UWTV Takes Shape as Cablearn
In the 1970s, a group of local institutions, including Seattle Public Schools and Public Libraries, Seattle University, Seattle Pacific University and the University of Washington, came together to form a consortium cable channel. The goal was to provide alternative, high-quality educational programming to television viewers in the local area. UW agreed to administer the channel—CABLEARN— through the Continuing Education department.

In 1980, production studios for Cablearn were moved to the current home in Kane Hall under the department of Instructional Media Services, and included the latest in audio-visual technology for the time. In 1993, Computing & Communications assumed responsibility of the engineering and television infrastructure, renaming it Video & TV Technologies. In the summer of 1994, the channel's name was officially changed to UWTV, University of Washington Television.

Expansion of Viewing Area
While available to viewers in the Seattle area for decades, until the mid-1990s, UWTV was virtually unknown throughout the rest of Washington state. That changed in 1996 when UWTV began broadcasting in the Wenatchee Valley on channel 18 through satellite downlink. The following year, Spokane followed, broadcasting UWTV locally on the weekends. Over the years, coverage expanded to Yakima, Richland, Tacoma and Ellensburg. Today the Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia metro area--including King, Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston, and Lewis counties-- watches UWTV on Comcast, Click! and Millennium cable systems.  Check our list or your local cable provider for specific channel information.

Another exciting development came in October, 2001, when UWTV became available on Echostar's Dish500 satellite network system, channel 9404. With the inclusion of Dishnetwork subscribers, UWTV now reaches a potential audience of nine million households nation-wide.

Global Access through the Internet
UWTV increased its potential audience to the international community in 1999 by launching live, streaming webcasts of on-air programming from the UWTV web site. In addition, Internet users were now able to view streamable media of UWTV programs through an On-Demand video library. October of 2002 marks the launch of a new, searchable On-Demand database on the UWTV web site which includes over 90 percent of UWTV programs currently available for streamable viewing.

Browse our archives for other important UWTV milestones: