music box

[Rob ODonnell]

I've got a couple of tapes from the mid 80's of shows from a satelite/cable channel "Music Box". This was pre-sky, pre-BSB, virtually pre cable. I've never met anybody who has even heard of it! The chanel was already in it's death throws, and the ad breaks are mostly for it's replacement, "super channel" which looked like it was going to be all bbc drama repeats, but turned out to be not so good as that, and in turn met it's demise a few years later.

Music box was a sort of UK version of MTV when it was interesting, and was mostly live. It could definitely be a "before they were famous" for most of the presenters - I've seen several rise to fame on mainstream tv since.

Most of the sites I've seen seem to concentrate on BBC & ITV drama shows. What happens to smaller and obscure channels and production companies when they cease trading, get sold, etc. Is there anywhere that keeps track of them and their output?

[e-mail]

[StevePhillips]

Interesting point.

Tape libraries belonging to such TV companies would be treated as simply part of the asset of the company, and hence could be dealt with in the same manner as, for example, the desks, photocopiers and PCs.

When a company ceases business, it has usually either been taken over by another company, where the assets go to the new company, or gone into liquidation, where the remaining assets are usually sold off to pay debts.

I guess that if a outfit was in receipt of a tape archive from a defunct TV company, and perceived it to be of little or no value, it could junk it all. The BBC's charter has something obliging it to keep an archive; and I imagine the ITV franchises might also have. I very much doubt that the Astra satellite company (for example) makes such a requirement of the people it leases transponders to though!

Luckily it isn't a huge issue at the moment as the sort of channels we're talking about make sod all original programming, but it makes you wonder about the future. I guess all the old BSB programmes went to Sky when they merged, but had that not happened, there could have easily been a massed junk....

Steve