| 1995 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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Cultural highlights | Predictions made this year |
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| January 1 |
First specialised channel of China Central Television (CCTV), CCTV Sports, goes on air. |
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| January 3 |
State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting (Derzhteleradio) is established in Ukraine. |
> June 15 |
| January 16 |
BBC World replaces the news and information parts of BBC World Service Television. |
> January 30 |
| January 30 |
BBC Prime becomes the subscription-based entertainment service, replacing BBC World Service Television. |
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| 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). |
> 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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| April |
Icelandic local television channel Sjónvarp Hafnarfjarðar begins regular transmissions. It does not broadcast during the summer. [0066] |
> autumn 2001 |
| May |
Sega Saturn games console gets a limited release in the US. |
> 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 |
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation buys the remaining 36.4 per cent of Star TV from Li Ka-shing for $346.6m. |
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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 8 |
BET International, a black entertainment channel, launches on the Westminster Cable network in London. |
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| October 18 |
Astra 1E satellite, the first for digital communications and carrying 18 transponders, is launched from Kourou, French Guiana into orbit at 19.2 degrees E. |
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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. |
> 1997 |
| November 16 |
Icelandic television channel Sýn begins transmissions. [0066] |
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| 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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