Satellite News Channel

Satellite News Channel
Satellite News Channel old logo
Launched June 21, 1982
Closed October 27, 1983
Owned by ABC
Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W)
Slogan "Give us 18 minutes, we'll give you the world."
Country United States

Satellite News Channel (SNC) was a joint venture of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W). Designed as a satellite-delivered cable TV network, SNC used footage from ABC News and seven Washington DC based crews, in addition to stories from other overseas networks to provide a rotating newscast every 20 minutes. The channel is best remembered as the first 24-hour news cable competition to CNN.

SNC's slogan, derived from Group W's experience in all-news radio, was "Give us 18 minutes, we'll give you the world."[1]

History

SNC, based in the New York City suburb of Stamford, Connecticut was on the air from June 21, 1982, until October 27, 1983. During that time, it provided competition for Turner Broadcasting's CNN, the first such network at the time to do so. However, on January 1, 1982, CNN started a second network, CNN2, which had a similar format, as a preemptive strike against the ABC/Group W venture.

SNC, however, had difficulty getting clearance from cable systems. It was eventually bought by CNN and shut down; on most local cable systems it was replaced by either CNN or CNN Headline News (which had changed its name from CNN2 shortly after SNC's launch in 1982).

After the closure – successor channels

For a brief time after SNC shut down, its theme music was used by fellow-Connecticut cable network ESPN.

In 2004, ABC News returned to the 24-hour news market with ABC News Now. The channel began as a digital subchannel but was later moved to cable. However that channel like SNC received little cable and satellite carriage, only being available on regional cable systems and Sprint's mobile devices. After nine years in operation, it was shut down.

In 2013 ABC News partnered with Univision Communications to launch Fusion, a new cable news channel focused on a Hispanic audience with shows skewed to a younger demographic which also includes satire and entertainment programs. The channel went live on October 28, 2013. The channel is ABC's third attempt at a cable news channel and their second partnership on one, the first since SNC. As far as distribution, Fusion has fared much better in respects to carriage than its two predecessors, securing both major satellite carriers and major cable operators in markets like New York City.

References

  1. ↑ One-Two Punch, Time.com, August 24, 1981, retrieved July 30, 2006

See also

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.