Rapture TV

Rapture TV is/was a dance music satellite television station operated from the United Kingdom, founded by the United Business Media group. Having launched on analogue satellite in 1997, they were offered as an option on Sky Television's service, and moved to its digital system, Sky Digital in 2001, just prior to going bankrupt with debts of 22 million pounds sterling. Its last broadcast in that incarnation was on October 3rd, 2001.

The channel was relaunched, and its path gets a little hazy at this stage. Recurring financial issues, changes to their EPG allocation, and various other problems, left the channel in a precarious state. By April 2004 it was running on an almost autopilot, with a somewhat randomised playlist of a few videos, reruns of old club nights over night, and extreme sports in the day. However, at this stage it was no longer a Sky provided channel, despite having an EPG number, and was broadcast free-to-air on the same block of satelites.

In July 2004, the channel ran out of money terminally, a merger fell through and the channel ceased to broadcast and was removed from the Sky EPG.

However, the channels owners are attempting to relaunch the channel yet again, although increasing competition for the limited advertising revenues available, and a slow down in the takeup of Sky subscriptions mean that it will be increasingly difficult.

The story of Rapture TV has been a defining one for the birth of digital satellite. With the increase in capacity, and lower cost base, a whole host of such channels were launched, with most languishing at unpopular EPG locations, or even outside the EPG. Although the satellite TV became "cheaper" to enter, many operators rushed onto the scene without a viable business plan that would make money. Unlike other such channels, Rapture TV has refused to disappear.

In January 2005 another Free To Air channel on the Sky Digital system confirmed that Rapture would use their downtime – midnight to midday – to broadcast a music-only stream as a precursor to a full relaunch later in 2005. However, this deal fell through as that channel went 24 hour, leaving no empty airtime. Station managment, however, claim that a full relaunch in October 2005 is likely.

In another twist, a company who formerly attempted to buy Rapture and pulled out at the last minute have recently launched a channel which shows dance music, and whos tapes have the same magnetic damage as the ones used by Rapture.