Shortlived TV channels

[i.h]

Do you remember the keyboards that came out alongside digital satellite and cable?

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/...71-00F.jpg

I remember that much like Sky, Telewest hoped to become a hub for online shopping and so forth. I was a bit young, so never used anything like that myself, but I do remember my grandad had a Telewest keyboard. Sky made one as well:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/OwkAAOSwC...-l1600.jpg

ON digital / ITV digital had them too. Aside from “on net” which was an entirely separate STB and keyboard that did the whole TV internet thing, they also offered a remote for “on mail”, which was available via the main TV box. I seem to remember a promotion where they were just giving them away, I didn’t have an onmail account but I ended up with one.

Telewest and the other cable companies at least had a better chance of making a go of it, since their cable networks were mostly two way and always on so there were no dialup call charges to worry about & much faster to boot