This is a timeline of cable television in the United Kingdom.
The first part of the timeline covers the development of cable across the country, including details of the cable-exclusive channels which launched in the 1990s as part of cable television's attempt to compete with BSkyB's satellite television.
The merger of NTL and Telewest effectively resulted in a single national network, covering just over half the country. The second part of the timeline covers Virgin Media.__FORCETOC__
Pre-Virgin Media 1928 The foundations for cable television are laid in Swindon when a company called Radio Relay starts transmitting two audio channels on a wire that runs around the town to a relatively small number of homes. 1936 Rediffusion, a supplier of cable radio services since 1928, starts providing "Pipe TV" to customers, to coincide with the BBC's launch of the world's first regular high-definition television service. 1950 A cable network is launched in Gloucester, to provide better television reception than is possible at the time via a rooftop aerial. Further such systems were built in other cities over the next three decades and by the late 1970s, 2.5 million British homes received their television service via cable.1982 Aldrich MJ co-author Cable Systems p18 HMSO London 1961 A new cable network launches in Swindon to transmit television signals. As reception in the area is poor, take-up is high and by the end of the decade around 15,000 homes were paying to receive their pictures via cable television. However, only those channels available in the area are allowed to be carried on the system. 1964 The company which provides the cable relay service in Swindon is acquired by Radio Rentals and is called Radio Rentals Cable. 1968 Thorn Electrical Industries purchases Radio Rentals. 1969 15,000 people in Swindon are paying to receive their television pictures via cable television. However, because only existing terrestrial programmes could be put on the cable, and in consequence, the interest in cable started to decline as more and more BBC and ITV transmitters made reception clearer. 1972 The UK's Minister for Posts and Telecommunications authorises five experimental community cable television channels. The first to launch is Greenwich Cablevision. 1973 Sheffield Cablevision, The Bristol Channel and Swindon Viewpoint launch. 1974 March – The final community station, Wellingborough Cablevision, launches. 1975 14 March – After less than two years on air, The Bristol Channel closes. 24 March – Wellingborough Cablevision closes. 1976 2 January – Sheffield Cablevision closes when the funds run out. Greenwich Cablevision closes as a full-time service although programming made by volunteers keeps the station on air in a restricted form until the early 1980s. Swindon Viewpoint’s experimental phase ends when EMI decided to pull out of funding the service. However, the channel continues after it was sold to the public of Swindon for £1. 1980 April – Regular programming on Swindon Viewpoint ends when funding dries up. but continues intermittently for the next decade with programmes made by volunteers. 1981 Radio Rental Cable Television launches the UK's first pay-per-view movie channel, 'Cinematel', for cable viewers in Swindon. The channel later expands to Chatham in Kent. As well as showing movies, the channel also broadcasts some local programming, including one-off documentaries and shortly after a live news-magazine format programme, called Scene in Swindon launches. Also provided is a local teletext service, with pages about film information, horoscopes, recipes, local bus times and job vacancies. 9 September – Rediffusion launches a movie channel called Starview. It is allowed to launch the channel following a decision by the Home Office granting several experimental licences to broadcast subscription television and Rediffusion had won one of these licenses. 1982 Proposals to liberalise cable television in the UK are drawn up. Previously, apart from the 1981 experiments, the cable networks were only allowed to relay the over-the-air channels. 1983 Ahead of the enacting of the forthcoming liberalisation, the Government licenses eleven interim franchises for broadband systems. Each covers an individual town or city of around 100,000 homes. 1984 16 January – Satellite Television Ltd launches in the UK on Swindon Cable as Sky Channel. The channel initially broadcasts for five hours each night and as more operators start to carry the channel, its broadcast hours slowly expand. 29 March – Thorn EMI, which operates Swindon Cable, launches three channels – movie channel The Entertainment Network, music channel Music Box and sport channel Screensport. Despite being delivered by satellite, they are created with the planned roll-out of cable across the UK in mind. Starview closes when the final areas that took the channel replace it by one of the new Thorn EMI channels, The Entertainment Network. The Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984 is enacted. This allows cable companies to offer as many channels as they liked, and also allowed cable companies to offer a telephone service in competition with British Telecom. 1 December – The Cable Authority comes into existence and on 1 January 1985 takes on the functions granted to it by the Cable and Broadcasting Act 1984, paving the way for fully commercial cable franchises to be awarded on a city-by-city basis. 1985 1 September – Ealing Cable launches Home Video Channel, which shows low-budget movies devoted to horror, action/adventure, science fiction and erotica, and is subsequently rolled out to other cable operators by sending tapes and a copy of the programme schedule so that could be played out locally.From Tony Currie Controller of Programmes at the Cable Authority from 1987 – 1991 18 December – Full launch of Westminster Cable's service. 20 December – United Artists Programming launches Bravo. It shows mainly black & white B-movies from the 1950s and 1960s. The channel remains a cable-exclusive service until it launches on satellite in July 1993. Swindon's cable service is re-branded as Swindon Cable and its news programme is renamed as part of this move and became Focus on Swindon. The channel increases the programme's frequency from twice a week to three times a week. 1986 4 February – Thorn EMI sells its stake in Swindon Cable to British Telecom and the new owners axe Focus on Swindon and other local programming and replaces it with bought-in content. May – Ealing Cable launches Indra Dhnush, a subscription-based Asian service devoted to Hindi films and television programmes with some material in other Indian languages. Its distribution method is the same as its sister channel HVC. August – Star Channel launches as an alternative film service which broadcasts between 6.30pm and 2.00am, it has been distributed to several cable operators on videotape form rather than by satellite. 1987 March – Ealing Cable sells HVC to Premiere.TV Broadcasting in Europe and New Technologies by Prof. Gareth Locksley from Commission of EU. P.179. The new owner continues with the channel's existing operational model including the distribution of tapes, and increases its broadcasting hours. July – The loss for expected closure of Star Channel following its merger with Premiere to reduce the remaining film services include Bravo and Home Video Channel. 1988 United Cable of Denver purchases Croydon Cable and subsequently merges with United Artists Cable International. Swindon cable's TV channel is relaunched as Swindon's Local Channel. This sees the return to the service of local news, sport and one-off documentaries. 1989 5 February – Satellite television service Sky Television launches. The new channels – Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport – are carried on cable. 1990 25 March – British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) launches its five-channel service and for the first five weeks, the channels are only available on cable. In November BSB and Sky TV merge and a month later two of the five BSB channels – Galaxy and Now – are closed down. In its final annual report, published at its demise, the Cable Authority stated that by the end of 1990, even though almost 15 million homes had been included in franchised areas, only 828,000 of these had been passed by broadband cable and only 149,000 were subscribing.Cable Authority, Final Report and Accounts 1990 1991 1 January – The Independent Television Commission takes over the licensing and regulation of cable from The Cable Authority. 8 June – United Artists merges with its largest shareholder Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI). United Artists Programming initiates a trial project to provide coverage of Yesterday in the Commons to cable networks across the UK. 1992 The major cable companies join to form 'Cable Programme Partners One (CPP1)', to try to provide alternative content to the satellite-dominated multi-channel environment of the time. 13 January – Following on from the success of Yesterday in the Commons, United Artists Cable launches a full time channel providing live and recorded coverage of the British Parliament called The Parliamentary Channel. 25 April – On-demand music video channel The Box launches. Initially launched in four cable areas, it slowly rolls out on a regional basis across the entire cable network before getting its first on satellite in 1998. October – Country music channel CMT Europe launches on cable. The following year it starts part-time broadcasts on Astra and it doesn't get a full-time service on satellite until later in the 1990s. December - The Performance Channel launches in the UK. It broadcasts arts programming each night from 7pm until the early hours. It remains a cable-exclusive channel until 2003 and ended broadcasting in July 2008.Performance to launch on Sky Digital Spy, December 2002DMGT pulls plug on last TV channel The Guardian, February 2005 Following the merger of TCI and United Artists, they launch a joint venture called Telewest Communications. 1993 4 May – Wire TV launches. Branding itself as 'The Cable Channel', this is the flagship channel of CPP1. Wire TV broadcasts a mix of entertainment, lifestyle and sport from 1pm until 11pm and includes two hours each day of regional programming. Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal, the founders of the cellular network company Cellular Communications, Inc., establish International CableTel. 1994 3 January – TCI acquires a 60.4% stake in Flextech and Flextech acquires 100% of Bravo, 25% of UK Gold, 31% of UK Living, and 25% of The Children's Channel. February – Travel launches exclusively on cable, broadcasting daily between midday and midnight. 2 March – Wire TV’s backers outbid BSkyB to the rights for the 1996 Cricket World Cup as part of a plan to set up a sports channel to take on Sky Sports.A cricket coup for UK cable Variety, 2 March 1994 Wire TV's evening programming is by now devoted to sport under the name Sportswire with the daytime entertainment programming called LiveWire.Sporting push for UK cable-only channel Screen Digest, 1 March 1994 30 November – Associated Newspapers launches Channel One, a network of city news channels. The first to launch is in London.The owners of the Daily Mail are getting into cable The Independent, 4 Oct 1994 AsiaVision, previously Indra Dhnush, closes due to accumulated debts.
1995 16 January – Mirror Group plc launches Mirror Television by purchasing Wire TV. It plans to launch Sportswire as a full-time channel and replace Wire TV with a new channel called L!VE TV. May – TCI (owners of Telewest) and NYNEX, two of the main players of CPP1, do a deal with BSkyB which includes a clause that the cable operators do not launch any rival channels to those already operated by Sky. This marks the end of CPP1 and causes the collapse of sports channel Sportswire, days before it was due to launch. 31 May – Wire TV closes.