Bravo (American TV network)
Bravo is an American basic cable television network, launched on December 8, 1980. It is owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel originally focused on programming related to fine arts and film. Since the 2000s, its brand has focused heavily on reality series targeted at 25-to-54-year-old women and the LGBTQIA+ community at large.
This article is about the American pay television channel. For the Australian version, see 7Bravo. For the New Zealand version, see Bravo (New Zealand TV channel). For other uses, see Bravo (disambiguation).Country
Nationwide
1080i HDTV
(downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed)
NBCUniversal
(Bravo Media, LLC)
December 8, 1980
(requires subscription to access content)
- ch.215
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As of November 2023, Bravo is available to approximately 70,000,000 pay television households in the United States, down from its 2013 peak of 95,000,000 households.[1]
Controversies[edit]
In August 2023, several of the network's reality stars, including Bethenny Frankel, Raquel Leviss, Lisa Rinna, and many others, accused Bravo and its parent company, NBCUniversal, for mistreating and causing a hostile working environment against them. Frankel has also filed a lawsuit against the network and NBC as a result of the allegations.[15]
In January 2024, Caroline Manzo filed a lawsuit against Bravo which alleged that the network and its affiliated companies—Forest Productions, Warner Bros. Entertainment, NBCUniversal Media, Shed Media and Peacock TV— would "regularly ply the Real Housewives cast with alcohol, cause them to become severely intoxicated, and then direct, encourage and/or allow them to sexually harass other cast members because that is good for ratings."[16][17][18] The lawsuit was filed a year after it was reported Brandi Glanville gave Manzo "unwanted kisses" while they participated in season 5 of The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip.[19][17] The lawsuit also accused Bravo of knowing that Glanville had a history of sexual misconduct, but hired her anyway for good ratings.[17][18]
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International versions[edit]
An Australian channel called Arena rebranded its on-air presentation in 2008 to align with Bravo as a result of an agreement with Bravo Media.[23] Arena uses the now-former Bravo slogan "Watch What Happens" and has access to Bravo-produced programming.[24] As of July 2020, the channel had dropped the Bravo-inspired branding, and added content from other providers such as WarnerMedia. In October 2022, it was announced that Australia's Seven Network would launch a local version of the network, titled 7Bravo on 15 January 2023, as part of a joint venture with NBCU.[25]
A Canadian version of Bravo was launched in 1995 by CHUM Limited. The channel originally aired much of the same genres of programming aired by its American counterpart, but by the 2010s it had pivoted to primarily focusing on dramas and rebranded in 2012 to separate itself from the U.S. network entirely. It was then rebranded to CTV Drama Channel in 2019 as part of a realignment of Bell's specialty channels.[26] Most of Bravo's current original programming has been acquired by other Canadian specialty channels, particularly Corus Entertainment's Slice, and sister channel Food Network for Top Chef. On June 10, 2024, Rogers Sports & Media announced that it had acquired Canadian rights to the Bravo brand and original programming, and that it planned to relaunch the network in September 2024.[27]
MediaWorks New Zealand announced that it would close the youth-oriented free to air channel Four in July 2016 and replace it with Bravo as part of a deal with NBCUniversal.[28] The New Zealand channel is currently co-owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
A Brazilian version of Bravo was launched in 1996 by a partnership between TVA - then Grupo Abril's television arm -, TV Cultura and the original American network.[29] The channel produced original programming like the Brazilian version of Inside Actors Studio called Studio Brasil. In August 1999, Bravo was rebranded as Film&Arts after Bravo Networks took the fully control of channel's administration.[30] In 2000, Bravo Networks sold Film&Arts to Chellomedia's Pramer. AMC Networks acquired Chellomedia in 2014 putting Film&Arts in AMC International Networks' portfolio. As of 2016 the channel was no longer available in Brazil after being dropped out by several cable and satellite providers.
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