1998 in British Television - Events

Events

• 21 January – The former Conservative MP Rupert Allason loses a libel action against BBC Worldwide and Hat Trick Productions over comments made in a 1996 book based on the satirical television programme Have I Got News for You. A paragraph in Have I Got 1997 for You, had noted "...given Mr Allason's fondness for pursuing libel actions, there are also excellent legal reasons for not referring to him as a conniving little shit".
• February – CNBC Europe merges with European Business News, upon which the channel is known officially as "CNBC Europe - A Service of NBC and Dow Jones".
• 4 February – Debut of The Pepsi Chart Show on Channel 5. Initially presented by Rhona Mitra and Eddy Temple-Morris the programme is intended as a stablemate to the Pepsi Chart that airs across commercial radio. The show becomes one of the channel's most watched programmes, but has difficulty attracting some of the bigger acts of the day.
• 2 March – Channel 5 begins a rerun of the 1980s Australian soap Sons and Daughters. This is the programme's first networked showing as its previous run on ITV had varied from region to region.
• 20 February – Robot Wars in the UK having originally been filmed in the latter half of 1997 then appears on BBC Two.
• 29 March – BBC America launches in the United States.
• 31 March – CMT UK ceases broadcasting.
• 3 April – The Children's Channel ceases broadcasting in the UK after fourteen years.
• 6 April – Cable and Wireless viewers see the Nordic version of The Children's Channel and ceases broadcasting half a year later.
• 16 April – CITV is scheduled to air the tenth episode of ReBoot's third season. However, the episode is not aired and Timmy Towers is aired instead of ReBoot. ReBoot hasn't aired since.
• 9 May – The 43rd Eurovision Song Contest is held at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. The contest is presented by Terry Wogan and Ulrika Jonsson and won by Israel's Dana International singing "Diva".
• 18 May – The British Academy Television Awards are awarded in the separate ceremony to the British Academy Film Awards for the first time.
• 31 May – Sky Scottish closes after 18 months on air.
• 26 June – Launch of the music channel Kiss TV.
• 29 July – British Digital Broadcasting rebrand as ONdigital.
• August – The BBC's domestic TV channels become available on Sky Digital's satellite service. An unintended consequence of this is that people in the rest of Europe can now watch BBC One and Two, using viewing cards from the UK, as the signal is encrypted for rights reasons. This applies even within the UK: people in England can now watch BBC channels from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and vice versa.
• 10 September – Sky Movies Screen 1, Sky Movies Screen 2 and Sky Movies Gold are Change to Sky Premier, Sky Moviemax and Sky Cinema.
• 23 September – BBC Choice, the UK's first digital-only TV station, launches. BBC Parliament also launches on the same day.
• 1 October – Digital satellite television launches in the UK, operated by Sky Digital. This sees the start of UK channels transmitting in 16:9 widescreen.
• 1 October – Sky Sports News is launched.
• 16 October – A man who got drunk and ran amok on the set of Central Television's Central Weekend during a debate on women's football in March, forcing the show to be taken off the air, is jailed for 12 months over the incident.
• 19 October – Richard Bacon becomes the first ever Blue Peter presenter to have his contract terminated in mid-run after the tabloid newspaper News of the World publishes a report of him taking cocaine. After his dismissal the Head of BBC children's programmes, Lorraine Heggessey, goes on air to explain the situation to CBBC viewers.
• 1 November – Launch of FilmFour. The opening night is simulcast on Channel 4.
• 15 November – Digital terrestrial television launches in the UK, operated by ONdigital which became ITV Digital almost 3 years later.
• 20 November – At London's Wandsworth County Court the makers of Channel 4's Fifteen to One are awarded a County Court Judgement against Trevor Montague, a former series champion who broke the show's rule that losing contestants cannot appear on the programme again. Having lost in 1989, Montague re-applied under a different name in 1992 and went on to become series champion, but was subsequently identified by a contestant who watched a repeat of the show on Challenge TV. Montague must pay £3,562 in compensation, and return his prizes – two goblets and a set of decanters – to Regent Productions.
• 7 December – Launch of the UK's second digital-only TV station ITV2.
• 11 December – BBC governors reject a request to give Scotland its own Six O'Clock News bulletin. Instead an extra £20m will be spent on new jobs and programming in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• 14 December – After a world-record-breaking 75 consecutive victories, Ian Lygo makes his final appearance on the Channel 5 game show 100%, after being forced to retire by the show's producers.
• 14 December - after 25 years presenting Sooty Matthew Corbett announces his retirement and hand picks Richard Cadell and Liana Bridges as his successors in the very last edition of Sooty & Co.
• Unknown - The Simpsons 200th episode airs on Sky1.