The Box

The Box is a British music television channel owned by FOX Networks EMEA. Originally based on the US broadcast network of the same name, The Box primarily broadcasts music videos and music-related programmes. The channel also airs FOX animated shows on Saturdays.

History
The Box was brought to the United Kingdom by Vincent Monsey and his partner Liz Laskowski, who discovered the American music video channel in Miami in 1991, when it was then known as The Jukebox Network. The UK company, Video Jukebox Network International Limited, was formed in 1991 and The Box was launched the following year in April 1992 during the earlier days of cable television. The Box was carried by four operators UA, Telewest in London and Bristol, Nynex in the south of England, and Videotron, which is also based in London.

Over the next few years, The Box was rolled out on a regional basis across all of the United Kingdom's cable system available and, eventually, onto Sky Digital in 1998. The Box was also broadcast on the Astra Satellite between 2 am and 6 am during the downtime of Granada Plus and Men & Motors. From 1999, all the regional versions of The Box were shut down and replaced with a single UK version.

Ticketmaster Inc. briefly owned 50% of the company (Box Television Ltd) before becoming a public company on the FTSE. EMAP took ownership of these shares in 1997, and purchased the shareholding held by the US company VJN Inc, which had then become TCI Music and then Liberty Digital. The US version of the channel was sold to MTVN in 2000. EMAP retained ownership, receiving profits made from music video selections, which are made by the viewers using premium rate phone lines, as well as the small fees from BSkyB for being an encrypted channel. Each week, a new playlist would be released and would generally contain new or current music videos. In its earlier years, the playlist was published on teletext and the channel's website. Today, The Box now operates from a pre-programmed playlist and does not include video selection jukeboxes.

In July 2007, Channel Four Television Corporation acquired 50% of Box Television, before EMAP's remaining 50% in the company was sold to Bauer Media Group in January 2008. In 2019 Channel 4 took full ownership of the company, now known as The Box Plus Network.

On 2 April 2013, all Box Television channels went free-to-air on satellite, apart from 4Music which went free-to-view.[2] As a result, the channels were removed from the Sky EPG in Ireland. The Box was added to the Freesat EPG on 15 April 2013, alongside three other Box Television channels. The Box and its sister channels (except 4Music) returned to Freesat on 8 December 2021 alongside C4 HD.

On 1 November 2020, the channel was temporary rebranded as "BoXmas", which was formerly used for Box Upfront before it closed. It also plays regular hits during post-Christmas days. The temporary rebrand happened again on 10 November 2021.

On the evening of Saturday 25 September 2021, transmission of channels operated by Channel 4 was impacted by the activation of a fire suppressant system at the premises of Red Bee Media. This resulted in The Box being simulcast on Freeview in the place of 4Music (also known for broadcasting comedy and reality shows in the afternoon and evening) and the channel being broadcast in the place of 4Music, Kerrang! and Magic on satellite and cable.