A new
Finnish cable TV channel, broadcasting in both
analog and
digital cable networks.
Near the end of summer 2001 Alma Media purchased City-TV, a local channel for the Helsinki area which hadn't even started operating, purely for its digital television licence. City-TV was merged with Alma Media's own TVTV! channel, replacing it in the analog cable network from August 15.
SubTV's programming is (not surprisingly) very similar to that of TVTV!, consisting mainly of reruns of American series shown on MTV3, some new shows and the occasional documentary program. Despite the total daily broadcast time has shortened by an hour or two, most of the best shows from the old channel like Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Northern Exposure are still on the menu. The notorious TVTV! Chat is naturally included, only with a different set of graphics.
"New" titles include A-Team, Knight Rider, the first season of Survivor and a brand new show by Finland's most useless celebrities Tatu & Eeka*. Perhaps the most visible changes from the TVTV!->SubTV transformation are a movie on Sunday evenings, plus a new "youthful" and "trendy" look. (don't get me started)
The people behind SubTV are making a lot of noise about the digital version which launches in the beginning of 2002**, and after all it is the only reason for this TV equivalent of cosmetic surgery in the first place. However, with Finland not getting more advanced digital decoding boxes - and most likely many customers - until spring 2002, basicially the only thing we've got for now is TVTV! with a new name.
But at least they doesn't show infomercials.
SubTV can be found on the web at http://www.subtv.fi/.
* I refuse to dignify these two.. people with their own node, although they certainly would deserve one.
** The launch was intended to be on August 27, 2001, but the plans changed. Thanks to Afor for pointing this out!
Apparently, "
subtv" is also a net slang term for
submissive transvestite. Finnish
newsgroups are currently having a blast with
pr0n related things found with
Google using the channel name as the keyword.
A funny coincidence?
I'll let you decide.