Music Box was a pioneering pan-European 24-hour cable and satellite television channel that ran from 29 March 1984 to 30 January 1987, and was operated by Music Box Limited. It was originally one of three services (along with Premiere and The Children's Channel) that formed Thorn EMI's venture into satellite television as a British version of MTV, and later became part of Virgin Vision as one of Richard Branson's business ventures launched in 1983. A special Italian version of Music Box was created in the spring of 1988, and some other shows were also re-transmitted by Japanese broadcaster NHK. The network 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 offices of CNN International until 2007. The address during the satellite years was 19-21 Rathbone Place. History Background As a 24-hour television channel during the 1980s, 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 dish and receiver were very expensive and for this reason had better viewing figures in countries where cable television was already used such as Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It was said to have made a small contribution to the overthrow of eastern European communist regimes as its prime, it was illegally watched by young Europeans living in those countries using makeshift satellite systems, and it gave many young people their first view of life in the rest of Europe. Operation The creator of Thorn EMI's three satellite channels as director of programmes was Julian Mounter, who joined Music Box from Thames Television. Recognising that income for satellite television would be slow in coming, Mounter set about negotiating revolutionary union deals to enable the use of smaller crews in the studio and on location, commandeered a boardroom at the headquarters of Thorn EMI as one of the studios and a small basement on Shaftesbury Avenue, and it was there that many of the programmes were made before better facilities were found. The channels broke new ground in graphics, promotions, presentation and set standards within practices still followed today. Mounter left in 1986 to become director general of Television New Zealand, and the three channels then took on individual senior management. Directors on the