While we’re on the Subject of Pay TV History (this thread), Let’s take a Walk down Memory Lane on the history of Foxtel and also Austar and Galaxy plus Optus Vision/Optus TV
I will start and you can reply to this sub-thread
When Galaxy Launched, The Channels that were on there as of 1995 were
PSN: Premier Sports Network (Aussie Version of TCI’s Prime Sports)
Premier All-Star Sports (PSN’s Sister Station)
Asia Business News (Brought to you by Dow Jones and Company, Sister Station to EBN)
Showtime (The Result of the Premium Movie Partnership (Viacom MCA (Matsushita Electric/Seagram) Sony and TCI), Name and Logo come from the American Service from Viacom)
Encore (See Showtime, Name and Logo come from the American Service from TCI)
TV1 (Originally a Part-Time Channel from 4pm to Midnight (only for the first 4 Months )
Max/ClassicMax (Became Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite in October ‘95 due to an Agreement with Viacom/MTV Networks International)
Quest (Became Discovery Channel in July ‘95 due to an Agreement with Discovery Communications)
Red (Became Channel V in 1997)
Arena (Only Galaxy Channel Remaining)
TeleItalia (Italian Channel)
New World TV (Chinese/Cantonese Channel supplied by TVB)
The Channels that would launch/be added later included
TVC: The Value Channel (Now TVSN)
BBC World
World Movies (SBS Owned a Stake and Currently Owns 100% of it and it was shutdown but revived)
The Comedy Channel (Launched in June 1996, Combined with Fox Funny in 2020)
Nightmoves
Planned channels that would be coming to Galaxy in the Future but didn’t launch due to Debt included
an Arts and Entertainment Channel
a Channel for Video Games
Some Channels featuring the Wealth of Info-Services including Travel
A Gossip Show Channel
An Interactive TV Channel (Would have predicted the Red Button on Foxtel/Austar in 2004)
A Science Fiction/Sci-Fi Channel
A Near Video On Demand Channel (Would have Also Predicted VOD in Australia in the 2000s/2010s)
An Education and Lifestyle Channel
An International News Channel (Similar to Turner’s CNN International)
A Travel Channel
A TV Hits Channel to Compliment TV1
A Cartoon Channel (Similar to Turner’s Cartoon Network)
A News Channel (that would have competed with Sky News Australia)
and A Music Channel to Compliment Red
When Foxtel Launched in October, It had the Galaxy Channels along with Some Exclusive Channels that Bore the Fox part of Foxtel’s Name (stemming from News Corporation)
Fox (The Flagship Entertainment Network)
Fox Kids Network (Shared time with Fox/Fox8 until 1998)
fX (was like the American Version but switched to a Feminine Channels akin to Teva in 1998)
fXM: Movies from Fox (like the American Version, Shared with FX and renamed to FX Movies in 1998 and became Fox Classics in 2000 in which at the Cost of FX becoming Full Time, it shared a channel space with Fox Kids when The History Channel became Full Time)
Bloomberg Television (Didn’t Bore the Fox Name, but that channel Launched in 1994 in America on DirecTV)
Fox Soap/Talk/Travel/History it was Sky Soap, Granada Talk TV, The History Channel and Sky Travel Rolled into 1 Channel which each sub-Channel was operated 12 hours a day Soap and Talk on Weekdays with Travel and History on Weekends, Soap and Talk Shows (minus Jerry Springer which moved to Fox8) infected FX to become a Female Channel with the Travel Programming Gone, It became The History Channel and shared time with Fox Kids until 2000)
Optus had Some Exclusive Channels
Movie Network (Their version of Showtime, Jointly Owned by Disney, Time Warner, MGM and Village Roadshow)
Movie Greats (Their version of Encore)
Sports ESPN (renamed ESPN in 1997?, (Akin to ESPN Asia which was part of the “Gang of Five”) Financed by the ESPN Inc. Joint Venture of Capital Cities/ABC Inc. (Not a Disney Division) and Hearst)
Sports Australia (Their version of PSN)
Sports AFL (Secondary Channel for AFL)
The Disney Channel (Launched in June 1996)
ARC Music TV (the A and R in the Name came from the Respecitive Owners: Austereo and Village Roadshow, Renamed to MTV in March of 1997)
Ovation
Odyssey (Removed in March 2004)
Foxtel, Galaxy/Austar and Optus shared one or more of the Following channels
CNN Interrnational
TNT
Country Music Television
Cartoon Network
CNBC Asia (Located in Hong Kong until the ABN/EBN-CNBC Merger which moved CNBC to Singapore (ABN’s HQ) in 1998)
Tell us more about “Premier All-Star Sports (PSN’s Sister Station)” - I thought I was pretty obsessed with the history of Galaxy yet I have never heard of this channel. I did some Google-fu and I am getting no results as well
I have zero recollection of this. Almost certain they only had 1 sports channel at launch and when it became Fox Sports in 1996. Fox Sports 2 was then launched as a Friday to Monday operation when Super League started.