Channel 14

Channel 14 is a Flarlandian television channel operated by University of Wembley Broadcasting. It launched in September 1990 on UHF terrestrial as part of their efforts to have “equal” competition with the FBC. Channel 14 broadcasts "innovative" programming to a target audience of viewers between 16 and 34 years old, leveraging technology as well as new talent.
Unlike its rivals, 75% of Channel 14's output comes from Flarland. 65% is commissioned for the channel, covering all genres, including animation, comedy, current affairs, and drama. The channel surprisingly enough overtook historical rival FBC 3 in 2016, after a crisis that shook the FBC.
==History==
===Prelaunch===
In 1987, the government of Flarland threatened to shut down dozens of local pirate television channels operating on the then-nascent UHF band. The public broadcasters, FBC and UWB, expressed their wills to launch new television services in the UHF band. The remit was for each broadcaster to have three national terrestrial channels - a general entertainment channel, a culture and arts channel and a youth channel. At the time of the government’s proposal, the FBC operated FBC 1 and FBC 2 - general and cultural, respectively, with cries for an FBC 3 service being heard from the hosts of FBC 2’s “609” program. The inclusion of programming from Music Box apparently “damaged” FBC 2’s reputation as an arts channel. On the other hand, University of Wembley Broadcasting operated University of Wembley Television - vulgarly known as “Channel 13” - after its VHF allocation in Wembley - and also for the potential cable slot in case the cable television industry boosted. In 1989, the Flarlandian government allowed the introduction of three new national UHF television services - FBC 3 (also known as Network Three upon launch), Channel 14 and Channel 15. UW Broadcasting picked the names “Channel 14” and “Channel 15” to represent their new services just by referring to their potential cable slots, meaning that the three services were going to be “connected”.
===1990-2002===
On September 17, 1990, both channels launched under a terrible first impression. Channel 14 operated for six to seven hours a day, starting at 17:00 with two hours of K-Zone. The channel’s newscast, shared with Channel 15, was known as Network News and was on the air at 19:00. The primetime schedule consisted mostly of reruns of Channel 13 shows and concerts. Within less than a year, the channel was “saved”. Sam Chism, who had left the ill-fated, UWB-operated Flarlandian Satellite Broadcasting (acquired by the similarly-named Flarlandian Satellite Television), had been hired as the head of programs. His first suggestion was a prime time soap series aimed at the youth, “Robertson Academy”, which failed in ratings after only 100 episodes being produced and transmitted. The most famous initiative created by Chism was Television Academy, whose first edition, transmitted in September of 1994, gave the channel healthy ratings for the first time. The winners of the Television Academy were comedy series Mondo Bizarro, which would only premiere in 1999 (followed by the premiere of the short film Allegro Dementa), The Life and Times of a Salesman, Mister Chew and Squaz-o!, as well as a number of student-based pilot projects.
On February 16, 1998, Channel 14 broadcast its first episode of Home and Away after UWB ended up having the exclusive rights to it. They were renewed in 2004, 2010 and recently 2016. Channel 13, alternatively, carried the series from episode 1. The show eventually broke social barriers. Ratings increased significantly and the channel got a high income for the first time since its launch. This proved to boost Channel 14's programming even further, by investing in the primetime slots.
Chism introduced The Friday Show in June 1999 and helped increase Channel 14's reputation by beating its competitor FBC 3. Chism left the channel in 2001. There was much reciprocity with Channel A with programming like Gorilla Salad being shared between the two.
===2002-2009===
Channel 14 was restructured in 2002. In the same year, it premiered Media for Dinner. The rebrand was completed in 2004. The new look depicted a green room and featured a series of idents.
On February 9, 2007, The FBC-backed Cromartie Network Invasion Incident hit billboards of four youth-centric terrestrial channels (FBC 3, Channel 14, Grimy Factory, Channel A) and had massive repercussions on Channel 14's output. Addison Conley fired two of the channel's directors and a substantial amount of programs got the axe. The channel introduced ten new local productions for its primetime slot while former shows, including the ones that were part of the defunct The Friday Show, were banished from rerunning under the new administration. One of the shows that was pitched to prior executives, Nuristar, was approved by Conley.
Addison Conley left the channel in June 2008 and was replaced by Phineas Conway. He announced that a rebrand was set to come "in the next twelve months" and that it would "reposition the channel's brand in the public image". He also stated that the green room look, used since 2004, was already "reeking of old".
In an interview given by Public Image in August 2008, Conley said the following:
"What our viewers want is a breath of fresh air. The channel has been using the green room for four years now. We believe that a new Channel 14 with new colors is able to capture and attract new viewers and make the channel more profitable in the current market."
===2009-2015===
A new rebrand occurred on February 13th, 2009, shortly before 7pm, after the day's episodes of Home and Away and Neighbours, and before the news. The rebrand put Channel 14 in a more "urban" repositioning whilst staying firm to the channel's "alternative" concept that it had cemented for nearly two decades. Programming during this phase consisted of newer episodes of existing shows and some new shows joined the schedule.
By this phase, power was invested in the "second wave" of merculture on the channel's primetime, particularly in animated series.
In March 2013, Dean Romagnoli returned to Channel 14 as director of programming. One of his tasks was to absorb as much talent coming in from the recently-shutdown Channel A in December 2013 by allowing the channel to feature some of its shows. Towards the end of his tenure, the general audiences were starting to shift.
===2015-present===
In late 2015, images of a rebrand, set to launch sometime in the first months of 2016, were leaked. The numeral 14 became rounded and dropped the shadow. By early 2016, the look was adopted, yet it divided many viewers. The channel this time focused more and more on animation, thus earning the nickname "the cartoon channel". Programs devoted to other niche genres including vaporwave and repeats of shows from the past have helped make the channel become more of a modern successor to Channel A.
On March 28, 2021, UWB announced that it was going to do a massive cut in its investments in foreign programming, while keeping Neighbours and Home and Away for "a while longer", and announced that the K-Zone simulcast will be dropped by the end of the year.
In November 2021, the channel's license was extended to the end of 2024. The current director of programming stated:
"We still have our consolidated audience but the notion is that today's youth doesn't communicate wisely. They instead end up on Twitter filing their basic details about sexuality, ethnicity and age. That and the fact that they rely on streaming more, and our service doesn't cater that demographic. As well as social causes that make our society lean towards two conservative opposites. We here at Channel 14 are still stuck in the 2000s. Who knows if before our shutdown we will consider cutting a lot of our programming, including the news. We saw our ratings drop in five years from over a million to less than 200,000. They are being brainwashed by other channels and content that are more commercial and more viable to survive. Besides, the price to pay for international content is rising because of numerous factors, and even those shows aren't profitable for advertisers and viewers anymore. I don't believe that we are being headed towards a second Channel A. Channel A had its reason to exist, so do we."
===2022: the "limbo" and likely shutdown===
In recent years, a number of patterns including the decreasing number of viewers and the migration to streaming have led Channel 14 in an unprofitable status, the only plans regarding its future are a reformatting or a shutdown. If the former is accepted, then the channel will likely follow Channel 15's highbrow schedule with the former Channel 15 slot being sold off; if the latter is accepted, UW will reallocate the channel to a network of campus television stations (Flarlandian Universities Network or FUN). Channel 14's current administration targets people without streaming but network officials believe that the channel has a "wasted lifetime".
On March 30, 2021, Khyber Waterman announced that he was in the midst of making a joint animation project with Nuristar's creator that would be the final thing seen on the network, with Khyber overseeing a project made out of a number of Shaffard scenes from Nuristar, depicting an alternate timeline where the Chrysalis awoke and XCORP dominated the world. While no official statement has been released yet, many longtime viewers will be alienated by the shutdown and will compare it to that of Channel A.
On March 10, 2022, an internal meeting at the UWB Broadcasting Center called for the shutdown and downsizing of the likelihood of Channel 14. Patricia Nenki said that a shutdown is likely between March 31 and May 31, but no official announcement was made. Flarlandian law gives 90 days for a large-scale television channel to go off the air. These rumors haven't been debunked yet, however the channel is announcing cuts to its in-house programming.
On March 10, the rumors of the shutdown were apparently debunked as the production of Game On and The Hill will continue.
The week was also marked with the announcement that the cancellation of Neigbhours due to the lack of funding from Nashland would push Home and Away to 6:30pm, enlarging the afternoon K-Zone simulcast slot by half an hour, starting September 2022. The current director of programs has also stated that Channel 14 would try finding a stable schedule in a potential bid to stay afloat.
After the success of Glitch X as a five-day experiment, UWB said that it will resume operations in the summer, due to the long-planned move of the 2022 FIFA World Cup to November and December, "if Channel 14 continues uperation by then".
The channel hit its annual record high in 2022 with the World Cup in Hopeland.
==Programming==
===National===
*14 National News
*The Hill
*Housemates
*Active Live on the Box
*Keep the Strength Out
*Game On
*Game On Retro
*Vaporland
===International===
===Sporting events===
*Bulungi Cup of Nations
*SFC Sondrian Cup
*FIFA World Cup
===Overnight programming===
The channel is "unique" as it "closes down" in a way, with an announcement "heralding" the end of the day's programming, usually at around 2am. The current sequence consists of a man "switching off" the Channel 14 zones and dreaming of something at random. There are seven sequences commissioned, one for each day of the week (exceptions for the Christmas season exist where the backgrounds differ). In May, the sequence was followed by a second one featuring an 8-bit rendition of the Flarlandian national anthem, featuring the stars of the channel (this was also used on Flarland Day 2019).
The overnight schedule consists of a link to Radio Active and sometimes Overnight Acid Trip.
===Notable former programming===
*Network News (1990-1991)
*On The Hour (1994-2006)
*The Friday Show (1999-2007)
*Media for Dinner (2002-2008)
*Nuristar (2008-2015)
*ASAP (transferred from Channel A and broadcast from 2013-2014)
*Home and Away
*Neighbours
*TV Simulator 2000
*Siren
==Controversies==
===Ashtalaian shutdown (2013)===
Like many other Flarlandian television channels in Ashtalaia, it went past the decision taken by the government to terminate carriage of all Flarlandian networks due to legal issues.
==Directive==
===Channel controllers===
*Davis Hunter, 1998-2000
*Dean Romagnoli, 2000-2002
*Cody Waterman, 1992-2006
*Laura Foster, 2006 (interim)
*Addison Conley, 2006-2008
*Phineas Conway, 2008-2013
*Dean Romagnoli, 2013-2015 (second term)
*Khyber Waterman, 2017 (interim)