6 Things You Learn As Director Of L!ve TV

Live TVIn the continuing series of low-budget TV shows and channels that I've worked on I present to you, my good readers, six reasons why making L!ve TV wasn't quite the fun ride you might imagine it would be. (If you missed the first, check it out here - 6 Sucky Truths About Working On Gamesmaster And Games World) L!ve TV was a TV channel spewed forth from David Montgomery and Sun newspaper mogul Kelvin MacKenzie who, in a fit of madness, decided an entire channel made by the people who make the Daily Mirror would be a big hit. Janet Street Porter was plonked at the helm and it was supposed to offer a mix of lifestyle, news and celebrity info all broadcast live. Funnily enough Janet Street Porter and Jane Hewland (of Gamesmaster) were once colleagues - I guess I was destined to be connected to both. I was hired as Technical Director for L!ve TV around the mid-to-late mark of the channel's life and did everything there but technically direct anything really. L!ve TV garnered low ratings from the outset and subsequently sank into terribly bad softcore programming such as Topless Darts and Tiffany's Big City Tips which was forerunner to Naked News. I don't believe L!ve TV ever made a profit and I remember Kelvin MacKenzie telling me it was losing around six million pounds a year. ebayAs an early footnote, L!ve TV's entire output, every hour of every day of every year, was put on eBay and sold to the highest bidder. It went for just over £14,000. Money well spent. So let's see what dirt I can dish on the mostly defunct channel.