10 Facts About BBC Choice

BBC Choice was a British digital television channel which was owned by the BBC and was launched on 23 September 1998.

At launch, BBC Choice mainly existed to supplement existing programming on BBC One and Two, with some low-profile original programming of its own.

The BBC Choice ultimately planned to replace the channel with the higher-profile BBC Choice Three, which, after some delay, began broadcasting in February 2003.

When BBC Choice launched, no digital TV receivers were available to the general public as Sky Digital and ONdigital had not yet launched.

BBC Choice aired children's programmes; this duty transferred to CBBC Channel and CBeebies when they launched on the 11th of February 2002.

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From 29 November 1999, this was supplanted with a daily CBBC on Choice strand, running from 6am to 7pm every day, for programmes aimed at young children, with presentation links pre-recorded by a CBBC presenter.

BBC Choice abandoned many of its original programmes such as Backstage, and aimed at younger people, with most of the early part of the schedules being made up of fifteen-minute programmes under the banner of "Refreshing TV" or "Micro TV".

From October 2001, BBC Choice began screening a significant amount of new, young-skewing programming, the kind of content that had been earmarked for BBC Three.

The final night of BBC Choice was given over entirely to previews of the new channel.

BBC Choice had regional variations for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland which were broadcast in place of the network BBC Choice service in their respective areas from 10:30pm to circa midnight nightly.