Carlton Select was a British digital television channel, owned by Carlton Television. It was originally launched on Thursday 1 June 1995 as SelecTV, by the independent production company of the same name, before being purchased by Carlton in 1996 who relaunched it as Carlton Select. The channel was also available via satellite in Africa, on the South African DStv service, from the start of the platform to the shutdown of the channel.

History

Carlton Select was the result of a purchase by Pearson Television of production company, SelecTV for £5.2m in 1996. SelecTV had run a cable-only channel of the same name since Thursday 1 June 1995 and following Carlton's purchase, SelecTV was renamed as Carlton Select, and Carlton branded it as "The UK's leading entertainment cable channel" with output from a variety of different genres, including quiz shows, films, dramas and comedies. Carlton Select also occasionally showed live coverage of the UEFA Champions League. The channel originally broadcast from 17:00 to 00:00 on weekdays with a 12:00 start at the weekend. In September 1996, Carlton Food Network launched and it timeshared with Carlton Select (still SelecTV at CFN's launch). Consequently, the channel's on-air time was 17:00 seven days a week. Later, broadcast hours were extended with closedown time on weekdays becoming 01:00, and 02:00 at the weekend. The future of the channel was being considered internally as early as mid-1999 and Carlton Select was eventually closed down on 1 March 2000. Its hours on OnDigital were given over to Carlton Food Network, with Carlton Cinema replacing Carlton Select on cable.

Programmes