The Simpsons

Although not a YSTV production in any sense, The Simpsons surely deserves at least a footnote in YSTV history.

Throughout the 1990s, at the peak of the programme's popularity, YSTV used to simulcast The Simpsons with Sky One. YSTV would usually show the programme every weekday, following Sky's pattern of screening the programme daily at 1900 (which continues to this day). This gave YSTV some kudos for bringing a popular show to a wider audience on campus (although this scheduling continued after the show made its BBC debut in late 1996). The Simpsons were treated as a valuable part of YSTV's output, even making appearances in compilation VTs of the station's activities and the original STV VT.

The daily Sky One screenings continued even after BBC Two began screening the programme daily in late 2001. With anyone with a TV in their bedroom now able to watch the show every day without having to go to a YSTV television, this took some of the gloss off YSTV's continued screening of the programme. Around this time the station began receiving some criticism for its over reliance on the animated family - Vision's spoof "YSTV" column of the period was topped with a picture of Homer et al, and there were comments that YSTV was just "The Simpsons head" (a reference to a Grapevine slide of the period promoting the show).

In 2003 with the advent of the Video Server - and the attempts to move people's perceptions of the station towards one that showed mostly original content - the daily screenings ended, although a Friday double bill was still simulcasted as a compromise. This itself ended in May 2004 when the Sky digibox died. In any case, with the station going online in October 2004 all simulcasts of outside material ceased.

Other programmes YSTV regularly simulcasted included Neighbours and Countdown - but these received far less promotion and did not become synonymous with the station.