Turner Network Television

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TNT (Turner Network Television)
Launched	October 3, 1988
Owned by	TBS Networks, Inc. (a Time Warner company)
Slogan	We Know Drama
Sister channel(s)	TBS, Cartoon Network, TCM
Website	TNT.tv
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV	Channel 245 Channel 75 (HDTV)
Dish Network	Channel 138 Channel 9420 (HDTV)
C-Band	Galaxy 14-Channel 17
Cable
Verizon FiOS	Channel 51 Channel 825 (HDTV)
Comcast	Channels Vary
Time Warner Cable	Channels Vary
Charter	Channels Vary
Cox Cable	Channels Vary
Cablevision	Channel 37 Channel 737 (HDTV)
Bright House Networks	Channels Vary

Turner Network Television, usually referred to as TNT, is a cable TV network created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Before 1988 1.2 Current network 2 Sports programs 2.1 Trivia note 3 International versions 4 See also 5 External links 6 Reference

[edit] History

[edit] Before 1988

Before the name was applied to a current network, TNT was the name of a syndication service. In 1982, TNT produced two exhibition football games that were organized by the NFL Players Association during the 1982 NFL strike. The union had hoped to establish a new football league with those games, to help fans cope with the lack of National Football League games. But neither game drew well, either in attendance or TV ratings, and no further games were played.^[1]

In 1986, TNT syndicated the first Goodwill Games from Moscow, USSR to many stations across the country.

Both events were carried by, among other stations, KTLA in Los Angeles.

[edit] Current network

TNT as a cable service was launched with a showing of the 1939 classic movie. Gone with the Wind, on October 3, 1988. It was chosen because, it was said, it was Turner's favorite movie.

In 1990, it obtained partial rights to the National Football League, which it retained until 1997. The package consisted of three or four preseason games annually and of regular-season telecasts of the first half of each season.

Starting in 1995, TNT was also the home of WCW Monday Nitro, the flagship show of the now defunct World Championship Wrestling, once regularly the highest rated weekly program on cable. The program defeated Monday Night Raw, the flagship show of the then-World Wrestling Federation, for 83 straight weeks until 1998.

During 2001, TNT had its most successful original series, Witchblade, which ran for two seasons, ending its run in 2002. The series starred Yancy Butler.

On June 12, 2001, TNT relaunched itself, with a new logo and tagline, "We Know Drama." It now focuses on sports and high-action movies with lots of drama and energy, and the "Primetime in the Daytime" weekday lineup featuring reruns of network TV dramas such as Law & Order, Charmed, NYPD Blue, ER, Without a Trace, Alias, Judging Amy, Las Vegas and Cold Case. It is in direct contrast to sister network TBS, which shows more comedy related programming.

In 2004, TNT became the first Turner Network to begin broadcasting in High Definition.

[edit] Sports programs

TNT Sports mainly consists of National Basketball Association games and NASCAR races. The NBA on TNT dates back to 1988 and has aired, either by itself or in combination with a similar package on TBS, ever since. NASCAR came to TNT in 2001, carried over from TBS by their shared parent company. From 2001 to 2006, the race package was split with NBC; as of 2007, it stands alone, with six races telecast annually.

TNT may also air some Major League Baseball playoff games starting in October 2007 if there is a conflict with the TBS coverage (e.g. two games in different Division Series are both scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Eastern time on a Saturday, or the unlikely event of two different one-game playoffs to break ties).

[edit] Trivia note

TNT inherited the telecast of the 2001 UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on October 7 of that year from NBC. That network joined the rest of the U.S. media in covering the allied counterstrike against Afghanistan. The offensive was an attempt to avenge the September 11, 2001 attacks.

[edit] International versions

A British and Indian version of TNT was launched in the 1990s but was exclusively dedicated to movies, mainly from the MGM and Warner Brothers archives. However the UK version of TNT was different to the Indian version in that it showed one, later two programmes in addition to its movie content. These programmes were from September 1995 WCW Monday Nitro shown at 9pm every Friday night and later in late 1998 WCW Thunder which was shown on Saturday nights at 9pm (in 1999 they began to show WCW Thunder directly after WCW Monday Nitro on Friday nights). The episodes of Monday Nitro were shown only 4 days after they were shown in the United States on the American TNT. WCW Thunder episodes were shown just 2 and later one day after their US airdates. In the UK the wrestling ratings war between WCW and the then WWF would take place on Friday nights not Mondays. This was due to Nitro being shown head to head with Raw (although Raw would from 1998 until Nitro's demise air an hour later than Nitro refecting a simiar move in the USA) as it was in the USA but on Fridays not Mondays. Despite the strong ratings for Nitro on TNT UK (3rd highest on UK satellite and cable behind Raw and certain Premiership Football games) it never once beat Raw in the UK ratings war. This was despite the fact that in the UK Raw aired (and still does) on a subscription channel where as Nitro aired on basic sky and cable channel packages (or basic cable as the USA term would be). Raw is now shown live in the UK at 2am every Monday night on Sky Sports 3 and although fans prefer this as often the feed contains uncensored footage (such as the Lita 'live sex' nipple slip that was censored on the USA Network feed and the airing of profanity that is bleeped on the USA Network) many fans who watched during the Friday night days do have a great fondness for those days as they enjoyed the atmosphere that came with watching on Fridays (coming home from a week of work/school to enjoy a Friday night of wrestling on two channels) and the channel surfing to Monday Nitro.

Prior to late 1997 (mid 1998 in the UK) the channel was combined with Cartoon Network in Europe and India into a channel called TNT & Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network would air from 6:00am to 7:00pm when the station would change into TNT. This was later changed to 9:00pm in 1997. It was later renamed TNT UK(despite the fact it was shown in the rest of Europe and gave CET times for its programmes before UK times), as Cartoon Network became its own 24 hour channel. TNT continued to run in the UK (and the rest of Europe) only, and became 24 hours consisting of shows, newer movies, and WCW programing but closed in mid-2000, due to licensing restrictions. In 2000 TNT went off the air and TCM appeared in its place. Monday Nitro continued to be shown for a limited time before it and WCW Thunder were forced off the network in order to make way for more movies. The programmes had been TNT UKs biggest ratings winners despite the fact they never won a single battle in the 'Friday Night Wars' with rival Monday Night Raw shown on Sky Sports. However with the decline of WCW in America ratings dipped in the UK too and the rights to show WCWs programmes where sold to rival station Bravo UK and thus TCM like TNT UK prior to 1995 became a movie only channel.

TCM is still operating and broadcasts MGM and Warner Brothers films like the old TNT used to. There is now also a TCM 2 which broadcasts films from MGM and Warner Brothers also.

[edit] See also

• TNT HD
• List of original programs broadcast by TNT
• TNT Sunday Night Football

[edit] External links

• Official Site
• TNTHD

[edit] Reference