Abacat's What If's

Here I will be going in depth about the main differences to my universe of the British Republic in comparison to in real life's United Kingdom.

## Television channels in the British Republic

### BBC One

The BBC's mainstream and premiere channel featuring light entertainment, popular drama, regular news bulletins, comedy, sport and films.

It's main differences from real life:

* In this universe, the BBC never dropped their *9 O'Clock News* back in 2000. IRL it was intended as a snarky "f\*\*k you" to ITV once they revived *News at Ten* due to the failure of the 11pm Nightly News. Indeed that would've never happened in the first place in this universe.
* *EastEnders* only airs twice a week - Tuesdays and Thursdays, at 8pm.
* For viewers outside the UK, a European BBC One service is provided, which includes a special news programme entitled *Europe Today*.
* A planned relaunch of the network's graphics and idents were ditched at the last minute in December 2016 after the nations and even BBC One's controller cried foul. This led to the 2013 look being retained until May 2017 when they did a BBC Two and revived the hot air balloon. That lasted until October 2021 when the "lens" idents were introduced.
* The channel still invests heavily into comedy output rather than shyly just using comedy drama as a replacement genre.
* Saturday Kitchen remained where it belongs on BBC Two, as BBC One is the home of *Saturday Mash-Up Live* and it's summer replacement *The Sunshine Show*.
* The channel still puts effort into it's Saturday nights with more programme commissions and not putting all of it's successful gameshow eggs in the Autumn basket.

### BBC Two

The network for insightful and enriching programmes from the British Broadcasting Corporation. The main home of arts, culture, music, heavy current affairs, political discussion, education, religion, documentaries, intelligent quizzes, minority programmes, arthouse cinema, international drama, "smarter" and classic comedy, and lifestyle programmes. It is the home of *Newsnight* and *Politics Live*, amongst others.

It's main differences from real life:

* BBC Four no longer exists within my universe. There was a shock announcement in 2014 that the channel was to be merged into BBC Two in 2016, which it was. BBC Three had been the channel that many were predicting would be chopped. Much of the programmes that BBC Four are known for were transferred to BBC Two, including the Friday night music and Saturday night Scandinavian drama strands, along with the likes of *Arena*, *The Sky at Night*, *Storyville*, *Timeshift* and *World News Today*.
* BBC Two breakfast (6-10am) schedule consists - uniquely - of international news broadcasts presented in their entirety, with English subtitles.
* BBC Two shows more of BBC News' current affairs productions both in peaktime and post-*Newsnight* slots, such as *The Travel Show*, *The Media Show*, *This Cultural Life* and *HARDtalk*.
* Schools programmes remain an integral part of BBC Two's schedule with two blocks, both two hours long, from 10am to 12pm (11am on Wednesday) and 1pm to 3pm.

### ITV1

Britain's biggest private sector television network and second most popular channel in the country (behind BBC One) responsible for Britain's biggest soap and many massive entertainment programmes.

It's main differences from real life:

* The system of franchises still exists to this day, although these days regional presentation only appears if it's a show made by said franchise. For example, Granada only really gets their G arrow before Coronation Street. Regional announcers are still existent during primetime but they usually just announce over ITV1 idents.
* The 1990 Broadcasting Act was a whole different story. Thames, TVS and TSW all managed to retain their licenses, but TV-AM still lost, just to spite their self-centred selves.
	+ This means that the TVS archives are safely stored in Maidstone, and classic episodes of Catchphrase continue to be seen on Challenge.
* ITV chose never to enter the digital terrestrial field, and the multiplexes were given to a consortium of the BBC, BSB (of which Granada and Channel 4 are shareholders) and cable operator Multicable who were finally permitted their own terrestrial TV provider which they named Chorus, which launched in February 1998. They also didn't make the massively damaging move of acquring Premiership rights in 2001.
* Michael Grade stuck around at the network for much longer, successfully turning the main ITV network into a more innovative and creative network with a more modern and trendy outlook, something that it had previously failed to replicate from it's sibling ITV2.
* ITV is more involved in telethons. The ITV Telethon decided to clearly focus itself on homelessness and poverty giving people an actual reason to donate rather than purely being ITV's answer to CiN or Comic Relief - and indeed it stayed afloat after 1992 to this day, ITV also launched *Text Santa* which in this universe came along in 2001, and *Stand Up to Cancer* in 2011, a year before it appeared IRL on Channel 4.
* ITV1 is a lot more open to US imports, having had the foresight to buy *ER* and *CSI*, among others, and currently playing host to the *Law & Order* franchise, *The Rookie* and *Grey's Anatomy*.
* They were successful in poaching the rights to broadcast *Gogglebox* in 2022. It continues to run at 9pm on Friday nights. They also beat Channel 4 to the punch when getting the rights to *The Great British Bake Off* in 2016. 2022 also saw Graham Norton jump ship to ITV with the promise of multiple new series of his chat show (which ITV produces) and new entertainment projects.
* 9pm Friday is used for entertainment and new comedy instead of drama.
* *GMTV* was never axed in 2010, but has slowly evolved into less of a women's showbiz magazine (with that type of thing left to *Lorraine* and *This Morning*) into more of a rolling news service.
* ITV still messed about with the news in 1999, but it actually paid off. *News at Ten* moved to 8pm, the *Early Evening News* was retained and eventually extended to begin at 5.30pm in 2000, and the 11pm news was also initiated. The idea of "more slots of adult comedy, more movies, longer drama, raunchier factual" was simply deposited atop ITV2 whose late night news programme only ran for 15 minutes at 11pm (with half hour news at 6.30pm and 8pm) and as such didn't have to worry about such scheduling issues.
	+ A Sunday night edition of *News at Ten* was launched in 1992. However, it does not run on Friday evenings - in it's place is *The Late News* at 11pm.
* The strength of ITV News also remains particularly strong. The channel was able to keep hold of Mark Austin in the face of heavy opposition from Sky News. The non-existance of Channel 5 means that Dan Walker and Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije also present for ITV (Dan on GMTV, Claudia-Liza on Lunchtime) and Natasha Kaplinsky stuck around for a little longer as well. Simon McCoy was poached by ITV on a five year contract in 2021 (choosing ITV over GB News) and who now presents the 5:30pm bulletin alongside Mary Nightingale. Alastair Stewart was similarly locked in from 2018 to present the Lunchtime News, meaning he didn't go to GBN, but recently stepped down.
* For context - here's the ITV News presenters in my universe:
	+ **Morning News:** Kylie Pentelow, Duncan Golestani, Rebecca Barry
	+ **Lunchtime News:** Simon McCoy and Nina Hossain, Jonathan Hill and Lucrezia Millirani
	+ **Evening News:** Mark Austin and Mary Nightingale, Simon McCoy and Charlene White
	+ **News at Ten:** Julie Etchingham (Sunday to Wednesday), Niall Paterson (Thursday)
	+ **The Late News (Friday):** Niall Paterson
	+ **Newsdesk (6.30/8.00):** Wilfred Frost, Claudia-Liza Vanderpuije, Callum Tulley
	+ **ITV World News:** Katy Haswell, Susanna Reid, Rageh Omaar

### Channel 4

Particularly known as the home of risky, edgy, daring, innovative, subsersive and at times bizarre programmes.

It's main differences from real life:

* The channel also has a European opt out, with advertising sales and overall transmission handled by ITV.
* Channel 4 had managed to snag the rights to *The Masked Singer* amid incredibly fierce competition from ITV. They broadcast it in a Thursday night time slot. It's their big mainstream family hit in lieu of *Bake Off* which went to ITV in this universe.
* Channel 4 is still involved in the breakfast television game, broadcasting *Daybreak* from 7am to 9am, launched to replace the doomed RI:SE at the start of 2003. It's often nicknamed *The Studio Bound Big Breakfast*.
* ITN threatened to ditch Channel 4 completely back in 1992 if it axed *The Channel Four Daily*, meaning said programme was forcibly retained following the launch of *The Big Breakfast*, scaled back to a one-hour rolling news programme at 6am.
* Jon Snow stuck around at ITV presenting News at Ten two nights each week (Sunday and Wednesday) with Trevor McDonald every other night) in addition to his Channel Four News (which he presented Monday to Thursday) duties before joining Channel 4 on an exclusive contract at the start of 1999.
* Channel 4 still puts actual effort into it's Friday night schedule rather than just throwing on *Gogglebox*, *The Last Leg* and *8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown*, in fact the former was poached to join ITV1 in 2023 whilst the latter was in 2022.
* Channel 4 is notable for commiting to a teenage audience producing factual, drama, entertainment and music programmes for said audience. T4 was never shuttered in 2012.
* Viewer response show *Right to Reply* similarly remains on air to this day now running on Friday nights at 8pm.

### ITV2

ITV's alternative entertainment and information network, right on the pulse of youth culture - the trendier alternative to ITV1. The home of *Love Island*, *Big Brother* and *Family Guy*.

It's main differences from real life:

* ITV2 is officially recognised as a public service broadcaster.
* Whilst ITV1 is modern, ITV2 is more trendy and ballsy than it's bigger sibling.
* Channel 5 was launched Mediaset ownership in 1990. Attempts to recreate the sexy, trashy and frothy style of Silvio Berlusconi's Italian television channels along with it's unashamed Conservative agenda were met with low ratings and multiple wrist slaps off the IBA, leading the channel to close in 1992, with ITV quickly acquring it's assets and using the frequencies to relaunch it as a more progressive and innovative sibling to the ITV network, practically the opposite of Channel 5.
* ITV2 is somewhere between Channel 4 with it's remit to provide creative and bold programmes, and BBC Three as it is aimed at a younger audience, specifically the 18-35 year old audience.
* In this universe, the likes of *Coupling* and *Spaced* headed to ITV2. They also picked up *Two Pints of Lager and A Packet of Crisps* after the BBC had enough.
* ITV2 features it's own telethon - the British version of the comedy based *A Night of Too Many Stars*, focused on autism.
* The channel has a further commitment to new, innovative and edgy comedies and dramas that wouldn't have a place on the cosy and mainstream ITV1.
* ITV2 is the channel where ITV airs most of it's American acquired series.

### BBC Three

The BBC's channel for younger audiences - specifically between the ages of 7 and 34.

It's differences from real life:

* The channel was launched on digital satellite, cable and terrestrial systems in 1997. It was launched under the BBC Three branding to start with.
* The channel was never switched from a linear service to an online service in 2016, with BBC Four chopped instead and subsumed into a new (more serious version of) BBC Two.
* BBC Three was extended with a longer broadcasting day as part of a major reform to the BBC's television network in 2022, as CBBC was subsumed into the channel as a 7am-5pm strand which also includes it's schools and educational strand, Class TV. Many providers continue to simulcast CBBC from BBC Three on it's former LCN spots.
* BBC Three continues to provide it's *60 Seconds* news updates branded as *Newsbeat* alongside offbeat half hour bulletin *The 7 O'Clock News*.
* The channel has more of an entertainment and comedy focus in it's peak primetime hours, and it's factual output is typically more varied than it's current state. It has more of a "BBC One with it's hair down" attitude to programmes as opposed to the "yoof innit" attitude. Offbeat comedy, reality, movies, sports coverage, edgy drama, trendy arts and culture, real life stories, original British animation and innovative factual.

## Television channels in the fictional US

The fictional US television industry is incredibly different to the IRL US, and is a much more streamlined proposition. First things first, all stations are owned & operated by the networks themselves, and as such networks tend to provide much more networked programming. The networks themselves also have clear channel numbers akin to the UK - those being:

* 1 - PBS
* 2 - PBS 2
* 3 - NBC
* 4 - ABC
* 5 - CBS
* 6 - FOX
* 7 - USA Network
* 8 - Warner
* 9 - UPN
* 10 - XYZ

The US terrestrial TV system as you can see is fairly small. Comparable to the Canadian system, some channels have their own offshoots. For example, CBS & UPN, NBC & USA, ABC & XYZ.