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Cablelink

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  • 23-04-2009 1:20am
    #1
    Red Sleeping Beauty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,443 ✭✭✭


    What channels did they have for Dublin ?
    Was it :
    RTE
    RTE2
    UTV
    Ch4
    BBC 1
    BBC 2
    Sky 1 (with the exception of that wierd two year period there in the early 90s)
    Sky News
    TCC (I think it was Boomerang or Childrens Network that other regions in Ireland got?)

    What else was there ?
    I remember the Super channel, and some mix channel (were the on the same freq. ?) with little preview boxes of what was on at that time.

    I can't remember when National Geographic came along (was it when NTL showed up ?)


    Free channels in 1996 :
    At some point during 1996 I was able to tune in a few extra free channels. One of them was Bravo/TNT and I think I may have got living. I'm in Dublin and loads of other kids in school at the time talked about getting the channels (cause wrestling was on Bravo!).


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    #2
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    In 1996 I remember the following on the network in Ballyfermot:

    RTÉ 1
    Network 2
    BBC 1
    BBC 2
    UTV
    Channel 4
    CNBC
    Sky One
    Sky News
    TCC
    MTV Europe
    Eurosport
    TV5
    Sky Movies
    The Movie Channel
    Sky Movies Gold
    Sky Sports
    Sky Sports 2

    There was also a mosaic channel which showed what was on all of the channels, I think TnaG or TV3 later took this frequency. Sky Sports 3 and The Disney Channel were also added during 1996/97. CNN was also there but the reception was terrible and the picture was scrambled in Cryptovision. It wasn't officially available. National Geographic was added around 1999, it was the digital feed rather than the post 7pm feed that analogue satellite viewers got. Overall I'd say the analogue network peaked at about 25 channels.

    Cartoon Network was on the CMI network in Celbridge. Irish Multichannel in Cork and Kerry provided TCC, I think they also switched to Nickelodeon after TCC's demise.


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    #3
    Red Sleeping Beauty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,443 ✭✭✭Red Sleeping Beauty


    Oh yeah, Eurosport and TV5 :) it was them ones I was forgetting. You needed a decoder for the sky movies & sports. Listening in to the commentary on sports with the scrambled picture was a regular occurance in our house


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    #4
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Yep, it was a Cryptovision unit with no viewing cards. The encryption looked very similar to Sky's VideoCrypt (both being line cut and rotate systems) but Cryptovision preserved the colour while VideoCrypt tended to put a greyish tint on it.

    I remember using a little trick back in 1995. At the time, the Cablelink mosaic was showing the premium channels. So I put the mosaic on, while tuning in the scrambled feed using the video recorder's tuner... feeding the audio to a stereo! Crude (and only a tiny screen) but worked!
    The Sky Sports 2 channel was dead during the week as it only broadcasted on Friday evenings and Saturdays and Sundays. The rest of the time it simply had a static Sky Sports 2 ident. For a while they carried Sky Sports Gold on the channel during the week for a couple of hours.

    I moved out of Dublin in the summer of 1996 so my knowledge of the cable network after that time isn't great unfortunately. :(


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    #5
    Elmo
    Registered Users Posts: 23,641 ✭✭✭✭Elmo


    I didn't have Cablelink but I think they use to have Super Channel (NBC Super and now CNBC?????) National Georgraphic in the late 1990s at least.

    They also have a bulletin board channel.

    1996 and 1998 saw the addition of TG4 and TV3 respectively.


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    #6
    Red Sleeping Beauty
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,443 ✭✭✭Red Sleeping Beauty


    TnaG I believe it was called.


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    #7
    Elmo
    Registered Users Posts: 23,641 ✭✭✭✭Elmo


    Alan Rouge wrote: »
    TnaG I believe it was called.

    And still is it only trades as TG4.


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    #8
    dublinbusdude
    Registered Users Posts: 449 ✭✭dublinbusdude


    God I remember the channel list when it was Cablelink in last August 1996 when we got it downstairs in the sitting room

    RTE1
    Network 2
    BBC1 N.I.
    BBC2 N.I.
    TG4 (In October)
    UTV
    Channel 4
    Sky News
    Sky One
    The Children's Channel
    Eurosport
    CNBC
    Muti Channel
    MTV
    TV5 France
    I think this one is right - National Geograph Channel

    Still have the old Cablelink box with f cable point on it


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    #9
    Elmo
    Registered Users Posts: 23,641 ✭✭✭✭Elmo


    dublinbusdude wrote: »
    TV5 France

    Le Monde :)
    Still have the old Cablelink box with f cable point on it

    We had the RTÉ Relays box for years before we actually got Cablelink.


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    #10
    dublinbusdude
    Registered Users Posts: 449 ✭✭dublinbusdude


    Where about in Tereurne was Cablelink's control centre, I post up 2 YouTube videos later to show you what I mean


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    #11
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Cablelink's former HQ in Ballsbridge is up for sale on myhome.ie's commercial site. It seems to have fallen victim to the property crash having being bought by a developer who went bust. It's currently unoccupied.


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    #12
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,511 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Karsini wrote: »
    Cablelink's former HQ in Ballsbridge is up for sale on myhome.ie's commercial site. It seems to have fallen victim to the property crash having being bought by a developer who went bust. It's currently unoccupied.

    After the NTL takeover, they moved to East Point. Chorus NTL still have their registered office as the East Point building even though much of their operation is now at the former Chorus HQ in Limerick.

    As for the line-up - the analogue line-up immediately after the start of satellite broadcasting was:

    RTÉ1, RTÉ2, BBC1, BBC2, UTV, Channel 4, Sky Channel, Super Channel, Lifestyle, TCC, Screensport, MTV Europe, and an encrypted Prem1ere.

    By the 1999 takeover, the line -up was much as today - RTÉ1, RTÉ2, TV3, TG4, BBC1, BBC2, UTV, Channel 4, Sky One, Sky News, MTV, TV5 Europe, CNBC/National Geographic, Nickelodeon, Link, with Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, Sky Moviemax, Sky Cinema, Sky Premier, and The Disney Channel as the premium line-up.
    I didn't have Cablelink but I think they use to have Super Channel (NBC Super and now CNBC?????) National Georgraphic in the late 1990s at least.

    What happened was that when NBC Europe - which is what the former Super Channel was, very briefly, called in its final few months of broadcasting - Cablelink replaced it with National Geographic. CNBC Europe was broadcast from 5am-11am in the mornings on the same frequency.

    NBC Europe didn't really "become" CNBC Europe, though some of CNBC Europe's programmes were simulcast on NBC Super Channel / NBC Europe during the 1996-1998 era, basically to fill time. This was after Super abandoned its attempts at being a general entertainment channel and switched to being a "profesionals" channel during the day and "Where The Stars Come Out At Night" in the evenings. But CNBC Europe had existed as a seperate channel long before NBC Europe closed.


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    #13
    bazzer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 362 ✭✭bazzer


    icdg wrote: »
    What happened was that when NBC Europe - which is what the former Super Channel was, very briefly, called in its final few months of broadcasting - Cablelink replaced it with National Geographic. CNBC Europe was broadcast from 5am-11am in the mornings on the same frequency.

    Cablelink themselves didn't actually have to do anything here. NBC simply changed the output on their analogue European feed from the previous NBC Europe channel to a combined National Geographic / CNBC.

    NBC Europe actually continued on a seperate satellite digital feed designed for the German market and still carried The Tonight Show and Late Night. I watched these shows for many years after they disappeared from Cablelink.


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    #14
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Dublin frequencies from 1998:

    http://web.archive.org/web/19980501102255/www.cablelink.ie/tvfreqf.htm


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    #15
    Freddie59
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,679 ✭✭✭Freddie59


    Moved house recently and came across a couple of old Cablelink flyers and lists in the attic. I'll post a couple of scans in the next few days.


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