Brown Television began in 1987 founded by Doug Liman, now a Hollywood director and producer. It was a student run television network running student made productions both for news and entertainment back in the old days of analog UHF equipment and tape decks.
At some point down the line, technology left BTV in the dust. The old analog equipment started to fail, production ceased to exist anymore after the last great stand of the show Elected and BTV became nothing more than a channel on Brown's IPTV network broadcasting movies distributed by Swank. This, however, also ended due to contract disputes between Swank's clients and the use of IPTV for the distribution of the movies. At this point, BTV had become nothing more than an empty room with missing and broken equipment and a channel broadcasting a blackscreen 24 hours a day.
BTV was, however, not yet ready to die. A group of people, though small, still yearned to bring it back and worked hard towards this purpose. At the same time, another group of people was trying to reestablish the Brown Film Society's old production outfit that had also become a sad nothingness. These two groups would eventually come into contact and agree upon collaboration for the good of all and as of Spring 2008, a budget was finally written with provisions for the necessary broadcasting equipment, the necessary production equipment, and two computers were donated to the organization.
As of this moment, BTV stands on the cusp of this new frontier. From near total extinction, BTV is finally near a point where it can hopefully return to what it once was but it yet requires your help. Though we have the appropriate funds in order to buy the necessary broadcasting and production equipment, we also require the help of creative individuals interested in learning the production process by being a part of it. Join us in learning how to produce by producing. For all those who desire to learn video production, who want to act, who want to do broadcast journalism, who want to write screenplays, who want to do lighting, editing, or set design; come and do it! BTV is to become whatever it is we make of it. Come and create it.
(Incidentally, BTV is also looking for someone to help redesign the website especially for multimedia hosting and interactivity; if you know about Flash for the web, we want to talk to you and please contact the interim webmaster.)