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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Babestation" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Babestation is a British pornography TV sex line which has aired since 2002. The first show of its kind in the UK, it allows viewers to communicate live with female presenters via a premium-rate telephone number or text messaging. It is broadcast daily, and since 2006 has had a dedicated channel on Sky. Via its sister stations and websites it is now a hard core pornography brand.

History

Babestation began in late 2002, as a post-watershed two-hour programme (11pm-1am) on computer game channel Game Network UK. Babestation featured two women taking calls (unheard by the TV audience) whilst the rest of the screen was filled by viewers' text messages and one presenter, who improvised and reacted to the messages. The presenter might alternate between the three women throughout the show.

The programme proved profitable to the channel and Babestation's makers. In time, Babestation was given bigger time-slots, becoming a three- and then four-hour-long show (11pm-3am), increasing the number of presenters to four or five per night, and improving the technology (the director could now put women on 'full-screen', having only been able to show them on one-sixth of it before, and hand-held cameras were introduced, replacing the poorer-quality static remote-controlled ones used originally). Babestation was also sometimes broadcast on the Italian feed of Game Network.

This, along with Game Network's waning commitment to 'video gaming' programmes (as Psychic Interactive was also given a large amount of airtime), caused Game Network to cease to exist in the UK; on 20 February 2006, the channel's name changed to 'Babestation', and on 28 February this channel was moved by Sky to the new "Adult" section of channels. it is also available on Free-to-air channels under the Adult Section.

Babestation is now owned and operated by Cellcast PLC, a company was co-founded by Andrew Wilson and Bertrand Folliet in 2002.

A new type of show

Babestation was a unique style of TV programme in Britain. Despite not being popular, and having low production values, Babestation produced many clones that can all be seen as originating from its format; see televised sex line.

These programmes all differ slightly in format and explicitness – Babestation generally does not generally show genitals or sex toys, or contain very strong language; since 2004 camera phone technology has been used to allow viewers to send in pictures of themselves; and the show has always featured adverts for similar services in its commercial breaks. But the idea is the same – live,simulated sex interspersed with unscripted conversation, advertising a premium rate number to phone the girls, which makes it a profitable business.

Charlie Brooker of The Guardian accused both presenters and viewers of being "thick" and referred to viewers "begging them to blow kisses and jiggle about a bit".

David Nugus author of a privately published study into TV/phone sex channels (Spring 2013), conducted many interviews with the presenters. He found them to be articulate with considerable personality, a necessity for the success of such channels.

Since September 2013 the Babestation studios were broadcast from Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire.

Some of the Babestation cast includes:

• Hannah Claydon
• Lolly Badcock
• Michelle Moist
• Michelle Thorne

Masti Chat

Masti Chat is a weekly block on Babestation which allows British Asians to connect with these British Asian Girls, it is on from 1PM till 9PM from Monday to Sunday. A night show is broadcast on Babestation2 every so often.

Dirty Wives

Dirty Wives is a block on Babestation2,Sky channel 909 that is on once or twice a week in the night hours. This programme features some of the babe channels best mature girls(40+).

Sister programmes

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• Babecast (a.k.a. BabeCast XXX) has been broadcast since 2003 on Friendly TV, and is owned by the same company as Babestation: it is sometimes filmed in the same studio, and presenters rotate between the two programmes. Friendly TV was originally in the 100-200 channel numbers on Sky, but on 28 February 2006 it moved to ch. 908 (now 907), in the Adult section of channels (like Babestation).

• Babestation 2 is broadcast on ch. 909, Get Lucky TV, initially a phone-in quiz/gambling channel, although the channel's name now carries the more sexual meaning of "get lucky" because of its content. Babestation 2 features one or two Babestation presenters; now, instead of dividing up the screen of Babestation, its makers can put women on the extra channel.

• Lads Lounge (ch. 906) is a daytime format of Babestation

• Babestation Xtreme is a subscription website, offering hardcore pornography not allowed on British television.

See also

• Televised sex line
• Game Network
• Friendly TV

References

1. http://www.babestationcams.com
3. Extracted from "Interactive TV, the unlikely sexual revolution". David Nugus 2013
4. Brooker, Charlie (2 April 2005). "Call collect". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 April 2008.
5. "Interactive TV, the unlikely sexual revolution" David Nugus 2013.

External links

• Babestation's Official Website
• Babestation at IMDB.com
• Babestation Babes Official Websites

• Use dmy dates from April 2013
• British pornographic television programmes
• British pornographic television channels
• Televised sex lines
• Cellcast