For the country code top-level domain

Country code top-level domain

A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, a sovereign state, or a dependent territory....

 for Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Tuvalu , formerly known as the Ellice Islands, is a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbours are Kiribati, Nauru, Samoa and Fiji. It comprises four reef islands and five true atolls...

, see .tv

.tv

The domain name .tv is the Internet country code top-level domain for the islands of Tuvalu.Except for reserved names like com.tv, net.tv, org.tv and others, any person may register second-level domains in tv...

.tv (Pronounced as 'Dot TV', referred to onscreen as .tv - the technology channel) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 channel dedicated to technology. .tv was owned and operated by British Sky Broadcasting

British Sky Broadcasting

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....

. The channel began broadcasting on 1 September 1996 as The Computer Channel and broadcast between 18:00 and 20:00. The broadcasting hours were increased to midday-midnight when The Computer Channel (later .tv) started broadcasting on British Sky Broadcasting's digital satellite platform, Sky Digital in 1998. In 1999 the channel interviewed then Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 CEO Bill Gates

Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...

.

Towards the end of its run, .tv implemented several new shows heavily sponsored by online technology store dabs.com

Dabs.com

dabs.com is an e-commerce retailer in the United Kingdom. It is one of the UK's largest internet retailers of IT and technology products. dabs.com was founded in Bolton by David Atherton and Bruce Smith in 1987; Dabs is an acronym of the initials of the founders' names...

, promoting products which were available at that site. .tv was closed on 2 September 2001 because of low audience ratings. Most of the programmes were produced by Prospect Pictures

Prospect Pictures

Prospect Pictures is an independent TV production company specializing in factual programming from daytime features to cinema documentaries.Founded in 1988, Prospect built its reputation through being one of the UK ’s largest suppliers of lifestyle and cookery programming, most notably with ITV1's...

.

Programming

• Buyers Guide - 20 minute weekday show that reviewed gadgets (such as PDAs
  Personal digital assistant
  A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
  
   and printers
  Computer printer
  In computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a text or graphics of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most new printers, a...
  
  ), computers and software (such as computer games
  Computer Games
  "Computer Games" is a single by New Zealand group, Mi-Sex released in 1979 in Australia and New Zealand and in 1981 throughout Europe. It was the single that launched the band, and was hugely popular, particularly in Australia and New Zealand...
  
  , operating systems and photo manipulation
  Photo manipulation
  Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception , through analog or digital means.- Types of digital photo manipulation :...
  
  ). Presented by Will Hanrahan
  Will Hanrahan
  William Hanrahan is a British television and radio producer best known for working on BBC programmes such as Watchdog and Good Morning...
  
  .

• Chips with Everything - 20 minute weekday show presented by Kate Russell
  Kate Russell
  Kate Russell is an English technology reporter who first appeared on the show Chips With Everything on The Computer Channel, which was later renamed to .tv....
  
   with guests trying to answer computer related questions that were sent in by viewers. Guests included Roger Gann, James Morris, Simon Smart, Nigel Whitfield and Charles Bocock.

• Ex Machina - 30 minute weekly show that went behind the scenes of digitally produced entertainment (computer games, films and television programmes).

• Game Over - (originally Games World) - variable-format videogame magazine show.

• Games Republic
  Games Republic
  Games Republic was a 30 minute TV game show which was broadcast on BSkyB's .tv channel from 1999 to 2000. It had an Egyptian theme and was hosted by Trevor and Simon....
  
   - A question based video game quiz show, presented by Trevor and Simon
  Trevor and Simon
  Trevor Neal and Simon Hickson are a British comedy duo, best known for their contributions to the BBC1 children's television series Going Live! and Live & Kicking during the late 1980s and throughout much of the 1990s...
  
  .

• "404 Not Found" - An off beat news and reviews show with regular viewer letters and emails.

• Global Village - 30 minute weekly show that looked at how technology was revolutionising our homes from an international perspective. Presented by Will Hanrahan

• Masterclass - 20 minute weekday show that gave tutorials on how to use features from programs like Microsoft Word
  Microsoft Word
  Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
  
  , Adobe Photoshop
  Adobe Photoshop
  Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program developed and published by Adobe Systems Incorporated.Adobe's 2003 "Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the 12th major release of Adobe Photoshop...
  
   and Nero Burning ROM
  Nero Burning ROM
  Nero Multimedia Suite is a popular software suite for Microsoft Windows by Nero AG . Version 10 of this product was released in April 2010.- Included products :The following applications are included in Nero 11 :Disc authoring...
  
  . For the majority of the run, the show was presented by Richard Topping
  Richard Topping
  Richard Topping started his career as a bar manager at the Beacon Hotel, Tunbridge Wells, and then went on-stage as a stand-up comedian on the London club circuit in the late 1980s. He moved into television in the 1990s, co-hosting several shows including BBC's This Multimedia Business, The...
  
  , affectionately known as "Toppers." He left the show to pursue a successful career in writing. His replacement was comedian Marc Haynes
  Marc Haynes
  Marc Haynes is an English comedy writer and radio broadcaster.- Biography :Marc Haynes was brought up in London and won the 1998 edition of The Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award for stand-up comedy, the finals of which also featured Stephen Merchant and Dan Antopolski.- Radio :From 2004 to 2007, he...
  
  , who fronted the show until the channel closed.

Buyers Guide, Masterclass and Chips with Everything were repeated as omnibus editions (the weekday editions broadcasted as one programme) on weekends.

External links

• Videogame coverage-centric potted history of the channel