Babe Channel historians, check out this post, a follow up to xxXpanded Memories originally posted on the 14th of May, 2014 by @babe_tv on their now defunct Tumblr page, all about xxXpanded’s return to Freeview…
After the conclusion of xxXpanded TV’s run on Freeview Channel 180 between January 2013 and January 2014, there was a period of nearly two and a half months during which Babestation held a night show monopoly on UK terrestrial TV. But at the end of March 2014, the budget-priced babe channel with a demon punch gained a new placeholder on the Freeview EPG – this time on Channel 182. The Channel 182 version of the show is illustrated in the post header pic, with Goldie Lox taking calls. Does she not just have the best name on any live babeshow, ever?…
Having dropped the “xx” from the TV branding, the new channel name was simply Xpanded TV, but for one day only, the EPG still documented the actual programme title as xxXpanded TV. This was amended on 1st April, so that both babe channel and programme were unified; Xpanded prevailed, and xxXpanded was completely dropped.
However, it was a few days before Xpanded actually started to broadcast on Freeview 182, the first transmission beginning in the early hours of Saturday 5th April 2014. Rather than the midnight start time of the Channel 180 show, Channel 182 currently goes live at 3am [UPDATE 04/06/2014: the Xpanded Freeview broadcast now starts at midnight]. The ever-dependable Honey Scott is featured in the above pic, from April 2014.
The basic call charge remained at 46p per minute with no connection fees, but the onscreen graphics were subtly updated in relation to those last used on Channel 180, with some alternative colouring, and of course a replacement of the xxXpanded name with Xpanded. The format has pretty much picked up where it left off, although handsets have been used in place of headsets at times. Kerrie-Lee routinely uses a handset, and Megan Moss has used one too, although she more typically wears a headset.
There have been significant changes in the main base of commonly screened babes. Plenty of new faces, but some of the favourites who appeared regularly in the latter part of the original Freeview run have not figured heavily this time, if at all. Candy’s still around but I haven’t yet seen her on Channel 182, Lenni says she’s taking a short break from the TV shows, Elise’s Twitter suggests she’s left the babe channels altogether, and of course Sophie Hart moved to Babestation on 3rd May. Isabella (pictured above), has been one of the faces of continuity.
Names such as Goldie Lox, Roxi Keogh, Kerrie-Lee, Raegan, Tullulah, Sammie H, Megan Moss and Ashton have joined continuous regulars such as Honey Scott, Hazel Bond, Lily Rose, Isabella and Roxy J on Xpanded’s widest-reaching babe channel. Tindra Frost, who arrived immediately before the end of the Channel 180 run, is still a Freeview regular too. As is evident from the above (non-exhaustive) list, Xpanded are maintaining good variety, and they still seem to have an uncanny knack of sourcing girls who fans automatically like and don’t have a bad word to say about.
For one night only – 6th to 7th May 2014 – the Xpanded graphics featured the new S2S logo in the top right hand corner of the screen, but without the turquoise explanatory strip that was added above the main graphics block from the following night. The above pic shows the one off graphics arrangement, with Tindra Frost (left) and Amy Heart taking live calls. S2S stands for Stream2Studio, and is an app-driven service that allows callers to make cam footage of themselves visible to the Xpanded babes. It launched on Sky from late February 2014.
I will of course be keeping a close eye on Xpanded and posting points of interest from their current terrestrial output, as well as some more retrospective stuff from the Channel 180 run.
