Not sure if it’s worth even mentioning. Max was rated M at all times from memory.
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And MA at times too. Pretty sure [V] was usually MA across the board, unsurprisingly.
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Not an unusual thiing at the time. Same thing happened with The Comedy Channel, which is where I most noticed it. Little desire to rate everything on the channel, so they just slapped an all-day MA rating and “maximum consumer advice” on it, and referred everyone to parental lockouts. To be fair, most of the stuff on it was probably M to MA at the time, back in the days when the likes of TV1 was still a thing (gosh it feels weird saying that name after so long!), so it didn’t likely matter.
Admittedly, a lot easier to get away with in the early days when analogue cable was still around and only perhaps Austar (or Galaxy before it) could eventually pass any rating info through on satellite - so the lockout was just “on or off” and not ratings-based like it is now.
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I recall that this was the preferred approach from regulators too
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I’m not too sure what Foxtel is like with its ratings now but I remember at one point unless it was a kid’s show they would rate most content as MA15 + and alot of it was not MA 15 +
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I had Foxtel between 2004 to 2012-ish. I only ever remember these ‘blanket’ classifications on the music channels. Foxtel had different classifications for all programs on every other channel. What they never had was consumer advice (like ‘a’ adult themes). They’d just “recommend use of the parental lockout system” instead.
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I’ve never had Foxtel but I seem to recall something that the World Movies channel and (maybe?) the Comedy Channel had blanket M or MA ratings?
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The Comedy Channel certainly did - but again, I am thinking of the early days, late 90s/early 2000s and my watching was always sporadic (we never had it on analogue Foxtel as it was part of the “Entertainment Plus” extra pack, but relos had it because it was a core channel on Austar).
This is what comes to mind, and I might’ve been wrong, it might’ve been all-day M and not MA… but the very wide consumer advice stuck in my head, this preceded every program: Comedy Channel Australia - Ident (2002) - YouTube
(this was before the classifications were shaken up so “M” still had the 15+ rider on it… plus it’s the voiceover talking about it being “not suitable” rather than just “not recommended” confused me perhaps… more general warnings and mentions of parental lock-out were generally during commercial breaks now I’m reminded of the actual advice.)
@WAtvVideos already has the more diverse rating screens from 2006 on YouTube so it obviously changed by then. Certainly once digital cable was more ubiquitous - mid-2000s (coinciding roughly with when the original iQ came out) would certainly have been a plausible era for those disappearing.
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i think this how to was how to use your pay tv - similar to the foxtel help channel
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Sounds like it. Optus’ press release at the time suggested it launched in May 2001 on Optus TV, after having also acquired access to the mainline Nat Geo at the same time (to appear a month prior; had been on Foxtel well before that). It appears A1 may not have launched on Foxtel until Foxtel Digital launched in 2004.
Can’t answer whether it was localised or not, although with Nat Geo having long been a going concern in Australia, I can’t imagine they would’ve run a non-localised version.
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Yes it did. See 1:19:
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For some reason when I was still in school, we had to watch Bondi Rescue show the teacher recorded a bunch of episodes that were from the A1 channel and showed them in class. Back when this was possible.
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yeah it was part opf sky news active for years but you couldnt view it in full screen. took years for them to give it an actual channel
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Was it actually a live feed of the channel though? Or just highlighted stories?
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Live feed without local advertising.
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Full live feed
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Does anyone remember that Movie Extra movie show hosted by Renee Brack?
Some bumpers from Biography:
The History Channel promos:
This Month’s Movies on Foxtel:
FOX8 promo:
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A promo for The LifeStyle Channel, presumably from the late 90s.
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