Kiss TV

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KISS
Launched	26th June 2000
Owned by	Kiss Network, Emap
Website	www.kiss-tv.co.uk
Availability
Satellite
Sky Digital	Channel 350
Cable
Virgin Media	Channel 336/326
NTL Ireland	Channel 711

Kiss TV is a commercial music television channel from EMAP available on the Sky Digital , and Virgin Media digital TV platforms. The playlist is predominantly mainstream Urban Pop, Dance and R&B, although since its relaunch in Summer 2006, it has begun to focus more on dance music once again,

It is based on the format of the EMAP owned London radio station Kiss 100, which started as a pirate radio station in London in 1985. Kiss TV celebrated the 20th Anniversary since the launch in 2005.

[edit] History

The original incarnation of Kiss TV was the brainchild of Guy Wingate who, as an original co-creator of London's Kiss 100 (in its pirate days) was brought back in to head up EMAP's fledgling TV division by the more-widely known Kiss chief, Gordon McNamee (Mac). The channel ran for one hour a night on the Mirror Group's L!VE TV cable circuit and after a year moved up to the Granada satellite and cable platform, taking a similar slot in the evening.

Although the original idea came in 1993 (three years after Kiss FM launched as a legal station), it took many months for Wingate to convince the UK Television regulators to permit the extension of a brand name over to television. When the permission finally came, Kiss had once again innovated by becoming the first "Masthead" TV project in the UK.

Within one year, the station was beating MTV in its time slots and gained a cult status for its low-budget edgy coverage of the UK dance music scene. Presenters included legendary DJs such as Radio 1's Judge Jules. By the time it was a year-old, it had attracted major sponsorship from blue-chip brands such as Levi's, Sony Consumer Products and The Guardian newspaper.

It is now part of subscription packages on all platforms, and operates on a jukebox system, where viewers select the tracks they want to see. It is part of a boquet of channels owned by EMAP, which include The Hits,Kerrang! TV, Smash Hits, Q, The Box, FHM and Magic.

[edit] See also

• Kiss Network
• Kiss 100 London
• Kiss 101 West
• Kiss 105-108 East

[edit] External links

• Kiss TV Official site
• Kiss TV Listings and Schedules