Shutdown of Channel A

The Shutdown of Channel A refers to a number of events connected to the fate of a popular Flarlandian entertainment channel, Channel A, in December 2013. The channel was reportedly losing its license to Streets TV, who was going to "occupy" its cable and satellite slots effective that month. The shutdown generated an unexpectedly high interest for a channel that had low viewership figures and a campaign to bring Channel A back from its "off-air" status.

Background

Khyber Waterman became the director of programming at Channel A in 2010. He initiated a series of reforms that made the channel look more "unique", "attractive" and "participative", in his own words. Despite his efforts to turn the channel into an appealing network, with imported programming like Dan Vs. or Burnt, the channel fell victim to Freeview's practices of moving it to a higher slot (was on channel 18 until February 1, 2010; then moved to channel 42) and its viewership figures dwindled. For comparison, in January 2010 it still had an average 300.000 people tuning in, after the switch, the number fell down to 160.000. A rebrand initiated under Khyber's control on December 7 of the same year decided to boost interest, with December having an average 220.000 people tuning in, mostly due to the push caused by the reintroduction of old shows to the schedule.

Successive changes to its schedule have led to decreasing figures for Channel A, ending 2012 with 110.000. The coming months were marked with ups and downs, with the channel generating record lows in April - 40.000 people were tuning in. It was believed that Channel A was set to continue its "new golden age" with a new slate of programming for the 2013-2014 television season. 20 Years of Channel A, a special broadcast on the evening of September 17, 2013, had 420.596 people tuning in - Channel A's highest-rated television program in 2013 to date. Among the highlights were the syndicated rights to Khyber: The Animated Series, at the time running on FBC 3.

At the same time, Couch Slave Entertainment began a "fight" with Streets TV Incorporated, owner of the eponymous Streets TV. The channel was given a Freeview license and would start "experimental broadcasts" on Freeview channel 65 on October 1. As part of the contract, Streets TV would take over the frequencies used by Channel A, first on both cable and satellite, then on Freeview and Freesat.

Changes to Couch Slave's television operations in the weeks leading to Channel A's shutdown

Streets TV started broadcasting on October 1, 2013. Its programming was mostly crudely-made and was cried upon by Channel A policymakers of the time as "sick and wrong". The channel was also showing "the same four shows in an endless loop", due to the channel's lack of resources. Channel A controller Khyber Waterman compared Streets TV to "torture", according to an interview filtered by himself in July 2014 (the interview was recorded on October 2, 2013).

On November 9, 2013, Couch Slave Entertainment announced, in total secret, that it was going to shut down its two subscription television channels, A Plus and Flick, in order to accelerate Streets TV's must-carry status. The reports claimed that Flick was to shut down on December 3 at 4am and A Plus on December 31. The company said that it was going to integrate content from the two channels on Channel A "as a long-term subjection", but the plans eventually failed (similar to the potential inclusion of Animax content on Spin). At the same time, Streets TV and the Flarlandian Media Regulation Authority (FLAMRA) threatened Channel A and Couch Slave Entertainment in not subjecting it to the well-coveted must-carry specification that Streets TV needed. As a punishment, Channel A would be stripped from having must-carry status during its last four weeks on air, and that the channel would shut down on December 31, with the hypothesis of resuming operations "in the near future". These recommendations weren't made public and Channel A continued "life as normal", with what little information existed coming from inside staff.

On November 27, 2013, it was publicly announced on Channel A's Facebook page that cable and satellite broadcasts were to be discontinued on December 3, 2013, at 08:55. Not all providers lost Channel A, as it was stripped of its must-carry status. Vodafone Flarland and smaller local operators carried on relaying the terrestrial signal.

Shutdown

The days leading to Channel A's shutdown were marked with changes to the schedule, despite promoting "new content" that only viewers in selected operators were going to see.

On December 3, 2013, at 08:52, a break was replaced with shutdown information om cable and satellite. The cable carrier was forcibly replaced by Streets TV at 08:55. It is believed that 65 million people lost access to Channel A on that morning. Vodafone and the regional operators continued carrying Channel A and Streets TV separately.

Within mere seconds, Channel A started receiving calls from angry viewers, including people who already worked at the channel, demanding its return.

Save Channel A

Less than an hour after the shutdown, these calls had led to the creation of Save Channel A (otherwise styled #SaveChannelA), oficially #SaveChannelA: We Demand Creative Freedom, knowing that the new channel was "a huge attack on our thoughts", "our" as in Couch Slave. A small Facebook group was set up, gathering 82 members by 12:00. As soon as news of the group are spread, the movement reaches the inner circles of Couch Slave and Channel A, prompting the government to carry on its coverage beyond the scheduled December 31 shutdown date. By 18:00 a Facebook page was created and an hour later was a topic on the channel's news.

Despite cries for the continuination of the channel, many people were still fenced from accessing it, considering that Channel A's signal was already replaced on many operators under the orders of Streets TV. Traffic for Channel A's website soared that evening, as current and former members, under their cry for help, wanted to request a trial for the government to believe that Streets TV's operations were "unconstitutional". Channel A already had programming scheduled for January.

In the coming days, what little uncertainty existed of the channel's future was limited to a mere "it's over", using December 31 as the shutdown date and 19:00 as the switch-off time. Programming scheduled for January was subsequently dropped. Two hours later an end of year party hosted by Streets TV was to go on air. Channel A had to change its programming in the last days on air, replacing booked slots with reruns of old shows still held in their archives, ditching foreign imports and making an impromptu end-of-channel program scheduled for December 30 and the daytime of December 31. In anticipation for the upcoming closedown, the last news bulletin would be shown on December 30, as the channel was set to close down at 7pm the following day, Khyber's orders.

The last day on air consisted of Thank You For the Years, broadcasting a number of episodes from the channel's current and old shows.

Channel A Leaks

In the months after Channel A's shutdown, elements of the dedicated community decided to send e-mails about the situation that led to Channel A's shutdown. In June 2014, an e-mail was received by Darren Brown, a longtime Channel A viewer, who received the confirmation that a spectrum battle and a lack of viewers led to the shutdown. However, Darren said that he wanted the channel to resume operations. One of the messages in the e-mail said: "To survive, our audience must be of at least 100 thousand, less than 0,1% of the national population".

Role of Times Television

When Times Television started, some of its staff was hired to host shows on TTV+, the channel later fired all of its hosts in October 2015.

Role of Channel 14

Channel 14 had a larger role in receiving Channel A "refugees" and even had the rights to do limited editions of its former program ASAP. The two channels frequently piggybacked off their original content under reciprocal agreements since the 90s, when Channel 14 was seen as a terrestrial window for the relays of its programming.

Reactions

• Couch Slave Entertainment, as mentioned above, as a whole, still dealt with a number of factors as late as December 2015.