Carlton Select

British digital television channel

Carlton Select was a British digital television channel, owned by Carlton Television. It was originally launched on Thursday 1 June 1995 as SelecTV, by the independent production company of the same name, before being purchased by Carlton in 1997 who relaunched it as Carlton Select. On 14 February 1997, after SelecTV was rebranded, Carlton Select branded itself as "The UK's leading entertainment cable channel". Together with quiz shows, films, dramas, sports coverage which featured the UEFA Champions League Live and comedies, the channel brought viewers a wide ranging choice of high quality programming. The channel was also available via satellite in Africa, on the South African DStv service, from the start of the platform to the shutdown of the channel.

Carlton Select was the result of a purchase by Pearson Television of production company, SelecTV for the value of £5.2m in 1996. SelecTV had run a cable only channel of the same name since Thursday 1 June 1995 and whose roots stretch as far back as the mid 80s. SelecTV was rebranded as Carlton Select on 14 February 1997. The channel originally broadcast from 17:00 to 00:00 on weekdays with a 12:00 start at the weekend. In September 1996, Carlton Food Network launched and it timeshared with Carlton Select (still SelecTV at CFN's launch). Consequently, the channel's on air time was 17:00 seven days a week. Later, broadcast hours were extended with closedown time on weekdays becoming 01:00, and 02:00 at the weekend. The future of the channel was being considered internally as early as mid 1999 and Carlton Select was eventually closed down on 1 March 2000. Its hours on OnDigital were given over to Carlton Food Network, with Carlton Cinema replacing Carlton Select on cable.