Fictional TV stations

[George White]

s I've mentioned before, one of my very strange autistic obsessions is fictional ITV regions.

United Television - Spearfield's Daughter (Fox/Global/Seven/Sky, 1986)
Rainbow Television - Madhouse (AIP, 1974)
Avon Television - Theatre of Blood (UA, 1973)
KTV - The Man Who Had Power Over Women (Avco Embassy, 1970)
Allied Television - Fanatic (Hammer, 1965)
Peak TV in Trog (Warner, 1970)
QTV in Journey to the Unknown (ABC/Hammer, 1968)
CJS in Thriller - Death to Sister Mary (ABC/ATV, 1974)
Lion Television - There's A Girl in My Soup (Columbia, 1971)
Midiffusion Television - Take A Girl Like You (Columbia, 1971)
Granville Television - The Deadly Bees (Amicus, 1966)
Ewart Television - Scandalous (Orion, 1984)
Northern TV - Our Friends in the North (BBC, 1996)
Daylight (GMTV-alike) in Prince William (ABC, 2002)
LTN in The Apocalypse Watch (ABC, 1998)
LTV in The Final Conflict (Fox, 1981)

BBC/ITV-alikes
IBTV in Prince William (ABC, 2002)
BTV in Quatermass (Euston, 1979)
British Global Press TV in Contact (Warner, 1997)
UKBC in Morons from Outer Space (Cannon, 1985)
GBTV in Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe (Lorimar, 1979)
GBTV in The Core (Paramount, 2003)
English Television Network/English Broadcasting Service in Mission: Impossible (CBS, 1960s)
EBC in Dracula III (Miramax, 2005)
TVTen in Giro City (C4, 1982)
BCM-TV (the alleged makers of Top of the Pops) in Beach Boys -American Family (C5/ABC, 2001)
The BRC in Young Indiana Jones (ABC, 1993)
The Ultrawave Television and Broadcasting Station in the Tunnel (1935)

US stations
UBS in Network (MGM/UA, 1976) and The Last Harem (1981)
UBC in The Great Smokey Roadblock (Dimension, 1978)
RBS in Special Bulletin (NBC, 1984)
WNN in The Apocalypse Watch (ABC, 1998)
CNS in Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Secret Affair (CBS, 1999)
ATN in Barbara Taylor Bradford's Remember (NBC, 1993)
ICN in Pandora's Clock (NBC/C5, 1996)

Regional fictional stations are too many.

And international stations
Video-Tele-France in Superman II (Warner, 1980)
TVF in Monsieur Cognac (Universal, 1964)
ICN Geneva in Babylon 5 (Warner/PTEN, 1990s)

Any favourite (perhaps awkwardly named) fictional TV stations?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_television_stations This has a few of the more obvious ones.
Chanel 9 estas eble la plej rimarkinda televidservo por homoj kiel Chris Waddle.
Filmoj kiuj havas tre sminky-pinky aŭ fikciajn portretadojn de "fremda televido" en la hethetheth ethethetheth.

[Lordofthefiles]

WGON - Dawn of The Dead (1978)

[Endicott]

Emu's Broadcasting Company

GlobeLink News


Have a feeling I might have got the definition wrong.

[madhair60]

PTV

[Sebastian Cobb]

The one you take to bed with you!

[Theoretical Dentist]

ICN Geneva in Babylon 5 (Warner/PTEN, 1990s)

Not sure if ICN is a typo or a different channel that showed up at some point, but the fictional broadcaster that most often appeared was ISN (Interstellar Network), which appeared to be a CNN-like news channel and was often how the characters found out about evens on Earth. There was a whole episode, And Now for a Word, presented as an ISN programme filmed on Babylon 5.

[Theoretical Dentist]

Roland Rat was supposedly on BBC3, before the real BBC Three (or even its predecessor BBC Choice) was launched.

[superthunderstingcar]

Spoiler alert

[close]

[George White]

Not sure if ICN is a typo or a different channel that showed up at some point, but the fictional broadcaster that most often appeared was ISN (Interstellar Network), which appeared to be a CNN-like news channel and was often how the characters found out about evens on Earth. There was a whole episode, And Now for a Word, presented as an ISN programme filmed on Babylon 5.

Typo, my bad.

CNN-alikes
GNN in Special Report-  Journey to Mars (CBS, 1996)
LNN in Lois and Clark (ABC, 1990s)
GNN in Batman Forever (Warner, 1995 - again probably a local/superstation)
ZNN in JAG (NBC/CBS, 1990s)
CVN in Countdown to Looking Glass (HBO/CTV, 1984)
SNN in Switching Channels (Tristar, 1987)
General US networks
UBC in The Barefoot Executive (Disney, 1971)
ICS in the Running Man (Tristar, 1987)
NBS in Married with Children (FOX, 1990s)
ACB in The Detached Mission (Mosfilm, 1985 -'The ACB Television News Service' (though the cameras say ASB, bless).
ZBC in On the Air (ABC/BBC, 1992)
MBC in The Ratings Game (Showtime, 1984)
SMN (Standard Mutual Network) in The Osterman Network (20th Century Fox, 1984)
CNC in Columbo - Make Me A Perfect Murder (NBC, 1978)
FBN in Desk Set (Fox, 1957)
IBC in Scrooged (Paramount, 1988)
UBA in The Morning Show (Apple, 2020s)

[George White]

Roland Rat was supposedly on BBC3, before the real BBC Three (or even its predecessor BBC Choice) was launched.

Also appeared in Doctor Who and the Daemons, and a Justice League Europe beforehand too.

Good Day UK in Harry and Meghan - Becoming Royal (Lifetime, 2019)
The British Commonwealth Broadcasting Service in The Hardy Boys Mysteries (ABC, 1977)
BTV in The Third Secret (Fox, 1964)
The British Radio Network in the St Claire holoprogram in Star Trek Voyager (UPN, 2000). Has a wartime bandleader named Jazzy McNulty.

[Theoretical Dentist]

Sports Night is about a fictional sports news/magazine show of the same name, on the fictional channel CSC (Continental Sports Channel), based on ESPN.

Another Aaron Sorkin series about a fictional TV show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, has the fictional network NBS (National Broadcasting System), based on Saturday Night Live on NBC. (In contrast 30 Rock, which had a similar premise and started at the same time, was set at NBC and is named after its real headquarters, 30 Rockefeller Plaza).

In the Danish political drama Borgen, some of the characters work at the fictional channel TV1, which Wikipedia says is based on the public service channel DR1. Wikipedia also says there's a commercial channel 2'eren based on TV 2 (which is apparently government-owned but separate from DR and requires a paid subscription), but I can't remember how that features in the series.

[Theoretical Dentist]

Also appeared in Doctor Who and the Daemons, and a Justice League Europe beforehand too.

Yeah, having a higher-numbered BBC channel would have been an obvious way of signalling a future media landscape, at least after BBC2 launched, and similar for non-BBC channels after Channel 4. I wonder what the highest-numbered fictional channel was.

[George White]

Well, US channels often have names like TV57.
But re British ones.
Network 23 in MAX HEADROOM (1985)
TV TEN in Giro City.
Network 7
All C4 examples.

[Average Comedy Enjoyer]

Channel 66 in Death Race 2000

Clamp Cable Network in Gremlins 2

I'm sure you've debated including video games:

Weasel News - a Fox parody from the GTA universe
CNT - CNN in the same

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Outer Hebrides Broadcasting Corporation (OHBC)

[superthunderstingcar]

Also appeared in Doctor Who and the Daemons

[George White]

RE:Pandora's Clock (1996, NBC), International Cable News is the channel there, and seems to transmit to the wonderfully cliched version of Britain it shows.

Esp. the wheel-chair bound Stanwell ham radio enthusiast

'Lower than Charing Cross Station'.

[Astronaut Omens]

The alternate history satire CSA:The Confederate States of America, is presented as a modern-day evening's viewing on Confederate Television Channel with news bulletins about runaway slaves and commercials for electronic shackles breaking up the majority of the film, a documentary made by the fictional British Broadcasting Service explaining how the South won the Civil War and the aftermath.
https://youtu.be/exnwTWfFRM8?t=3

[selectivememory]

An obvious one is ATN in Succession, which is basically Fox News.

[imitationleather]

Is Sick Sad World in Daria a TV station? I could never work it out.

[beanheadmcginty]

KYTV
NTV

[earl_sleek]

Local 58, the cursed TV station in the analogue horror YouTube series of the same name.

[lauraxsynthesis]

[George White]

Err 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_television_stations
Chanel 9 estas eble la plej rimarkinda televidservo por homoj kiel Chris Waddle.
Filmoj kiuj havas tre sminky-pinky aŭ fikciajn portretadojn de "fremda televido" en la hethetheth ethethetheth.

[Brundle-Fly]

A Monster Fun comic strip 1976.

[beanheadmcginty]

Was Round the Bend supposed to be a channel or just a show with segments?

[George White]

'BDC', the American network in Cannibal Holocaust (1980).

[Catalogue Trousers]

Joshua Yarlog's JYTV, a pirate broadcast station which formed the memorable links on one edition of The Lenny Henry Show.

[George White]

Confusingly, the English dub refers to it as the Pan-American Broadcasting System.   

Transatlantic Broadcasting Co  in W.E.B. (NBC, 1978)

[George White]

Nimbus III/Paradise City Television in Star Trek V - The Final Frontier (1989).


UBS and WNYC (unless it's supposed to be the PBS station) in Darkroom (ABC, 1981).
Washington D.C. Network News Bureau ("Broadcast News")
WJM in Mary Tyler Moore