Music Box (TV Channel) - History

History

As a 24-hour TV channel in the 80s, Music Box was able to reach 60 million potential viewers in Europe and the Middle East thanks to satellite distribution. At the time, a satellite reception system was very expensive and for this reason the channel was very big in countries where cable TV was largely used, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Scandinavian countries. Music Box was also partially retransmitted on several terrestrial local channels in Italy and a special Italian version of Music Box was created in spring of 1988. A couple of Music Box shows were also retransmitted by Japanese broadcaster NHK. In 1986, Yorkshire Television from ITV decided to go 24 hours a day, but little cash was invested in that service, and so, most of the downtime was filled with a rebroadcast of Music Box. It was the first time that an ITV company (allegedly) broadcast 24 hours. Music Box was originally based in the heart of London, in a building where Virgin Vision and Super Channel were also based, and later gave home to the London offices of CNN International and Cartoon Network and now Warehouse (Clothing retailer). The address during the satellite years was 19-21 Rathbone Place (London) and the public address for Music Box was P.O. Box 4DX, London W1A 4DX, England.

On 30 January 1987 Super Channel was launched on the same satellite frequency previously used by Music Box on pan-European satellite Eutelsat 1-F1 located at 13° east, replaced during 1987 by Eutelsat 1-F4. For this reason Music Box stopped being a 24-hour TV channel, and Virgin set up Music Box as an independent producer of music programmes, continuing to broadcast its shows until the end of September 1987 for 10 hours a day on Super Channel. From October 1987 until January 1990 it was reduced from 10 hours a day to just a couple of hours a day of music programmes to be produced for Super Channel, with a two-month long break in late 1988 due to problems related with Super Channel, which was going to be sold. Music Box ended its satellite experience in January 1990 with the last pan-European showing of The Power Hour.

The creator of the three Satellite channels, as Director of Programmes, was Julian Mounter, who joined Music Box from Thames Television. Recognising that income for satellite television would not flow in any quantity for several years, Mounter set about negotiating revolutionary union deals to enable the use of smaller studio and location crews. He commandeered a boardroom at the HQ of Thorn EMI as one of the studios and a small basement on Shaftesbury Avenue, and it was there that many of the programmes were made before better facilities were found. The channels broke new ground in graphics, promotion and presentation, and set standards and practices still followed today. Mounter left in 1986 to become Director General of Television New Zealand, and the three channels then took on individual senior management.

Music Box as a satellite channel was sometimes said to have made a very small contribution to the demand for the demise of Communism in Eastern Europe as, in its prime, it was 'illegally' watched by young Eastern Europeans using home made satellite dishes, sometimes made out of dustbin lids. It gave many young people their first view of life in the West.

Directors on the channel included Rob Jones, who took over from Mounter as Director of Programmes, Geoffrey Davies, Rod Fairweather, John Leach, Les Harris, Ludo Graham, Simon Sanders and Siubhan Richmond.

After leaving satellite television, Music Box became a specialized producer of music shows for major British broadcasters and is now owned by Tinopolis, which also owns the firm Sunset+Vine, previously the owner of Music Box. The company's best known programme of this period was the late night ITV production Forever which features pop videos and interview clips from stock footage.