Digital Sales (IDS) until 1 January 2011,[4] when Sky Media took over.
History
Flextech (1990–2000)
Flextech began life as an oil services group, previously floated as an energy investment company back in 1983. After Roger Luard became chief executive in 1986, the company shifted focus into the media industry. Its first media acquisition was in 1990 with a 20% stake in programme producer/distributor
During the summer of 1993, Flextech entered into an agreement with
The relationship between TCI and Flextech continued to grow; in February 1994, Flextech shareholders approved a deal in which Flextech absorbed the European programming interests of United Artists European Holdings. In return, UAEH's US parent, TCI, acquired 60% of the enlarged Flextech.[13] Within days of the deal, Flextech brought a 20% stake in HTV for £27 million.[14][15] Within a year, the stake was transferred to Scottish Television as part of its deal to acquire a 20% stake in STV.[16] As part of the deal, Flextech agreed to license the rights to over 125 hours of the drama and documentary output from STV's library, as well as a production output agreement to commission television programmes from STV with a minimum total value of 6 million pounds over three years.[7][17]
In 1995, the company raised £92 million after two new American companies invested in the company, US West (9%) and Hallmark (10%); the additional funds allowed Flextech to buy the remaining shares in The Children's Channel, gaining full control of the network.[18]
Talks were held with
Elsewhere that year, it started discussions about increasing its stake in UK Gold to gain full control. At that point, Flextech held 27% with Cox (38%),
Also during 1996, talks began between Flextech and the BBC about a partnership[22] to launch a new range of entertainment channels featuring programmes from the BBC's programme library. The deal was signed in March 1997 when the BBC and Flextech unveiled their new venture, which included BBC Showcase, an entertainment channel; BBC Horizon, documentaries; BBC Style, lifestyle; BBC Learning, for schools, and BBC Arena, for the arts, plus three other channels including BBC Sport, BBC Catch-Up, for repeats of popular programmes within days of their original transmission, and a TV version of BBC Radio 1. Initially, it was assumed that the new channels would be BBC-branded, but Flextech wanted the channels to carry advertisements. The BBC argued that BBC-branded services in the UK should not carry advertising and thought that this would undermine the rationale of the license fee in the UK. A compromise was reached when the BBC launched BBC Showcase and BBC Learning (later renamed BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge shortly before launch) on its own, with the remainder of the deal passing to BBC Worldwide.[24][25]
Eventually, the concept of the BBC/Flextech channels led the launch of
Flextech agreed to acquire Minotaur International for around $6.5 million in 1999; Minotaur International was responsible for international sales of most programmes commissioned by Flextech. In 2007, Target Entertainment Group acquired Minotaur International and formed strategic alliances with Virgin Media Television to act as their preferred distribution partner.[26][27]
In 1998, chief executive Roger Luard died,
Telewest/NTL/Virgin (2000–09)
Flextech continued to expand under Telewest ownership, with
In 2005, Telewest, in preparation for its long-awaited merger with NTL, put Flextech up for sale as the companies agreed "a content provider" had no place within the merged operation. A lot of interest was generated by the sale; potential suitors included
By September, nearly all the bidders had pulled out except for
In November 2006, NTL:Telewest began rebranding itself as Virgin Media. The group acquired Virgin Mobile in July, but went further by licensing the "Virgin" name, as they believed "Virgin Media would shake up the market by bringing the Virgin traditions of value-for-money, brilliant customer service and innovation to the world of entertainment and communications".[41] As part of the rebrand, Flextech was also renamed as Richard Branson was keen to move into branded content, and insisted that the Flextech business was retained as a condition of NTL buying Virgin Mobile and licensing the name.[42] On 8 February 2007, Flextech was renamed Virgin Media Television as part of a larger re-branding exercise covering the whole of NTL:Telewest, Virgin Mobile and Virgin.net.[43]
Sale to BSkyB
On 7 April 2009, Virgin Media formally began the sale of its content operation, issuing a sales memorandum for its Virgin Media Television unit and its ad sales division, IDS. It excluded its 50% stake in UKTV from the sale.
On 4 June 2010, British Sky Broadcasting and Virgin Media announced that they had reached an agreement for the acquisition by Sky of Virgin Media Television.[46][47] The companies had, in parallel, agreed to enter into a number of agreements providing for the carriage of certain Sky standard and high-definition (HD) channels. Sky acquired VMtv for a total consideration of up to £160 million in cash, with £105 million paid on completion and the remainder paid following the regulatory process. The acquisition expanded Sky's portfolio of basic pay TV channels and eliminated the carriage fees it previously paid for distributing VMtv channels on its TV services. New carriage agreements secured wholesale distribution of Sky's basic channel line-up, including Sky1 and Sky Arts, and the VMtv channels, on Virgin Media's cable TV service. For an incremental wholesale fee, Virgin Media, for the first time, had the option of carrying any of Sky's basic HD channels, Sky Sports HD 1 and Sky Sports HD 2, and all Sky Movies HD channels. Virgin Media made available through its on-demand TV service a range of content from Sky's basic and premium channels, including the VMtv channels. Virgin Media also gained access to red button interactive sports coverage and the opportunity to deliver selected standard definition programming over the internet. Sky would assume responsibility for selling advertising for the newly acquired VMtv channels from January 2011. Completion of the agreements was conditional on obtaining merger control clearance in the Republic of Ireland.
Virgin1 was also a part of the deal, but was rebranded as
Virgin Media's stake in UKTV was not included in the deal.On 29 June 2010, The Competition Authority in Ireland cleared the proposed transaction.[50] The parties proceeded after the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation did not direct the Authority to carry out a full investigation within 10 days of the date of the Authority's decision.
On 13 July 2010, British Sky Broadcasting and Virgin Media announced that Sky had completed the acquisition of Virgin Media Television (VMtv) following regulatory approval in the Republic of Ireland.[51] VMtv was then renamed the Living TV Group. In completing the acquisition, Sky paid Virgin Media an initial £105 million. Up to an additional £55 million would be paid on UK regulatory clearance.
On 20 July 2010, The Office of Fair Trading announced that they would review BSkyB's acquisition of the Virgin Media Television business to judge whether it posed any competition concerns in the UK.[52] The OFT planned to investigate the deal to see whether it could constitute a qualifying merger under the Enterprise Act 2002. The watchdog invited interested parties from the industry to comment on the sale, including its potential impact on the pay-TV market. On 14 September 2010, The OFT decided not to refer BSkyB's takeover of Virgin Media's TV channels to the Competition Commission.[53]
Following the sale, BSkyB chose to integrate the Living TV Group into its own operations.
Living TV Group channels
Living TV Group directly operated a number of linear television channels. Most of the channels were formed in the Flextech years. Additionally, Living TV Group operated a high-definition channel and a number of time-shifted channels. All channels were available on satellite and cable television services.
As Flextech, Living TV Group used to be interested in different markets from its current demographics which focus on an older age group. But in an attempt to streamline the business that was at the time suffering from falling ratings across these channels, they were closed, and after the sale of Living TV Group to Sky, more channels were disposed of.
Bravo
Bravo 2
Challenge
Challenge launched as The Family Channel on 1 September 1993 as a family orientated channel but relaunched as Challenge TV on 3 February 1997. The channel relies heavily on game shows taken from a variety of sources, although most are repeats of programmes acquired from the terrestrial channels' archives.
The channel continues to broadcast, and remains the only Flextech-owned network to continue operating as is.
Challenge Jackpot
Challenge Jackpot launched on 1 July 2008 as a 24-hour interactive gaming channel, run in collaboration with Two Way Media. It was available on
Channel One
European Business News
Ftn
Living
Living was launched with Sky Multichannels in September 1993 as UK Living, formerly being affiliated with UK Gold before becoming Living TV, LIVINGtv and simply LIVING. It was the main channel from Living TV Group and usually had the highest ratings, recently better than that of Sky One, which strengthened its bid to become "the sixth channel". It originally launched on 1 September 1993 as UK Living, and changed its name to Living in 1997, to disassociate itself from the UKTV network that launched that year.
On 1 February 2011, Living was rebranded as
On 6 August 2018, Sky Living was rebranded as Sky Witness and was divested from Living TV Group, leaving only Challenge on the Living TV Group and bringing an end to the Living brand after nearly 25 years.
Livingit
LIVINGit and LIVINGit +1 was the sister channel of Living which was launched on 13 December 2004 as LIVINGtv2. The channel mainly showed highlights of programming from the main channel, along with extended coverage of its reality programmes, such as I'm Famous and Frightened Extra! and Most Haunted Live!. However, the channel gained the American reality TV show, The Amazing Race. The channel also showed more lifestyle and health-related programming such as, Baby ER, Birth Stories, Downsize Me and Wedding SOS. There was also a programming slot called Baby Zone, in which programmes related to pregnancy and birth were shown. The channel was rebranded as LIVING2 in 2007, and LIVINGit in 2009.
On 1 February 2011, Livingit was rebranded as Sky Livingit. On 9 June 2015, Sky Livingit was rebranded as Real Lives. The channel closed on 1 October 2019.
Living Loves
On 5 July 2010, Living Loves replaced Living +2 on Sky and Virgin Media.[60] Running a daily schedule from 15:00 to 02:00, the channel gave viewers the opportunity to experience their favourite Living shows again or catch up on ones that they have missed. On 1 February 2011, Living Loves was rebranded as Sky Living Loves. On 5 September 2011, the channel began broadcasting for 24 hours a day. The channel closed on 21 February 2012.
SceneOne
SceneOne was a general entertainment website and television channel that was closed down under Flextech management after disappointing reach and a lack of revenue.[61] The website was set up in February 1999, and following an announcement in March 2002, was shut on 4 April 2002.[62] The site's coverage spanned cinema, TV, radio, music, concerts, theatre, comedy, online, books and videos. The television channel was announced in 1999 and launched in June 2000 but was closed in March 2001.
Setanta Sports News
The Children's Channel
The Children's Channel launched in 1984 and joined the Astra satellite line-up in 1989, with Flextech acquiring a stake in the channel in 1990. TCC closed down silently on 3 April 1998 for unknown reasons, although ratings had fallen dramatically following the launch of rival children's channels. Its slot on the various platforms was taken by TV Travel Shop, although Cable & Wireless continued to briefly run the channel's Nordic feed for several months. Despite the channel's closure, the website continued to be available as late as 2005, however most of the features that were originally available when the channel was still broadcast were removed.
Trouble
Trouble launched on 3 February 1997 and fully replaced The Children's Channel from 4 April 1998. Trouble had a key demographic of young adults and teenagers, aged between 15 and 24. The channel showed a lot of American and Australian imports, with only a small margin of programmes being British, although a website was launched called Trouble Homegrown that showcased British videos.[66]
Virgin Central
Virgin Central was a TV channel launched on the Virgin Media platform on 20 February 2007. It was based on the
The Virgin Central channel was removed on 11 March 2010, fully moving over to the On-Demand section of the Virgin Media menu. A duplicate channel - Virgin Central 2, replaced
NetPlay TV
On 7 April 2009, it was announced that Virgin Media Television had agreed to buy options to acquire 9.9 percent of NetPlay TV Plc's shares at a strike price of 18 pence per share.[69]
NetPlay acquired the business assets of Two Way Gaming Ltd, the provider of the Challenge Jackpot gaming services, for £2 million in stock.
NetPlay TV signed production and gaming agreements with Virgin Media Television for an initial period until 30 June 2013, and take over production of Challenge Jackpot, including its website and television channel.
On 25 March 2010, NetPlay TV and Virgin Media Television agreed to the termination of the option agreement entered into on 7 April 2009 under which VMTV was granted options over 14.9m ordinary shares being 9.9 per cent of the share capital then in issue at a price of 18p per share (the "Option Agreement").[70] Under the revised agreement NetPlay TV will take control of the current Challenge Jackpot database and terminate the Option Agreement in exchange for a fixed cash payment of £1.82m. The current database generated £2.9m of gross gaming margin from 12 May 2009 to 31 December 2009 and was subject to a revenue share agreement. Under the revised terms, all revenues arising from this database will be retained by NetPlay TV, with VMTV receiving fixed monthly payments that reflect the value of its airtime.
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