BBC Select: A Failed Subscription Service

The BBC's little known late night service from the early 1990s

If, in 1987, you had been watching television very late at night, we’re talking post-closedown late, you could have stumbled across something very interesting on BBC2. To be precise, you would have encountered an encrypted engineering test. These tests would have made little sense to the average man on the street. But, for the BBC, they represented tentative steps into their first subscription service. And it failed spectacularly.

Very little is known about the encrypted engineering tests from 1987, with barely any recordings being captured and no references in the press. What we do know, though, is that they paved the way for British Medical Television (BMTV). Originally launched in the early 1980s, BMTV started life as a service which produced a monthly video tape and was sent to every GP in the country.

However, BMTV had their sights set higher than a straight-to-video model. They wanted to broadcast on the airwaves. And, in 1988, they struck an innovative deal with the BBC to make use of BBC2 once normal programming had finished for the evening.

Pushing the envelope of innovation further, these broadcasts would be encrypted.