| 1995 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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| January 1 |
First specialised channel of China Central Television (CCTV), CCTV Sports, goes on air. |
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| January 2 |
First episode of comedy series Cybill broadcast in US by CBS. |
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| January 3 |
State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting (Derzhteleradio) is established in Ukraine. |
â June 15 |
| January |
Jupiter Programming Company (JPC) is formed in Japan as a joint venture between Sumitomo
Corporation and Tele-Communications International (TINTA) to manage and distribute channels for cable and
satellite networks. |
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| January |
DCTV (Danubius Cable TV), the first private Slovak-language television channel begins
transmissions over the SKT Bratislava cable network, broadcasting movies and series for about four hours
each evening from 19:00. |
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| February 6 |
MGM-UA Home Video withdraws from sale a Loony Tunes compilation video that includes
a 1944 cartoon called Bugs Nips the Nips, in which Bugs Bunny makes racial caricature comments
about the Japanese. |
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| February 14 |
Talk Radio UK (later called TalkSport) begins transmissions. |
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| February |
Shepperton Studios is acquired by a consortium led by film director brothers Tony and
Ridley Scott. |
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| February |
Vocaltec begins marketing Internet Phone software that allows computer-to-computer voice
communication—effectively a prototype of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony. |
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| February |
An interactive movie, Mr Payback, written and directed by Bob Gale (co-writer of
the Back to the Future trilogy) and produced by Interfilm and Sony New Technologies is released
to around 25 specially equipped small theatres in which the seat arms each contain three buttons to allow
the audience to vote on the film's narrative development. Each theatre costs over $50,000 to re-equip. About
110 minutes of footage stored in laser discs produces a running time of around 20-25 minutes screen time.
Audiences see three versions per programme. Critic Roger Ebert calls it the worst film and the worst idea
for a film of the year. |
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| March 8 |
Madras-based Golden Eagle Communications is licensed by the Singapore Broadcasting
Authority to uplink its Tamil-language service for India from Singapore, the first non-Singaporean company
to be so licensed. |
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| March 27 |
Walt Disney Television is licensed in Singapore for South Asia satellite transmissions,
initially to India and Taiwan. |
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| March 30 |
Med TV, a satellite television service aimed at the Kurdish community and diaspora, begins
transmissions from London under a UK broadcasting licence from the Independent Television Commission (ITC). |
à 1999 |
| March |
Centennial Park community cable experiment in Sydney,
Australia is closed after running five months beyond its planned 12 months. During that time it has produced
70 hours of its own material and shown over 1,000 hours of programmes from community groups, independent film
and video makers and educational institutions. Around 200 volunteers produced programmes that were
transmitted for three to four hours every day. |
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| May |
Sega Saturn games console gets a limited release in the US. |
â September 2 |
| May |
Transmissions by Slovak channel DCTV are suspended ‘for technical reasons’. |
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| May 31 |
UK’s National Film and Television School acquires Ealing Studios
from the BBC with £2m grant from a football pools charitable fund. |
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| May |
French Minitel services become available internationally via the Internet and World Wide Web. |
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| June 8 |
Nynex CableComms launches a community television pilot programme, The Line, on
channel 8 of its Brighton/Hove/Worthing cable system on the south coast of England. The weekly one-hour
programme is transmitted every other hour throughout the week. |
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| June 12 |
Mirror Group launches Live TV cable channel for UK, claiming £30m investment and staff
of over 200 by year end. |
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| June 14 |
Sports service ESPN is licensed in Singapore for South Asia satellite transmissions,
broadcasting round the clock in English, Hindi and Mandarin. |
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| June 15 |
In Ukraine, the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting (Derzhteleradio) begins issuing
broadcasting licences. |
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| June 16 |
Singapore CableVision is granted a 10-year licence to provide cable television services,
the whole country, excluding outlying islands, to be cabled by 1 January 2000. |
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| July 13 |
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announces plans to divide part of the radio
spectrum between wireless cable television and satellite communications networks. |
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| July 17 |
Inauguration of the Cinémathèque Marocaine in Morocco. |
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| July |
Sega Saturn games console is launched in Europe. |
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| July |
Amazon.com opens an Internet bookstore. |
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| August 31 |
First Ukrainian satellite, Sich 1, and first Chilean satellite, Fasat Alfa, are launched. |
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| September 1 |
Television Twelve (TV12) starts transmissions of Singapore’s fourth free-to-air
television channel, the first in the UHF spectrum. The existing Channel 12 becomes a more explicitly
multi-cultural channel. |
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| September 2 |
Full US launch of Sega Saturn games console (see May). |
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| September 9 |
Sony Playstation games console is launched in the US. |
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| September 17 |
BBC starts digital radio broadcasting using the Eureka 147 DAB signal format. |
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| September 29 |
Sony PlayStation games console is launched in Europe. |
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| September |
PanAmSat, the first private company to provide global satellite services, starts operations. |
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| October |
Discounting by UK booksellers causes the collapse of the
Net Book Agreement, under which
publishers have determined the fixed prices at which books are offered since 1900. |
à 1997 |
| November 20 |
Edition of Panorama in which Diana Princess of Wales is interviewed by Martin
Bashir achieves the highest ever UK television audience (22.75m) for a non-entertainment programme. |
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| December 20 |
First private television station, Shijak TV, goes on air in Albania. It is owned by Media +. |
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