The Movie Channel


The Movie Channel is an American multinational premium television network that is owned by Showtime Networks, a subsidiary of ViacomCBS operated through its Domestic Media Networks unit. The network's programming mainly features first-run theatrically released and independently produced motion pictures, along with softcore adult erotica, and during promotional breaks between films, special behind-the-scenes features and movie trivia.
Originally operated and sold as a standalone service, at present, The Movie Channel is receivable to pay television subscribers primarily as part of the multiplex tier of parent network Showtime. The channel, along with its parent network Showtime and sister network Flix, are headquartered at Paramount Plaza on the northern end of New York City's Broadway district.

History

Early history (1973–1979)

The Movie Channel traces its history to the development of Gridtronics, a pay television service which delivered videotaped feature films to cable systems throughout the United States. The concept was originally developed in the late 1960s by Alfred Stern and Gordon Fuqua, both executives at multiple system operator Television Communications Corporation at the time, as part of a multi-channel service that was designed to include channels focusing on the arts, instructional programming and medical programs. The video-to-cable movie delivery concept was presented by Fuqua and Stern at the 1969 National Cable Television Association Convention. Over the course of the next several years, the two men subsequently discussed carriage agreements with other cable providers to distribute Gridtronics and engaged in discussions with various film studios to provide film content for the service. Following the creation of Dimension Pictures, TVC was purchased by Kinney National Company, the parent company of Dimension, in 1972, and gave the service the financial funding and content that it needed to launch.
Warner Communications launched the Gridtronics service on April 1, 1973. Included among its initial offerings was the Warner Star Channel, a service developed as a vehicle to promote the Warner Bros. film library. The channel was initially offered on systems operated by Warner Cable Communications, and was eventually made available on Warner-Amex's experimental QUBE interactive service when the company launched it in 1977. Cable providers sometimes experienced technical problems trying to transmit the delivered tapes to viewers, especially when the tapes jammed during playback.

National expansion as The Movie Channel (1979–1983)

On January 1, 1979, Star Channel became a nationally distributed service after it was uplinked to satellite, becoming the third premium service to be distributed nationally through such a transmission method. In April of that year, it began to share channel and transponder space with Warner-Amex's newly launched children's network, Nickelodeon ; this resulted in the latter service switching to an encrypted signal during the regularly scheduled network transition at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time on weekdays and 8:00 p.m. on weekends; Star Channel originally signed off at 4:00 a.m. Eastern and Pacific, three hours before the transponder space reverted to use by Nickelodeon.
On September 14 of that year, American Express reached an agreement with Warner Communications to buy 50% of Warner Cable Corporation for $175 million in cash and short-term notes. Through the formation of the joint venture, which was incorporated in December 1979, Star Channel and Nickelodeon were folded into Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, a company which handled the operations of the group's cable channels. Warner-Amex executive John A. Schneider served as the company's president; other Warner-Amex staff that manned Star/The Movie Channel's initial management team included executive vice president John Lack, programming chief Robert Pittman, and Fred Seibert, who was in charge of developing on-air promotions.
On December 1, 1979, the network was relaunched as The Movie Channel; the first feature film to be broadcast on the relaunched service was the 1953 comedy Roman Holiday. On January 1, 1980, TMC discontinued its time-lease arrangement with Nickelodeon and became a 24-hour standalone service. At that point, TMC became the first premium channel to air R-rated films during the daytime hours.
In 1981, The Movie Channel became one of the first television channels to broadcast movies in stereophonic audio; from that point until 1988, films presented in stereo were verbally and visually denoted in prime time lineup bumpers shown during promotional breaks within its daytime schedule – with titles for films available in stereo accompanied by the now-standard headphone symbol – and, until 1985, in a custom version of its feature presentation opening sequence. As the standard for television broadcasts in stereo was a few years away, cable operators had to simulcast the multichannel audio feed as an FM radio signal. Interstitial segments that aired during breaks between films for much of the 1980s included Behind the Scenes, The Heart of Hollywood, Reel Shorts and Reel Hits.

Operational merger with Showtime (1983–1985)

For much of its early years, The Movie Channel struggled in a race for subscribers in a pay television industry that pitted it among as many as seven cable-originated competitors, and even some over-the-air subscription services transmitted over independent stations in many U.S. cities such as ONTV and SelecTV. In addition to the launch of Cinemax as then-HBO parent Time Inc.'s movie-focused competitor to TMC in August 1980, the competition grew when Warner-Amex and Rainbow Media jointly launched the film and arts-focused Bravo in September 1980; Walt Disney Productions threw itself into the fray when it announced plans in early 1982 to launch family-oriented The Disney Channel, a service which made its debut in April 1983.
In August 1982, MCA Inc., Gulf and Western Industries and Warner Communications reached an agreement to jointly acquire TMC, under which the three companies would acquire a combined controlling 75% interest in the service from Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment. The proposal was guided by the motive of the studios wanting to increase their revenue share for licensing movie rights to premium television services; there were also concerns by the major studios that HBO's dominance of that market and its pre-buying of pay cable rights to films prior to their theatrical release would result in an undue balance of negotiating power over them by HBO, resulting in a lower than suitable licensing fee rate that would be paid to the distributors for individual titles. The three companies officially announced their agreement in principle to acquire interests in The Movie Channel on November 11, 1982. Subsequently, in late December of that year, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a routine preliminary inquiry into the proposed partnership.
On January 7, 1983, Viacom International added itself as a partner and drafted an amendment to the proposal to consolidate The Movie Channel with the company's own competing premium service, Showtime. Under the revised proposal, the four studios would each own a 22.58% stake in the two networks, with American Express owning a 9.68% minority interest. In addition, the consortium would appoint a management team separate from those employed by the two channels – which would continue to operate as separate services – to operate the joint venture. However, the deal ran into regulatory hurdles since Warner, Universal and Paramount received 50% of their respective total revenue from film releases and licensing fees from premium services; furthermore, Showtime and TMC combined would control about 30% of the pay cable marketplace, creating an oligopoly with HBO.
After a four-month investigation resulted in the Department of Justice filing a civil antitrust lawsuit against the five parties to block the Showtime-TMC merger on June 10, 1983, the Department asked Warner and American Express to restructure the deal during hearings for the case. The Department's decision – citing concerns, including some expressed by HBO management, that combining the assets of Showtime and TMC would stifle competition in the sale of their programming and that of other pay cable services to cable providers – was despite the fact that, under the original proposal, MCA, Gulf and Western, and Warner had each agreed to continue licensing films released by their respective movie studios to competing pay television networks. The partners involved in the merger would also set standard prices for films that were acquired for broadcast on The Movie Channel and Showtime, either those produced by the studio partners or by unassociated film studios. To address the Justice Department's concerns over the deal, the four partners submitted another revised proposal for consideration on July 19, that included guarantees of conduct agreeing that Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. would not receive higher residual licensing payments for films acquired by Showtime and TMC than that paid by other studios, and that all four partners would not permit the two channels in the venture to pay lower fees for films produced by the three studio partners than that paid by smaller pay television services for the same films.
After the revised proposal was rejected on July 28, Warner Communications and American Express restructured the purchase to include only Viacom as a partner, bowing Gulf and Western and MCA out of the proposed partnership. The changes – which Justice Department officials acknowledged would "prevent any anti-competitive effect from arising" following the merger, by allowing other premium services to enter the market should the venture significantly raise licensing fee prices for films – led the Justice Department to drop its challenge to the merger agreement on August 12; the Department formally approved the deal the following day on August 13. When the deal was completed on September 6, 1983, the operations of The Movie Channel and Showtime were folded into a new holding company, Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc., which was majority owned by Viacom, with Warner Communications and Warner-Amex as minority partners.
The Showtime-TMC joint venture also benefited The Movie Channel by allowing for the group to expand the channel's distribution. On December 12, 1983, the Times-Mirror Company announced that it would sell the subscriber base and transponder rights assigned to competing premium service Spotlight to Showtime-The Movie Channel, Inc. for an undisclosed price. Under the agreement, the four cable providers that backed the Spotlight venture – Times Mirror Cable, Storer Cable, Cox Cable and Tele-Communications Inc. – would offer Spotlight subscribers who subscribe to any of the systems an option to subscribe to either Showtime or The Movie Channel as a replacement, with those dissatisfied with Showtime/TMC's program offerings following a two-month sampling period during February and March permitted to exchange it for another premium channel at no charge. After Spotlight ceased operations on February 1, 1984, Spotlight subscribers who subscribed to any of the participating systems began to automatically receive The Movie Channel in markets where a provider was already carrying Showtime. Showtime-The Movie Channel President Michael Weinblatt estimated that approximately 100,000 subscribers of the four partner systems already received either Showtime or TMC, and that the absorption of Spotlight would increase the total amount of paid subscribers to both channels by at least 650,000 to about eight million subscribers nationwide.

Transfer to Viacom (1985–2005)

On August 10, 1985, after Time Inc. and cable provider Tele-Communications Inc. jointly submitted a bid to buy the company for $900 million and the assumption of $500 million in debt as well as an earlier offer by American Express the previous month to buy out Warner's share of the company, Warner Communications exercised an option to acquire American Express' 50% share of Warner-Amex Cable Communications for $450 million. Among the options, barring that it chose to sell Viacom a 50% interest in the company for $450 million, the deal originally excluded Warner-Amex's 19% interest in Showtime-The Movie Channel, Inc.; that interest would have reverted to Warner, which intended to operate Warner-Amex as a wholly owned subsidiary.
Two weeks later on August 26, Viacom acquired Warner Communications and Warner-Amex's combined 50% ownership interest in Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc. as well as full ownership of Warner-Amex and the public shareholder interests in MTV Networks for $671.7 million. This gave Viacom exclusive ownership of both premium channels through its $500 million cash payment and acquisition of 1.625 million shares for Warner's 31% stake in Showtime/The Movie Channel, and Warner-Amex's 19% interest in the unit and its 60% interest in MTV Networks. The buyout, part of an option given by Warner in its purchase of American Express' interest in MTV, was exercised in part to finance much of the buyout of Showtime/The Movie Channel without borrowing any money. The subsidiary would eventually be renamed Showtime Networks, Inc. in 1988. Ironically, four years after the company sold its interests in Showtime and The Movie Channel, Warner Communications would acquire competitors HBO and Cinemax, when the company merged with Time Inc. in 1989 to form Time Warner.
In May 1986, TMC began incorporating regular on-air hosts to present the channel's afternoon and evening film presentations, and provide backstory on the production of those scheduled to be shown; the channel began using hosts on a regular basis after employing celebrity guest presenters to host special showcase stunts in the fall of 1985. Hosts appearing on the channel between the late 1980s and the mid-1990s included Robert Osborne, Michelle Russell, Lauren Graham and Joe Bob Briggs.

Format evolution and carriage issues

The Movie Channel underwent a significant rebranding on May 1, 1988, which in addition to introducing a new "eye and profile" logo designed by Noel Frankel of Fred/Alan, Inc., also saw the introduction of a revamped programming schedule designed to cater to movie fans, maintaining a block scheduling structure for its entire film lineup that was organized by genre or film selection; among the blocks included were the "TMC Classic", a weekday morning and Sunday overnight block of films from the 1930s to the 1960s; "Dramarama", a weekday late-morning block of drama films; "The Laffternoon Movie", a weekday late-afternoon block of comedy films; and two action film-focused blocks.
The most distinct block was the "Weekend Multiplex", featuring a set lineup of different movies aired in a scheduling format inspired by movie theaters, comprising a main daytime block on Saturdays and Sundays, seven individual prime time blocks on Friday through Sunday evenings and themed editions of the existing "VCR Overnight" block. The centerpiece of the "Weekend Multiplex" was the "TMC Top Attraction", a film making its premiere on the channel that was scheduled at different, progressively earlier time slots each evening throughout the weekend. With the exception of "Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater" and the "VCR Overnight" block, most of these blocks were discontinued in May 1991.
With the scheduling revamp, TMC greatly increased the number of films it aired on a monthly basis, from about 40 to more than 100 titles per month, with the addition of older films to the slate. In addition, TMC began incorporating trailers for current and upcoming feature films released initially for theatrical exhibition, which aired during promotional breaks between films until 1997. It also began airing a 15-second daily entertainment news interstitial focusing on the film industry, The Movie Channel News, featuring stories read by a continuity announcer – which varied depending on the segment – over a segment title graphic; the segment would be discontinued in May 1991.
Although extended promotional breaks were shown in a somewhat limited form beforehand, partially as a result of the changes that occurred in 1988, breaks between individual feature presentations on the channel sometimes ran as long as 20 minutes, and even up to 25 minutes in rare cases, depending on the scheduled airtime of the next film. The Movie Channel temporarily truncated the length of its promotional breaks to five minutes or less in an on-air strategical test during February and March 1993, dispensing of fixed start times at the top and bottom of the hour – at which most of TMC's weekday daytime film telecasts had been scheduled, along with some films aired in other dayparts, since the 1988 format revamp – in favor of airtimes set at top-of-the-hour, bottom-of-the-hour and random five-minute intervals regardless of daypart. After results from the test measured an increase in audience retention for other films with the strategy, the channel instituted the limited break lengths on a regular basis in August of that year; TMC abandoned the break limits in 1997. The break limits imposed by the channel resulted in TMC reducing the number of internally produced interstitial segments that it aired during promotional breaks, with interstitials airing over the next four years consisting mainly of trailers and shorter-length behind-the-scenes segments for upcoming and current films produced by their originating studios.
Although TMC was carried by most subscription television providers, there were some that did not have agreements to carry the channel, even if they already carried Showtime. As an example, now-defunct satellite provider PrimeStar never carried The Movie Channel; weeks after it announced a new carriage agreement with Viacom in January 1999 that would have resulted in the channel joining the provider's lineup, PrimeStar sold its assets to Hughes Communications. In May 1994, TCI dropped The Movie Channel from more than 30 of the cable provider's service markets. At the time, Viacom was in the midst of an antitrust lawsuit against TCI on accusations that the provider engaged in a "conspiracy to eliminate" Showtime and its sister channels and pressuring Viacom to settle its lawsuit through the negotiation of a carriage contract with the media company that expired in January 1993; Viacom reportedly stated that TCI threatened to hurt both Showtime and TMC unless Viacom agreed to purchase an ownership stake in Encore, a network which Viacom claimed to have first conceptually conceived four years earlier during negotiations between the two companies that, if they had been successful, would have resulted in TCI purchasing 50% of Showtime Networks. Representatives for the affected TCI systems said that the decision to remove The Movie Channel from their lineups was made at the local level and was not a directive by company management. Viacom and TCI settled the Showtime Networks distribution dispute in January 1995, preceding the former's $2.3-billion sale of its Viacom Cablevision systems to TCI affiliate company Intermedia Partners.
In August 1997, TMC underwent an extensive rebranding effort that resulted in the channel briefly premiering its own original movies, along with the addition of daily movie marathons set around a specific theme and a companion block known as the Double Vision Weekend, a monthly weekend-long marathon of movies that comprised multiple themed mini-marathons. In addition, TMC also started running movie and celebrity trivia segments during promotional breaks, along with incorporating trivia during promos for movies that were scheduled to air on the channel. In October of that year, The Movie Channel launched The Movie Channel 2 as its sole multiplex service.
In March 2001, The Movie Channel began premiering movies that did not previously receive a theatrical, home video or DVD release, under the umbrella brand "TMC First-Run Movies". It also began airing softcore pornographic films during late night time periods. The channel also debuted a series of two-minute sketches called The Pitch, starring character actor Sean Smith as a movie executive who listens as prospective playwrights pitch him ideas for films.

Under CBS Corporation ownership (2005–2019)

On June 14, 2005, only six years after the company completed its $2.4-billion acquisition of CBS Inc., Viacom announced that it would split its holdings into two separate media companies, citing concerns by management over stagnation of the principal company's stock price; both companies would be controlled by National Amusements, the Sumner Redstone-owned media and real estate holding company that had owned Viacom since 1976. When the split was completed on December 31, 2005, the original Viacom was restructured as CBS Corporation, which retained ownership of Showtime Networks; CBS' broadcast television and radio assets ; Paramount Television ; advertising firm Viacom Outdoor ; publishing firm Simon & Schuster; and amusement park operator Paramount Parks. The newly incorporated spin-off company, which assumed the Viacom name, attained ownership of Paramount Pictures, the MTV Networks and BET Networks pay-TV divisions, and Famous Music.
On May 3, 2006, The Movie Channel adopted an overhauled on-air look including a new logo and slogan. Bumpers that introduced films were discontinued entirely. The channel's website – which only featured a programming schedule with up to one month of data in advance – was also revamped with the addition of special features including an online store, a streaming video player and previews of films set to air on the channel.

Re-merger with Viacom (2019–present)

On August 13, 2019, it was officially announced that CBS and Viacom would merge into a new entity known as ViacomCBS. Viacom CEO Bob Bakish would serve as president and CEO of the new company, while Ianniello would become chairman and CEO of CBS and oversee CBS-branded assets. Shari Redstone will also serve as chairwoman of ViacomCBS. On October 29, 2019, National Amusements approved the re-merger deal. It closed on December 4, 2019. As part of the new structure, Showtime, The Movie Channel and Flix became part of the Premium Content Group division of ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks, along with BET and Pop TV, to be overseen by SNI CEO David Nevins.

Channels

List of channels

Depending on the service provider, The Movie Channel provides up to four multiplex channels – two 24-hour multiplex channels, both of which are simulcast in both standard definition and high definition – as well as a subscription video-on-demand service. The Movie Channel and multiplex service The Movie Channel Xtra respectively broadcast on both Eastern and Pacific Time Zone schedules. The individual coastal feeds of each channel are usually packaged together, resulting in the difference in local airtimes for a particular movie telecast between two geographic locations being three hours at most. Most subscription providers, however, only offer the east and west coast feeds of TMC's main channel and one coastal feed of TMC Xtra applicable to a particular region ; some providers only offer the coastal feeds of the primary channel and TMC Xtra applicable to their region.
Showtime and Flix, which are also owned by ViacomCBS, operate as separate services. Although The Movie Channel is frequently sold together in a package with Showtime, TMC subscribers do not necessarily have to subscribe to the other two services. Prior to the advent of digital cable, many providers often sold The Movie Channel separately from Showtime, continuing for about two decades after Viacom acquired both Warner Communications and Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment's respective ownership interests of the two previously autonomous services in 1985. Showtime began offering all of its channels, including TMC, Flix and Sundance Channel, in a single package by the early 2000s; this resulted in most providers ceasing to sell or promote The Movie Channel separately from Showtime.
Although one or both of the channels have traditionally been carried alongside the Showtime multiplex on subscription providers, as of 2018, The Movie Channel as well as Flix are not presently carried by Showtime's proprietary streaming platforms ; its aggregated OTT offerings on Apple TV Channels, Amazon Video Channels and The Roku Channel; or any of the over-the-top subscription television services that carry most or all of the eight Showtime multiplex channels.
ChannelDescription and programming

The Movie Channel		The main "flagship" feed; The Movie Channel carries blockbuster and smaller first-run feature films, independent films and late-night erotica. TMC broadcasts a featured movie around 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time each night and has one regularly-scheduled movie block: the weekly horror movie double feature "Splatterday on Saturday" on Saturday evenings at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.

The Movie Channel Xtra		A secondary channel providing more movie choice for viewers, which is counterprogrammed to The Movie Channel with a largely separate schedule. TMC Xtra features a nightly feature movie around 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, and rebroadcasts the previous week's edition of the "Splatterday" block as aired on the main TMC channel on Friday nights at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. The channel first launched on October 1, 1997 as The Movie Channel 2, and was renamed as The Movie Channel Xtra on March 5, 2001.

Related services

The Movie Channel HD

The Movie Channel HD is a high definition simulcast feed of The Movie Channel that broadcasts in the 1080i resolution format, and was launched on December 1, 2003. Most American subscription providers carry this simulcast.

The Movie Channel On Demand

The Movie Channel operates a subscription video-on-demand television service, The Movie Channel on Demand, which is available at no additional charge to new and existing subscribers of TMC. The service launched on December 1, 2003, with a subscriber base of two million homes. The Movie Channel On Demand offers program content available in standard or high definition categorized by four individual genres: action and adventure films, dramas, comedies and softcore pornographic films. It also offers special feature content consisting of film trivia and behind-the-scenes features including interviews. The Movie Channel on Demand's rotating program selection incorporates select new titles that are added each Friday, alongside existing program titles held over from the previous one to two weeks.

Programming

Movie library

, The Movie Channel – through Showtime – maintains exclusive first-run film licensing agreements with network sister company CBS Films, Amblin Partners, IFC Films, Global Road Entertainment, and STX Entertainment.
The Movie Channel also shows sub-runs – runs of films that have already received broadcast or syndicated television airings – of theatrical films from Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Sony Pictures, Miramax, Universal Studios, Samuel Goldwyn Films, Bleecker Street, Summit Entertainment, The Weinstein Company, Anchor Bay Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, and Lionsgate. Although it does not hold the pay television rights to telecast recent films from 20th Century Fox – which are held by HBO, as of 2018 – The Movie Channel does run independent films to which that studio owns the home video rights, regardless as to whether they were released theatrically.
Many lesser-known film titles that have either not received a theatrical release or were released on DVD or home video are also commonly broadcast on TMC. The window between a film's initial release in theaters and its initial screening on Showtime, The Movie Channel and Flix is wider than the grace period leading to a film's initial broadcast on HBO, Cinemax or Starz. Films to which Showtime holds the pay-TV rights will usually also run on The Movie Channel and sister channel Flix during the period of its term of licensing.

Programming blocks

Current

Over the years, TMC has used a myriad of unique, and sometimes bizarre logos and promotional concepts. The channel's original logo under the "Movie Channel" name incorporated a star outline made up of film strips with folded sides, indirectly referencing its previous identity as Star Channel. In 1981, the text for the network's name changed from the Broadway typeface to a stylized all-uppercase font augmented to the left and underside of the star. Beginning in 1983, the network alternately used a script logo, sometimes more often than its "star" logo. Promos using the "script" logo were aired on the network as late as 1986, although they were used less frequently from the summer of 1985 as the "star" logo was phased back to universal use within TMC's on-air imaging. Between 1985 and 1988, TMC began airing somewhat clever graphics for their time such as a "tour of Hollywood" introduction for its film presentations, which closed with a shot of the Hollywood skyline with a faint heart outline in the middle of the sky.
On May 1, 1988, The Movie Channel debuted its "eye and profile" logo, which utilized various designs incorporating facial expressions, with the channel's name rendered in Helvetica Extended on tilted black bars at the top and bottom of the logo; some viewers have commented on online blogs and video websites such as YouTube that this logo, due to the eyes being prominently displayed, had frightened them as young children. The channel ran different and unique feature presentation opens and network IDs during the nine-year period it was in use.
TMC adopted a very slick on-air look that predominantly used CGI graphics, with the debut of a new logo in August 1997, a 3D computer-animated green sphere with a tilted and lowercase "tmc" imprinted on it, usually shown either to the right of the channel's full name or above the name. Jeff Bottoms promoted upcoming programs between films with humorous and tongue-in-cheek voiceovers. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, The Movie Channel started running a wide variety of network promotions from those akin to a movie trailer to typical promos that feature behind-the-scenes trivia relating to the film. The latter technique continued to be used by the channel – often in a more hybrid way – until the fall of 2015, when the Showtime Networks services began deemphasizing the use of voiceovers in on-air promotions, at which point film promotions shown during breaks switched to using trailers accompanied by the channel's standard title/timeslot card.
An extensively modified logo was introduced on March 5, 2001, featuring a one-dimensional circle with a lowercase "tmc" in Knockout type on it, surrounded with two lines on the corners framing the circle; the "movie" in the channel's name was rendered in bold. The Movie Channel's current logo was introduced on May 3, 2006, featuring three colored crescent-like sections in a circle framing the channel's name, rendered in the same Helvetica typeface variant used in the 1988–1997 logo. Online film reviewers were incorporated into promos for films to provide backstory on the movie at this point. On April 1, 2010, The Movie Channel and TMC Xtra began displaying digital on-screen graphic logos of the respective channels during its programming; the bug seen is an alternate version of the channel's logo with "The Movie Channel" name oriented in vertically stacked text.

Network slogans