GH: ABC Television in London

[AMCHistory]

I remember reading in 2004 that ABC had acquired some sort of network in England and was broadcasting their shows via this network. Was it a cable channel?

The reason I am asking is that I get to write a paper of my choice for my Advanced International Business Seminar, and I would love to write it about the success or lack thereof of American shows in the UK. We measure suprisingly close in terms of cultural models, but some shows just don't make it.

I would love to focus on the differences between the British "soap" and the American Daytime Drama. I do not believe GH lasted very long even though they used a good spring board (the Port Charles hotel fire).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If not, I have to go in a different direction (my back up is the United Colors of Bennetton and their early 90's ad campaign and how it had to be adapted to American markets). But frankly, getting to write about shows like GH would be more intersting and kind of fun senior year.

[dannigold]

The channel was called abc1, and was available on freeview and sky. However the entire channel will be scrapped this year.

[JamesF]

Yeah it launced on ABC1 sometime in late 2004 and was gone about 9 months later I think. Supposedly due to politics as opposed to ratings though you'd probably want to research for sure. The channel itself is wrapping up sometime next month.

There's another thread on here about several soaps returning to UK screens this month. Y&R, DOOL, GL and B&B are all airing again.

[AMCHistory]

Thanks guys, LexisNexis has a lot on the recent closing and what caused the audiance share to be so small.

[heatherwebber]

Freeview wan't precisely cable. I think it was some kind of free satellite service funded by the stations over there. Something of the sort anyway.

But Sky is satellite so I'm not sure how that fit in. I only read this was on Freeview back when it was airing. They dropped GH pretty quick I think.

[JamesF]

Freeview is just digital through a rooftop aerial with a digibox decoder in between. I know it launched as a Freeview channel and was definitely on Sky very early on if not from the beginning. It joined digital cable which I have a few months in. Early 2005 at a guess. I started watching GH at that point and the earliest episodes I remember involved Mary Bishop looking after Nikolas who had amnesia and Sonny having an affair with Sam. There was something to do with a murder that Skye was being framed for and the body was in the Quartermaine's freezer or something. It's all a bit hazy.

ETA: Just remembered that they started the series from ABC1's launch with the hotel fire.