FourTV

FourTV is the fourth main Lontican television channel launched in 1962. It is owned by Parallel Media.

History
FourTV originates from the late 1950s, when it was decided that a second channel from the state broadcaster, Lontica Television (now shortened to LonTel) would be given the go-ahead to launch. At the same time, it was being debated whether to allow third-party channels to launch, after seeing the success of ITV in the UK. After a long stalemate period, a television broadcasting licence was approved in July of 1961. After hearing about this, a consortium was set up to operate the first of these commercial channels. Two months later, they were officially awarded the licence to begin broadcasting within the next year. This eventually started in the capital region in March, on VHF channel 4.

In 1974, the channel began broadcasting in colour, and in 1981, it bought the local station for the city of Vecar, TeleV.

With the rise of satellite in the late 80s and early 90s, the channel acquired the satellite channel SuperSat in 1990, and subsequently renamed it FourSat in 1993, along with the launch of the main channel on the platform.

In 1995, it expanded its local network with the acquisition of Nova Television, the capital's station. The following year it spun-off the name rights to SuperSat and in the same year, launched a second satellite-exclusive channel, FourLife.

With the start of digital terrestrial television in April 1998, FourTV and FourLife were two of the channels available at launch, with FourSat becoming FourPlus in time for it joining in June 1999.

In 2002, the channel once again increased its local TV foothold, in buying Northern, the station for the region of Suclea, along with Calda's Channel C the next year.

In 2005, the channel's parent company, Four Broadcasting, merged with the cable company, Scope Media, to form the combined Four Media. This later merged with one of the main local companies, Parallel Local Television, to create the modern Parallel Media.

It was the first terrestrial channel to end it's analogue transmissions, doing so in 2007.

In 2011, it made another local acquisition, obtaining Gana's GTV and the similarly-named TVA in Alansha. In October of the same year, all of Parallel Media's local stations (the former Four Media's stations, plus the old PLT's TeleTre and TeleSol) became the PLT channel, allowing the 8 stations to pool their resources.