Now (TV channel)

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Now
Launched	27 March 1990
Closed	1 December 1990
Owned by	BSB (Later BSkyB)
Availability At time of closure
Satellite
Analogue	Marcopolo 1 11.93846

Now was a British television channel transmitted as part of the British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) service during 1990.

[edit] History

The Now Channel, was broadcasted throughout BSB's short spell on air from March to December of 1990 on the Marcopolo satellites. The content of the channel was similar to that of Living TV, UKTV Style and various other lifestyle based channels. The channel was promoted under the slogan "The Channel For Living".

In November 1990, BSB merged with Sky Television to form BSkyB. BSkyB decided to streamline the channels available on both services. The decision was taken to replace Now with Sky News which Sky Television had broadcast on the Astra satellite.

Now ceased broadcasting on Saturday 1 December 1990 at 1am. The ending of Now was faded into the clock of Sky News and the newsreader welcomed those watching on the Marcopolo satellite. As there were still programmes yet to be shown on Now, BSkyB initially broadcast Arts programmes intended for "Now" on a weekend when Sky Arts opted out of the Sky News service on the Marcopolo satellite. Once all shows had been broadcast Sky Arts closed.

[edit] Content

Now, featured a mix of talk and chat shows, inspiring documentaries, news, current affairs and arts programming within its schedule. As with all of BSB's channels Now carried the compulsory BSB News segment. Some of Now's most memorable programming include "Now Sir Robin" fronted by ex-question time presenter Sir Robin Day. The programme featured all of the week's political happenings and confrontations. Now focused heavily upon arts and broadcast a number of theatre and musical performances (of the classic kind) during its short lived broadcast. Arts programming was prevalent in the schedule and featured most nights.