| 1989 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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| January 17 |
French broadcasting regulatory body Commission Nationale de la
Communication et des Libertés is replaced by the Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA). |
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| January 29 |
First half-hour episode of Shining Time Station, based on the British series
Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, is screened on the PBS network in the US. |
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| February 5 |
Sky Television launches a UK direct-to-home satellite
service via the Astra 1A satellite. Instead of using MAC encoding, it uses
PAL, arguing that this is not a direct broadcasting by satellite (DBS) service. Four channels are
offered: Sky Channel, Eurosport, Sky Movies and Sky News. |
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| April |
UK cable channel The Arts Channel closes. |
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| April 20 17:00 GMT |
Discovery Channel launches in Europe,
transmitting for six hours a day from Intelsat V to cable systems in UK and Scandinavia. |
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| June 3 |
Regular Hi-Vision high definition television transmissions by satellite begin in Japan. |
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| June 21 |
Herman J Mankiewicz’s scripts
for Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, and
The American sell at Christie’s auction house in New York for $231,000. |
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| June |
US consumer
CD-i launch rescheduled for June/July 1990. |
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| June |
Polygram has spent a cumulative total of $24m developing CD-i software. |
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| July |
Sony and Taiyo Yuden form a joint venture to develop recordable CD technology. |
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| July |
Nintendo launches the Game Boy hand-held computer games unit in the US. |
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| August 27 |
British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) launches the Marcopolo 1 satellite, ready for its DBS
service. |
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| October 2 |
Eureka Audiovisual programme established by 26
European countries, brought together by the European Commission, to provide a framework
for initiatives in stimulating European film and television production. |
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| October |
First demonstration of full-motion full-screen
video from a CD-i disc is given at a meeting of the format's licensees in Tokyo. |
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| October |
Sony completes acquisition of Columbia Pictures. |
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| October |
Pioneer buys DiscoVision Associates, the company
holding the key optical disc patent portfolio, from MCA and IBM. |
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| November 7 |
BBC Television transmits the first programme
bought form an ITV company: Granada Television’s What the Papers Say had been on
ITV for 26 years and then Channel Four for eight years. |
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| December 1 |
Turner Broadcasting System licenses 1,000 feature films
from Columbia Pictures Television, largest ever package for basic cable screening (on TNT). |
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| December 25 |
Television service starts in Cook Island, the network
of main transmitter and seven repeater stations of CITV having been installed in two months. |
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| l |
British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) introduces the
12 certificate. |
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| l |
First (and so far only) film produced by the Cape Verde
Islands: a Portuguese co-production, Os Flagelados do Vento Leste, directed by Antonio Faria. |
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| l |
Tele-Communications Inc establishes it TCI Education Project
to offer free cable connections, commercial-free educational programming and teacher training
to schools in its service areas. |
|
| l |
Golden Channels cable TV operation established in Israel. |
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