VideoCrypt is a cryptographic , smartcard -based conditional access television encryption system that scrambles analogue pay-TV signals. It was introduced in 1989 by News Datacom and was used initially by Sky TV and subsequently by several other broadcasters on SES ' Astra satellites at 19.2° east .
97-633: Three variants of the VideoCrypt system were deployed in Europe: VideoCrypt I for the UK and Irish market and VideoCrypt II for continental Europe. The third variant, VideoCrypt-S was used on a short-lived BBC Select service. The VideoCrypt-S system differed from the typical VideoCrypt implementation as it used line shuffle scrambling. The system scrambles the picture using a technique known as "line cut-and-rotate". Each line that made up each picture (video frame)
194-526: A 12-part series about the new disability allowance. BBC Select experimented with programming for specific audiences, and with overnight broadcasts, experience that the BBC would later use when broadcasting the BBC Learning Zone . By broadcasting the programming then, it allowed the BBC to broaden their audience, while allowing more time in the day for other programming. The programming was specifically aimed at
291-416: A circle around it. The channel featured no announcements, promotions or captions for upcoming programming, with presentation featuring only the ident, filler and promotions of the service itself. The ident featured the circle that began rotating, becoming a coin, City of London seal, a rotating machinery part, a retracting telescope, stage light, aeroplane Jet engine and film reel before finally becoming
388-422: A coloured block, and the primetime television listings went from two narrow columns to one wide column. The warning phrase " contains strong language ", used for BBC television programmes from 9.00pm during the hours of watershed broadcasting restrictions was also implemented at this time, lasting until 2009. This layout lasted until shortly before Easter on 13 April 2001, which saw the new masthead title with
485-472: A combination of various transmitters respectively before the two stations merged into a single service, and included three pages of television listings. When Britain's declaration of war with Germany on 3 September 1939 and the television broadcasting ceased, while radio listings continued with a reduced service. From 23 June 1944, the Allied Expeditionary Forces edition carried details of all
582-582: A direct television recorder to decrypt the scrambled signals and send a signal to the doctor's VCR to start recording. Once the BMTV broadcast finished, the DTR would instruct the doctor to rewind the tape, and play it in the following morning. The service was launched in February 1988 by HRH The Princess Royal with a tentative launch date set for May 1988. It is unclear when did these broadcasts start, as they weren't listed in
679-548: A four-year absence: On 22 May 2007, two extra pages of television listings per day were added as part of a slight tweak in the publication's format, bringing it up to ten pages of listings per day in total, or five double-page spreads: one page of highlights with daytime listings and regional variations, followed by two pages of evening's terrestrial television listings (with 'at a glance' for nine digital channels until 2010), then six pages of listings for digital, satellite and cable channels. Digital radio listings were integrated into
776-405: A genuine card. The basic model was that the decoder would present the card with a packet of data (the question or challenge) which the card would process and effectively return the result (the answer) to the decoder proving that it was a genuine card without disclosing any critical information. If the decoder received the wrong result from the card, it was supposed to stop decoding the video. However
873-473: A larger character style, and the television listings were also redesigned including the new film icon and the 'today at a glance' sidebar on the far right of pages were added. Starting from 11 October 1986, the new family viewing policy warned readers that BBC Television does not broadcast programmes before 9.00pm which it believed to be unsuitable for children. On 5 September 1987, Radio Times introduces an innovative title called 'Upfront This Week' devoting
970-442: A major makeover for the programme schedules and the channel headings being visible in greater clarity; BBC1 and BBC2 were once again separated, with the return of the late 1950s/early 1960s layout – television at the front and radio at the back. The week's Radio 1 schedules occupied a single page, followed by Radio 2 (with a facing pair of pages), then several pages of Radio 3 (five pages) and Radio 4 (six pages), and finally
1067-409: A new 'pick of the week' with a single third page for previews, before each day's listings; these came before the two pages of television and the four pages of radio. A new bolder masthead was designed by Abram Games (who created graphical designs such as the ' Festival Star ' on the cover of the 1951 Festival of Britain and the 1953 ' Bat's Wings ' ident) and containing the words "BBC TV and Sound" on
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#17328631072801164-815: A result the programme was broadcast un-encrypted. Early in BBC Select's run, Quay Subscription Television, who was due to provide Farming Now , had entered liquidation in April 1992 after BBC Worldwide paid an unsecure loan to Quay. Farming Now was postponed to 1993, after which it was never materialised. In March 1992, the Executive Business Club started broadcasting with initial free previews. These previews were initially mooted for BBC2, but were intermittently toggling between it and BBC1, likely due to scheduling issues. The Executive Business Club became encrypted in June 1992,
1261-500: A selection of new puzzles created by the television producer Clive Doig , such as the trackword (which consisted of nine squares in one word), as well as backstage stories and a comic strip of Peter Lord 's Morph at the bottom of the page. Between March and December 1983, Radio Times had severe industrial disputes when the British Printing & Communications Corporation and the union SOGAT 82 joined forces, and production
1358-422: A separate section at the front with radio listings relegated to the back; a day's listings were sometimes spread over up to three double-page spreads mixed with advertisements, but this format was phased out when independent publishers were allowed to publish television schedules. The new layout was structured thusly: From 8 October 1960, BBC television and radio schedules were re-integrated; the programmes included
1455-526: A technologically insecure implementation of this otherwise strong cryptographic element made it redundant. The VideoCrypt-S variant, used by the BBC Select service, was based on line shuffle scrambling. This form of video scrambling changes the order in which lines are transmitted thus line 20 may be transmitted as line 32. The VideoCrypt-S variant used six blocks of forty seven lines per field. It had three scrambling formats: full shuffle in which 282 lines were affected; half shuffle, in which every alternate field
1552-401: A testing ground for UK Gold , which launched on 1 November 1992 on satellite. That same month, it was announced that BBC Select had announced its Selector decoder. Internal estimates at the BBC projected 500,000 subscribers by 1996. The service was officially launched during the overnight hours of 21 January 1992, and ran on both BBC1 and 2 . The first programme shown was The Way Ahead ,
1649-514: A week, as well as weekday billings also used by the same layout which adds 12 extra pages of more articles and detailed programmes bringing up to 40 (or 44 for the television edition) on 1 July 1949. From 18 January 1953, the television listing schedules, which had been in the back of the magazine, were placed alongside daily radio schedules. On 17 February 1957 (shortly after the abolition of " Toddlers' Truce ", in which transmissions terminated between 6.00 and 7.00pm), television listings were moved to
1746-536: A year before the deregulation of television listings as they both had exclusivity of the future BBC and other commercial broadcasters respectively. During a major revamp in April 2010, Radio Times was the third-biggest-selling magazine in the United Kingdom. However, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations , the magazine experienced about 2.2% year-on-year decrease to an average weekly sale of 1,648,000 in
1843-626: Is a British weekly listings magazine devoted to television and radio programme schedules, with other features such as interviews, film reviews and lifestyle items. Founded in September 1923 by John Reith , then general manager of the British Broadcasting Company (from 1 January 1927, the British Broadcasting Corporation ), it was the world's first broadcast listings magazine. Consequently, in September 2023 it became
1940-401: Is cut at one of 256 possible "cut points", and the two halves of each line are swapped around for transmission. The series of cutpoints is determined by a pseudo-random sequence. Channels were decoded using a pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) sequence stored on a smart card (aka Viewing Card). To decode a channel the decoder would read the smart card to check if the card is authorised for
2037-401: Is now on the right page. On 22 March 1997, the programme pages in the television section were restyled often include smaller headings and more billing type with several changes in this layout between the narrower columns for Channel 5 schedules (which launches on 30 March) on the right and regional variations on the left page. Yet another major revamp took place on 25 September 1999, where all
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#17328631072802134-547: The BBC Local Radio listings; regional features, which had absent from the English editions since the late 1960s, resumed with a localised page. Later on 25 November of that year, the radio schedules were restored to two pages for each day; some of the English editions now had daily editorial features on radio as well. From 2 June 1990, the entire magazine was published in colour for the first time, and another layout began usage;
2231-665: The Baird process" for half an hour every night at 11.00pm. The launch of the first regular 405-line television service by the BBC was reflected with television listings in The Radio Times ' London edition of 23 October 1936. Thus, Radio Times became the first-ever television listings magazine in the world. Initially, only two pages in each edition were devoted to television, which ran from Monday to Saturday and remained off-air on Sundays. After 14 years, from issue 693 (cover date 8 January 1937), that definitive article word " The "
2328-438: The British Broadcasting Company and publishers George Newnes Ltd within the latter typeset, printed and distributed the magazine. In 1925, the BBC assumed full editorial control, but printing and distribution could not begin in-house until 1937. The Radio Times established a reputation for using leading writers and illustrators, and the covers from the special editions are now collectable design classics. By 26 September 1926,
2425-490: The Christmas edition (22 December); while the programme listing pages were largely the same, the colour-coded days of the week were now at the top of the page headings. On 16 February 1991 (the same date for the debut of the new BBC1 and BBC2 idents), the deregulation of television listings began, and Radio Times started to cover all services that include ITV , Channel 4 and satellite networks, an alphabetical list of
2522-539: The Royal Society of Medicine and ended with the Stopwatch Datapages – a text service with information of interest to the medical industry, with each section being colour-coded to enable easier recognition, even while fast searching. The BBC showed confidence in starting a niche subscription service influenced by BMTV. In September 1989, it was announced that Michael Checkland , at the time Director-General of
2619-543: The Rugby World Cup ) taking part are often marked with different covers for each nation, showing their own team. To mark the 90th anniversary of its publication, the Museum of London hosted an exhibition lasting several months in 2013, which showed various covers as part of the magazine's history. Doctor Who is the most represented programme on the cover, appearing on 29 issues (with 35 separate covers due to multiples) in
2716-488: The deregulation of television listings, there was strong criticism from other magazines that Radio Times was advertised on the BBC (as well as on commercial broadcasting channels), saying that it gave unfair advantage to a publication and includes the tagline: "If it's on, it's in". The case went to court, but the outcome was that, as the Radio Times had close connections with the BBC, it would be allowed to be advertised by
2813-578: The red button and online for BBC channels with additional broadcasts. Following the closure of the BBC3 channel on 20 February 2016, Radio Times started to include BBC4 in the main channels section, with Channel 5 being relegated to the Freeview section. On 24 March 2020, to coincide with the launch of Disney+ , Radio Times introduced two new sections for podcasts and six pages devoted to streaming and various catch-up services . That same year (8 September),
2910-547: The 49 years since the programme began on 23 November 1963. On 30 April 2005, a double-width cover was used to commemorate the return of the Daleks to Doctor Who and the forthcoming general election . This cover recreated a scene from the 1964 serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth in which the Daleks were seen crossing Westminster Bridge with the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in
3007-416: The BBC , would give the corporation a 15% share in BMTV and expanded the existing subscription service, by setting up a subsidiary company. On 31 January 1990, BMTV made its last broadcast; at closing time, it had 4,000 subscribers, each one paying £90 per year to receive the service. It was dissolved after facing losses of a few million pounds a year. Moreover, encryption problems and the overall failure of
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3104-497: The BBC's 100th anniversary celebrations), Radio Times refreshed its format: On 4 April 2023, the radio pages had a major refresh to provide listings by adding three services ( Boom Radio , Greatest Hits Radio , and Times Radio ), as well as a restyled podcasts section to improve pick of the best audio on demand . On 26 November 2002, NTL and BBC Worldwide announced a major new agreement that would offer an exclusive, tailored edition of Radio Times to every NTL customer across
3201-431: The BBC's corporate typeface Gill Sans (used until the end of 2004, being replaced by Interstate in the start of 2005), while the programme pages with eight pages of television listings reverted to having the day running across the top of the page horizontally, and the satellite listings expanded into four pages, while the double-page movie planner section for 18 different film channels was retained. From 30 October 2004,
3298-433: The BBC's coverage and a comprehensive easy-to-use guide preceded by two pages with 'pick of the action' chosen by various pundits , although this layout becoming slightly different whether listings started on the left page with two columns for BBC1 as a dedicated Olympic broadcaster (including BBC Red Button occupies at the bottom) and BBC2 in the single column, as well as ITV , Channel 4 and BBC4 schedules placed on
3395-461: The BBC; however, from 1992 until 2004, it had to depict a static picture of the cover, and show a clear disclaimer reading "Other television listings magazines are available", leading to the phrase entering common public usage for a time. By the early 2000s, advertisements for the publication had become sparse on the BBC. Radio Times has not been promoted on BBC television and radio channels since 2005, following complaints by rival publications that
3492-666: The Proms ) or new series programmes are marked by producing different covers were actually used for other collectors: Each year, Radio Times celebrates those individuals and programmes that are featured at the Covers Party, where framed oversized versions of the covers are presented. Radio Times had several sporting events with more than one of the Home Nations (such as the Six Nations , UEFA European Championship , Commonwealth Games and
3589-499: The United Kingdom and following deregulation, new listings magazines such as Mirror Group 's TV First , IPC Media 's What's on TV , Bauer Media Group 's TV Quick and Hamfield Publications' TV Plus began to be published; several newspapers were also allowed to print television schedules for the entire forthcoming week on a Saturday (or a Sunday), where previously they had only been able to list each day's programmes in that edition. With another major refresh on 31 August 1991,
3686-400: The United Kingdom every week, it would be delivered directly to subscribers' homes. The special NTL edition of Radio Times replaced the monthly Cable Guide magazine (which ran from September 1986 to December 2002) and contained programme information for NTL channels, including all terrestrial services; Front Row 's pay-per-view movies and events were also included. Subscribers were offered
3783-626: The background, and also the cover text read "VOTE DALEK!". On 29 September 2008, in a contest sponsored by the Periodical Publishers Association , this cover was voted the best British magazine cover of all time. Five years later (on 17 April 2010) before the next general election , three special covers depicting the Daleks invading the capital once more within showing their colours of red, blue and yellow as one of several Britain's political parties for Labour , Conservative and Liberal Democrats were used individually. Throughout
3880-469: The changeover meant 8 October 1960 was listed twice, in successive issues. Since Christmas 1969, a 14-day double-duration issue has been published each December containing schedules for two weeks of programmes. Originally this covered Christmas Day and New Year's Day, but on some occasions those have each appeared in separate editions due to the two-week period ending just before the New Year. The Radio Times
3977-538: The channel headers, and the inclusion of director and year of production details for films throughout the day. For the London 2012 Olympics , the listings for three terrestrial channels ( BBC2 , ITV and Channel 4 ) temporarily moved onto the right page and Channel 5 was moved to the next page on the left, as to provide enough space for BBC1 and BBC3 / BBC4 as the Olympic broadcasters, which also reminded viewers of using both
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4074-427: The circle again. The ident could also form out of the background, as the circle drew itself from the top clockwise. This was occasionally used at the startup of the service. Because the service was designed to be played back on VCR , the breaks between programmes were deliberately long, the average gap was five minutes and gaps could easily reach ten minutes, so that programmes could be set to overrun for 5 minutes so
4171-433: The commercial radio stations available with the frequency and a two or three-word summary of that station's output which was added to the local radio page. Full complete listings of the four main channels and satellite began on Friday 1 March. Prior to deregulation, the five weekly listings magazines were as follows: Today, both publications carry listings for all major terrestrial, cable and satellite television channels in
4268-428: The day's listings began with a single page of highlights that included 'at a glance', followed by the double-page spreads of BBC television channels (BBC1 always occupied the left page and BBC2 for the right page, without advertisements interrupting the listings) and BBC radio stations , now enlivened with colour logos at the top of the pages. This layout only lasted for six months, when a new refreshed format debuted in
4365-484: The decades, Radio Times had covers for various television specials and anniversary editions: The cover of the 'Christmas Number' (as this issue came to be called) dating from the time when it contained just a single week's listings, usually features a generic festive artwork, atypical for the magazine, which since the 1970s has almost exclusively used photographic covers. In recent years, Radio Times has published and sold packs of reproductions of some of these covers of
4462-413: The end would not be missed, but it would avoid disrupting recording of a subsequent programme. In these five-minute breaks, a filler was used that composed the static ring logo against a background that constantly and gradually changes colour, to an extended version of the ident music. This would then usually fade into the ident. Radio Times Radio Times (currently styled as RadioTimes )
4559-526: The first broadcast listings magazine to reach and then pass its centenary. It was published entirely in-house by BBC Magazines from 8 January 1937 until 16 August 2011, when the division was merged into Immediate Media Company . On 12 January 2017, Immediate Media was bought by the German media group Hubert Burda . The magazine is published on Tuesdays and carries listings for the week from Saturday to Friday. Originally, listings ran from Sunday to Saturday:
4656-438: The first four weekly issues of the new title for the same price as the existing monthly magazine, delivered free to homes in time for the first programme week of 4 January 2003; both companies actively and jointly marketed the new edition. In 1934, Radio Times achieved a circulation of two million and its net profit in that year was more than one quarter of the total BBC licence income. By the 1950s, Radio Times had grown to be
4753-427: The first such service on BBC Select. Much like BMTV, EBC had also started earlier as a video cassette service, thanks to an agreement between the BBC and Management TV International, EBC's production company. Corporate companies also took advantage of the service. In 1992 and 1993 Cable & Wireless used BBC Select to broadcast highlights of their annual general meeting (AGM). The first broadcast, of their 1992 AGM,
4850-411: The first three pages of illustrated snippets to provide the latest programme highlights from all BBC television and radio networks . On 19 November 1988, Radio Times launched a new weekly back page section called 'My Kind of Day', which was devoted to the latest star interviews with various special guests. On 25 March 1989 (during Easter ), a general overhaul of page layout and design took place, with
4947-420: The first three pages were devoted to an abbreviated listing of all the week's BBC television and radio programmes in a simple condensed form, within major changes were noticeable on the feature pages as well as the colour ones were spread out to accompany rather than the centre page. The look of the magazine initially became far more restrained, with less white space between columns and headings. More significantly,
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#17328631072805044-470: The four extra pages of satellite television listings and one page of the highlights section were scrapped and replaced by a number of ten satellite networks (with two more includes Comedy Channel and CNN International were added) from top to bottom; the daytime schedules for BBC1 and BBC2 flanked the satellite listings on the left, with ITV , Channel 4 and 'at a glance' on the right; the main evening schedules for terrestrial television channels retained
5141-403: The introduction of a weekly crossword puzzle heralded as popular as ever within the publication making its first-ever appearance. From 5 January 1934, the three-column programme pages were expanded to include a fourth column with the BBC's television programmes given a new section layout (on 8 January), and The Radio Times announced a regular series of "experimental television transmissions by
5238-489: The latest reviews and highlights ('choices') somewhat akin to the TV Times , while the daytime listings moved onto the evening section having the full day's output for the five main channels on one double-page spread, other changes saw listings start at 5.00pm rather than 6.30pm (sometimes earlier than 5.00pm for weekends, bank holidays , Easter , Christmas and New Year ), the addition of electronic program guide numbers into
5335-514: The left side, was introduced with this revamp; it became one of the shortest-used designs in the magazine's history. On 4 August 1962, when Radio Times was again revamped, the masthead was replaced with one incorporating the words in the Clarendon typeface ; while the main change was the reduction of BBC radio schedules for three stations to a double-page spread brought down into size, the magazine now generally had between 60 and 68 pages, as compared to
5432-454: The lifestyle section (which covered motoring, gardening and cookery) and the crossword were completely dropped, and the highlights section was scrapped. The front cover was surrounded by a black border and italicised its masthead (now in the Caslon typeface with swash capitals; this logo remained until April 2001), in an attempt to emphasize the "R" for radio and "T" for television. From 5 July 1975,
5529-493: The magazine as Christmas cards . The 1988 Christmas double issue (dated 17–30 December) had a panto -themed cover illustration by Lynda Gray, with its popularity climaxed when the publication sold an astounding 11,220,666 copies, and the Guinness Book of Records certified it as the biggest-selling edition of any British magazine in history. Over the past years, Radio Times published special majestic covers (often marked as
5626-495: The magazine was a BBC publication, the covers had a BBC bias (in 2005, 31 of the 51 issues had BBC-related covers) and consisting of a single side of glossy paper , however the magazine often uses double or triple-width covers that open out for several large group photographs. While the major events (such as Remembrance Day , Crufts , the Oscars / BAFTAs , Eurovision Song Contest , Wimbledon Championships , Glastonbury Festival and
5723-647: The magazine was given a refreshed layout which consisted of horizontal black bars from top to bottom with the familiar darker-shaded look; by this time, the BBC's television schedules included a ' colour ' annotation which was dropped eight years later, as well as programmes in black and white were never indicated with the exception of feature films originally made for the cinema. Another major change occurred on 18 November 1978, in response to wavelength changes (took place on 23 November) that enabled Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland to receive their own separate domestic services in addition to Radio 4 (also known as
5820-583: The magazine with the largest circulation in Europe , with an average sale of 8.8 million in 1955. Following the 1969 relaunch, circulation indeed dropped by about a quarter of a million, it would take several years to recover but the magazine remained ahead of glossier lifestyle-led competitor, TV Times . In the mid-1970s, it was just over four million; but in 2013 it was just over one million. Between January and June 1990, Radio Times had its audited circulation of 2.8 million and TV Times of 2.7 million within
5917-507: The main radio pages, and three new pages of sport, lifestyle and music were added. By 11 April 2009, the digital, satellite and cable schedules were reshuffled (alongside entertainment, factual and children's sections) preceded by 'today's choices' on the left side, and the sport section moves to the right side as well as the films section having also started on the left within the centre pages horizontally. 10 April 2010 saw major changes as Radio Times went through an overhaul, with two pages of
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#17328631072806014-416: The mid-1990s. Chris Townsend, marketing director of BBC Subscription Television, revealed in February 1991 that the effects of the recession of the time led to a drop in consumer spending, causing the BBC to reconsider the launch of BBC Select to the first half of 1992. In September 1991, engineering tests were carried consisting of encrypted airings of Doctor Who and Blake's 7 , which likely served as
6111-486: The narration in its free preview, "authantic programme extracts first broadcast on television in France , Germany and Spain ", selected each year and grouped into themes. German and Spanish programmes consisted of highlights from documentaries, news reports, interviews and pop videos, as well as television adverts. France Panorama took its own approach; the broadcast in the free preview consisted entirely of themed reports - in
6208-515: The narrow columns of BBC's wireless programme schedules were broken up by the insertion of a photograph or two – relevant to or depicting subjects of the broadcasts. On 1 May 1927, The Radio Times produced an experimental Braille edition under the auspices of the National Institute for the Blind with its success led to a regular weekly version publication costing one penny . From 15 January 1933,
6305-477: The national 'Radio 4 UK' service remained until 29 September 1984), the arrival of these services on the pages forced all BBC radio stations into a six-column grid. On 30 August 1980, Radio Times developed a new double-page spread of Robert Ottaway's highlights from the week ahead, often used for both BBC radio and television programmes. The regular inside back page section for younger listeners and viewers featured content from Newsround presenter John Craven and
6402-466: The overnight hours of BBC1 and 2 between 1988 and 1990. BBC2 started carrying engineering tests in late 1987; these tests were encrypted as the BBC was eyeing the potential for the launch of a specialist subscription service. These tests were not mentioned in the press, leaving the intent unclear. The BBC and BMTV signed an agreement in 1988 to carry its programming after BBC2's closedown, encrypted. To this end, doctors who were subscribed to BMTV received
6499-461: The pages now proceeded in a particular order, starting with the letters section, followed by film reviews, then the seven-day programme guide with six pages for television (including satellite) and two pages for radio, as well as the single-page crossword and local radio listings with frequencies, and finally the 'My Kind of Day' for the back page which was preceded by classified advertisements . The programme page headings were returned to being inside
6596-405: The press and on the Radio Times . By December 1988, it had ordered 15,000 decoders manufactured by Philips , expecting to have 50,000 subscribers within two years. In February 1989, approximately 1,200 doctors were subscribed to the service. The service used Discret-11 as its encryption method. Programming consisted of a BMTV News bulletin, instructional programmes provided by entities such as
6693-766: The preview's case, health items - supplied from Antenne 2 . Accounting Television followed in November 1992 and Legal Network Television launched in February 1993. BBC Select's finances deteriorated in July 1992, when the service alone had lost £3.2 million. In June 1993 the BBC announced that it will freeze plans for new subscription services during its overnight downtime due to the service not being profitable. The BBC had planned up to 30 programmes but only four ever launched. By that year, supervisor John Radcliffe had left. The final encrypted programmes were shown in December 1994, by then
6790-494: The professional services of business, nurses, teachers and lawyers with programming made in-house by the BBC with some programming supplied by other independent companies as part of their remit. An example of this was Thames Television whose film Living with Disabilities , and their series The Way Ahead , both made for the Department of Social Security , were distributed free, on condition that no financial gain be made from it: as
6887-462: The programme schedule pages were revamped again, with the regional variations now at the bottom of the daytime section, as well as the same spread on the five main channels; BBC3 , BBC4 , ITV2 , ITV3 (launched on 1 November) and More4 (from 10 October 2005) now appeared in digital/cable section on the right page, with a children's section in a single page on the left. The category sections for digital, satellite and cable listings also returned after
6984-452: The programme start, that would alert the box to the fact the programme was starting. The box would then trigger VCRs to begin recording by sending out a pulse of Infrared to set off the VCR's recorder, as if the viewer had pressed the record button. The total cost for purchase and installation of a Selector was set at £275. The scrambling system used was called " VideoCrypt 'S'". The system
7081-502: The programmes for the Home Service and General Forces Programme . The same year, paper rationing meant editions were only 20 pages of tiny print on thin paper. Radio Times expanded with regional editions introduced from 29 July 1945, and television resumed once again on 7 June 1946. On 4 March 1948, the weekend listing schedules for three BBC radio networks were doubled together with daytime and evening sections in additional four pages
7178-445: The promotions were unfair competition. For various reasons, Radio Times had suffered printing disputes and other operational difficulties have also led to the magazine appearing in a different formats to the standard, as well as some issues were not printed. These include: An annual was published three times: in 1954, 1955 and 1956. The Radio Times Film & Video Guide by the magazine's film and video editor Derek Winnert
7275-511: The rearrangement of Freeview channel listings with Sky Arts moves to the second page, also the three columns in the satellite and cable pages now have on the left side with children's television section, as well as the six film services were also included. During the Tokyo Olympics (which was delayed due to global COVID-19 pandemic ) on 20 July 2021, Radio Times declared its special bumper issue with 212 pages that include 16-day listings of
7372-433: The relaunched format from two years earlier, which contained only 52 pages. From 30 September 1967, Radio Times introduced the all-new colour pages of the magazine's feature sections, including "star stories", Percy Thrower 's gardening, Zena Skinner 's cookery, Bill Hartley's motoring and Jeffery Boswall 's birdwatching , as well as 'Round and About' with up-to-the-minute stories in both television and radio from around
7469-458: The right page. From 25 January 2022, the Freeview schedules have altered once again starting with the return of BBC3 (launches on 1 February after six years since the television channel has moved online ), whether ITV2 's listings now occupies at the bottom, as well as the seven remaining services were also placed in the second and third pages respectively. From 4 October 2022 (three weeks before
7566-426: The same layout. On 5 September 1992, the daytime listings were slightly tweaked, ITV's programme schedules were now sandwiched between BBC2 and Channel 4 within the centre pages, and there were now two pages of satellite and cable channels for each category making up six pages of television listings every day: During 1993, Radio Times used several layouts were altered throughout the year: Radio Times ' design
7663-504: The same typeface simply a bold symbol " BBC TV " to the right of the title – within the price, date and regional edition being overprinted in letterpress at the top of the front page, but the letters section and the crossword were placed inside the back page. On 6 September 1969, Radio Times was given another radical makeover, as they switched the date format from 'month-day-year' to 'day-month-year' and ceased carrying cigarette advertisements after 46 years. The new format inside with
7760-421: The second half of 2009. It averaged a circulation per issue of 497,852 between July and December 2020, versus 1,041,826 for TV Choice and 690,617 for What's on TV . Between April and November 1990, Radio Times began producing four-page previews of British Satellite Broadcasting programmes for five networks which include Sports Channel , Movie Channel , Now , Galaxy and Power Station . During
7857-440: The service had lost £18 million to the BBC. The name BBC Select disappeared in September 1995, being replaced by BBC Focus in its last few weeks on air and the service was closed on 8 October 1995 with the launch of The Learning Zone . To watch programming, a set-top box , or BBC Selector and BBC Select viewing card was required which both decoded and unscrambled the programme. The box also received signals, sent out prior to
7954-412: The service have cost the BBC £500,000. The company that would lead to the creation of BBC Select, BBC Subscription Television Limited, was founded on 1 January 1990, shortly before the shutdown of BMTV; it was already gaining momentum for a subscription service to achieve Checkland's goals. John Radcliffe, head of the planned subscription service, said that, from the experience of the BMTV service, there
8051-473: The specific channel. If not, a message would appear on screen. Otherwise the decoder seeds the card's PRNG with a seed transmitted with the video signal to generate the correct sequence of cut points. The system also included a cryptographic element called the Fiat Shamir Zero Knowledge Test. This element was a routine in the smartcard that would prove to the decoder that the card was indeed
8148-522: The time the UK had 800,000 Irish born citizens. However, the fall of BBC1's ratings demonstrated the opposite, and that niche services weren't able to gain fortunes. In November 1990, it was announced that the new service was to be called BBC Select, receiving an £8 million investment. The core categories carried by the service were going to be community services, leisure, professional business and educational content. An estimated 30 services were supposed to be housed, but this plan wouldn't become viable until
8245-588: The world. At the same time, the four new BBC radio stations (replacing the Home Service , the Light Programme and the Third Programme ) were launched within the schedule listing pages. The layouts of programme page headings have now restyled as well as the three radio pages had been rearranged with schedule billings for Radio 1 and Radio 2 on the first, Radio 3 on the second and Radio 4 on the third. In future weeks, it would boast another revised masthead although
8342-404: Was a demand for niche subscription television. In the summer of 1990, ambitious plans were outlined for a seven-channel subscription television service by Spring 1991. There were no plans for mainstream programmes; one of the plans was to dedicate slots to specialist interests such as natural history, and, if possible, a service provided by RTÉ for Irish expats living in the United Kingdom , at
8439-483: Was affected due to printing problems: On 23 June 1984, the radio listings were redesigned again to improve their legibility and paving the way for a new printing technology. That same year (1 September), web-offset printing was used for the first time, meaning the magazine became brighter and more colourful. Newsprint and sheets of gravure gave way to black ink and white paper , Helvetica replaced Franklin Gothic for
8536-548: Was designed to be viewed after broadcast via a video recording. It was funded by a subscription, and most programming was scrambled. A spiritual predecessor of BBC Select intended for members of the British health care profession, called British Medical TV (BMTV), based in Woking and active in the internal video market for GPs initially producing monthly video tapes as early as 1984, aired encrypted health care-related programming during
8633-589: Was far from secure and a number of hacks were employed. BBC Select (1992%E2%80%931995) BBC Select was an overnight television service run by the BBC during the hours when BBC1 or BBC2 had closed down , usually between 2am and 6am. Launched in 1992 after a series of delays and following the British Medical Television experiment, the channel showed programming intended for specialist audiences, such as businessmen, lawyers, nurses and teachers, and
8730-422: Was first issued on 28 September 1923 for the price of 2 d , carrying details of programmes for six BBC wireless stations ( 2LO , 5IT , 2ZY , 5NO, 5WA and 5SC); newspapers at the time boycotted radio listings fearing that increased listenership might decrease their sales. It included a message to "listeners" by the BBC's chairman, Lord Pease . Initially, The Radio Times was a combined enterprise between
8827-410: Was first published in 1994 featuring more than 18,000 films and an introduction by Barry Norman , former presenter of the BBC's Film programme. A second edition was published the following year. In 2000, a completely new Radio Times Guide to Films was published by BBC Worldwide , edited by Kilmey Fane-Saunders, featuring more than 21,000 film titles. The last edition of Radio Times Guide to Films
8924-559: Was no longer used on the masthead within the magazine, and the publication became simply known as Radio Times ; they also published a lavish photogravure supplement in the same issue. Prior to the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the BBC radio listings provided a National Programme for the whole of the United Kingdom, and the Regional Programme appeared in seven different versions ( London , Midlands , North , West , Wales , Northern Ireland and Scotland ) each with
9021-478: Was published in 2018. In September 2023, Radio Times publishes its own 180-page film guide dedicated to reviews and trivia over 1,000 titles with five different star rating systems which include 250 favourites from the beginning of cinema in 1902 to the present day. There are also similar publications, the Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy by Mark Lewisohn and the Radio Times Guide to Science-Fiction . When
9118-408: Was refreshed on 3 September 1994, the television listings now had the day's name written vertically, beginning with the daytime section including 'today's choices' (which replaced 'at a glance' on the left page), followed by the main evening's schedules in an original four-column grid, as well as the highlights section (now occupying the far left page within the satellite listings), and the movie planner
9215-427: Was scrambled; and a line delay scramble in which the start position of the video in each line was pseudo-randomly delayed. The BBC chose to use line shuffle scrambling rather than line cut-and-rotate because tests had shown that line cut-and-rotate is more susceptible to picture degradation when exposed to ghosting and co-channel interference conditions commonly present in terrestrial transmissions. The VideoCrypt system
9312-480: Was the first time in the UK that a company AGM had been televised. These highlights were broadcast unencrypted. The Royal College of Nursing started airing unencrypted programmes once a week in June 1992 aiming at nurses. TV Edits carried language-based specialist programming, encrypted. A preview broadcast was shown in the clear showing the contents of France Panorama , Deutschland Heute and España y las Américas . The concept behind TV Edits was, according to
9409-453: Was very similar to what British Sky Broadcasting were using for their analogue satellite transmissions, but was modified due to technical limitations of terrestrial TV. The new service had differing presentation to the BBC channels that they broadcast on. The presentation featured a single gold circle in centre screen with the BBC Select caption beneath. The 'S' in Select of the caption has
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