[retroguy]

Has any TV or radio station ever been known by an informal nickname

[JAS84]

A lot of them.

Yorkshire Television - YTV
BBC - Beeb, Auntie
Ulster Television - known as UTV long before it became the official name in 1993.
Channel 4 - Four

That's just for starters.

[RobinCarmody]

Not TV, obviously, but Luxy and (the original) Big L

[Multimedia81]

Some presenters abbreviate their radio stations to one word, such as Real (Real Radio) or Imagine (Imagine FM).

[mersey70]

I cannot think of any UK stations with a nickname apart from the BBC ( Beeb and Auntie). The ABC in Australia is also known as 'Aunty' as opposed to 'Auntie' but I know NBC in the US is known as the peacock network because of their famous ident.

[JAS84]

Most nicknames are abbreviations. Nickelodeon is known as Nick. Cartoon Network's logo uses the short form CN. CBBC and CITV were abbreviations used for Children's BBC and Children's ITV for several years before the names were officially shortened in the late 90s.

[cnbcwatcher]

Originally Posted by mersey70

I cannot think of any UK stations with a nickname apart from the BBC ( Beeb and Auntie). The ABC in Australia is also known as 'Aunty' as opposed to 'Auntie' but I know NBC in the US is known as the peacock network because of their famous ident.

I've heard about that, and I suppose CNBC could also be referred to as "the peacock business channel" if you wanted to

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by cnbcwatcher

I've heard about that, and I suppose CNBC could also be referred to as "the peacock business channel" if you wanted to

I guess you could be right.

I suspect the dreadful Fox News might have some nicknames for MSNBC too but I doubt they are suitable to be posted on here!

[spaintv]

NBC Te Peacock network as rightly mentioned
CBS The Eye Network cos of their logo
ABC The alphabet network

In Spain, TeleCinco (tele5) is called by many TeleCirco (tele-circus). It is a play on the Spanish word for FIVE (Cinco) and the Spanish word for circus (CIRCO) and the reference to circus is due to the channel basing most of its sxchedules on sensationalist tabloid / reality / celeb shows. The channel is also known to create scandals within its programmes to "self feed" the other programmes across the grid.

Also in Spain, Antena 3 is called Dapena3 (play on word to Pity3) and La Triste (The Sad One) usually by Tele5 supporters who note the channel's "toned down" and "whiter" schedules in comparison to tele5.

And still in Spain, La Sexta (The Sixth channel) is referred to by many as LaSecta (a play on the Spanish word for Sixth Sexta and the Spanish word for Cult SECTA) making reference to the channel's political connections.

[cnbcwatcher]

Originally Posted by mersey70

I guess you could be right.

I suspect the dreadful Fox News might have some nicknames for MSNBC too but I doubt they are suitable to be posted on here!

Haha thanks Best not post those nicknames on here! I watched Fox News last week at someone's house and I thought it was dire.

[seiko456]

Carlton: S***T! :P

[mrkite77]

Originally Posted by spaintv

NBC Te Peacock network as rightly mentioned
CBS The Eye Network cos of their logo
ABC The alphabet network

CBS is also known as the Tiffany Network.


Cinemax is commonly referred to as Skin-emax due to the soft-core porn they show late at night.

AMC used to be "American Movie Classics", but is now just "AMC".

[thelostone]

The Children's Channel was known as T.C.C and in the ended up as T.C.C

[BillKay]

In the early days of Channel 4 it was often referred to as Channel Bore
And the early days of Channel 5 the porn channel

[mersey70]

Amd whilst not strictly nicknames when Virgin Media fell out with BSkyB over pricing of ther basic channels which they dropped they changed the EPG to Sky Snooze (News) and Sky Sports Snooze!

I have read several posters on here (well done!) refer to Fox News as Faux News, I say No News is more apt.