Music Box Ltd. was a television production company that developed from a pioneering pan-European 24-hour cable and satellite channel that ran from March 1984 to the 30th of January 1987, originally one of three channels along with PREM1ERE and The Children's Channel, that formed Thorn EMI's venture into satellite television. ""Music Box"" later found itself as part of Virgin Vision, one of Richard Branson's business ventures launched in 1983.
As a 24-hour TV channel in the 80s, Music Box was able to reach 60 million potential viewers in Europe and the Middle East thanks to satellite distribution. At the time, a satellite reception system was very expensive and for this reason the channel was very big in countries where cable TV was largely used, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Scandinavian countries. Music Box was also partially retransmitted on several terrestrial local channels in Italy and a special Italian version of Music Box was created in spring of 1988. A couple of Music Box shows were also retransmitted by Japanese broadcaster NHK. In 1986, Yorkshire Television from ITV decided to go 24 hours a day, but little cash was invested in that service, and so, most of the downtime was filled with a rebroadcast of Music Box. It was the first time that an ITV company (allegedly) broadcast 24 hours. Music Box was originally based in the heart of London, in a building where Virgin Vision and Super Channel were also based, and later gave home to the London offices of CNN International and Cartoon Network and now Warehouse (Clothing retailer). The address during the satellite years was 19-21 Rathbone Place (London) and the public address for Music Box was P.O. Box 4DX, London W1A 4DX, England.
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