Filmnet was a premium subscription based movie channel. It began life in the Netherlands on March 29th 1985 and was a owned between the Dutch ATN (Abonnee Televisie Nederland), Rob Houwer and Peter Jelgersma (Dutch filmmakers) and the Swedish Esselte Group.
Scandinavia was next, broadcasting the channel in English 24 hours a day to Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Filmnet was criticised in the UK for showing hard-core pornography in the lates 1980's, despite the fact the channel was encrypted (Although pirate decoder boxes were available to buy!).
Later it was sold to the South-African M-Net/Nethold group which sold it to Canal+ in 1993 after poor viewing figures. Localised versions of Canal+ replaced the Filmnet channels in Belgium, Holland, Flanders, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Poland.
But the channel's brand still lives on.. now with multi branded Filmnet channels in Greece.
Filmnet Ident - Version 11989
Filmnet used imaginative CG graphics in all their presentation. Notice behind the Filmnet type is a stylised 24, the broken up dot effect is made by creating the 24 as a halftone pattern, and then enlarging it.
Filmnet Ident - Version 21989
The 24 is not flat instead cleverly represented as a stylised city of skyscrapers!
Movie Start & Ident1989
This is how a movie would start in '89. A simple holding caption, followed by a short theme indicating the start of a movie, then the Filmnet main ident.
Coming Soon Promo1989
A nice CG fly through the 24 cityscape featuring clips of upcoming movies on Filmnet in '89
right clip - music only
Coming Up - Night Club & Royal Club1989
2 clips here showing what's coming up.
The day would be split into various 'clubs' these CG sequences were used, with simple captions superimposed.
Coming Soon Promo1991
Here's a look at what's coming soon on Filmnet..
Probably due to increased competition, promo's of this time used the tag line "The Original Movie Channel."
Filmnet Action Promo1991
A rather long promo advertising all the upcoming action films on the channel
Filmnet + 1992 - 1994
Filmnet Ident & Programme List1992
On December 1st 1992 Filmnet relaunched as Filmnet Plus adding childrens,sport, music and special events programming.
Filmnet Plus 1994
These next set of idents, use multi-layering CG techniques to acheive a textured look, just by using different lighting conditions. Simple, yet wonderfully atmospheric!
New Life to Your TV Promo1994
Filmnet promotes itself and it's sister channel, The Complete Movie Channel.
Filmnet 1996
Filmnet Ident1996
The '+' is dropped and Filmnet is back.
A globe of multiple images forms Filmnet's ident in '96
Filmnet Ident1996
Live action is now the trend worldwide for idents in 1996, and Filmnet joins in with classic lights and camera shots
Filmnet Holding Stills
