TVARK

Infobox Website
name = tv-ark.org.uk
favicon =



caption = TVARK's homepage
foundation = 1998
location_country = UK
url = http://www.tv-ark.org.uk
commercial = no
type = Sound & Video Archive
owner = Steve Hackett
Hayden Walker
Rob Frowen
James Hudson
Robert Piercy
Ben Hale
author = Steve Hackett
launch date = November 1998
current status = Active, but under construction
revenue = Donations

TVARK is a website that archives images, sound and video clips which illustrate British television presentation history. Content includes idents, programme promotions, opening title sequences, public information films, commercials, daily start-ups and closedowns, break bumpers and station clocks. Each item has a short written analysis.

The selection of clips represents the work of many broadcasting and production companies, principally the national and regional divisions of the BBC and ITV, plus Channel 4, Five, various BSkyB channels, and a few other satellite channels. Programme clips are grouped into genres such as soaps, game shows, quiz shows, comedy, drama and cult, and are formatted in the RealMedia codec.

History of TVARK

TVARK was founded in the dial-up era, as a one-man hobby site called "Television Ark" in November 1998. At that time, there were just a few pages containing a handful of low-resolution clips that were easy to download but were smaller to look at than an average postage stamp. Over the years, the clips and images have grown in size to reflect the increasing use of broadband. The site has also expanded but is still run entirely as a hobby by an eight-man team, with updates and additions made whenever their time permits. In December 2005 they absorbed the remains of SchoolsTV.com, a website dedicated to television programming for schools. The site is dedicated to the founder's late mother, Valerie Hackett.

During the summer of 2006 it was announced on their home page that they were having a summer break and would relaunch the site in the future. The site relaunched on 25 December 2006 with limited content, although most sections have been refreshed and updated. The relaunch saw the clips put into a new download system in an effort to prevent hotlinking and preserve bandwidth. In addition the relaunch saw the addition of a semi-transparent watermark (DOG) to new clips added to the site, in order to discourage "web snatching" of clips. Despite this, clips from TVARK have appeared on other sites, notably YouTube.

British channels

Terrestrial

National and regional BBC channels
National and regional ITV channels

Channel 4

S4C

Five

Digital

BSB

The Power Station

Now

Galaxy

The Sports Channel

The Movie Channel

BSkyB

Sky1

Sky2 (current) and Sky 2 (1996)

Sky3

Sky Movies and Sky Movies Gold

Sky Arts (current) and Sky Arts (1990)

Sky Travel

Sky Soap

Sky Sports and Sky Sports News

Sky Scottish

Sky Box Office

Sky News

The Comedy Channel

Other Channels

BBC Choice

BBC Knowledge

BBC News

BBC Prime

Bravo

Carlton Cinema

Carlton World

Carlton Kids

Carlton Select

Carlton Food Network

The Children's Channel

CMT Europe

Discovery Channel

Discovery Real Time

Discovery Turbo

Discovery Travel & Living

Discovery Knowledge

E4

Euronews

Eurosport

European Business Channel

France 24

MTV UK

Music Box

Nickelodeon

Granada Talk TV

Play UK

Screensport

Super Channel

Trouble

.tv

UKTV Gold

UKTV G2

International section

As well as showing UK clips TVARK also has an international section which includes international television clips. Some of these clips, however, may have been removed when the site went on hiatus, and not restored since the relaunch.

ubmitting material

The organisers accept tapes of vintage television presentation through the post.

Formats accepted by TVARK
* VHS (PAL & NTSC)
* Betamax (PAL)
* DVD-R / DVD+R (PAL & NTSC)
* Mini DV (PAL)
* DVcam (PAL)
* DVCPRO (PAL)
* Beta SP (PAL)
* HDCAM

Reviews and awards

* Wanadoo (Summer 2004): Ten of Best (4)
* WebUser (May 2004): Number 4 (Wallow in TV nostalgia)
* TV Cream (April 2004): TV Cream's Top 50 Media Movers & Shakers (48)
* BBC Somerset Sound: Discussing TVARK (Rating 5/5)

TVARK forums

It was decided in late December 2005 by TVARK's owners to close its forums. The forum closure was originally scheduled to close on 31 December, however the forums were removed earlier than planned on 18 December. [http://www.tvforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18878] A new forum was set up by the former forum staff as a separate venture. Since then TVARK continues to operate as before, with a new guest book being established in its place.

External links

* [http://www.tv-ark.org.uk tv-ark.org.uk]