Television X (TVX) was the first of adult pay-per-view television channels in the United Kingdom owned by MG Global Entertainment (Europe) Limited. Until 2020, it was owned by Portland TV which was a subsidiary of Richard Desmond’s publishing company Northern & Shell until 2016.
In June 1995, The Fantasy Channel began airing with its original name before it was renamed to Television X. The original trailer is available to watch on YouTube
The hosts of the show were Charmaine Sinclair and Samantha Jessup, while occasional appearances were made by Debbie Corrigan and Kirsten Imrie. Deric Botham, who was then the editor of Penthouse magazine, developed a significant portion of the original programming such as Superdick, Shagnasty and Mutley, and David Dickie’s World of Sport.
Television X Callgirls Live
The launch of the babe channels in 2002 put a serious dent in the UK pay per view market, for the first time brits could see tits for free it as the television version of the tube sites. Television X spent time trying to put the babechannels out of business by lobbying Ofcom but in the end decided to start their own babeshows, They priced their phone in lines at a much lower rate than the other babe channels again in an effort to force the babeshows out of business.
A lot of the history of Television X can be found in Ric Porters book Welcome to Pornoland
A memoir of Ric Porter who, as a young man, fell into working in the British porno industry. This book charts his experiences from working with the then unknown Ben Dover on early films through to managing the UK’s most prolific adult magazine publishing group to becoming a producer for Television X and more. Features anecdotes of many well known adult and mainstream celebrities. An amusing and insightful look at the British adult industry ‘from the inside’, this reads like a cross between ‘Boogie Nights’ and ‘Carry On’ – Welcome to Pornoland!
Pornoland has a chapter on the production of the Call Girls babe show and it gives fascinating insight into the production of the babeshows in its early days. Ric explains that the other babe channels were run on a shoe string with the most of the companies coming from a premium rate telephony background rather than experience in television or film production. Call Girls being filmed at Portland TV studios on the Thames had state of the art equipment. The babes even had to wear talk back ear pieces which many of the girls didn’t like. The constant murmuring in the background was distracting while the girls were taking calls from the viewers.
TVX, a popular provider of babeshows, has always gone above and beyond to create visually appealing sets that captivate their audience. One of the ways they did this is by dressing their models in elegant evening dresses, which adds a touch of sophistication and glamour to the show. By paying attention to even the smallest details, TVX managed to create an immersive and engaging experience for their viewers.
Ric comments that he was surprised that despite the array of sex toys the viewers would more often than not merely ask the girls to do things like “sit with your legs open” or “put the soles of your feet to the camera.”
Peek of Pussy
Sexstation had started a popular feature called Flash The Gash at midnight whereby they would take off the on screen phone numbers and the model would then appear totally naked. Seeing pussy on the free to air babeshows wasn’t normally done. TVX came up with their own version called Peek Of Pussy. So popular was it that as soon as the show started viewers would text in Pop Pop Pop.
Television X on Freeview
TVX featured a number of girls familiar of Sexstation viewers Bex from Big Brother, Levi, Honey Scott, Siobhan Hughes, Jem Stone, Tammy Oldham from sexstation, Tilly Hardy, Bonnie Lee, Hannah Prentice, Ani James, Tia Jones, Cali Garcia, Sarah Louise, Jade Victoria, Jasmine Jones, Morgan James, Flo, French Chloe, Charmaine Sinclair, Daisy Dash, Rachael Henriques, Leigh Smith, and Lisa O’Connor. Issues with TVX channels arose despite the hardworking and dedicated models. During Freeview run, there were instances of disinterest, boredom, and lack of focus among some models.
Cream Live was removed from Freeview Channel 191 on February 23, 2011. It was replaced by an encrypted Television X porn transmission. Honey Nights lasted for nearly two more months before being terminated on April 18, 2011, freeing up Channel 192 for Elite TV to take over a few nights later.
Television X Social Media
Television X were very active on the babeshow forum with their character TVX Mole who would post pictures from t e shoots as well keeping readers informed with what was going on on the channel. From 2010 there was TVX Mole Blog. This then continued on social media on the TVX twitterchannel. and a YouTube channel
After TVX The mole had a succesful career as DJ under the name Ambient Babestation
Launch of XXXpanded TV
Eventually TVX grew tired of producing their own babeshows and decided to instead ransome off the airtime to Red Light Central thus would then be gazumped by XXXpanded who had run the phone services for the TVX babeshows. Xpanded decided to produce their own babeshows and took over the airtime.
TVX gained fame for operating pay-per-view channels and producing porn parodies broadcasting for 25 years. However, in the fall of 2020, the company was sold to Playboy TV. Even after the acquisition, Playboy TV continued to broadcast some of the classic TV productions that TVX was known for. Today, Playboy TV remains a popular adult entertainment network that offers a variety of programming options to its viewers.
