Now 70s (formerly Channel U, Channel AKA, Massive R&B and Total Country) is a British free-to-air music television channel, owned by

All Around the World Productions Xploded Music is a British record label set up by Cris Nuttall and Matt Cadman. The label is a joint venture with Universal, and has developed from their previous partnership with the All Around the World dance music label. All Around the Worl ...

, available through

Sky UK Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), Trade name, trading as Sky, is a British broadcasting, broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone ...

Freeview Freeview may refer to: *Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia *Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), a ...

and

Virgin Media Virgin Media Limited is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 ...

within the UK and through

Local Now Local Now (stylized as "local now") is an American over-the-top internet television service owned by The Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. A spinoff of The Weather Channel, Local Now primarily provides a cyclic playlist of w ...

within the US. It focuses on music from the 1970s, being the third decade-oriented channel in the Now portfolio, along with

Now 80s NOW 80s is a British free-to-air music television channel, focusing exclusively on playing music from the 1980s. The channel launched in its current form on 27 December 2016, initially as a temporary pop-up rebrand of Now Music, previously a con ...

and Now 90s & 00s.

History

Channel U

Channel U was a British digital satellite TV music channel that focused on the British grime scene which ran from February 2003 to June 2018. It was a significant outlet not only for established artists, but also for those who are just starting out, helping the breakthrough for acts such as

Tinchy Stryder Kwasi Esono Danquah III ( ; born 14 September 1986), better known by his stage name Tinchy Stryder, is a British rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and investor. Stryder has released three solo studio albums, '' Star in the Hood'' (2007 ...

Tinie Tempah Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (born 7 November 1988), better known by his stage name Tinie (formerly Tinie Tempah), is a British rapper and singer. He has been signed to Parlophone since 2009, now a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. He created his ...

Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), known professionally as Dizzee Rascal, is a British rapper and MC. He is often credited as a pioneer of British hip hop and grime music and was ranked by ''Complex'' as one of the greatest British ...

Chip Chip may refer to: Food * Chip (snack), thinly sliced and deep-fried gastro item ** Potato chips (US) or crisp (UK) * Chips (fried potato strips) (UK) or french fries (US) (common as a takeout side) * Game chips, thin chip/French fries * Choco ...

Wretch 32 Jermaine Sinclaire Scott (born 9 March 1985), better known by his stage name Wretch 32, is a British rapper, singer and songwriter from Tottenham, North London. He was a member of the grime collective Combination Chain Gang, before forming The ...

, Devlin, Giggs,

Skepta Joseph Olaitan Adenuga Jr. (born 19 September 1982), known professionally as Skepta, is a British grime MC, rapper, record producer and DJ. Alongside his younger brother Jme, he briefly joined Roll Deep before they became founding members of ...

and

N-Dubz N-Dubz are an English hip-hop trio from Camden Town, London, England, consisting of cousins Dappy and Tulisa, and their friend Fazer. After winning a MOBO Award for Best Newcomer in 2007, N-Dubz briefly signed with Polydor Records before j ...

. Its material "includes crude productions shot with handheld digital video cameras," and helps new musicians attract attention and build a fan base. According to its website, "the aim of the channel was to highlight to the public, the raw and unsigned talent we have in the UK, and give them a platform from which they could perform".

Channel AKA

The parent company of Fizz TV and Channel U went into voluntary liquidation at the beginning of February, 2009, before being purchased by

Mushroom TV Mushroom TV Limited was an English television company and owner of several satellite television music channels. Mushroom operated Channel AKA, Starz TV and Greatest Hits TV. The company was launched in 2000 and, according to their website, wer ...

. When purchasing the two channels, Mushroom TV agreed that Channel U and Fizz TV should be rebranded. The two channels were rebranded as Channel AKA and Starz TV on 16 March 2009. On 22 June 2012, Mushroom TV entered

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a Company (law), company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as :wikt:wind up#Noun, w ...

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

's television broadcast licensing update for May 2012, indicates that Channel AKA was sold to

, who at the time owned Clubland TV and Massive R&B (now

Now 90s Now Rock is a British free-to-air music television channel, focusing exclusively on playing rock music for 10 months of the year, with a sister channel called Now 90s featuring rock hits from the 1990s available in other territories. For the oth ...

) and had also acquired Greatest Hits TV under UltimateHits Limited. On 29 November 2012, the channel launched on

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Everyone TV (itself owned by all of the four UK Public broadcasting, public service broadcasters, BBC, ...

but was removed on 15 April 2013. The channel returned to Freesat on 1 October 2015 alongside its sister channels Chilled TV,

Clubland TV Clubland TV is a British satellite free-to-air, cable and subscription Dance/Electronica genre music channel. It is based from the Clubland compilation albums. Clubland TV airs various sub-genres of dance/EDM from the 90's to the late 2010s, such ...

and Now Music, before being removed again on 12 May 2017. Channel AKA and its predecessor Channel U have since been remembered for introducing the music careers of artists such as Dizzee Rascal, Kano,

Wiley Wiley may refer to: Locations *Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town *Wiley, Georgia, an U.S. unincorporated community * Wiley, Pleasants County, West Virginia, U.S. * Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany People *Wiley (musician), ...

and Lethal Bizzle.

Massive R&B

On 1 June 2018, Channel AKA's slot was replaced with Massive R&B. (the second time an All Around the World owned network has used the name), now focusing on celebrating classic hip-hop & R&B from the

1990s File:1990s decade montage.png, From top left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth after it was launched in 1990; American jets fly over burning oil fields in the 1991 Gulf War; the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993; the World ...

and

2000s File:2000s decade montage3.png, From top left, clockwise: The Twin Towers of the original World Trade Center (1973–2001), World Trade Center on fire and the Statue of Liberty on the left during the September 11 attacks, terrorist attacks on Sep ...

, and current urban music - from US rap to UK grime.As read on the

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

guide when choosing a favourite channel

Total Country

On 1 November 2018, five months after Massive R&B relaunched, it was rebranded as a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

channel called Total Country, celebrating country music, old and new, from

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, actress, and philanthropist, known primarily as a country music, country musician. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton's debut album ...

and

Garth Brooks Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American Country music, country singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him his immense popularity, particularly in the United States, ...

Carrie Underwood Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of ''American Idol'' in 2005, returning as a judge beginning with the twenty-third season. Underwood's f ...

, Ward Thomas and The Shires.As read on the

guide when choosing a favourite channel The channel launched on Virgin Media on 8 March 2019, along with sister channel

. It was previously available via the red button on

on the platform along with

and Now 90s until it was removed on 1 March 2018. From 20 November 2019 until 27 December 2019, Now 80s used Total Country's slot since the slot that is normally used for Now 80s was used for Now Christmas, efficiently ceasing the channel's broadcast in the process.

Now 70s

On 27 December 2019, the channel was rebranded as Now 70s, becoming the third decade-oriented channel in the Now-branded portfolio. On 26 February 2020, the channel launched on

on channel 78, replacing Now 90s. It was removed from the platform on 26 May 2020, coinciding with

Together ''ToGetHer'' (, aka Superstar Express) is a 2009 Taiwanese drama starring Jiro Wang of Fahrenheit, Rainie Yang and George Hu. It was produced by Comic International Productions ( 可米國際影視事業股份有限公司) and directed by Linzi ...

increasing its broadcast hours, and returned on 8 July 2020 as an exclusive to Manchester on channel 78 and via Channelbox on channel 271 (connected TVs only). On 28 April 2021, it returned to Freeview outside Manchester on channel 76, replacing Now 80s, which became exclusive to Manchester. As well as various chart shows (with former Radio 1 DJs like

Mark Goodier Mark Goodier (born 9 June 1961) is a Zimbabwean-born British radio disc jockey and broadcaster best known for his time on BBC Radio 1 between 1987 and 2002. He had two spells presenting the station's Top 40 singles chart, from September 1990 ...

and

Bruno Brookes Trevor Neil "Bruno" Brookes (born 1959 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire) is an English former radio presenter who became prominent on British radio in the 1980s. He was CEO of in-store radio company Immedia from 2000 to 2020. Early life and ca ...

) and artist battles (such as Bowie vs Bolan, or

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

Boney M. Boney M. is a German reggae, funk and disco music group founded in 1974. It achieved popularity during the disco era in the second half of the 1970s. The band was created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary song ...

) based upon the music of the 1970s, the channel also features music from the 1960s in their ''Now 70s presents Now 60s'' programming block, in a similar fashion to how Now 80s had a 1970s programme block prior to the launch of Now 70s as a standalone channel. On 23 February 2022, it was confirmed that Now 70s and the other three AATW channels would launch on Sky Glass in the future, although a specific launch date was not given. On 20 September 2022, Now 70s closed on Freeview. On 2 March 2023, Now 70s reappeared on Freeview as a FAST channel on Channelbox channel 271 alongside

and

Now Rock Now Rock is a British free-to-air music television channel, focusing exclusively on playing rock music for 10 months of the year, with a sister channel called Now 90s featuring rock hits from the 1990s available in other territories. For the oth ...

. From 28 November until 27 December 2023, Now 70s was rebranded temporarily as Now Christmas for the 2023 festive season.

Presenters

DJs hired in the 2020s to present shows for the channel and record voice-overs links include: *

Pat Sharp Patrick Sharpin known professionally as Pat Sharp, is an English radio presenter, television presenter and DJ. He worked on the children's ITV programme '' Fun House'', was one of the Sky Channel's VJs and presented the Coca-Cola Eurochart T ...

Simon Bates Simon Philip Bates (born 17 December 1946) is an English disc jockey and radio presenter. Between 1976 and 1993 he worked at BBC Radio 1, presenting the station's weekday mid-morning show for most of this period. He later became a regular prese ...

Tony Blackburn Anthony Kenneth Blackburn (born 29 January 1943) is an English disc jockey, singer and television presenter, whose career spans over 60 years. Blackburn first achieved fame broadcasting on the pirate stations Radio Caroline and Radio Londo ...

David Jensen David Allan Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 to 19 ...

* Robin Banks

Criticisms

In June 2005, the channel was fined £18,000 by

for a number of offences, including the broadcasting of inappropriate material, using premium rate telephone services in programmes, and failing to ensure a clear distinction between programmes and advertisements.

Notes

References

External links

Background and history of Channel U
{{Freeview Music video networks in the United Kingdom Black British music Country music mass media Television channels and stations established in 2003 2003 establishments in the United Kingdom