Friendly TV was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television station, owned by Telecoms TV Limited (previously Hi2 Ltd). Much of the channels output is made up of interactive programmes and games which allow the viewer to phone in or send an SMS

Short message service

Short Message Service is a text messaging service component of phone, web, or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices...

 message to take part in the programme.

When it launched in 2003, it was slated mainly by the Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 and got a mention in the press for its low quality, e.g. most of the programming was devoted to an internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

-based game called Brainbox, or a lengthy computer games show called GamerWeb, when there were supposed to be proper or other programmes, according to the station's EPG

Electronic program guide

Electronic program guides and interactive program guides provide users of television, radio, and other media applications with continuously updated menus displaying broadcast programming or scheduling information for current and upcoming programming...

. A notable incident occurred in May 2003 when former QVC presenter Paul Lavers and his co-presenter, Karen Witchalls announced that Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...

 was a lesbian.

Shortly after it was launched it ran a number of wrestling shows including Irish Whip Wrestling

Irish Whip Wrestling

Irish Whip Wrestling is an Irish owned independent professional wrestling promotion established in 2002. The company was named in tribute to Irish professional wrestler Danno O'Mahony, who is credited as the inventor of the "Irish Whip" wrestling maneuver. IWW runs shows throughout the whole of...

, Frontier Wrestling Alliance

Frontier Wrestling Alliance

Frontier Wrestling Alliance is a British professional wrestling promotion. Established in 1993 as the Fratton Wrestling Association it soon became the Frontier Wrestling Alliance six years later and until 2007 when it lost a scripted inter-promotional feud with International Pro Wrestling: United...

, and Pro Wrestling Noah

Pro Wrestling Noah

is a major Japanese professional wrestling promotion, founded in 2000 by former All Japan Pro Wrestling ace Mitsuharu Misawa. NOAH is broadcast weekly in Japan...

. These were pilots for the TV station which was launched as The Wrestling Channel and later became The Fight Network.

The channel broadcast onto a number of Sky channels and was responsible for programmes such as Bikini Beach, Cash House, Stash the Cash, Vegas 247 and Live Roulette

Live Roulette TV

Live Roulette is an interactive gaming show which was launched in June 2005. The programme allows people to place their chips on the roulette table by watching online or on TV and phoning the designated call centre number or playing via the internet...

.

The channel closed on 6 January 2010, when the EPG slot was sold to the adult channel, Dirty Talk.

External links

• Official site (From Archive.org)
• Hi2