L!VE TV

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Rusty Goffe presents Britain's Bounciest Weather, from early 1999
Rusty Goffe presents Britain's Bounciest Weather, from early 1999

L!VE TV was a British television station that was operated by MGN on cable television from 15 June 1995 - 5 November 1999. It was later revived for Sky Digital from 2003. In 2006, the new L!VE TV's name was changed to Babeworld to reflect the channel's gradual change of focus towards "adult material".

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[edit] First incarnation (1995-1999)

The channel was proposed by David Montgomery as MGN's foray into pay television. At its launch in 1995, the station was headed by Kelvin MacKenzie with Janet Street-Porter as managing director and a team of young "tellybrats". Street-Porter left after five months due to clashes with MacKenzie over content and was replaced with Mark Cullen. MacKenzie went on to create f programmes that received much coverage but low viewer figures.

Considered cheap and always accused of poor taste, the channel never captured more than 1% of the British television audience under MGN, and at the worst was losing around £7 million a year. It was often described as "tabloid television", art due to its control by MGN and the fact that MacKenzie had been editor of The Sun.

Among its programmes were Topless Darts (with commentary by comedian Jimmy Frinton), the surreal talent show Spanish Archer, Talgarth Trousers (a comedy sketch show) and Canary Wharf, a soap opera, which used the station's offices in the Docklands as a set. Other features were the weather, read in Norwegian by a blonde model (Eva Bjertnes or Anne-Marie Foss) wearing a bikini, Britain's Bounciest Weather with Rusty Goffe (known, although uncredited, for his appearance as an Oompa Loompa in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory) who due to his small stature bounced on a trampoline while doing the forecast (bouncing higher the further north he was talking about), and the News Bunny, a person in a rabbit suit who stood behind a newsreader making gestures and expressions for eachitems.

A typical early show was a two-hour afternoon piece based on viewers' wedding videos. By the second week only one had been sent in, and on phoning the participants to have a live commentary, the presenters were informed that the couple were too busy shopping.

Shortly before its demise in 1999, it was said the channel would bid for rights to show the English Premiership, but it is not clear whether this was a publicity stunt. By this time, the channel had increasingly moved to showing soft porn.

[edit] Second incarnation (2003-2006)

In 2003, L!VE TV returned as a free channel on Sky Digital, first on EPG 274, then on 214. Its content was almost entirely archive from L!VE TV. Then in 2004, following competitor channels, its risqué archive late-night offerings were supplemented with banners advertising adult text messaging.

Towards the end of 2005, the evening and late night were turned over to promoting adult text and phone-in services, involving models stripping to entice viewers into phoning or texting the studio. This was under the pretence that the viewer would get to talk to a studio guest.

By February 2006, content had dwindled to little than these shows and it was moved to the adult section of Sky's EPG on February 28, 2006. Two days later, the name changed to Babeworld, ending links to the MGN operation.

A pre-runner to L!ve TV was the cable and satellite channel Wire TV, a far cry from the wild programming to follow on Live. Regular presenters were Femi Oke, Mike Morris and Fenella George, backed by guest presenters including Chris Stacey, who hosted Quiz Show EastEnders v Corrie for L!ve TV shortly before its demise.

[edit] 2007

A number of archive programmes from L!VE TV, including The Why Files and Lie Detector are being shown on My Channel, formerly known as Eat Cinema, on Sky channel 199.

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