It has that rare ability, some would call it guts, to admit defeat and move in another direction. Flextech has not been scared to tear up schedules and start all over again, despite the competitive multichannel environment of the U.K. which, even after the market withdrawals of the past two years, still has too many channels. From its first investment in Starstream, the operating company of The Children's Channel, Flextech initially expanded by taking a small percentage share in broadcasters such as UK Gold, The Family Channel and Living. This is particularly true for UK Gold, where Flextech saw the opportunity to buy out American and British founder-shareholders Cox Communications and Pearson Television. Since then, Flextech has evolved, chameleon like, discarding programme formats like an old skin before moving on to the next genre.
Nothing is sacred.
Even The Children's Channel has disappeared from U.K. screens, replaced by Trouble, a channel for teenagers. The Children's Channel survives only in the Nordic market, where, having secured cable carriage, it somehow holds on. On magazine shelves, publishers of titles such as Loaded had identified a new genre of young 20-something males. Bravo, which had shifted from cult programming to comic horror, began tuning in to this New Lad. Sky had for the most part concentrated on mass market appeal.