Friendly TV
Ownership
OwnerHi2 Limited
History
LaunchedMay 2003
Closed6 January 2010

Friendly TV was a British television channel, owned by Hi2 Limited.[1] Much of the channel's output was made up of interactive programmes and games which allowed user participation by phone or mobile phone using SMS messaging. The channel was widely regarded as a pioneer in the low budget user generated content that accelerated the transition to online tv.

The channel was launched in 2003 on Sky Digital channel 268[2] and received immediate criticism for its poor content. Program content was devoted to an internet-based game called Brainbox, or a lengthy computer games show called GamerWeb[3] contrary to the station's EPG.[4]

A notable incident occurred in May 2003 when presenters were accidentally broadcast alleging that Nicole Kidman was a lesbian.[5][6]

Shortly after the channel was launched it ran a number of wrestling shows including Irish Whip Wrestling, Frontier Wrestling Alliance, and Pro Wrestling Noah. These were pilots[7] for the TV station which was launched as The Wrestling Channel and later became The Fight Network.

The channel broadcast onto a number of Sky channels and was responsible for programmes such as Bikini Beach, Cash House, Stash the Cash, Vegas 247, and Live Roulette.

Nicole Kidman incident

This incident which made Friendly TV infamous occurred in May 2003 when former QVC presenter Paul Lavers and his co-presenter, Karen Witchalls, were fronting the morning show. The show mainly consisted of items based on that day's newspapers. The show ran a text poll with a Nicole Kidman related question.

The channel did not show adverts at this time even though they still had breaks, which consisted of the studio camera zooming in to a television screen in the studio that was displaying details of the poll (notably excluding the cost of the text message), which means it appears they couldn't put the graphics directly to air. Instead of turning the presenter's microphones down during the break, everything the presenters and the studio crew said was clearly audible, including the unfounded rumour that Kidman was gay.[5] The presenters apologised when they learned that this had been accidentally broadcast.[5]

Victor Lewis Smith wrote a scathing review of this episode the next day.[6]

Ofcom Content Sanctions Committee

Eventually, in February 2010, an Ofcom Sanctions Committee ruled against Friendly TV and related broadcasters, concluding that "serious and repeated breaches" had been committed.[8]

To quote directly from the judgment of the Ofcom Sanctions Committee:

1.2 Friendly TV and Bedroom TV provide daytime chat and (post watershed) adult sex chat telephone services with little or no editorial context. Their programmes encourage viewers to call a premium rate service ("PRS") telephone number and talk to an onscreen presenter. Viewers can see female presenters engaged in conversation but cannot hear what is being said as music is played over the images. At certain intervals the presenters switch on a microphone and speak directly to viewers to encourage them to call the PRS number.

The Committee concluded that the breaches were serious making specific reference to explicit and graphic sex material broadcast without access restrictions after the 21:00 watershed. In accordance with Ofcom's statutory duty to protect the under-eighteens.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hi2 Limited
  2. ↑ "Snapshot of content and producers". Archived from the original on 12 June 2003.
  3. ↑ "Archive website of Gamerweb". Archived from the original on 17 February 2003.
  4. ↑ "FriendlyTV :: http://www2.friendlytv.com". www2.friendlytv.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2003. Retrieved 12 January 2022. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  5. 1 2 3 Video of the incident, includes clip from later in the week referring to the incident.
  6. 1 2 Lewis Smith, Victor. "Reality behind naff TV". MGN ltd., The Free Library. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
  7. ↑ Wrestling Channel makes pilot launch
  8. ↑ "Ruling of Ofcom Content Sanctions Committee" (PDF).
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