Pirate TV

From Freeradio

Pirate TV stations in the UK and Eire have been very few and far between.

In addition to the cost and complexity of transmission equipment, studio equipment has tended to be prohibitively expensive, not to mention the time and effort needed to create TV programmes.

Another complicating factor is the fact that TVs generally use directional roof-top antennas, so to reach a decent number of people, a pirate TV Transmitter needs to be not far from that of the local TV transmitter used by the legal terrestrial TV stations.

Finally, pirate TV has been extremely frowned upon by the Establishment and the DTI - far more so than pirate radio.

Pirate TV stations

LFM in Leeds broadcast briefly on channel 22 with teletext, in 1988 or 1989.

Network 21 in London broadcast on channel 21 in the mid 1980's. They also had a stereo FM radio transmitter, allowing them to effectively broadcast stereo TV (before the days of NICAM TV stereo) by viewers watching the TV while listening to the programmes on a Stereo FM radio.

Nova TV in Dublin, in the early 1980's, was an off-shoot of the Eire super-pirate Radio Nova.

Planned projects which didn't go ahead

In the 1980s, there were plans to broadcast TV from the north sea fort of Sealand.

Offshore pirate Radio Caroline planned Caroline TV, from an aircraft, in the 1960's.

In the 1970's, TV broadcasts were planned from the Dutch REM Island fort.