TV Guide Network (formerly known as The TV Guide Channel , Prevue Channel and Prevue Guide ) is a American cable network owned by Lionsgate. It provides, on the bottom half of the screen, a scrolling grid that lists television channels and the television programs and films currently showing on them. On the top half of the screen are featured programs usually featuring movie previews, celebrity news, and commercials. The majority of the network's audience comes from channel surfers looking to see what's on and upcoming on their cable and satellite system's channel lineup.
Although the listing scroll 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 their original series and specials, mainly because of on-screen electronic program guides provided by satellite services and cable boxes, digital video recorders like TiVo which often obviate the need as programming is typically recorded automatically and in advance, and listings on the Internet, which offer the information in a speedier manner and with more detail than TVGN's grid listings. TV Guide offers its own EPG software on digital cable boxes, called TV Guide Interactive , which is similarly structured like TV Guide Network listings-wise.
A gridless version of the channel, featuring the channel in full-screen, is also provided to those providers who place the channel on a digital tier, where by the nature of having an on-screen program guide with the digital cable box, the channel's function would be duplicated, and the need for a guide channel for analog-only viewers is negated.
On January 5, 2009, Lionsgate announced that they would be buying TV Guide Network and TV Guide Online for $255 million. Lionsgate paid cash and the transaction closed on March 2 , 2009 .
In April 2009, it was announced that Lionsgate announced plans on revamping the channel into a more entertainment-oriented channel, which will also include discontinuing the scrolling schedule that had been part of the channel since its 1985 inception. Following this announcement, Mediacom announced that it would be dropping the channel; also, Time Warner Cable had also dropped the channel as well, only in Texas.
History
1980s
Electronic Program Guide
1985, a small independent 24-hour cable network called the Electronic program guide (or the EPG for short) was launched. The early years of the EPG had an on-screen program guide that covered the entire screen. The graphics from the old EPG version featured the same channel listing every half hour: at times, current listings were several minutes away. The 1985 to 1988 version featured a local text-based advertisement ticker on the bottom of the screen and live audio from a local FM radio station.
Prevue Guide
Then in 1988, the company known as Prevue Networks Inc. was established and the EPG was renamed Prevue Guide . The second version of the Prevue Guide's program grid was similar to the EPG's version, and it featured the "split-screen". In this case, the "split-screen" featured graphic and animated advertisements on the upper portion of the screen. The bottom portion showed the then shrunken program grid. Although some cable companies decided to keep the old EPG version, major ones that had larger numbers of viewers decided to upgrade to the Prevue Guide version.
1990s
In 1991, the third version of the Prevue Guide was launched. Prevue Guide eventually decided to add their own programs and segments. For the cable companies that still carried the second version of the Prevue Guide program grid would only provide live audio from the Prevue Guide station and advertisements covered up the video portion of the screen. The third version saw the same scrolling channel listings taking up the bottom half of the screen of the new Prevue Guide format, while advertisements and identification could be displayed at the top half. Such a format continues to be used on the channel, albeit with many presentation changes. Meanwhile, Prevue Guide notified the smaller cable companies that still carried the old EPG version to upgrade and start carrying the Prevue Guide, and the EPG was later discontinued in 1993. Since then, many cable providers across the United States and Canada, offers local advertising on the top half of the screen and includes any type of music Prevue uses, from the Prevue Tonight segment to holiday music.
Prevue Channel
In late March 1993, Prevue Guide overhauled its presentation and the listing format. A "blue grid" replaced the older format. Shortly thereafter the name became the Prevue Channel . By May 1996, a new logo and new graphics to go with it had been added to the channel. That same year, Prevue introduced their first digital Interactive Guide, which was from General Instruments. It was launched as part of TCI's first digital cable service. The 1996 logo stood the same on February 9, 1998, but the font changed. By that point on, new programs were added and some were updated. The 1998 logo lasted until one year later, in 1999, when it was renamed TV Guide Channel .
PrimeStar, the first DBS satellite system, carried the Prevue Channel in 1994. Unlike the Cable version, this channel carried the actual "blue grid", which doesn't scroll from the top and the bottom of the screen. Also, PrimeStar carried only eight channels, mostly for their programming lineup such as Movies, Sports, Family, Pay-Per-View and more. It lasted until late 1999, when PrimeStar was purchased by Hughes Electronics and the customer base was merged into DirecTV.
The Prevue Guide grid itself is similar to The Weather Channel's WeatherSTAR (which would provide local information from the cable company and live video feeds at the same time) and it physically ran on Amiga hardware and software. The guide was known to crash at times, leaving the Amiga "Guru Meditation" error overlaid on top of the listings. Other common errors included a C-Band listing failover, and a red box where the listings would normally be, simply stating that local listings would appear soon.
In 1997, Prevue Networks Inc. and United Video Satellite Group launched Prevue Online, an online service for local TV listings, audio/video interviews, and weather forecast. Another website PrevueNet, was launched as well to provide more history and useful information for the Prevue Channel, Sneak Prevue, UVTV, WGN Chicago, and WPIX New York. Also, Prevue was the first channel that introduced TV Ratings on their blue grid as well as the top on the screen.
TV Guide Channel
In February 1999, United Video Satellite Group, parent company of Prevue Networks, bought TV Guide for $2 billion in stock and cash. Over the next 10 months, the newly renamed TV Guide Channel quickly transitioned. New graphics were in by midyear and a replacement for the blue grid which had presented listings on the channel for 6 years was operational by December. Some cable companies were still using the old blue grids until they were finally phased out in January 2000.
2000s
Ever since Prevue Channel transitioned to TV Guide Channel , the programs on it have changed drastically. 'Shows' have been added to the TV Guide Network (see bottom). Shows can last from a few seconds to a couple hours (the longer shows take up the whole screen, making the scrolling grid smaller). Starting in 2005, Joan Rivers and her daughter Melissa Rivers began providing coverage for television award events like 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 have been replaced by Hollywood 411 and The Bachelor host Chris Harrison and Dancing with the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba.
Also on the scrolling grid are ads and promotions for the local cable provider (their logo is shown at the end and beginning of the listings), which are usually preceded by local weather conditions. The weather data differs from that used on The Weather Channel's WeatherSTAR.
Because of Gemstar-TV Guide's dominant position in the listings market, on most websites the company provides listings for, TV Guide Network's listings appear on the topmost line, no matter which channel TVGN may be on. This had also been the case within the print version of TV Guide.
Since the TV Guide Network isn't avai
Dish Network Programming, Dish Network Packages, Free Dish Network ...
Find Dish Network package offers with the lowest prices and free Dish Network satellite programs. ... channel packages for satellite TV are available in ... Affiliate Program | Sitemap
HDTV Satellite TV, Free HD DVR Upgrade with Turbo HD by DISH Network ...
TurboHD Satellite TV by DISH Network ... Free HD DVR digital receiver and be able to record,instantly replay, pause live TV and more (free with upgrade). DISH Network truly gives ...
Get Dish Now! Free Dish Network System from VMC Satellite
Get a satellite TV system from Dish Network and up to four receivers installed free ... Dish for Business Affiliate Program ... Network Food Network Fox News Channel Free Speech TV
Dish Network Offers | Satellite TV Offers - Ordersatellitenow
Additional TV Charge: 2ND TV FREE $5 ... Multi-Channel ... by authority of DISH Network L.L.C. and/or its applicable affiliate(s). DISH Network Satellite TV is ...
DISH Network Satellite TV Channel Guide
DISH Network Satellite TV recognizes how important Big ... Let us Pay your Dish Network Bill become an affiliate and get paid. ... Free Dish Network - Free Dish TV - Dish Network ...
DISH Network and DIRECTV Affiliate Programs
DISH Network and DIRECTV Affiliate Programs - Earn up to $110 per order when you join our free affililiate program. ... DIRECTV Channel Lineup ... Satellite TV
Welcome to DISH Network Satellite TV - DishPronto
LOCAL CHANNEL LOOKUP ... of better TV for all. You've ordered your free DISH Network ... authority of DISH Network L.L.C. and/or its applicable affiliate(s). DISH Network Satellite TV is ...
Free Satellite TV System Offers - Dish Network Satelite Service
Affiliate Program. Join Login ... Dish Network service offers a free satellite TV system and a slightly larger channel selection than DIRECTV. The Free Dish Network ...
Get Dish Now! Free Dish Network System from VMC Satellite
Get a satellite TV system from Dish Network and up to four receivers installed free when you ... Dish for Business Affiliate Program Digital ... Broadcasting Network TV Land Weather Channel, The
Digital Satellite TV Services and programming for Dish Network
Explore our satellite tv programming choices. Our Satellite dish services include Sirius radio, regional sports network ... multiple channel ... and/or its affiliate(s). The DISH Network ...