Carlton Select

Carlton Select was a British digital television channel, owned by Carlton Television. It was originally launched on cable in 1995 as SelecTV, by the independent production company of the same name,^[1] 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.^[2]

SelecTV had run a cable-only channel of the same name since Thursday 1 June 1995 but following the purchase by Pearson Television of production company, SelecTV for £5.2m in 1996 and following Carlton's purchase of Pearson Television,^[3][4] it was renamed to Carlton Select in February 1997, which 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, 02:00 at the weekend.

The future of the channel was being considered internally as early as mid-1999. It was initially expected to be replaced by ITV Gold, which was part of a strategy from the ITV companies to counter the rise of UKTV^[5] but it ultimately closed due to poor viewing figures. The last programme broadcast on Carlton Select was Gridlock on 1 March 2000 before eventually closing down later that day.^[6] Its hours on ONdigital were given over to Carlton Food Network, with Carlton Cinema replacing Carlton Select on cable.^[7][8][9]

• Carlton Television