AMC Networks

As "Rainbow Media"[edit]

When Rainbow Programing Services was formed in mid-1980, it originally was a joint-venture of four cable television companies: Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, and Daniels & Associates. The first service to come out of the partnership was launched on December 8, 1980. The hybrid service, which broadcast nightly on satellite time subleased from the National Christian Network featured culture events network Bravo on Sunday and Monday nights and adult-oriented B movie network Escapade the rest of the week.^[5] Due to the involvement of the four cable companies, the new service quickly gained subscribers. By July 1981, both channels expanded their offerings to seven nights a week.^[6] In August 1981, Playboy Enterprises became half-owner of Escapade which introduced a new programming block to the channel in early 1982. By the end of that year the network would relaunch as The Playboy Channel.^[7][8]


In the years that followed, the three other cable companies would exit the partnership, leaving Cablevision as the sole owner of Rainbow by 1983. Cablevision transferred control of its previously launched regional sports network SportsChannel New York to Rainbow. In 1983, three other regional sports networks were acquired: PRISM New England (soon to be relaunched as SportsChannel New England), Philadelphia-based PRISM, and Chicago-based SportsVision.^[9] Playboy also bought out Rainbow's share in The Playboy Channel, although it would continue to market the channel for the next few years.


In 1984, Rainbow added another new network to its portfolio, American Movie Classics (AMC) which initially featured "classic" pre-1970 movies. Cablevision began packaging AMC and Bravo together as the Rainbow Service. Near the end of 1984, CBS and Cablevision announced a deal to have CBS take 50% ownership in the Rainbow Service and Rainbow's marketing. The agreement also gave CBS partial ownership in the regional sports properties which had already become a joint venture with The Washington Post (the Post did not have ownership in Bravo or AMC).^[9] In 1986, Tele-Communications Inc. purchased a stake in AMC. Through this deal, the network which had 300,000 subscribers was able to greatly expand carriage to most of TCI's 3.9 million subscribers.^[10] Long Island cable news service News 12 was also launched in 1986.


CBS and Cablevision parted ways in 1987. In 1988, Rainbow's SportsChannel would make its largest programing deal, gaining national television rights for the National Hockey League.^[11] Cablevision gained a new partner that year, NBC, which obtained 50% ownership in Rainbow.^[12] Through this partnership, five additional regional sports networks were created in the Bay Area, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. The partnership also produced the Olympics Triplecast, a pay-per-view service providing additional coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics.


1994 saw the launch of an American feed of the Canadian music channel MuchMusic USA, in partnership with CHUM Limited (who would launch a Canadian version of Bravo the year after), and the Independent Film Channel.^[13] . Years later would CHUM sell their stake to Rainbow in 2000 and revoked their license for the MuchMusic name, which culminated into a rebrand as Fuse in 2003. Fuse became a part of MSG Media in 2010, and has since been spun off as Fuse Media.


In 1997, Romance Classics (later WE), a channel that had been in planning for over five year and had its launch date pushed back multiple times was finally launched. But Rainbow's largest venture that year was the merger of SportsChannel into Fox Sports Net. Rainbow retained varying ownership interests in all of the former SportsChannel networks except PRISM and SportsChannel Philadelphia, which were both shut down to make way for the first Comcast SportsNet. Over the next decade, all of these networks except SportsChannel NY (then Fox Sports New York) were gradually sold off. Fox Sports New York was then transferred to the MSG Media division and rebranded MSG+.^[14]


Rainbow ran the local-minded MSG Metro Channels which launched in 1998, before folding them in late 2005.


Through a series of transactions, beginning in 1997, NBC's stake was eventually reduced.^[15] In 2002, Cablevision sold its share of Bravo to NBC and as part of the deal, NBC gave up its then 20% share in Rainbow.


2003 saw Rainbow DBS Company launch a DBS satellite service, the HDTV-oriented Voom. The service ceased operations on April 30, 2005, and instead several of Voom's HD channels were launched on Dish Network and Cablevision, now bannered as Voom HD Networks. The networks were discontinued in 2009.


In 2005, Cablevision considered spinning off its content subsidiary Rainbow Media as a publicly traded company, and making their core cable business private, but withdrew the plan. In 2006, a new plan emerged to privatize all of Cablevision, including Rainbow Media. In January 2007, with no word on if the privatization would go through, Liberty Media expressed interest in acquiring Rainbow Media from Cablevision.^[16] In June 2008, Rainbow acquired the Sundance Channel from NBCUniversal, CBS, and Robert Redford.^[17] Rainbow Media also owned Wedding Central which was shut down the same day AMC Networks went public.^[18]