Pop (American TV channel)
 | This article may contain improper use of non-free material. (August 2009) |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, California, USA |
|---|---|
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Lionsgate |
| History | |
| Founder | Prevue Networks Inc. |
TV Guide Network (formerly known as TV Guide Channel, Prevue Channel, Prevue Guide, and Electronic Program Guide) is an American cable network owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation.
At the bottom of the screen, TV Guide Network provides a scrolling grid listing all channels available to the viewer coupled with the titles of the television programs and films those channels are currently showing. Appearing in the top half of the screen are programs featuring movie previews and celebrity news, repeats of select popular television shows, and commercials. The majority of the network's audience consists of channel surfers looking to see what's on, and what's coming on next, on their respective cable and satellite systems' channel lineups.
Although its bottom-screen program listings grid continues to be the major feature of the channel, TV Guide Network has repositioned itself as a destination channel for television news and information through its original series and specials. This is because internet-based TV listings sites and the on-screen interactive program guides (IPGs) built directly into most of today's cable and satellite set top terminals, as well as into digital video recorders like TiVo, have mostly obviated the need for a dedicated TV listings channel by providing the same information in a speedier manner, and often in much more detail. TV Guide offers its own IPG software for digital cable boxes, called TV Guide Interactive. It is visually similar in its presentation to the TV Guide Network's bottom-screen program listings grid.
TV Guide Network is only available from within the digital tiers of certain cable providers in some markets. As its programming is considered non-critical, many cable providers also use the TV Guide Network's channel space as a default Emergency Alert System conduit for transmitting warning information applicable to their local service areas.
A gridless version of the channel, featuring all of its programming full-screen, is offered to cable and satellite operators providing only digital television service and whose digital set top receivers already include integrated IPGs.
On January 5, 2009, Lionsgate announced its intent to purchase TV Guide Network and TV Guide Online for $255 million. Lionsgate closed the transaction on March 2, 2009, paying cash.[1] The following April, Lionsgate announced plans to revamp the network into a more entertainment-oriented channel, including plans to discontinue the bottom-screen scrolling program listings grid that has been a part of the channel since its inception in 1985.[2][3][4] Following the announcement, Mediacom announced that it would be dropping the network.[5] Time Warner Cable has also dropped the network in Texas.[6]
History
1980s
Electronic Program Guide
Launched in 1985 by the Trakker, Inc. unit of United Video Holdings, the TV Guide Network began its life as a simple electronic program guide software application sold to cable system operators throughout the United States and Canada. Known simply as the Electronic Program Guide, or the EPG for short, the software was designed to be installed by each participating cable system on a single computer housed within its head end facility. Its scrolling program listings grid, which cable system operators broadcast to subscribers on a dedicated channel, covered the entire screen and provided listings for each system's entire channel line-up one half-hour period at a time. Because of this, listings for programs currently airing would often be several minutes away. Additionally, because this version of the EPG software generated only video, cable operators often resorted to filling the EPG channel's audio with music from a local FM station, or with programming from a cable TV-oriented audio service provider such as Cable Radio Network.
Two versions of the software were initially offered: a "junior" EEPROM version for the Atari 1040ST, and a 3½ bootable diskette "senior" version for the Amiga 1000 – which was the norm for most installations. Raw program listings data for national cable networks, as well as for regional and local terrestrial stations, was fed en masse from a Tulsa, Oklahoma mainframe to each such installation via a 2400 baud data stream encoded into the vertical blanking interval of WGN by United Video. By cherry-picking data from this master feed for only the networks its cable system actually carried, each EPG software installation was able to generate a continuous visual display of program listings locally customized to its cable system's unique channel line-up.
In addition to allowing customization for local channel numbering purposes, the "senior" version of the EPG software provided cable system operators with the power to customize the scrolling speed of its on-screen grid, to add a custom on-screen title banner (e.g., "JONES INTERCABLE PROGRAM GUIDE"), and to embed local text advertisements into its listings presentation. Local text advertisements could be configured to appear as either "scroll ads" (within the vertically-scrolling listings grid between half-hour cycles), or as "crawl ads" (within an optional, horizontally-scrolling ticker at the bottom of the screen).
Because the EPG software was incapable of silent remote administration, cable company employees were required to visit their head end facilities in order to make all necessary adjustments to the software. Consequently, EPG channel viewers would often see its otherwise continuous listings interrupted without warning each time a cable company technician brought up its internal configuration menus to adjust settings, to view diagnostics information, or to hunt-and-peck new local text advertisements into the software's built-in text editor.
Prevue Guide
By 1988, the Trakker, Inc. unit of United Video Holdings had been renamed Prevue Networks, Inc.. The Atari 1040ST-based "junior" version of the EPG software would soon be discontinued, and the Amiga 1000-based "senior" version was updated and renamed Prevue Guide. This updated version of the software featured a program listings grid identical in appearance to that of the original EPG version, but confined it to the lower half of the screen. In this new "split-screen" configuration, the upper half of the screen became dedicated to displaying graphical (and optionally animated) advertisements and logos created locally by each cable system operator. Up to 64 such ads were supported.
Although some cable systems kept the original, full-screen EPG version of the software in operation well beyond 1988, most major cable systems with large numbers of subscribers opted to upgrade to the new, split-screen Prevue Guide version in order to exploit the revenue potential of its graphical local advertising capabilities.
As with the original, full-screen EPG software version, this revised Prevue Guide incarnation provided no audio programming of its own, leaving it to cable system operators to continue patching in audio from third-party sources. It also still operated from bootable 3½ diskettes, and remained configurable from only the local keyboard, subjecting viewers to the same on-screen interruptions by local cable company employees as before. (Silent remote administration would not be added until the TV Guide Channel era, when the Amiga platform was fully abandoned. As such, all future versions of the software until then would also remain subject to live, maintenance-related on-screen interruptions.)
1990s
Prevue Guide with Video
In 1991, a third version of the software was launched. Still named Prevue Guide, and still utilizing a split-screen listings display (one identical in appearance to that introduced by the previous software revision), this new version of Prevue Guide was capable of showing – in addition to up to 128 locally-inserted graphical advertisements – video with full sound in the top half of its screen. Typically promos for upcoming TV shows and special events, these videos appeared in either the left or right halves of the top portion of the screen, accompanied by supplimentary scheduling information overlays in the opposing halves (program title, channel, air date and time).
Making the new inlaid video feature possible required that cable systems upgrade their existing Amiga 1000 machines to Amiga 2000s, which could support live video compositing natively. The video (and associated audio) content itself was provided by Prevue Networks, Inc. via a satellite feed from Tulsa, Oklahoma. The top half of the satellite feed's video frame was divided horizontally into two halves, and every 30 seconds, two promos would simultaneously begin playing within those opposing halves (the sound for each being provided in mono on the satellite feed's left and right audio channels respectively). Meanwhile, within each cable system's head end facility, the Amiga 2000-powered Prevue Guide software would randomly choose which of the two simultaneously-available promos to let local cable subscribers see, and patch its audio through to them in full mono while visually blocking out the video for the other promo in the opposing half of the satellite feed's video frame. During any 30 second period where both of the satellite feed's available promos applied to cable networks not carried by a local cable system, the local Prevue Guide software displayed neither, filling the entire top half of the screen with locally-inserted graphical advertising instead.
The live Prevue Networks satellite feed also carried commercials and program segments produced by Prevue Networks itself, such as Prevue Tonight. For these segments, the top half of the satellite feed's video frame would be completely filled out, with all local cable system Prevue Guide installations showing the entire top half unmodified (without the left or right sides of it visually blocked).
As a courtesy to the era's C-band dish owners (who could tune into the service's satellite feed "raw" without seeing any local overlays), the Prevue Networks satellite feed additionally featured a national satellite listings grid in the bottom half of its video frame. This national grid was never seen on-screen by cable subscribers due to local Prevue Guide installations overlaying it with their locally-generated, cable system-specific listings grids. However, on occasion, when a cable system's local Prevue Guide software crashed into Amiga Guru Meditation mode, subscribers would be exposed to the satellite feed's full video frame, exposing them to not only the two promos running in its upper half simultaneously, but even more confusingly to cable subscribers, the satellite transponder-based national listings grid in its lower half.
Cable systems that upgraded to the third version of the Prevue Guide software without also installing the necessary Amiga 2000 hardware were limited to having locally-inserted graphical advertising in the top half of the screen at all times. Only the audio from the satellite feed's promo videos was heard in such cases.
It was also following the release of this third version of the Prevue Guide software that Prevue Networks instructed cable companies still running the first, full-screen EPG version to upgrade. Support for the full-screen EPG version was finally discontinued in 1993. Some cable systems forced by this move to begin using the latest, "split-screen" Prevue Guide version simply used outboard video processing equipment to cover up the top half of its screen themselves, visually blocking out the new version's satellite-fed video programming with continuous, locally-inserted advertising. In these cases, the audio typically consisted of the Prevue Guide theme music in a repeating loop, or music from a third-party source such as a local FM station.
Prevue Channel
Beginning in late March of 1993, Prevue Networks overhauled the Prevue Guide software once again, this time to modernize the visual presentation of its on-screen listings. Still operating on Amiga 2000 hardware, the old design's black background and white text separated by colored grid lines gave way to a new, three-dimensional looking "blue grid" featuring 90 minutes worth of scheduling information per channel. Shortly thereafter, the software and service itself were renamed Prevue Channel, and by May of 1996, a new logo and new graphics to go along with it had been added.
The new "blue grid" version of the Prevue Channel software was more crash-prone than previous ones. Amiga guru meditation errors (with the raw satellite-fed video's dual promo windows and national satellite listings grid showing through from behind it) became a frequent sight on many cable systems throughout the United States and Canada as Prevue Networks' software engineers worked to correct numerous bugs. Ultimately, it became clear to Prevue Networks' engineers that an entirely new hardware platform would soon be needed. The Amiga platform was itself ageing, and Prevue Networks along with many cable system operators had begun resorting to cannibalizing parts from second-hand dealers of used Amiga hardware in order to continue supplying and maintaining operational units.
In 1996, Prevue Networks Inc. introduced their first set top terminal-integrated digital IPG, designed by General Instruments. It was launched as part of TCI's first digital cable service offerings.
In 1997, Prevue Networks Inc. and United Video Satellite Group launched Prevue Online, an internet web site providing local TV listings, audio/video interviews, and weather forecasts. Another web site, PrevueNet, was also launched to provide more history and useful information for the Prevue Channel, as well as for Sneak Prevue, UVTV, WGN Chicago, and WPIX New York.
Prevue Channel was the first electronic program guide to show TV Ratings. They were visible in the both the "blue grid" itself as well as in the supplimentary scheduling information overlays adjacent to videos presented in the top half of its screen.
TV Guide Channel
In February of 1999, United Video Satellite Group, the parent company of Prevue Networks Inc., bought TV Guide for $2 billion in stock and cash. By midyear, new graphics were in place, officially renaming Prevue Channel to TV Guide Channel. By December, the "yellow grid" replaced the "blue grid" that had presented channel listings to viewers for the past six years.
Later that same year, Gemstar International Group Ltd. purchased United Video Satellite Group.
It was with the "yellow grid" version of the software that all of the service's existing Amiga hardware was replaced by purpose-built, Windows NT/2000-based PCs employing custom-designed video/audio PCI expansion cards. With this new infrastructure additionally came the ability for local cable companies to perform silent remote administration of their installations, making live, on-screen interruptions by cable company technicians a thing of the past.
Some cable companies continued using the older, Amiga-based "blue grid" version of the software until it was completely phased out in January of 2000.
2000s
Once Prevue Channel completed its transition to TV Guide Channel, the programming it featured changed drastically. Frequent 'shows' were added, lasting anywhere from minutes to a couple of hours. Starting in 2005, Joan Rivers and her daughter Melissa Rivers began providing coverage for televised awards ceremonies such as The Emmy Awards and The Academy Awards. In 2007, the mother-daughter duo were unceremoniously dropped by TV Guide in favor of Lisa Rinna. Later, in 2007, Rinna was joined by fellow Dancing with the Stars alumni Joey Fatone. On July 29, 2009, TV Guide announced that Rinna and Fatone had been replaced by Hollywood 411, presented by The Bachelor host Chris Harrison and Dancing with the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba.
Also with the transition from Prevue Channel to TV Guide Channel, the nature of the service's scrolling listings grid began to change. During broadcasts of the channel's original primetime series as well as during red carpet awards ceremony coverage, programming started appearing almost entirely full-screen, with a transparent, non-scrolling, two-line version of the channel's regular listings grid occupying only the extreme bottom of the frame. Semi-regular stylistic re-designs of the scrolling grid also began occurring. Support for graphical ads and promotions by local cable providers within the scrolling grid was additionally added, and providers' logos appeared at the ends and beginnings of each grid listings cycle. This local branding was often accompanied by local weather conditions.
Because of Gemstar-TV Guide's dominant position within the television listings market, TV Guide Channel's own program listings began to appear on the topmost line of most TV listings web sites to which the company provided listings data, regardless of which channel number any given cable system carried it on. This also became the case with the print version of TV Guide.
Rather than purchasing TV Guide Channel carriage rights, some services such as IO Digital Cable and Bright House Networks created their own scrolling listings grids, with IO's occasionally interrupted by full-screen commercials, and otherwise featuring banner ads accompanied by music. Bright House Networks' version featured a video inlay of a local news station instead of banner ads, with its overall on-screen presentation otherwise matching that of IO's.
DIRECTV did not begin carrying the TV Guide Channel until 2004, and began carrying it in an entirely full-screen format (without the bottom listings grid) in 2005. This was also the case with DISH Network, which aired the network in full-screen format to avoid duplication of its set top receiver-integrated IPG, also provided by Gemstar-TV Guide.
TV Guide Network
On April 30, 2007, Gemstar-TV Guide announced that beginning June 4, 2007, TV Guide Channel would be re-branded TV Guide Network. According to its press release, the move was intended to reflect "the continued evolution of the Channel from primarily a utility service to a more fully-developed television guidance and entertainment network with a continued commitment to high quality programming."
On May 2, 2008, Gemstar-TV Guide was acquired by Macrovision. Macrovision, which purchased Gemstar-TV Guide mostly to boost the value of its lucrative VCR+ and electronic program guide patents, later stated that they were possibly looking to sell both the channel and the TV Guide print edition's namesake to other parties. On December 18 of that year, Macrovision announced[7] that it had found a willing party for TV Guide Network in One Equity Partners. The transaction included tvguide.com, with Macrovision retaining the IPG service.
At the beginning of January 2009, the print edition of TV Guide quietly removed its listings for TV Guide Network (along with its listings for several other networks) over what the magazine's management described[8] as "space concerns". In actuality, the two entities had been forced apart by their new, individual owners, with promotions for the network ending in the magazine, and vice versa. TV Guide magazine journalists also no longer appeared on TV Guide Network. The top-line "plug" for the Network did, however, remain intact on the web sites of internet-based listings providers using TV Guide's EPG listings.
The TV Guide Network has purchased the rights to air reruns of Ugly Betty on cable television.[9]
Color Schemes
Current Genre Color Coding
On both TV Guide Network and in Gemstar-TV Guide's set top box-integrated IPG service (TV Guide Interactive), program genres are indicated on-screen by color:
- Normal Programming: Gray (in IPG, dark blue)
- Children's Shows: Light blue
- Sports Programming: Green
- Movies: Red on regular channels, purple on pay-per-view channels (in IPG, purple on all channels)
On TV Guide Network itself, during the weeks prior to the Emmys, shows that have been nominated are also highlighted in gold. The same gold highlighting can be seen during the lead-up to the Oscars, except only for movies that have won in the past. Titles for other special shows, like those that are a part of Discovery Channel's Shark Week, have a bubbly-water graphical scheme. During the lead-up to Halloween, horror movie titles feature spiderwebs in their schemes, and Holiday movie titles listed during December are blue and snow-covered. Similar important shows and/or premieres have other special graphical schemes added to their grid cells.
Grid Color History
For the EPG/Prevue Guide/Prevue Channel/TV Guide Channel/TV Guide Network channel, the following colors have been used for the listings grid:
- Black (during the Amiga-based EPG and Prevue Guide years prior to mid-1993)
- Navy blue (during the Amiga-based Prevue Channel years of 1993-1999)
- Yellow (during the TV Guide Channel years of 1999-2002)
- Blue (during the TV Guide Channel years of 2003-2004)
- Teal green (during the TV Guide Channel years of 2004-2005)
- Grey (during the TV Guide Channel/TV Guide Network years of 2005-present)
During the latter part of the Amiga-based "black grid" period of 1985-1993, and during all of the Amiga-based "blue grid" years of 1993-1999, the grid color would sometimes differ for certain types of networks rather than for certain programming genres. All listings for premium movie networks bore red backgrounds, for example, while all listings for pay-per-view networks had light grey backgrounds.
Grid color variations based upon programming genre did not appear until 1996, when between then and 1999, movies on non-premium, non-pay-per-view networks appeared with a light blue background. (Between 1999 and 2002, movies on all networks had purple backgrounds, and since 2002, movies have had purple backgrounds on pay-per-view networks and red backgrounds on all other networks.) Special coloring for sporting events (green) did not appear until the yellow grid debuted in 1999, and special coloring for children's programming (light blue) did not appear until the teal-green grid appeared in 2004.
Programming
In addition to paid programming that airs from late morning-early afternoon, along with reruns of programs such as Punk'd and American Idol Rewind, the TV Guide Network has many original series that air during primetime.
- The Fashion Team (2007-present)
-Hosted by Daphne Brogdon and Lawrence Tevrizian
- TV Watercooler (2006-2009) - A weekly recap of TV's noteworthy shows and moments.
-Hosted by John Fugelsang and Teresa Strasser (Debra Wilson was a former co-host)
- America's Next Producer (2007) - TV and video producers compete to see who possesses the skills to create a hit show. Contestants take a concept through the development process, while attempting to avoid elimination. The winner receives $100,000 and a TV Guide Network deal.
- Hollywood 411 (2008-present) - Daily entertainment news magazine show covering TV, film and music, as well as Hollywood news. Lasts an hour.
-Hosted by: Madison Michele and Chris Harrison; Entertainment reporters include Megan Tevrizian and Marc Istook
- InFANity (2007-present) - A comprehensive look at a particular TV series, featuring cast interviews; set visits; stars' off-screen activities; fans' questions; and plot previews.
-Hosted by Lisa Joyner
- Look-a-Like (2005-present) - Everyday people get Hollywood-style makeovers to look like their favorite celebrities.
- TV Guide Close Up (2004-present) - Informative and fun one hour biographies on your favorite TV and film stars.
- Hollywood 411 on Set (2009-present) - Set visits and behind-the-scenes info on the latest movies, profiling three each show.
- Reality Chat (2006-present) - Weekly talk show dedicated to the reality TV phenomenon.
-Hosted by Rosanna Tavarez and Sadie Murray (Kimberly Caldwell was a former co-host from 2006-2008)
- Idol Chat & Idol Tonight- Discusses each week's American Idol, and highlights (and lowlights) of the previous show, featuring analysis of the judging and fashions as well as the performers and performances. Also: interviews with defeated contestants.
-Hosted by Kimberly Caldwell and Justin Guarini (Rosanna Tavarez was a former co-host from 2006-2008)
- Hollywood Showdown (2006-2008) - Repeats of episodes originally seen in 2000 on PAX (now ION Television) and Game Show Network; contestants field questions on film, TV, and music for cash prizes. Hosted by Todd Newton.
- Celebrity Says! (2008) - A game show in which contestants try to predict what various celebrities said during various red carpet interviews, vying for a chance at $5,000 in cash. Hosted by Dave Holmes.
- What's on DVD (2006-present) - A preview of upcoming releases on DVD.
- Making News: Texas Style (:27 and :57 past the hour) (2007-2008) - Follows news anchors at TV stations in the state of Texas. During the first season, the anchors of Odessa, Texas CBS affiliate KOSA were featured (some episodes also featured an anchor at the market's NBC affiliate, KWES). The second season followed anchors at the duopoly of WJCL and WTGS, the ABC and Fox affiliates (respectively) in Savannah, Georgia, as well as long-dominant CBS affiliate WTOC and NBC affiliate WSAV, from time to time). The second season was called Making News: Savannah Style. With the sale of the network to Lionsgate, the series' fate is currently unknown.
- Michael Jackson Documentaries - Various hour-long and half-hour documentaries discussing the life of the late pop and R&B singer. Reruns of these documentaries have made up the bulk of TV Guide Network's summer 2009 programming following his death.
Slogans
Prevue Guide and Prevue Channel
- Just what you're looking for. (1988-1992)
- We are what's on (1992-1995)
- Prevue... See what's on (1995-1997; secondary)
- Prevue First! (1998-1999 secondary)
- Before you view, Prevue! (1993 to 1995; alternate, 1995-1999; primary)
TV Guide Channel/Network
- Change the way you channel (1999-2001)
- Don't miss a thing (2001-2004)
- Original shows, original channel, TV Guide Channel. (2004-2007)
- America's Television Headquarters (2007-present)
- Original shows, original network, TV Guide Network (2007-present; secondary)
Sneak Prevue
The Prevue Channel spun-off another network, exclusively for pay-per-view programming, Sneak Prevue in 1991. TV Guide ceased operations of Sneak Prevue in 2002.
References
- ^ Lionsgate, Macrovision Close TV Guide Network Deal; Multichanel.com; 2009-03-02
- ^ Advertising Age: "TV Guide Channel to Ditch the Scroll: Revamp Includes Original Programming for TV Fans", 4/1/2009.
- ^ MediaPost: "TV Guide Channel Plans Original Programming:, 4/2/2009.
- ^ TV Week: "TV Guide Channel Expands Mandate With Series, Movies", 4/2/2009.
- ^ http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=236582
- ^ Beaumont Enterprise: "Time Warner drops TV Guide Channel", 4/7/2009.
- ^ http://www.macrovision.com/company/newscenter/pressreleases/1434_10808.htm
- ^ http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/20090110_Dave_on_Demand___Mentalist__showed_powers_only_in_ratings.html (expired link)
- ^ "Ugly Betty" Heads to TV Guide Network, Hollywood Reporter, July 23, 2009
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