History
The channel launched on 28 January 2008. As of March 2008, the channel had five times the viewing ratings than its main competition MTV Dance. [4] As of July 2019, the channel still dominates the ratings over its main rival MTV Dance (now Club MTV) that was closed on 20 July 2020, so Clubland remains the only UK-based EDM broadcasting music TV channel.
The channel was initially run in partnership with Mushroom TV Ltd, former operator of Channel AKA and Starz TV, as this company had an established system for the operation of viewer-voted music channels. On 17 February 2010 Clubland's broadcasting was changed to a brand new, bespoke playout facility. The text number for song voting changed as did some song voting codes, and the channel is now broadcast in 16:9 widescreen format (having been in 4:3 fullscreen during the Mushroom era.) The channel is now solely controlled (including all playout and technical support services) by the team behind the highly successful Clubland compilation album series. [5]
From January 2014 the channel has been available to stream on mobile devices via TVPlayer. From July 2014 Clubland TV has its own app available on the Google Play Store for Android devices and the App Store for Apple devices where viewers can request videos to be played on the channel.
On 30 April 2015, as part of a music reshuffle, Clubland TV was removed from Freesat, at the request of its operators. It returned along with its sister channels on 1 October 2015 (but was removed on 14 September 2016 along with Chilled TV).
On 12 January 2016, Clubland TV was picked up by Virgin Media. It was originally featured with sister channels Channel AKA (later Now 70s), Now Music (later Now 80s) and Chilled TV (later Now 90s), until Channel AKA was removed in March 2018. The app on Clubland closed on Virgin Media in January 2019.
In August 2016, the channel got a licence to launch on Freeview. It launched on 6 September 2016, in Manchester only, but later was put on channel 271 via streaming service Channelbox along with sister channel Now 90s, now known as Now Rock. [6]
On 9 September 2016, Clubland TV launched changed their on screen graphics. It is one of the few UK music channels to feature an on-screen clock informing viewers of the current time. These on screen graphics were used from 2016 to 2022.
On 20 November 2020, the channel temporarily renamed as Channel U for six hours to promote the film Against All Odds. [7]
On 27 October 2021, the on-screen clock was removed from Clubland TV. It returned some time later and as of February 2022 remains on-screen.
On 23 February 2022, it was confirmed that Clubland TV and the other three AATW channels would launch on Sky Glass in the future, although a specific launch date was not given.
On 31 May 2022, Clubland TV launched new on-screen graphics and a modified logo, featuring a blue and pink colour, with the first song being played following the rebrand being 2 Unlimited's 'No Limit'. Clubland TV also gained a sponsor, FreePrints.
On 17 June 2022, Clubland TV once again changed their On-Screen Graphics, this time to include a new, bolder font.
As of 2022, Clubland TV's playout consists entirely of Old-School dance, the channel formerly focused on a mix of Old-School and brand new Dance, EDM and K-Pop. The channel does, however, occasionally play music from the 2010s.
On 26 October 2022, Clubland TV was delisted from Manchester local community Freeview, due to national expansion on cable and satellite. [8]
