Bell Cablemedia

[Pierre]

The U.K. had two national telecoms companies. Within the U.K. it was BT, and in the Empire and overseas territories it was Cable & Wireless (after various incarnations).

C&W formed a subsidiary in the U.K. called Mercury Communications and they built a national Core fibre Network. (using white duct instead of grey).

It was Mercury that merged with all the CATV franchises Hugh listed to form CWC.

It’s evolution was broadly similar to NTL, whereas it was NTL that had the National Core Network and that was bought/merged with CableTel, Diamond, Comtel, Comcast, Telecential ( no doubt a few others, to form NTL)

Telewest evolved a bit differently as they never bought a company that had a National backbone.

They built a national backbone for a company called 360 Networks, but they went bust, and Telewest were left with it.

[Rillington]

Thank you for the information Hugh.

When Jones Cable began in Leeds, did Jones cover any other areas?

I had always wondered why Jones Computer Network was available on Bell Cablemedia for a while - it was replaced by Knowledge TV - but it now makes sense given that Bell Cablemedia was originally Jones Cable.

The original Jones Cable franchise were Watford, and Leeds/Harrogate/York.

[Rillington]

I know the roll-out in York began in 1995., when the the roll-out in Leeds and Harrogate begin, and which area of Leeds was the first to get it? I assume it was Seacroift due to the location of Jones' headquarters in Leeds.

Incidentally, after seemingly lying dormant for a whole it became a gym and is now Ninja Warrior UK Adventure (Leeds), and according to Streetview, two of the satellite dishes were still in situ in 2021.

Yes, the Leeds roll-out began early ‘94 (Seacroft, then a reasonably rapid roll-out (I live in Adel, and we got it Third Quarter ‘94), then Harrogate and York in ‘95

[Rillington]

Thank you for the information.

Can you remember if any channels were removed by BCM between when BCM began its Leeds roll-out and by the time BCM came to York in late 1995? The first time I recall any channels being removed was at the start of September 1996 when, among others, BCM removed CMT and EBN.

Sorry, no, I can’t remember any of those - I was in Billing, not Provision…

[Rillington]

Fsir enough.

Jones did carry Wire TV as it was mentioned in the promo, however L!ve TV was not there by the time cable into my life. Can you recall if L!ve TV was ever carried?