Live TV was launched by what was Mirror Group in 1995, prior to its merger with Trinity, but closed four years later after racking up losses of £9m.
The channel is being resurrected by telecoms and call centre company Eckoh, which was previously the web content company 365 Corporation. The firm believes it can make money on phone lines associated with content broadcast on the channel.
The company wants to take the library of programming from the former channel and broadcast it to Sky Digital's 6.7m homes.
The rights to the content are held by three former directors of the channel, Mark Cullen, Mark Murphy and Richard Horwood. There is understood to be more than two years' worth of tapes of content including highlights such as Tiffany the stripping City tipster and lunchbox volleyball.
A spokesman for Eckoh confirmed that the company had brought the franchise, but that there were no details about what was going to be broadcast on the channel.
Live TV was dreamed up by David Montgomery, at the time chief executive of Mirror Group, who planned to create a network of city-based stations around the UK. Stations were set up in Newcastle and Liverpool, but closed in 1998.
It was launched by former Independent on Sunday and youth programming expert Janet Street Porter and former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie.
However, the two clashed bitterly and Street Porter walked out, leaving MacKenzie to turn it into his version of The Sun on television. The channel also ran late-night adult movies, live strippers and "handy hunks", who did DIY tasks half naked.
Not even MacKenzie stayed for the end. He left more than a year before it was closed, exiting his job as deputy chief executive of Mirror Group to launch his bid for Talk Radio.
Following MacKenzie's departure the channel rejigged programming. It dumped some of its sex shows, and all sex-line ads, to move upmarket. It favoured more sport, such as wrestling and stock-car racing.
The changes were initially heralded as the end of an era following the
departure of MacKenzie. It was later revealed that the wrestling was women's mud wrestling, and the channel still marketed itself on "late night adult programming".
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