Telewest Group

**Telewest Group Limited** is a British media company headquartered in London. A subsidiary of AT&T's WarnerMedia via its WarnerMedia Entertainment unit, Telewest is Europe's third largest pay television broadcaster by revenue (as of 2018).

Initially formed in 1984 as **Telewest Communications Company Limited**, a joint venture between Tele-Communications Inc. and US West, the company, after launching the Telewest network, the second-oldest non-terrestrial TV channel in the United Kingdom in 1990, and spinning off its cable television arm, Telewest Broadband (now Virgin Media), went on to became the UK's fourth-largest television broadcasting company. Eventually, after a series of expansions (most significantly its purchase of Sierra Television), The company changed its name to **Telewest Group plc**.

Until 2016, Bain Capital owned a 78.24% controlling stake in Telewest. In November 2015, after a bidding war with various other suitors, AT&T announced an offer to acquire Telewest for £13.8 billion. The deal was approved and subsequently closed in March 2016.

## History

### 1994- 2001

In 1995, Telewest Communications signed a multi-year deal with television production company Sierra Television to distribute programmes it had interest in on other channels (eg. BBC, ITV, and Channel 4), with international distribution by its formats being handled by its Sierra International division.

In October 1996, Telewest commissioned branding agency Lambie-Nairn to develop a new, simplified identity across its output, due to the increase in digital services. On the same December of that year, Telewest's online service, telewest.com, was launched.

On 26 October 1998, Telewest's secondary channel, TeleWestern, was launched. It was the second British TV channel to broadcast exclusively in digital format. the second digital-only channel from Telewest was a film channel, Telewest Film Channel (TFC) which was launched on 1 February 2001, and was the first free-to-air film channel in the United Kingdom.

### 2001-2016

In May 2001, Canadian media company Canwest bought a 52.1% controlling stake in Telewest Communications. In 13 April 2003, Telewest acquired UK Television International, a pay television channel broadcasting content from UK broadcasters across Europe and in some international countries, including that of Telewest's. On 3 June 2003, a children's television channel by the network, TW Kids was launched.

In February 2005, Telewest acquired Sierra Television for £237 million. The acquisition came months before its initial agreement was set to expire. A fourth digital-only channel, Lifestyle, was launched in July 2005.

In September 2005, Telewest Communications changed its name to Telewest Group to reflect the corporation's expansion into financing its own television slate. In August 2007, Sierra Television was renamed Telewest Studios, though its Australian and German units continued to use the Sierra brand until 2009.

On 1 March 2008, Telewest's television catch-up service, Telewest Play, was launched.

On 30 July 2009, Telewest announced that the channel, and its services would be refreshed with a new corporate logo and brand. The new branding came into effect on the Telewest channel on 14 September. The new branding, developed by the branding agency DixonBaxi, was intended to portray Telewest as a more "contemporary" multi-platform broadcaster.

In November 2009, It was announced that Canwest would sell its majority stake in Telewest Group, as a result of the latter's financial troubles and eventual bankruptcy and sale of broadcasting assets to Shaw Media (now Corus Entertainment) in February 2010. In January 2010, US-based private investment firm Bain Capital purchased a 78.24% controlling stake in Telewest Group, after takeover bids from Endemol, Scripps Networks, Time Warner and Viacom failed.

In June 2015, it was reported that Telewest Group was becoming an "increasingly likely" target for a possible acquisition, which Telewest itself was exploring as part of vast strategic alternatives. The company did not confirm this, however, as a potential sale or accquisition was still only a potential scenario at that point. In its third quarter financial report, Telewest reported a year-over-year loss of £91 million, in comparison to a profit of £133 million in 2015. Telewest also made a £1.013 billion write-down on its broadcasting businesses, resulting in a quarterly loss of £935.9 million, and cut its dividend to 50 pence.

In July 2015, Telewest confirmed the rumours of a potential sale, with majority shareholder Bain Capital appointing Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and JPMorgan Chase to handle a potential sale of its stake in Telewest. Several bidders had expressed interest in acquiring Telewest, including AT&T, BT, BeIN Media Group, CBS Corporation, Hasbro, Hearst Communications, Lionsgate, News Corp, RTL Group, Vivendi, and a Telefónica/Discovery Communications consortium. On 28 August 2016, Hasbro withdrew its bid the company. RTL Group followed suit on 18 September 2016. It was also noted that RTL's then-proposed bid for Telewest would have resulted in a merger between Telewest Studios and RTL's content production/distribution arm FremantleMedia, which would have created the UK's largest television production/distribution group.

### 2016-present: AT&T subsidiary

On 2 November 2015, following an eventual bidding war with three other suitors, AT&T announced that they had agreed to purchase Telewest Group from Bain Capital for £13.8 billion in a stock and cash merger, pending EU approval. On 15 January 2016, EU regulatory approval for the deal was granted, the final hurdle in the acquisition. The deal was approved by Bain Capital and Telewest shareholders on 13 March 2016, and the deal was completed on 19 March 2016; the company was placed under the AT&T International division, and as a result of the structure of the merger, Telewest Group plc became became a private limited company with the legal name Telewest Group Ltd.

In June 2016, Telewest announced that Lifestyle would be re-launched as Viceland with content from US-Canadian youth Vice Media on 6 September 2016. The UK version of Viceland is jointly operated by Telewest Group and Vice Media.

On 12 August 2017, it was reported that Telewest came close to selling its Telewest Studios division to ITV plc for £957 million, as an attempt by Telewest to minimise its focus on production, but the deal had fallen through, with Telewest considering ITV's offer to be "fundamentally undervalued". On 18 October 2017, Telewest refreshed their brand again; the first time since the AT&T acquisition. the new design, co-developed Telewest's in-house creative unit and branding agency Superunion, and was developed around a concept of providing "context" to Telewest's target audience and programming.

On 17 May 2018, it was announced that Telewest had purchased in Canadian television production company and animation studio Portfolio Entertainment. As part of the deal, Portfolio Entertainment became a part of Telewest Studios North America.

By August 2018, AT&T had transfered Telewest to WarnerMedia from AT&T International (now known as AT&T Latin America). The unit's digital channels, T2, TFC, and TW Kids, underwent a major rebranding on 2 November 2018, adopting Telewest's corporate logo and identifying themselves as Telewest XD, Telewest Cinema and Telewest Kids, respectively.

On 4 March 2019, AT&T announced a major restructuring of its broadcasting assets, in which WarnerMedia's television properties would be dispersed across Warner Bros. Entertainment and two new divisions within the WarnerMedia umbrella. Telewest Group, along with HBO and former Turner Broadcasting networks TBS, TNT and TruTV, were placed under WarnerMedia Entertainment, chaired by Bob Greenblatt. On 10 May 2019, Warner Bros. International Television Production was folded into Telewest Studios.

## Operations

### Organization

* **Telewest Broadcast and Online** - umbrella arm for the UK-based TV networks and operational units.
	+ **Telewest News** - brand given to news programming across the Telewest network, produced by ITN.
	+ **Telewest Sport** - brand given to sports-based programming.
	+ **Telewest Play**- video-on-demand and catch-up service; launched in 2008.
* **Telewest Studios** - UK and international production/distribution arm for Telewest programming.

### Domestic Channels

* **Telewest** - flagship network; launched in 1990.
* **TW Too** - general entertainment channel; launched in 1998.
* **TW Cinema** - movie-oriented channel; launched in 2001.
* **TW Kids** - children's channel; launched in 2003.
* **TW Viceland** - lifestyle and documentary channel; launched in 2016 as a successor to **Lifestyle** (launched in 2005) and a partnership between Telewest and Vice Media.

### International Channels

* **Telewest UK**- An entertainment subscription channel broadcast in Mainland Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Accquired by Telewest in 2003, while it was then known as **UK Television International**.
* **Telewest America** - A US general entertainment channel, co-owned with A&E Networks, showcasing both British, American and minor International television programming.
* **Telewest Australia** - An Australian-New Zealand general entertainment channel, co-owned with Foxtel Networks, showcasing British television programming.

### Affiliated entities

* **Telewest Pictures** - feature film production/financing arm; transfered over to Warner Bros. Entertainment in 2019.