NBC Europe
Encyclopedia : N : NB : NBC : NBC Europe
- For the unrelated former Canadian service that was originally known as Superchannel, see Movie Central.
NBC Europe (formerly Super Channel) was a satellite television channel based in the United Kingdom that broadcast across Europe. It was picked up by various European cable television networks.
Early history
Launched in 1987, Super Channel was co-owned by all but one of the ITV companies at the time in the United Kingdom [link]. It competed with SKY Channel, forerunner of Sky One, which was the only other major pan-European satellite-channel around at the time. Unlike SKY Channel, Super Channel's syndicated output was less American and more European. Many of the programmes were what it called the "Best of British", sourced from ITV or the BBC, while ITN produced news bulletins. It also broadcast syndicated non-British European programmes such as the Dutch sitcom [Zeg 'ns AAA] (with English subtitles).
Super Channel fared poorly, unable to earn sufficient revenue from advertising or cable networks that carried it, while its British programming, with the exception of The Benny Hill Show, did not appeal to most audiences in mainland Europe. (The BBC later went on to launch its own, more successful, subscription-funded channel BBC TV Europe - now BBC Prime).
Within a year, the ITV companies sold the channel to the Italian Marcucci family, with a minority stake being held by Richard Branson's Virgin plc, and the programming changed from British to pan-European, although it continued carrying ITN's World News bulletins.
NBC steps in
In 1993, the station was having financial difficulties, and was taken over by the American company General Electric, the parent of the NBC television network, and became NBC Super Channel. In 1996, the channel was renamed NBC Europe, but was, from then on, almost always referred to as simply "NBC" on the air.
Most of NBC Europe's prime time programming was produced in Europe, but after 11PM Central European Time on weekday evenings, the channel aired The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live, hence its slogan "Where the Stars Come Out at Night." Most NBC News programs were broadcast on NBC Europe, including Dateline NBC and NBC Nightly News, which was aired live. The Today Show was also initially shown live in the afternoons, but was later broadcast the following morning instead, by which time it was more than half a day old. That meant that all news portions had to be replaced with European updates produced by ITN in London. ITN also supplied the network with the main European newscasts before and after the GE takeover. The European weather was produced by the BBC at first, but was later taken over by NBC in the U.S.
NBC Europe carried virtually no prime time fiction entertainment programs shown by NBC in the US, because they were distributed by other studios and sold to broadcasters in individual countries. NBC did not own the rights, and would have had to buy the rights for each country in order to show them on NBC Europe, which would have been too expensive.
NBC Europe stopped broadcasting to most of Europe in 1998. However, a German spin-off bearing the same name continued to operate, mainly to continue service to central European cable networks. It was owned by DFA until NBC Universal took it over in 2004. Programming was assembled with content from GIGA and CNBC Europe, as well as other shows including Fresh 4 U. The remaining content on this channel as well as a small amount of GIGAs output is now shown on Das Vierte, which served as an almost direct replacement for the channel on October 1 2005.
External links
- [Super Channel] from the [TV Ark]
- [Uphill Struggle for Pan-Europe Stations : Televising to a Continent] article from International Herald Tribune March 16, 1994
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