For the unrelated, defunct television channel in the United Kingdom, See The Movie Channel .

The Movie Channel (abbreviated TMC in television listings, and previously on-air) is an American premium channel owned by Showtime Networks, Inc., a subsidiary of CBS Corporation, which shows mostly movies, as well as special behind the scenes features, softcore adult erotica and movie trivia.

Channels

The Movie Channel operates two multiplex channels and a On Demand service. The Movie Channel also packages the Eastern and Pacific feeds of the main channel and its multiplex services together, giving viewers a second chance to watch the same movie/program three hours earlier or later — depending on their geographic location.

• The Movie Channel
• The Movie Channel Xtra (launched in 1999 as The Movie Channel 2).

The Movie Channel HD

Both channels are available in 1080i high definition.

The Movie Channel On Demand

The Movie Channel On Demand is a VOD counterpart to The Movie Channel. The Movie Channel On Demand was launched in 2003 and has a subscriber base of two million.Movies are divided into the following categories: Action, Drama, Comedy, Midnight Movies (Late-night pornography), and Movie Stuff.

History

The Movie Channel began in 1973 as Star Channel, a pay movie service of Gridtronics, delivering movies to cable systems via videotape delivered to the cable companies. Sometimes cable companies would have technical problems with the delivered tapes, especially when the tapes jammed on playback to viewers.

Later in the decade, it was acquired by Warner Communications, and eventually brought into the Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment joint venture. The network was initially offered on Warner Cable systems, and later on Warner-Amex's experimental QUBE interactive service. In January 1979, Star Channel was uplinked to satellite, and became a national service. On December 1 1979, the network took on its current name.

The Movie Channel was also the first premium channel to show R-rated films during the day. Parent network Showtime also airs R-rated films during the day, as does Cinemax, Encore and Starz. HBO does not air any R-rated films on its primary channel until after 8:00pm (Eastern Time).

In 1981, The Movie Channel was one of the first channels to broadcast movies in Stereo. As the standard for stereo television broadcast was a few years away, cable operators simulcast the stereo as an FM radio signal.

In 1983, Warner-Amex merged The Movie Channel with Viacom's Showtime to form Showtime/The Movie Channel, Inc. (which would become Showtime Networks, Inc. in 1988). In 1985, Viacom acquired Warner's share of Showtime/TMC, making them the sole owner of both networks. Ironically, Warner would acquire rivals HBO and Cinemax a few years later, when it merged with Time Inc.

In 1997, The Movie Channel began an extensive rebranding effort. For a brief period, The Movie Channel experimented with premiering its own original movies. The channel also began airing TMC Movie Marathons, which featured three or four movies selected by the channel set around a specific theme. As part of these marathons, TMC would also air Double Vision Weekend, a marathon of movies airing for one weekend each month with two movies featuring the same actor. In addition, TMC also started running TMC Fun Facts (later known as TMC Reel Stuff) featuring behind-the-scenes facts about movies as well as celebrity trivia. TMC also inserted fun facts about movies the channel promoted that were scheduled to air on the channel.

The Movie Channel was originally an individual channel, although part of the Showtime Networks family. Before cable systems dropped The Movie Channel (along with Showtime and rivals Cinemax, Encore and Starz) from their basic packages, relegating it to their digital cable packages, TMC had a high basic cable coverage rate. However, there were several cable providers in areas with smaller populations that didn't offer TMC as an add-on to their basic service. In addition, now-defunct satellite provider Primestar never carried The Movie Channel on their service. In most of these cases, TMC was never carried as a pay service on said cable and satellite providers, though Showtime was.

Around the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, Showtime began offering all of its channels as part of the Showtime Unlimited package and many cable systems, with the exception of Comcast, along with satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network stopped advertising The Movie Channel as a separate network from Showtime and since Showtime Networks are only available on digital cable, many cable systems will not offer The Movie Channel to non-Showtime subscribers.

In 1999, The Movie Channel launched a multiplex service, The Movie Channel 2 (renamed The Movie Channel Xtra in 2001). TMC has the least multiplex services of any of the major premium channels, which is a probable reason as to why the channel is not part of a separate package from Showtime.

In 2001, The Movie Channel added TMC First Run Movies -- movies premiering on the channel that never were released theatrically or on home video or DVD. TMC also began to airing softcore erotica late at night like parent network Showtime and its competitor Cinemax, which started the trend on US cable networks as a way to better compete in the premium channel race.

The channel also started running a two-minute sketch segment titled The Pitch which starred Sean Smith, a character actor who has appeared in several TV series and movies, as a movie exec who listens as people try to pitch him movie ideas. The movies pitched are famous movies such as Cliffhanger, The Terminator, etc.

Movie opens on the channel also have to deal with the behind the scenes goings on in movies. All movie opens airing on TMC since 2001, feature a faux scene from a movie being made. As the camera zooms out, the "crew" comes into the scene.

In 2005, Viacom and CBS announced its intention to split up only six years after Viacom bought the network and its television assets. The newly formed CBS Corporation got the broadcasting elements, Paramount Television's production operations (renamed CBS Paramount Television), Viacom Outdoor advertising (renamed CBS Outdoor), Showtime Networks, Simon & Schuster and Paramount Parks, which the company later sold, while Viacom kept Paramount Pictures, MTV Networks, BET, and Famous Music.

Up until the 2006 revamp, The Movie Channel's official website was unusual in it was one of only a few (if not the only) cable networks whose website had no special features whatsoever. The channel's website consisted mainly of a programming schedule of films to air on the channel a month in advance. This changed when the channel revamped itself in 2006, when special features were added such as an online store, a video player and previews of films airing on the channel.

On May 3 2006, The Movie Channel rebranded itself once again, without the signature circle logo. The slogan is now The Movie Channel: Movies For Movie Lovers.TMC Xtra was also in the rebranding process as well.

Logos and promos

As did former sister network Nick at Nite, The Movie Channel has used a myriad of unusual and sometimes bizarre logos and promotions. In the late 1980s, TMC began airing somewhat clever graphics for their time such as a "tour of Hollywood" movie open which closed with a shot of Hollywood with a faintly visible heart in the middle of the sky.

By 1989, the channel was guided towards creating a series of internal campaigns to emphasize the seeming paradox of a contemporary network setting that programmed recent and classic movies. In the early 1990s, the channel began running a few different computer animated 10 second feature presentation opens/network identifications. One of them was of a the logo at the time, a rectangle with a face visible with the channel's name above and below it, changing facial expressions at the open of a curtain set to calliope-type music. Another open featured the logo rotating to the front profile in front of a gray background with the face also colored gray accompanied by a steady drumbeat. The logo would then "wink." In a longer open, set in a family living room, someone strikes a match about to set fire to a newspaper with the logo on it. Noticing it is in danger, the logo shoots lasers from its eyes and escapes experiencing numerous calamities and seeing unusual sights from the logo's point-of-view such as a close-up of dog's face, the logo almost getting run over by a toy train, etc. until it reaches the safety of a television screen, all set to Indiana Jones-style adventure music. Ironically, this logo would be replicated somewhat in May 2008, when WGN America introduced a new logo featuring a set of female eyes rimmed with green mascara.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, The Movie Channel started running a wide variety of promos from a general movie trailer-type promo to including behind-the-scenes facts on the film. The channel still uses this technique today, although often in a more hybrid way. The channel also began using a unique way of telling viewers what movies were about to play next. It featured the announcer reading off that evening's main feature set to somewhat sophisticated graphics and the time it would be on while the information was displayed and music was played, this simple concept would be revised and rerevised many times over. This continues to be changed and updated.

By 1997, The Movie Channel adopted a very slick on-air look. The channel's slogan became "100% Pure Movies, 100% Pure Fun", and more predominantly used CGI graphics. The channel's announcer offered bold, brash, and entertaining voice-overs. The channel began using simpler state-of-the-art graphics by 2001 and by 2006, they became similar in form to Nick at Nite's current graphics package.

Programming blocks

Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater

The character of Joe Bob Briggs (played by actor and film critic John Irving Bloom) was the host of a weekly movie block on The Movie Channel airing on Saturday nights from 1986 to 1997, branded Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater. Joe Bob was known for wearing cowboy attire and his signature ten-gallon hat and having a unique way of introducing movies, (exactly how much violence and nudity each movie had). In 1997, following TMC's makeover, Joe Bob was dropped as host of this movie feature. This happened as premium channels began to stray from featuring hosts for its movies. He was popular enough that after The Movie Channel dropped him, TNT asked him to host their weekly horror film feature "MonsterVision" until 2000.

VCR Theater / TMC Overnight

Around the same time, The Movie Channel sought that much of its subscriber base owned VCRs as the device became more and more common during the 1980s. TMC began adding a weekly feature called "The Movie Channel's VCR Theater", which would air on early Wednesday mornings at 3:00AM ET. These films were movies the channel figured were worth recording so that their subscribers could watch them whenever they liked. By the late 1990s, TMC created a reworked version of "VCR Theater" called "TMC Overnight."

Special marathons

In 1997, following TMC's makeover, the channel began airing daily movie marathons, three (sometimes four) movies that were tied to a specific subject (such as "Ouch" for crime dramas or "Omar Goodness" for films that starred Omar Epps).

TMC Double Vision Weekends

In turn, the channel also launched "TMC Double Vision Weekends", which aired bi-monthly, that featured three different movies that star the same actor with each marathon changing after the previous one ended. "Double Vision Weekends" typically lasted for a longer portion of the day than a typical movie marathon (a typical TMC movie marathon lasts only during the afternoon/evening or from late afternoon to mid-evening).

Movies

The Movie Channel (through Showtime) currently has exclusive deals with major and smaller independent movie studios. After being acquired by Viacom in 1994, Paramount Pictures began an output deal with Showtime and The Movie Channel (then also owned by Viacom), effective after 1997. In addition to Paramount, The Movie Channel and Showtime have agreements with IFC Films (which shares pay-cable release rights with Starz) and THINKFilm among others. Paramount Pictures' contract with the channel expired for films released on & after January 1, 2008. United Artists and Lionsgate contract expired for titles released theatrically on January 1, 2009.

The Movie Channel also sometimes plays a lot of classic movies from United Artists and Columbia Pictures, and some mid-to-late '90s movies from Sony Pictures Classics (whose parent Sony Pictures Entertainment shares pay-cable release rights with Starz, except for films produced by Revolution Studios and HBO).

The window between a film's initial release in theatres and its initial screening on Showtime and The Movie Channel is much larger than on HBO and Starz.

Usually films for which Showtime has rights will also run on The Movie Channel during its time of license.

Branding

TMC's launch logo featured strips of film made to resemble a star with folded sides and another star inside it, in a fitting reference to its previous identity as Star Channel. In 1981, a text was added to include an uppercase The Movie Channel (with a slightly enlarged letter "M"). From early 1983 to the summer of 1985, the network also used a script logo, sometimes more often than its "star" logo. One slogan the channel used during this time was "The Heart of Hollywood."

In 1989, TMC dropped its previous logo, and the "Heart of Hollywood" slogan, and changed its logo to feature a profile of a person's face with a pair of eyes and bridge of a nose visible, in a rectangle with the network's name in uppercase letters on two tilted lines on either side. The logo was changed again in 1997, with a new logo and the tagline "100% Pure Movies, 100% Pure Fun." Its logo featured a green ball with an acronym of the channel's name (in lowercase), usually shown either to the side of the channel's full name also in lowercase letters or on top of the name.

A similar logo was used when the channel rebranded itself in 2001, with the tagline "The Stuff Movies Are Made Of". This logo design featured the ball with TMC on it, surrounded with two lines on the corners of the ball. The word "Movie" was shown in bold. In 2006, TMC introduced a new logo borrowing certain elements from the 1989-1997 and 2001-2006 logos such as the typeface of the channel's name from the former and the usage of a bold type of the word "MOVIE" from the latter. The logo also features three green or blue crescent-like slivers on the top and bottom sides of the channel's name.

Slogans

• 1985–1989: "The Heart of Hollywood"
• 1997–2001: "100% Pure Movies, 100% Pure Fun"
• 2001–2006: "The Stuff Movies Are Made Of"
• 2006—present: "Movies for Movie Lovers"

External links

References

1. Showtime’s Film Suppliers Start Up Rival TV Channel