Picture format 16:9, 4:3, 576i (SDTV) Founded 1993 | Country United Kingdom Owned by Sky plc | |
Launched 1 September 1993 (1993-09-01) Audience share 0.41%
0.03% (+1) (August 2016 (2016-08), BARB) Formerly called The Family Channel (1993–97)
Challenge TV (1997–2002)
Challenge (2002–present) Sister channel(s) Pick,
Real Lives,
Sky 1,
Sky 2,
Sky Arts,
Sky Atlantic,
Sky Cinema,
Sky Cinema Box Office,
Sky Living,
Sky News,
Sky Sports,
Sky Sports F1,
Sky Sports News HQ TV shows Bullseye, TNA British Boot Camp, Wrestle Talk TV, Blockbusters, Takeshi's Castle Profiles | ||
Challenge is a British digital television channel owned by Sky plc. The channel mostly transmits game shows from the UK and around the world, with some original productions.
Contents
The Family Channel UK
The channel was originally established as The Family Channel, a British localisation of the American cable network of the same name, owned by U.S. firm International Family Entertainment, officially launched 1 September 1993.
The British version of The Family Channel came about when TVS was sold on 1 February 1993 to the American Company International Family Entertainment Inc. for US$68.5 million, which included the ownership of MTM Enterprises. In June 1993, prior to its launch, IFE sold a 39% stake in the channel to Flextech. The Family Channel did produce some UK original programming (see below), 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, giving them full ownership of the venture and production studio in Maidstone. 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 Challenge 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. Instead, The Family Channel began transitioning to the new brand by introducing a weekend game show strand known as Family Challenge Weekend.
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. On 13 July 2010, Sky and Virgin Media announced that Sky has completed the acquisition of Virgin Media Television (VMtv) following regulatory approval in the Republic of Ireland.
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.
On 1 February 2011, Challenge replaced Channel One's Freeview space on the Freeview multiplex,
Challenge launched on the free-to-air satellite platform Freesat on 3 December 2012.
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.
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.
Additional information
The channel also aired some poker game shows including World Poker Tour, Celebrity Blackjack and Casino Casino. It also launched a very short-lived spin-off channel in 2006, Player (which was replaced just several months later by Bravo 2), which mainly focused on the poker-related programming that Challenge had transmitted. Challenge only aired programmes in the letterbox format (4:3), but on 3 June 2008, it switched to the widescreen format (16:9) along with all other Living TV Group channels. This was coupled with a revamped logo and a new set of idents. The channel used to have interactive features for digital cable and satellite viewers watching certain shows, enabling them to play along at home, and it used to offer many games and competitions before the start of each programme, during commercial breaks and after the end of each programme.
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.