To help turn around the financial fortunes of the company, New Zealand television executive Sam Chisholm was brought on board to manage the day-to-day operations and build the subscriber base, and the company moved into profit.
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Rupert Murdoch described cable and satellite television as being "the most important single advance since Caxton invented the printing press" and saw it as the ideal and definte way into making his definitive breakthrough into the UK's television industry, which he had wanted to do for a long time.
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Many programmes from the ITV companies' archives appeared on the schedules of the new channel, such as Please, Sir!, Dickens of London, The Rag Trade, Within These Walls and Hadleigh, which in time were accompanied by some limited self-made programming, such as the music show Cable Countdown hosted by BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read.
It also founded one of the UK's earliest cable television channels, Lifestyle through its WHSTV division, which were carried on almost every cable system in the UK and Ireland prior to the start of Sky Television.
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ITV offered £205million for the television rights and later increased their offer to £262million but were outbid by Rupert Murdoch who saw it as the make or break opportunity to lure new customers to their loss-making satellite service Sky Television plc who had been advised by Tottenham Hotspur Chairman Alan Sugar.