.tv (formerly The Computer Channel, pronounced as Dot TV and referred to onscreen as .tv - the technology channel) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

television channel dedicated to technology. .tv was owned and operated by

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

. The channel was first broadcast as The Computer Channel and launched on , broadcasting between 18:00 and 20:00. It timeshared with Granada Good Life when it launched a month later. The broadcasting hours were increased to 6pm10pm when the channel started broadcasting on British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite platform, Sky Digital in 1998, then midday–midnight the following year. In 1999, the channel interviewed then-

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

CEO

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

. Towards the end of its run, .tv implemented several new shows heavily sponsored by online technology store

dabs.com dabs.com was an e-commerce retailer in the United Kingdom. It was one of the UK's largest internet retailers of IT and technology products. From 2006 until its closure in 2016, it was a subsidiary of BT Group. History As an independent compa ...

, promoting products which were available at that site. .tv was closed on 2 September 2001 because of low audience ratings. Most of the programmes were produced by

Prospect Pictures Prospect is an independent TV production company part of production and distribution group DCD Media. Prospect has offices in London. The company produce a wide array of programming for the UK and international markets. Productions range from fac ...

and Illumina.

Programming

* ''Buyers Guide''A 20-minute weekday show that reviewed gadgets (such as PDAs and

printers Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James Printer (1 ...

), computers and software (such as

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

s and

photo manipulation Photograph manipulation involves the transformation or alteration of a photograph. Some photograph manipulations are considered to be skillful artwork, while others are considered to be unethical practices, especially when used to deceive. Mot ...

). Presented by Will Hanrahan. Guests included: Lydia Jones, Chris Long, and Ashley Jones. * ''Chips with Everything''A 20-minute weekday show presented by Kate Russell with guests trying to answer computer-related questions that were sent in by viewers. Guests included: Roger Gann, James Morris, Simon Smart, Nigel Whitfield, Guy Clapperton, and Charles Bocock. * ''Ex Machina''A 30-minute weekly show that went behind the scenes of digitally produced entertainment (video games, films and television programmes). * ''Game Over'' (originally ''Games World'')A variable-format video game magazine show. The show was presented by Andy Collins and co-presented by

Matt Berry Matthew Charles Berry (born 2 May 1974) is an English actor, comedian, musician, and writer. Noted for his distinctive voice, he is best known for his television roles in comedy series such as ''The IT Crowd'', ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'', ' ...

, Richard Pitt, Helen Hartley & Kellie Priestley. In November 2000, Matt Cuttle took over as the sole presenter. * '' Games Republic''A question-based video game quiz show, presented by

Trevor and Simon Trevor Neal (born 1963, Dorchester, Dorset) and Simon Hickson (born 1962, Salford, Lancashire) are a British comedy duo (known as ''Trevor and Simon'' or ''Trev and Simon'') and are best known for a family-friendly version of anarchic alternative ...

. * ''404 Not Found''An offbeat news and reviews show with regular viewer letters and emails, written and hosted by Dave Green and Danny O'Brien, with additional scriptwriting by James Wallis. * ''Global Village''A 30-minute weekly show that looked at how technology was revolutionising our homes from an international perspective. Presented by Will Hanrahan. * ''Masterclass''A 20-minute weekday show that gave tutorials on how to use features from programs like

Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor program, word processing program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platf ...

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...

and

Nero Burning ROM Nero Burning ROM, commonly called Nero, is an optical disc authoring program from Nero AG. The software is part of the Nero Multimedia Suite but is also available as a stand-alone product. It is used for burning and copying optical media such ...

. For the majority of the run, the show was presented by Richard Topping, affectionately known as "Toppers." He left the show to pursue a successful career in writing. His replacement was comedian Marc Haynes, who fronted the show until the channel closed. * ''Nexus''A puzzle game show hosted by

Brian Blessed Brian Blessed ( ; born 9 October 1936) is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive bushy beard, booming voice, and exuberant personality and performances. He portrayed PC "Fancy" Smith in ''Z-Cars''; Augustus in the 1976 BBC television ...

. ''Buyers Guide'', ''Masterclass'' and ''Chips with Everything'' were repeated as omnibus editions (the weekday editions broadcast as one programme) on weekends.

References

External links

Archived website

Video game coverage–centric potted history of the channel

IMDb page for an episode of ''Buyers Guide'' featuring Bryn Firkins
{{DEFAULTSORT:tv (TV channel) Defunct television channels in the United Kingdom Sky television channels Computer television series Television channels and stations established in 1996 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2001