The Children's Channel
| Ownership | |
|---|---|
| Owner | Flextech (now Virgin Media Television) |
The Children's Channel, also known as TCC, was an television station in the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, which was owned by Flextech (now Virgin Media Television). It began broadcasting on 1 September 1984, and was closed on 3 April 1998. TCC was first available on cable, and later came to the Astra satellite in 1989. The channel was replaced by Trouble (which focuses on teens instead). Trouble itself closed on 1 April 2009, and was replaced by Living.
History
In 1992, the channel was rebranded as TCC, and increased its focus to teenagers. The segment, which later began transmitting half an hour earlier at 4.30, featured a number of home-produced programmes, such as CDQ (Compact Disc Quiz) and TVFM. During the day, the channel continued its focus on younger children, by and large remaining the same, and a large amount of its programming output was still archive animated shows from the 1980s, many of which were also shown on Sky1. The focus on teenage-oriented programming became more prominent and eventually the channel was known as TCC all day.
In 1995, the channel introduced a strand for toddlers and pre-schoolers called Tiny TCC, which eventually moved over to Living, and was known as Tiny Living until the channel's rebrand.
In 1997, the programmes for older children (mainly teens) were split off into a separate TV station called Trouble. After the TCC and Trouble break away after 17:00, TCC then timeshared with The Family Channel (now Challenge), and outlived TCC. After this point, TCC reverted to the original name of The Children's Channel, and continued screening programmes for younger children, running side by side with Trouble for nearly a year, before eventually closing down UK operations unexpectedly on 3 April 1998 at 17:00. Trouble itself was closed on 1 April 2009, and replaced by Living.
However due to a pre-agreed contract signed some years before to broadcast the channel in Scandinavia until the year 2000, Flextech created a commercial free version of TCC (known as TCC Nordic) to fulfil this requirement and this continued to broadcast until October 2000 as arranged before finally ceasing transmission. Upon TCC UK's closure, the cable operator Cable & Wireless carried the TCC Nordic feed for a few months due to the company’s anger at the closure of TCC on such short notice. The Nordic feed could also be received on satellite TV in the UK by re-aligning the dish to 1° west but the signal was encrypted by EuroCrypt. The service's existence was only fulfilling a requirement therefore it was totally automated. Meaning that it was just the same 4 weeks of programming (including show trailers) on a constant loop.
It is largely cited in UK animation circles that Jetix (formerly Fox Kids, now Disney XD) is the spiritual successor of TCC in spite there being no relation (In terms of companies or shows aired on either channels) between the two. TCC commissioned the first series of Dennis the Menace (from The Beano comic). This was a puppet show using green screen. This version of Dennis The Menace should not be confused with the BBC commissioned cartoon series produced by HIT. This was later shown on Fox Kids (later rebranded as Jetix, and now Disney XD), and it is now airing on the CBBC Channel.
Broadcast hours
In its early days, TCC broadcasted between 05:00 and 15:00, and timeshared with Bravo on many cable operators. On 6 February 1989, it started broadcasting on Astra 1A between 05:00 and 10:00 on weekdays and between 05:00 and 12:00 on weekends, timesharing with Lifestyle. Then, it went on to broadcast from 06:00 to 17:00. In 1992, it started at 18:00 and ended at 19:00, but then went back to its original timeslot one year later.
Programmes
In its day, TCC created some of its own original programming. Connect 4 and The Super Mario Challenge were popular tea-time quiz shows. Some other 'in-between' show segments included Link Anchor Man an animated spoof of an American newsreader who would read out viewers letters and give a response. Another completely computer generated segment was Fact Or Fib were a story was read out and you would be given 30 seconds to decide whether what you had just been told was Fact or Fib before the answer was revealed. The station had two programme strands on weekdays from 1992 to 1995, one of which was "Ratkan" (in 1992-3; followed by Ratkan II in 1993-4 and Ratkan 3 in 1994-5), shown from 06:00-09:00, before school, and from 15:15-17:00, after school. The morning programme was repeated from 11:00 to 14:00.
A strand for pre-schoolers, "It's Droibee Time", aired 09:00-11:00. Both strands were based on a spaceship called the Ratkan, and were staffed by a human presenter these included Tommy Boyd, Mark Speight and Sophie Aldred with "droids", puppets designed to look like androids. These were called Veed and Void and the Droibees, Dreeb and Droib. Sometimes joined by other animal Puppets including 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 TV Talent made an appearance or got an early break working on these Series including Konnie Huq then awaiting news of her University place. Some of today's TV honchos and producers also got valuable early TV introducing experience on these Series including Lisa Opie, Tim Low, Karen Ward and Mike Crosby.
During school holidays, Ratkan aired 07:00-12:00, with It's Droibee Time off air. A live action quiz programme, "Around the World in 80 Seconds", was produced for the channel in 1993-4. Hosted by Timmy Mallett as Captain Everything, schoolchildren participated in a quiz based on geography and general knowledge of particular countries, before "replaying" famous scenarios from history of their chosen country. The top team received a prize of a four-day trip to the then-new Euro Disney.
