Launched May 2003 Owned by Telecoms TV Sky Channel 907 | Closed 6 January 2010 Audience share N/A (Jan '06, [1]) Founded 2003 | |
Friendly TV was a British television station, owned by Telecoms TV (previously Hi2). Much of the channel's output was made up of interactive programmes and games which allowed the viewer to phone in or send an SMS message to take part in the programme.
When it launched in 2003, it was slated mainly by the Internet and got a mention in the press for its low quality, e.g. most of the programming was devoted to an internet-based game called Brainbox, or a lengthy computer games show called GamerWeb, when there were supposed to be proper or other programmes, according to the station's EPG. A notable incident occurred in May 2003 when presenters were accidentally broadcast alleging that Nicole Kidman was a lesbian.
Shortly after the channel was launched it ran a number of wrestling shows including Irish Whip Wrestling, Frontier Wrestling Alliance, and Pro Wrestling Noah. These were pilots for the TV station which was launched as The Wrestling Channel and later became The Fight Network.
The channel broadcast onto a number of Sky channels and was responsible for programmes such as Bikini Beach, Cash House, Stash the Cash, Vegas 247 and Live Roulette.
The channel closed on 6 January 2010, when the EPG slot was sold to the adult channel, Dirty Talk.
Nicole Kidman incident
This incident which made Friendly TV infamous occurred in May 2003 when former QVC presenter Paul Lavers and his co-presenter, Karen Witchalls were fronting the morning show. The show mainly consisted of items based on that day's newspapers. The show ran a text poll with a Nicole Kidman related question.
The channel did not show adverts at this time even though they still had breaks, which consisted of the studio camera zooming in to a television screen in the studio that was displaying details of the poll (notably excluding the cost of the text message), which means it appears they couldn't put the graphics directly to air. Instead of turning the presenter's microphones down during the break, everything the presenters and the studio crew said was clearly audible, including the unfounded rumour that Kidman was gay. The presenters apologised when they learned that this had been accidentally broadcast.
Victor Lewis Smith wrote a scathing review of this episode the next day.