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1991 Chronokey Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references.


links and notes
  Cultural highlights | Predictions made this year  
January 1  Independent Television Commission (ITC) replaces the Independent Broadcasting Authority and the Cable Authority as the UK television regulator.  
January 13  Seizure of the Vilnius TV Tower in Lithuania by Soviet troops is opposed in clashes that result in the deaths of 14 citizens and injuries to 700.  
January 28  Turner Broadcasting System launches TNT Latin America to 16 countries.  
January  Philips adopts the MPEG-1 standard for CD-i full-motion video (FMV). The company plans to launch its first US CD-i players in autumn 1991 without the FMV capability.  
January  A prototype consumer recordable (write-once) consumer CD system is demonstrated by Kenwood USA.  
January  C-Cube Microsystems and SuperMac Technology announce the joint development of a video compression card for Apple Macintosh computers.  
March 1  In the UK, television listings are deregulated, ending the monopoly of the BBC and ITV in publishing weekly schedules in Radio Times and TV Times respectively.  
March 11  BBC World Service Television, an international satellite broadcasting service, begins transmissions worldwide and replacing BBC TV Europe. In Asia it is available on Star TV via AsiaSat and some programme is relayed on CBC Newsworld in Canada and on M-Net in Africa > 1995 January 16
March  C-Cube demonstrates real-time video compression from a single chip.  
April 8 04:00  Former BSB music channel The Power Station closes. BSkyB will include MTV in its package.  
April 20  BSkyB rebrands The Sports Channel as Sky Sports.  
April  Commodore launches CDTV, selling in UK at £599.  
May 1  BBC Radio 1 begins a permanent round-the-clock schedule.  
May 17  First server running HTML and HTTP is set up and running by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, thereby initiating the World Wide Web. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.
May 24  Slovakia's National Council adopts the Act on Slovak Television, confirming its status as 'a national, independent, information, cultural and educational public service institution'. The Act (in English)
May  Sony announces development of the Mini Disc, a recordable magneto-optical 6cm/2.5-inch format. It intends to launch products by the end of 1992.  
June 17  European Audiovisual Observatory is established with a base in Strasbourg, France to co-ordinate information about media in Europe.  
June  QuickTime multimedia extensions for Macintosh System 7.0 are announced by Apple.  
July 1  Court TV is launched in the US.  
July 31  BBC finally closes its Lime Grove television studios.  
July  Philips and Sony launch low-cost CD-ROM drives for home computers. Bundled software is included to stimulate the consumer market.  
August 31  BBC Television introduces NICAM stereo sound.  
August  Pioneer presses its 100 millionth Laser Disc.  
September 15  MTV Asia pop music channel launched as joint venture between Viacom and Hutchvision, reaching 30 countries as part of Star-TV satellite service.  
September 22  Sponsorship of programmes is permitted on ITV in the UK.  
October 16  UK's Independent Television Commission announces the results of the auctions for 16 ITV franchises, due to take effect from 1 January 1993.  
October  Philips launches a $1,000 consumer CD-i player in the USA.  
October  Advertising of cigars and pipe tobacco is banned on UK television.  
October  Sony shows a prototype hand-held Discman-style CD-i viewer with a 10cm/4-inch screen.  
October  Kyocera shows a prototype portable CD-i player designed to be one-quarter the size of a standard briefcase.  
October 29  First close-up photograph of an asteroid is taken by NASA's Galileo space probe, 1,600km from the planet 951 Gaspra. Because of a failure in the communications system, images are relayed back to Earth at only 40 bits/sec.  
November 6  Death at sea, in mysterious circumstances, of British media tycoon Robert Maxwell.  
November  Silvio Berlusconi’s Fininvest media conglomerate launches Telepiù pay TV service in Italy; government insists Fininvest may not own more than 10 per cent.  
November  <M-Net and Richemont acquire 75 per cent of FilmNet pay TV service./td>  
November  Prototype combi-player accommodating CD, Laser Disc and CD-I is demonstrated by Pioneer.  
November  Philips buys a stake in international video rental chain Blockbuster Entertainment for $66m.  
December 25  ITV builds an episode of Coronation Street around the Queen's Christmas message by having the Alf Roberts character sit down to watch.  
December  M-Net launches pay TV service in Namibia. > 1992
December  Microware Systems Corporation forms MicroMall Inc to develop and install CD-i point-of-sale/information systems.  
December  Up to 1,350m shares in British Telecom are offered for sale, reducing the state ownership from 47.7 per cent to 25.8 per cent. > 1993 July
•  Production of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, costs $95m—the most expensive film production to date. Rising cost of feature films
•  Japan’s BS-3b broadcasting satellite is launched.  
•  In Armenia, the Law on Press and Other Mass Media abolishes censorship and establishes the principle of freedom of the press.  
•  A temporary television service is launched in Fiji. > 1994
•  Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion (CLT) moves its administrative and radio operations from the Villa Louvigny to Kirchberg outside the city. > 1996
•  Liberty Media Corporation is created by Tele-Communications Inc (TCI) to own and manage TCI's programming and regional sports assets.  
•  Sega acquires the distribution side of UK-based computer games software company Virgin Mastertronic from the Virgin Group for £40m. The retained publishing business is renamed Virgin Games.  
•  Thorn EMI acquires the remaining 50 per cent of UK record company Chrysalis Records. < 1989
> 1992 June
•  UK price of the Sega Megadrive is reduced to £129.  
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Page updated 10 March 2011
© David Fisher