Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. Most cable viewers in the U.S. reside in the suburbs and tend to be middle class ; cable television is less common in low income , urban , and rural areas.
156-511: AMC (stylized as aMc ; an abbreviation of the channel's original name, American Movie Classics ) is an American basic cable television channel that first launched in 1984, and is the namesake flagship property of AMC Networks . Since 2002, the full name has been de-emphasized as a result of a major shift in its programming . AMC's primarily produces original scripted dramas and documentaries, while airing theatrically released films , and acquired television programming. In July 2015, AMC
312-610: A VHS tape (although some on demand services, generally those offered by broadcast networks, restrict the ability to fast forward through a program). Some of the offerings have a cost similar to renting a movie at a video store while others are free. On-demand content has slowly been replacing traditional pay-per-view for pre-recorded content; pay-per-view remains popular for live combat sports events (boxing, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling). Additional subscription fees are also usually required to receive digital cable channels. Many cable systems operate as de facto monopolies in
468-558: A basic service. Turner completed the acquisition of MGM in early 1986, but his ownership was short-lived and he sold it back to the previous owner months later. However, he retained the film library and executed his original plan to air the movies on WTBS and later on his new networks Turner Network Television and Turner Classic Movies , a direct competitor to AMC. The new movie network struggled to gain carriage. By March 1986, it had only 300,000 subscribers. To solve this problem, Cablevision and CBS (which became half owner of Rainbow about
624-517: A broadcasters' convention. In the spring of 1948, Parsons learned that radio station KRSC (now KKNW ) in Seattle – 125 miles away – was going to launch a television station that fall. He found that with a large antenna he could receive KRSC's signal on the roof of the Hotel Astoria and from there he ran coaxial cable across the street to his apartment. When the station (now KING-TV ) went on
780-400: A digital image results in a loss of quality that can make it more difficult to create a high-quality print based upon the digital image, digital imaging technology has become increasingly advanced to the point where 8K scanners can capture the full resolution of images filmed at as high as 65 mm. 70 mm IMAX film has a theoretical resolution of 18K, the highest possible resolution given
936-536: A few years, only to fail due to the inability to compete against established premium services that had broader distribution and higher subscriber totals. Since cable television channels are not broadcast on public spectrum, they are not subject to FCC regulations on indecent material. Premium networks generally offer broader portrayal of profanity, sex and violence; some premium services–such as Cinemax and The Movie Channel (which have carried such programs as part of their late-night schedules) as well as Playboy TV , one of
1092-479: A focus on more "mature" and creator-driven series to help attract critical acclaim and key demographic viewership. Turner Classic Movies has aired uncut and commercial-free prints of theatrical films that have featured nudity, sexual content, violence and profanity, as had the now-ad-supported SundanceTV and IFC , the former of which began as a premium service, spun off from Showtime. Commercial-free basic channels have tended to rate their film presentations using
1248-481: A form of remediation of the cinematic medium, and has positively reflected on digital technologies' ability to broaden restoration possibilities, improve quality, and reduce costs. According to the cinema scholar Leo Enticknap, the views held by Usai and Fossati could be seen as representative of the two poles of the digital debate in film preservation. It should be kept in mind, however, that both Usai and Fossati's arguments are highly complex and nuanced, and likewise,
1404-615: A group of fellow television set retailers in Lansford, Pennsylvania , a town in the same region as Mahanoy City, to offer television signals from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania broadcast stations to homes in Lansford for a fee. The system was featured in stories in The New York Times , Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal . The publicity of this successful early system set off a wave of cable system construction throughout
1560-518: A hard disk capable of storing such a movie typically cost a few hundred dollars, with an archival optical disk even less. The problem of having to transfer the data as new generations of equipment come along will continue, however, until true archival standards are put in place. In the context of film preservation, the term " digital preservation " highlights the use of digital technology for the transfer of films from 8 mm to 70 mm in size to digital carriers , as well as all practices for ensuring
1716-451: A higher quality picture than their analog counterparts. This is often true, with a dramatic improvement in chroma resolution (120 lines for NTSC versus 270 for digital). However, digital compression has a tendency to soften the quality of the television picture, particularly of channels that are more heavily compressed. Pixelation and other artifacts are often visible. Subscribers wishing to have access to digital cable channels must have
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#17328019443201872-473: A horror movie double feature on late Friday evenings. On September 26, 2008, AMC announced the launch of a new horror-themed movie marathon for its October schedule called "Fearfest" (which replaced Monsterfest); coinciding with this, the "Monsterfest" blog was renamed as the "Horror Hacker" blog. "Fearfest" also ran from mid- or late October every year for Halloween until the day after Halloween too from 2008 to 2021. Beginning in 2021, Fearfest now runs throughout
2028-458: A key scene in which many of film pioneer Georges Méliès ' silent films are melted down and the raw material recycled as shoes; this was seen by many movie critics as "a passionate brief for film preservation wrapped in a fanciful tale of childhood intrigue and adventure". Scorsese's concern about the need to save motion pictures of the past led him to create The Film Foundation , a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation, in 1990. He
2184-562: A less expensive entry point into the cable marketplace. Some cable/satellite providers might wish to sell channels à la carte, but their contracts with programmers often require the more standardized approach. Starting in the late 1990s, advances in digital signal processing (primarily Motorola's DigiCipher 2 video compression technology in North America) gave rise to wider implementation of digital cable services. Digital cable television provides many more television channels over
2340-401: A local station if the duplication is shown either 15 days before or after its local airing. This 1965 report reasoning is as follows: 1) CATV should carry local stations because CATV supplements, not replaces, local stations; and, the non-carriage of local stations gives distant stations an advantage since people will not change from the cable to the antenna to see a local station; 2) non-carriage
2496-400: A lowercase and uppercase "a MC " text) and a new slogan that says TV for Movie people. Kate McEnroe, then-president of Rainbow Media, cited lack of subsidies from cable providers as the reason for the addition of advertising, and cited ad agencies who insist on programming relevant to their products' consumers as the reason for the shift to recent movies instead of just classics. At the time of
2652-488: A mini-documentary series Making of a Classic . By 1989, AMC was available to 39 million subscribers in the U.S. On December 1, 1990, AMC began operating on a 24-hour-a-day schedule. Beginning in 1993, AMC presented an annual Film Preservation Festival to raise awareness of and funding for film preservation . Coordinated with The Film Foundation , an industry group that was founded by acclaimed director Martin Scorsese ,
2808-562: A mix of per-subscriber carriage fees paid by the provider, and revenue from advertising sold on the service, as their sources of revenue. One of the first "basic cable" networks was TBS —which was initially established as a satellite uplink of an independent television station (the present-day WPCH-TV ) in Atlanta, Georgia. TBS would serve as the starting point for other major basic cable ventures by its owner, Ted Turner , including CNN —the first 24-hour news channel . Another early network
2964-430: A monthly fee depending on the number and perceived quality of the channels offered. Cable television subscribers are offered various packages of channels one can subscribe to. The cost of each package depends on the type of channels offered (basic vs. premium) and the quantity. These fees cover the fees paid to individual cable channels for the right to carry their programming, as well as the cost of operating and maintaining
3120-442: A premium service to sample its programming, in an effort for subscribers to the participant provider to consider obtaining a subscription to the offered service to continue viewing it following the preview period. HBO was the first true premium cable (or "pay-cable") network as well as the first television network intended for cable distribution on a regional or national basis; however, there were notable precursors to premium cable in
3276-445: A preservationist was to create a durable copy without any significant loss of quality . In more modern terms, film preservation includes the concepts of handling, duplication, storage, and access. The archivist seeks to protect the film and share its content with the public. Film preservation is not to be confused with film revisionism , in which long-completed films are modified with the insertion of outtakes or new musical scores,
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#17328019443203432-711: A reduced price for existing AMC channel subscribers too like Xfinity , Dish Network and Sling TV . Basic cable According to reports released by the Federal Communications Commission , traditional cable television subscriptions in the US peaked around the year 2000, at 68.5 million total subscriptions. Since then, cable subscriptions have been in slow decline, dropping to 54.4 million subscribers by December 2013. Some telephone service providers have started offering television, reaching to 11.3 million video subscribers as of December 2013. It
3588-570: A replacement for the more volatile nitrate stock, was beginning to be affected by a unique form of decay known as " vinegar syndrome ", and color film manufactured, in particular, by Eastman Kodak , was found to be at risk of fading. At that time, the best-known solution was to duplicate the original film onto a more secure medium. A common estimate is that 90 percent of all American silent films made before 1920 and 50 percent of American sound films made before 1950 are lost films . Although institutional practices of film preservation date back to
3744-1116: A reputation on par with premium cable networks HBO and Showtime , both of which rejected Mad Men before it came to AMC. AMC also airs acquired programming , ranging from black-and-white filmed shows (such as The Rifleman and shorts from The Three Stooges ) to contemporary series (such as CSI: Miami ). AMC maintains movie licensing rights agreements with Warner Bros. Entertainment , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (including films from United Artists and library content from The Samuel Goldwyn Company , Orion Pictures , and Cannon Group ), Universal Pictures (including some films from DreamWorks Animation as titles from Illumination Entertainment and most from Focus Features are absent), Paramount Pictures (including films from pre-2011 DreamWorks Pictures and Miramax ), Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (primarily film content from Touchstone Pictures , Hollywood Pictures , 20th Century Studios , Searchlight Pictures , Disney , Walt Disney Animation Studios , and Buena Vista International , while titles from Pixar , Lucasfilm , much of Marvel Studios , and
3900-429: A result of this move, Turner Classic Movies became the only one of the two classic film-focused networks to present their films commercial-free. On September 30, 2002, AMC underwent a significant rebranding, changing its format from a classic movie channel, to a more general focus on movies from all eras – as well as shortening its name to just the "AMC" abbreviation, and introducing a new logo (a rectangular outline with
4056-400: A scheduled time (this is generally the main place where pornographic content airs on American cable). Some cable systems have begun to offer on-demand programming , where customers can select programs from a list of offerings including recent releases of movies, concerts, sports, first-run television shows and specials and start the program whenever they wish, as if they were watching a DVD or
4212-617: A second signal to two of the towns and add two signals to a previously unserved town. A television station in one town opposed this and protested to the FCC on the grounds of economic damage. A hearing examiner supported Carter Mountain, but the Commission supported the television station. The case was taken to appeal, and the Federal Communications Commission won. "The fact that no broadcaster has actually gone off
4368-541: A secretary of the Federal Communications Commission, sent a letter to Parsons requesting that he "furnish [to] the Commission full information with respect to the nature of the system you may have developed and may be operating." This is the first known involvement of the FCC in CATV. An FCC lawyer, E. Stratford Smith, determined the Commission could exercise common carrier jurisdiction over CATV. The FCC did not act on this opinion, and Smith later changed his mind after working in
4524-406: A separate company, which was renamed AMC Networks, after its flagship cable network. Cablevision founder Charles Dolan and his family continue to retain a controlling interest in the company. Also during this year, the network introduced two new dramas ( The Killing and Hell on Wheels ), two original web series ( The Trivial Pursuits of Arthur Banks and The Walking Dead: Torn Apart ), and
4680-410: A series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques , and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the widest sense, preservation assures that a movie will continue to exist in as close to its original form as possible. For many years the term "preservation" was synonymous with "duplication" of film. The goal of
4836-412: A set timeslot with commercials added. In 1997, AMC launched "Monsterfest", a popular week-long marathon of horror movies and thrillers that aired from mid- or late October every year for Halloween until the day after Halloween. In the mid-2000s, AMC started a Monsterfest blog on its website, which chronicled news on horror-related film and television productions. In addition, AMC presented "Fear Friday",
AMC (TV channel) - Misplaced Pages Continue
4992-431: A significant reduction in subscription fees and advertising revenue, and potentially be driven out of business. Many cable/satellite providers are therefore reluctant to introduce an à la carte business model. They fear it will reduce the overall choice of viewing content, making their service less appealing to customers. Some believe the à la carte option could actually increase overall sales by allowing potential subscribers
5148-453: A small number of national cable networks in their basic lineups. Most systems differentiate between basic cable, which has locals, home shopping channels and local-access television channels, and expanded basic (or "standard"), which carries most of the better-known national cable networks. Most basic cable lineups have approximately 20 channels overall, while expanded basic has channel capacity for as many as 70 channels. Under U.S. regulations,
5304-523: A solid gold block with the network's acronymic name retained in the center. 2013 saw the channel's unscripted slate double with the additions of Owner's Manual , Showville , the second part of the final season of Breaking Bad , the Breaking Bad discussion series Talking Bad , and the second season of the unscripted series Freakshow , before being cancelled. Also in April, Rectify , which
5460-503: A special cable converter box , (or, more recently, a "Digital Cable Ready" television) and a CableCARD to receive them. AllVid is a CableCARD replacement proposed by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), U.S.A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), intended to provide bidirectional compatibilities such as interactive programming guides, video-on-demand and pay-per-view, since retail CableCARD-ready devices are unable to access such systems. Cable television systems impose
5616-452: A stake in AMC – which it divested in the early 2000s. From 1996 to 1998, AMC aired its first original series, Remember WENN , a half-hour scripted series about a radio station during the peak of radio's influence in the 1930s. The show was well received by both critics and its enthusiastic fans, but was abruptly cancelled after its fourth season following management changes at the channel (WENN
5772-441: A year earlier) worked out a deal with the nation's largest cable television provider, Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI). TCI gained a one-third interest in AMC (but not Bravo , Rainbow's other network) and in exchange made AMC available as an offering for most of its 3.9 million subscribers. (TCI's Liberty Media division eventually would create another premium service— Encore , which also originally focused on older films, mainly from
5928-523: Is "inherently contrary to the public interest"; and, 3) CATV duplication of local programming via distant signals is unfair since broadcasters and CATV do not compete for programs on an equal footing; the FCC recommended "a reasonable measure of exclusivity". The 1966 Second Report and Order made some minor changes in the First Report and Order and added a major regulation. This was designed to protect UHF stations in large cities. The new rule disallowed
6084-578: Is aligned with the Directors Guild of America . By working in partnership with the leading film archives and studios, The Film Foundation has saved nearly 600 films, often restoring them to pristine condition. In many cases, original footage that had been excised—or censored by the Production Code in the U.S.—from the original negative, has been reinstated. In addition to the preservation, restoration, and presentation of classic cinema,
6240-540: Is an add-on subscription service only available as an extra to those already normally subscribed to AMC. It involves access to an expanded On-Demand library compared to the standard "AMC OnDemand" library packaged with the usual cable service. This is necessary to view many "locked" programs on the AMC website (such as complete availability to The Walking Dead all eleven seasons) which prompts someone to subscribe for ~$ 5/mo or ~$ 30/yr. For currently-airing programs it sometimes gives early access to viewing them before they debut on
6396-584: Is claimed that the first cable television system in the United States was created in 1948 in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania by John Walson to provide television signals to people whose reception was poor because of tall mountains and buildings blocking TV signals. Mahanoy City was ideally suited for CATV services, since broadcast television signals could easily be received via mountaintop antennas and retransmitted by "twin-lead" or "ladder-lead" cable to
AMC (TV channel) - Misplaced Pages Continue
6552-679: Is not clear how this might affect subscription costs over all, but it would allow a parent to censor their child's viewing habits by removing any channel they deem objectionable from their subscription. Offering such individualized subscriptions would have been relatively complicated and labor-intensive using analog cable, but the widespread adoption of digital cable & IPTV technologies have now made it more feasible. Analog technology allowed cable providers to offer standardized subscription packages using low-pass filters and notch filters . A low-pass filter lets lower frequency signals pass while removing higher frequency signals. Using such filtering,
6708-648: The Cinémathèque Française in Paris, which would become the world's largest international film collection. For thousands of early silent films stored in the Library of Congress , mostly between 1894 and 1912, the only existing copies were printed on rolls of paper submitted as copyright registrations. For these, an optical printer was used to copy these images onto safety film stock, a project that began in 1947 and continues today. The Library hosts
6864-537: The Creative Commons license, which allows anyone to use these clips with attribution—in this case, attribution to the VAFP site and to the author of the clip and his company. Regardless of the age of the print itself, damage may occur if stored improperly. Damage to the film (caused by tears on the print, curling of the film base due to intense light exposure, temperature, humidity, etc.) can significantly raise
7020-488: The Image Permanence Institute finds that storing film media in frozen temperatures, with relative humidity (RH) between 30% and 50%, greatly extends its useful life. These measures inhibit deterioration better than any other methods and are a cheaper solution than replicating deteriorating films. In most cases, when a film is chosen for preservation or restoration work, new prints are created from
7176-633: The MDU market, in which relationships are established with landlords, sometimes with contracts and exclusivity agreements for the buildings, sometimes to the anger of tenants. The rise of direct broadcast satellite systems providing the same type of programming using small satellite receivers, and of Verizon FiOS and other recent ventures by incumbent local exchange carriers such as U-verse , have also provided competition to incumbent cable television systems. Many cable channels charge cable providers "subscriber fees," in order to carry their content. The fee that
7332-486: The MGM/UA film library. On July 30 of that year, Rainbow had paid $ 45 million to license up to 800 pre-1950 films from the library. Weeks later, Turner announced an agreement to purchase the film studio with the intention of airing the films on his Superstation WTBS . Rainbow claimed it had exclusive basic cable rights to the films for the next five years. Despite its widespread cable carriage, Turner claimed that because WTBS
7488-590: The TV Parental Guidelines , instead of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) ratings system . Since the early 21st century, some have advocated for laws that would require cable providers to offer their subscribers their own " à la carte " choice of channels. Unlike the standardized subscription packages being offered currently, an à la carte model requires the customer to subscribe to each channel individually. It
7644-525: The UCLA Film and Television Archive , have also preserved and restored films; a major part of UCLA's work includes such projects as Becky Sharp and select Paramount / Famous Studios and Warner Bros. cartoons whose credits were once altered due to rights taken over by different entities. In 1926 Will Hays asked for film studios to preserve their films by storing them at 40 degrees at low humidity in an Eastman Kodak process, so that "schoolboys in
7800-550: The Walking Dead discussion series Talking Dead . In 2012, AMC premiered three original reality series: The Pitch , Comic Book Men and Small Town Security ; along with a second web series spun off from The Walking Dead , The Walking Dead: Cold Storage . In July 2012, AMC was dropped from Dish Network , in conjunction with a carriage dispute with the satellite provider, citing that AMC Networks charged an excessive amount in retransmission consent payments from
7956-509: The original camera negative or from a composite restoration negative, which can be made from a combination of elements for general screening. It is therefore particularly important to keep camera negatives or digital masters under safe storage conditions. The original camera negative is the remaining, edited, film negative that passed through the camera on the set. This original camera negative may, or may not, remain in original release form, depending upon number of subsequent re-releases after
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#17328019443208112-501: The permafrost . This fortunate discovery was shared and moved to the United States' Library of Congress and Library and Archives Canada for transfer to safety stock and archiving. However, to move such highly flammable material such a distance ultimately required assistance from the Canadian Armed Forces to make the delivery to Ottawa . The story of this discovery as well as excerpts of these films can be seen in
8268-526: The 1930s, the field received an official status only in 1980, when UNESCO recognized "moving images" as an integral part of the world's cultural heritage. The great majority of films made in the silent era are now considered to be lost forever. Movies of the first half of the 20th century were filmed on an unstable, highly flammable cellulose nitrate film base, which required careful storage to slow its inevitable process of decomposition over time. Most films made on nitrate stock were not preserved; over
8424-559: The 1960s to the 1980s – five years later in April 1991). During its early years, it was not uncommon for AMC to host a marathon of Marx Brothers films, or show classics such as the original 1925 release of The Phantom of the Opera . In 1987, the channel began to be carried on the basic cable tiers of many cable providers. In July 1988, AMC added its first original programming: Classic Stories From Classic Stars (featuring interviews), followed later that year by Star Facts (biographies) and
8580-595: The 1960s. The show was immediately lauded by critics, and won 16 Primetime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award . Breaking Bad , a drama about a cancer -stricken chemistry teacher involved in making and dealing methamphetamine (played by Bryan Cranston , who had been known primarily for comedic roles in series such as Malcolm in the Middle prior to the series), premiered in 2008; also garnering critical acclaim, winning 16 Primetime Emmy Awards. Breaking Bad and Mad Men ended their runs in 2013 and 2015, respectively, with
8736-477: The 1970s – that aired during the afternoon and early evening hours in a commercial -free, generally unedited, uncut, uninterrupted and uncolorized format. The new network replaced Montage , a channel with a similar format that was being offered to Cablevision subscribers in the New York area. In 1985, Rainbow became involved in a dispute with Ted Turner 's Turner Broadcasting System over broadcast rights to
8892-576: The 2016 documentary film , Dawson City: Frozen Time . Another high-profile restoration by staff at the British Film Institute 's National Film and Television Archive is the Mitchell and Kenyon collection, which consists almost entirely of actuality films commissioned by traveling fairground operators for showing at local fairgrounds or other venues across the UK in the early part of
9048-590: The FCC to exercise common carrier authority over 288 CATV systems in 36 states. The broadcasters maintained that CATV went against the FCC's Sixth Report and Order, which advocated at least one television station in every community. In 1958, the FCC decided that CATV was not really a common carrier since the subscriber did not determine the programming. Carter Mountain Transmission Corp., a common carrier that already transmitted television signals by microwave to CATV systems in several Wyoming towns, wanted to add
9204-591: The Festival for creating "not only a greater awareness, but [...] more of an expectation now to see restored films." In 1996, curator of the Museum of Modern Art Mary Lee Bandy called the Festival "the most important public event in support of film preservation." By its tenth anniversary in 2003, the Festival had raised $ 2 million from the general public, which The Film Foundation divided among its five-member archives. In 1993, Cablevision's Rainbow Media division became
9360-707: The Internet in 2005. The VAFP site was funded as part of a 2005 Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant to the Folkstreams project. The purpose of the site is to supplement already existing film preservation guides provided by the National Film Preservation Foundation with video demonstrations. The preservation guides provided by the origination, while thoroughly depicting accurate methods of preservation, are mostly text-based. The films and clips are copyrighted under
9516-571: The National Film Preservation Board, whose National Film Registry annually selects 25 U.S. films "showcasing the range and diversity of American film heritage". The George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film was chartered in 1947 to collect, preserve and present the history of photography and film, and in 1996 opened the Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center, one of only four film conservation centers in
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#17328019443209672-496: The Saturday morning infomercial block was eliminated after its March 25, 2011, airing as AMC added a Saturday block of western series and films the following week. 2010 also saw the premieres of Rubicon and The Walking Dead . While Rubicon was cancelled, The Walking Dead became an enormous success and has become the most watched scripted program in basic cable history. In 2011, Cablevision spun off Rainbow Media into
9828-681: The United States co-production of the sci-fi drama Humans from Xbox Entertainment Studios . AMC Media recently bought the European media giant Chello Media from Liberty Global . At the end of October, it was announced that AMC had won the bidding war to air the miniseries The Night Manager . In November, AMC Networks renamed the European MGM Channel to AMC . In January 2015, the Asian MGM channel also became AMC as well. In January 2015, AMC announced that they would be airing
9984-451: The United States in its first 24 years was used almost exclusively to relay terrestrial commercial television stations to remote and inaccessible areas. It also became popular in other areas in which mountainous terrain caused poor reception over the air. Original programming over cable came in 1972 with deregulation of the industry. During the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s freeze on television licenses from 1948 to 1952 ,
10140-483: The United States that would have determined the role of the FCC in CATV policy. Chief architect of some of these bills was attorney Yolanda G. Barco . She was one of the first female executives in cable, described as the "principal attorney for cable television interests during the industry's formative years". The 1959 bill, which made it to the floor of the Senate, would have limited FCC jurisdiction to CATV systems within
10296-489: The United States, and Tarlton himself became a highly sought-after consultant. Tarlton used equipment manufactured by a new company, Jerrold Electronics . After seeing the success of the Tarlton system in 1950, Jerrold president (and future Pennsylvania governor) Milton Shapp reorganized his company to build equipment for the now-growing cable industry. In 1952, Tarlton went to work for Jerrold, helping to construct most of
10452-476: The United States. The American Film Institute was founded in 1967 to train the next generation of filmmakers and preserve the American film heritage. Its collection now includes over 27,500 titles. In 1978, Dawson City , Yukon Territory, Canada, a construction excavation inadvertently found a forgotten collection of more than 500 discarded films from the early 20th century that were buried in and preserved in
10608-438: The United States. While exclusive franchises are currently prohibited by federal law, and relatively few franchises were ever expressly exclusive, frequently only one cable company offers cable service in a given community. Overbuilders in the U.S., other than telephone companies with existing infrastructure, have traditionally had severe difficulty in financial and market penetration numbers. Overbuilders have had some success in
10764-511: The World . On September 1, 2006, AMC officially became available in Canada for cable customers of Shaw Cable and satellite customers of Shaw Direct (formerly StarChoice), marking the first time the network was made available outside the United States. In late 2007 the network debuted its first original drama series Mad Men , a period piece about Madison Avenue advertising executives in
10920-417: The addition of sound effects, black-and-white film being colorized , older soundtracks converted to Dolby stereo, or minor edits and other cosmetic changes being made. By the 1980s, it was becoming apparent that the collections of motion picture heritage were at risk of becoming lost. Not only was the preservation of nitrate film an ongoing problem, but it was then discovered that safety film , used as
11076-572: The air due to CATV competition at the time the government moved to expand its authority (nor have any since) did not stay the momentum for the expansion of regulatory authority. That some economic impact was merely plausible sufficed as the basis for government concern and government action". The FCC overruled a hearing examiner in favor of broadcasters again in the "San Diego Case". The CATV systems in San Diego, California wanted to import stations from Los Angeles, some of which could be seen in San Diego;
11232-456: The air in November 1948, Parsons was the only one in town able to see television. According to MSNBC 's Bob Sullivan, Parsons charged a $ 125 one-time set-up fee and a $ 3 a month service fee. In May 1968, Parsons was acknowledged as the father of community antenna television. In 1950, Robert Tarlton developed the first commercial cable television system in the United States. Tarlton organized
11388-682: The cable industry for some time. Further, Smith's decision was influenced by his experiences testifying several times in United States Senate committee hearings. Senator, and future FCC commissioner, Kenneth A. Cox attended and participated in these hearings. He prepared a report for the Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce against CATV and supporting the FCC policy of a television station in every community. In 1959 and 1961, bills were introduced in Congress of
11544-440: The cable provider offered "economy basic" subscriptions (local channels only; these appear at the lowest frequency signals, denoted by the lowest channel numbers) and "basic" subscriptions (local channels plus a handful of national channels with frequencies just higher than the local stations). Notch filters were used to filter out a "notch" of channels from an analog cable signal (for example, channels 45-50 could be "notched" out and
11700-425: The cable providers that maintained carriage agreements with the channel. However, in 1998, AMC began accepting traditional advertising, incorporating limited commercial interruptions between films (its sister movie channel Romance Classics , which had launched only one year earlier, became an entirely ad-supported channel at that point). By 2001, AMC had also incorporated commercial breaks during its movie telecasts. As
11856-465: The cable service provider must pay to a cable television channel can vary depending on whether it is a basic or premium channel and the perceived popularity of that channel. Because cable service providers are not required to carry all cable channels, they may negotiate the fee they will pay for carrying a channel. Typically, more popular cable channels command higher fees. For example, ESPN typically charges $ 10 per month for its suite of networks ($ 7 for
12012-420: The cable television system so that their signals can reach subscribers' homes. Additional cable television franchise fees and taxes are often tacked on by local, state, and federal governments. Most cable systems divide their channel lineups ("tiers") into three or four basic channel packages. A must-carry rule requires all cable television systems to carry all full-power local commercial broadcast stations in
12168-462: The carriage agreement on its own terms. However, the two companies came to a resolution, bringing back the channel (and sister networks IFC , Sundance Channel and WE tv ) to Dish in October 2012. On March 31, 2013, during the third-season finale of The Walking Dead , AMC unveiled a rebranding campaign with the new slogan "Something More", and inverted the logo from a rectangular outlined box to
12324-570: The chemical reactions involved will promote further deterioration. "There is no indication that we will ever find a way to arrest decomposition once it has started. All we can do is inhibit it," says the director of the AMIA ( Association of Moving Image Archivists ) board, Leo Enticknap. In 1991, filmmaker and former deputy director of the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam, Peter Delpeut , made
12480-516: The common practice of regularly paying to see films. The possibility of turning free television viewers into paid television viewers was discussed early on. For example, after 25 million American televisions tuned to a musical version of Cinderella in 1957, executives calculated that had the network received 25¢ for each television tuned to the show, it would have earned more than $ 6 million without distribution costs. However, due to many legal, regulatory and technological obstacles, cable television in
12636-622: The company's 1996 acquisition of the Turner Broadcasting System) also attempted to acquire at least part of Liberty Media's stake in AMC. In June 1995, AMC became involved with another dispute with Turner. It filed a $ 550 million breach of contract lawsuit against Turner Entertainment , which alleged that the company violated AMC's exclusive cable television rights to the pre-1950 Warner Bros. Pictures film library to broadcast approximately 30 times between July 1994 and April 1995, charging that Turner's objective in violating
12792-632: The contours (or the broadcast range) of a single station; however, the bill was defeated. The 1961 bill proposed by the FCC would have given the Commission authority over CATV as CATV, and not as a common carrier or broadcaster. The Commission could then adopt rules and regulations "in the public interest" to govern CATV in any area covered both by CATV and broadcast television. No action was ever taken on this bill. More important than Congressional action in determining Federal Communications Commission CATV policy were court cases and FCC hearings. In Frontier Broadcasting Co. v. Collier , broadcasters tried to compel
12948-609: The contract was "to gain unfair advantage for the Turner Classic Movies cable network (which debuted in April 1994) at the expense of AMC."; Turner owns rights to the RKO Radio Pictures film library and licensed RKO's films to AMC in an output deal that was slated to last through 2004. Under the terms of the deal, AMC obtained the RKO titles in exclusive windows. Around this time, General Electric / NBC owned
13104-459: The counties of Schuylkill and Carbon in the anthracite coal region, had several of the earliest CATV systems, there were other CATV entrepreneurs scattered throughout the United States. One was James Y. Davidson of Tuckerman, Arkansas . Davidson was the local movie theater manager and ran a radio repair business on the side. In 1949, he set up a cable system to bring the signal of a newly launched Memphis, Tennessee station to his community, which
13260-685: The customer their choice of channels à la carte has become more cost-effective with the advent of digital cable, because a digital set-top converter box can be programmed remotely. IPTV (i.e., delivering TV channels over an internet or IP-based network) is even less labor-intensive, delivering channels to the consumer automatically. Currently, digital cable and satellite delivery systems with standardized subscriptions are providing an opportunity for networks that service niche and minority audiences to reach millions of households, and potentially, millions of viewers. Since à la carte could force each channel to be sold individually, such networks worry they could face
13416-544: The date was later suspended. In 1972, Dean Burch steered the FCC into a new area of regulation. It lifted its restrictions on CATV in large cities, but now put the burden of more local programming on CATV operators. In 1976, the FCC used its rule-making power to require that new systems now had to have 20 channels, and that cable providers with systems of 3,500 subscribers or more had to provide Public, educational, and government access (PEG) services with facilities and equipment necessary to use this channel capacity . During
13572-477: The debate about the utility of digital technologies in film preservation is complex and continually evolving. In 1935, New York's Museum of Modern Art began one of the earliest institutional attempts to collect and preserve motion pictures, obtaining original negatives of the Biograph and Edison companies and the world's largest collection of D. W. Griffith films. The following year, Henri Langlois founded
13728-612: The defunct Blue Sky Studios are not included because of other channels' agreements, including those owned by Disney themselves) and Sony Pictures Entertainment (including Columbia Pictures , TriStar Pictures , Sony Pictures Classics , Screen Gems , and Triumph Films ). Since the 2002 format change, the network's film telecasts usually are "television" cuts meant for basic cable, which feature content edits, censoring or dubbing of profanities , and some time edits by removing some superfluous plotting or toning down scenes with adult content inappropriate for basic cable broadcast to fit within
13884-432: The demand for perfection only rising as theaters move from 2K to 4K projection and consumer media continues its shift from SD to HD to UltraHD and beyond. Once a film is inspected and cleaned, it is transferred via telecine or a motion picture film scanner to a digital tape or disk , and the audio is synced to create a new master . Common defects needing restoration include: Modern, digital film restoration takes
14040-402: The demand for television increased. Since new television station licenses were not being issued, the only way the demand was met, even in communities with one or more operating broadcast stations, was by Community Antenna Television (CATV) , as early cable was known (so named because of the literal sharing of a very large receiving antenna by an entire community). On August 1, 1949, T.J. Slowie,
14196-412: The designated television market on their lineups, unless those stations opt to invoke retransmission consent and demand compensation, in which case the cable provider can decline to carry the channel (especially if the provider feels that the rate of carrying an existing service would result in an increase of the average price of a tier to levels to which it could result in a subscriber possibly dropping
14352-521: The difficulty and the cost of preservation processes. Many films simply do not have enough information left on the film to piece together a new master, although careful digital restoration can produce stunning results by gathering bits and pieces from adjacent frames for restoration on a damaged frame, predicting entire frames based on the characters' movements in prior and subsequent frames, etc. As time goes on, this digital capability will only improve, but it will ultimately require sufficient information from
14508-486: The dominance of home video and ever-present need for television broadcasting content, especially on specialty channels , has meant that films have proven a source of long-term revenue to a degree that the original artists and studio management before the rise of these media never imagined. Thus media companies have a strong financial incentive to carefully archive and preserve their complete library of films. The group Video Aids to Film Preservation (VAFP) became active on
14664-553: The early 1980s, various live local programs with local interests were rapidly being created all over the United States in most major television markets . Before there was public access TV , one of Time Inc.'s pioneering stations was in Columbus, Ohio , where Richard Sillman became the nation's youngest cable television director at age 16. Cable television programming is often divided between basic and premium television. Basic cable networks are generally those with wide carriage on
14820-649: The eight part miniseries The Making of the Mob: New York . In March 2015, Sling TV announced it would soon add AMC Networks (including BBC America , IFC , Sundance TV , and We TV ) to its service. In 2016, AMC introduced a new slate of original unscripted series, including Ride with Norman Reedus , Geeking Out , and new expansions of the Talking Dead format with Talking Saul , Talking Preacher , and Talking with Chris Hardwick . Although movies remain an integral part of AMC's schedule,
14976-405: The event), as well as other specials from DreamWorks Animation . As expected, AMC saw ratings gains over the holiday season; primetime viewership for the first two weeks of the event was up 40% year-over-year, airings of Elf and Christmas Vacation both peaked at 1.5 million viewers, and average viewership of feature films on Freeform fell by 36% year-over-year in the same period. AMC Premiere
15132-436: The festival was originally conceived as a multi-day marathon presenting rare and previously lost films , many airing for the first time on television, along with behind-the-scenes reports on the technical and monetary issues faced by those engaged in archival restoration. Portions of the festival were often dedicated to all-day marathons focusing on a single performer. During its fifth anniversary year in 1998, Scorsese credited
15288-508: The film Lyrical Nitrate , with decaying films from the Desmet Collection. In 2002, filmmaker Bill Morrison produced Decasia , a film solely based on fragments of old unrestored nitrate-based films in various states of decay and disrepair, providing a somewhat eerie aesthetic to the film. The film was created to accompany a symphony of the same name, composed by Michael Gordon and performed by his orchestra. The footage used
15444-400: The film element. Preservation is different from restoration , as restoration is the act of returning the film to a version most faithful to its initial release to the public and often involves combining various fragments of film elements. Film is best preserved by proper protection from external forces while in storage along with being under controlled temperatures. For most film materials,
15600-401: The film images, whether restored through photochemical or digital processes, be eventually transferred to other film stock, because no digital media exists that has proven truly archival because of rapidly evolving and shifting data formats, while a well-developed and stored, modern film print can last upwards of 100 years. While some in the archival community feel that conversion from film to
15756-555: The final season of Breaking Bad ). The former two would both be renewed for second seasons while the latter two were cancelled after their first seasons. AMC would then pick up Into the Badlands for a six episode first season and Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul for two seasons. On October 9, 2014, it was announced that AMC would scrap its entire current and future unscripted slate outside Talking Dead and Comic Book Men . This announcement came shortly after AMC took over
15912-401: The final, lowest generation restoration master may be either a duplicate negative or a fine grain master positive . Preservation elements, such as fine-grain master positives and duplicate printing negatives, are generated from this restoration master element to make both duplication masters and access projection prints available for future generations. Film preservationists would prefer that
16068-661: The first adult-oriented premium cable services–have even offered softcore pornography as part of their programming inventory. While there are no FCC rules that apply to content on basic cable networks, many self-regulate their program content due to demographic targeting, or because of viewer and advertiser expectations, particularly with regard to profane language and nudity. In recent years, however, some networks have become more lenient towards content aired during late-primetime and late-night hours. In addition, some channels, such as FX , have positioned themselves with an original programming direction more akin to premium services, with
16224-640: The first cable network to be delivered nationwide by satellite transmission. Although such conversions are rare, some present-day basic cable channels have originated as premium services, including the Disney Channel (from 1983 to 1997), AMC (from 1984 to 1988), and Bravo (from 1982 to 1994); some of these services eventually switched to an advertiser-supported model after transitioning to an unencrypted structure. Other fledgling premium services (such as early HBO spin-off efforts Take 2 and Festival , Home Theater Network and Spotlight ) have lasted for
16380-478: The following steps: Modern, photochemical restoration follows roughly the same path that digital restoration does: The practice of film preservation is more craft than science. Until the early 1990s there were no dedicated academic programs in film preservation. Practitioners had often entered the field through related education (e.g. library or archival science), related technical experience (e.g. film lab work), or driven by sheer passion for working with film. In
16536-556: The forefront in the 1980s and early 1990s when such famous and influential film directors as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese contributed to the cause. Spielberg became interested in film preservation when he went to view the master of his film Jaws , only to find that it had badly decomposed and deteriorated—a mere fifteen years after it had been filmed. Scorsese drew attention to the film industry's use of color-fading film stock through his use of black-and-white film stock in his 1980 film Raging Bull . His film, Hugo included
16692-545: The format switchover, the company also attempted to launch a spin-off digital cable channel, AMC's Hollywood Classics, which would have required viewers to pay an extra fee to receive the channel. This commercial-free channel would have aired black-and-white classics from the 1930s through the 1950s that American Movie Classics had been airing up until its format changeover; however, the new channel never debuted. The network also gradually brought back original programming. In 2004, AMC aired its first reality series , FilmFakers ;
16848-423: The former receiving a spin-off in the form of Better Call Saul . On May 31, 2009, during the second-season finale of Breaking Bad , AMC rebranded with the introduction of a new slogan, "Story Matters Here". Later that year, the network premiered its second miniseries, The Prisoner . On January 4, 2010, AMC began airing infomercials on Monday through Saturday mornings from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time;
17004-444: The foundation teaches young people about film language and history through The Story of Movies , an educational program claimed to be "used by over 100,000 educators nationwide". In the age of digital television , high-definition television and DVD , film preservation and restoration has taken on commercial as well as historical importance, since audiences demand the highest possible picture quality from digital formats. Meanwhile,
17160-479: The importation of distant signals into the top 100 markets, thus making CATV at that time profitable only in cities with poor reception. In 1968, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC's right to make rules and regulations concerning CATV. In its decision on United States v. Southwestern Cable , the "San Diego Case", it said "the Commission's authority over 'all interstate ... communications by wire or radio' permits
17316-637: The incentive to preserve, i.e., as the business perspective states that once a film is no longer "commercially" viable, it stops generating profit and becomes a financial liability. While few films would not benefit from digital restoration, the high cost of digitally restoring films still prevents the method from being as broadly applied as it might be. Demand for new media, digital cinema, and constantly evolving consumer digital formats continues to change. Film restoration facilities must keep pace to maintain audience acceptance. Classic films today must be in near-mint condition if they are to be reshown or resold, with
17472-484: The initial release for theatrical exhibition. Restorers sometimes create a composite negative (or composite dupe) by recombining duplicated sections of the best remaining material, sometimes on "a shot-to-shot, frame-by-frame basis" to approximate the original configuration of the original camera negative at some time in the film's release cycle. In traditional photochemical restorations, image polarity considerations must be observed when recombining surviving materials and
17628-450: The last two decades universities globally began offering graduate degrees in film preservation and film archiving, which are often taught conjointly (the latter focusing more on skills related to the description, cataloguing, indexing and broadly speaking management of film and media collections). The recent years rapid incursion of digital technologies in the field has somewhat redefined the vocational scope of film preservation. In response,
17784-436: The longevity and access to digitized or digitally born film materials. On purely technical and practical terms, digital film preservation stands for a domain specific subset of digital curation practices. The aesthetic and ethical implications of the use of digital technology for film preservation are major subjects of debate. For instance, the senior curator of George Eastman House Paolo Cherchi Usai has decried
17940-404: The lowest service tiers of multichannel television providers. In the era of analog cable television, these channels were typically transmitted without any encryption or other scrambling methods. These networks can vary in format, ranging from those targeting mainstream audiences, to specialty networks that are focused on specific genres , demographics , or niches. Basic cable networks depend on
18096-527: The main AMC channel. AMC+ is a premium, commercial-free streaming bundle that includes the same benefits of AMC Premiere, early access to additional AMC series, as well as additional library content from sister networks BBC America, IFC, and SundanceTV, and the complete collections of fellow AMC Networks streaming services including Shudder, Sundance Now and IFC Films Unlimited. The service is available through most streaming services for $ 8.99 per month like Apple TV , Amazon Prime Video and Roku and it's also at
18252-440: The main channel alone), by far the highest of any non-premium American cable channel, comparable to the premium channels, and rising rapidly. Other widely viewed cable channels have been able to command fees of over 50 cents per subscriber per month; channels can vary widely in fees depending on if they are included in package deals with other channels. Film preservation Film preservation , or film restoration , describes
18408-582: The major systems built by that company in the 1950s. Tarlton was also responsible for training many of the major operators of cable systems in the 1950s. In 2003, Tarlton was inducted in the Cable Television Hall of Fame for his work building the first widely publicized cable television company in America. The rise of free broadcast television during the 1950s greatly threatened the established entertainment industry by offering an alternative to
18564-594: The majority owner of the channel, when it bought out Liberty Media's 50% stake in AMC; incidentally in August of that year, Liberty announced its intent to purchase the 25% stake in the channel that Cablevision held at the time, with the Turner Broadcasting System helping to finance the buyout that included an option for TBS to eventually acquire AMC outright. The following year, Time Warner (which later purchased rival Turner Classic Movies following
18720-549: The materials were expensive to house." Silent films had little or no commercial value after the advent of sound films in the 1930s, and as such, they were not kept. As a result, preserving the now-rare silent films has been proposed as a high priority amongst film historians . Because of the fragility of film stock , proper preservation of film usually involves storing the original negatives (if they have survived) and prints in climate-controlled facilities. The vast majority of films were not stored in this manner, which resulted in
18876-420: The network announced that it had given series orders for two dramas: Turn: Washington's Spies (which premiered on April 6, 2014) and Halt and Catch Fire (which premiered on June 1, 2014). This marked the first time that AMC had four pilot orders picked up to series in the same cycle, the other two being The Divide and Low Winter Sun (the latter premiered on August 11, 2013, after the season premiere of
19032-556: The network has garnered attention in recent years for its original series. The channel's first original series was the game show The Movie Masters , which ran from 1989 to 1990 and was otherwise notable for being Gene Rayburn 's last hosting role; outside Remember WENN and Filmfakers , most of AMC's original programming prior to September 2007 consisted of film history-related documentary and review programs. The establishment of Mad Men in 2007, followed by that of Breaking Bad in 2008, and Better Call Saul in 2015, has given AMC
19188-488: The onset, it was determined that if some films had to be preserved, then it would have to be all of them. In 1986, when Ted Turner acquired MGM's library (which by then had included Warner Bros. ' pre-1950, MGM's pre-May 1986, and a majority of the RKO Radio Pictures catalogs), he vowed to continue the preservation work MGM had started. Warner Bros. Discovery , the current owner of Turner Entertainment , continues this work today. The cause for film preservation came to
19344-439: The original film to make proper restorations and predictions. Cost is another obstacle. As of 2020, Martin Scorsese's non-profit The Film Foundation , dedicated to film preservation, estimates the average cost of photochemical restoration of a color feature with sound to be $ 80,000 to $ 450,000, with digital 2K or 4K restoration being "several hundred thousand dollars". The degrees of physical and chemical damage of film influence
19500-424: The originals have decomposed beyond use. Cellulose acetate film , which was the initial replacement for nitrate, has been found to suffer from " vinegar syndrome ". Polyester film base , which replaced acetate, also suffers from fading colors. Storage at carefully controlled low temperatures and low humidity can inhibit both color fading and the onset of vinegar syndrome. However, once degradation begins to occur,
19656-798: The pay-television industry that operated during the 1950s and 1960s (with a few systems lingering until 1980), as well as some attempts by free-to-air broadcasters during the 1970s and 1980s that ultimately folded as their subscriber bases declined amid viewer shifts to receiving premium television content delivered by cable providers that had begun operating in metropolitan areas throughout that period. In its infancy, following its launch over Service Electric Cable 's Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania , system on November 8, 1972, HBO had been quietly providing pay programming to CATV systems in Pennsylvania and New York , using microwave technology to transmit its programming to cable and MMDS providers. In 1975, HBO became
19812-461: The power to regulate CATV. This Report and Order was designed to protect television stations in small towns. It did this by imposing two rules, which slightly altered form: one requires that a CATV system carry all local stations in which the CATV system is in the A- (best reception) contour of the station. The second prohibits the importation of programs from a non-local station that duplicates programming on
19968-591: The price of basic cable can be regulated by local authorities as part of their franchise agreements . Standard, or expanded basic, cable is not subject to price controls. In addition to the basic cable packages, all systems offer premium channel add-on packages offering either just one premium network (for example, HBO) or several premium networks for one price (for example, HBO and Showtime together). Finally, most cable systems offer pay-per-view channels where users can watch individual movies, live events, sports and other programs for an additional fee for single viewing at
20124-543: The regulation of CATV systems." Carriage refers to the agreement under which a cable provider rebroadcasts a television channel on its network. The Federal Communications Commission puts various requirements on these agreements, which may include channels cable providers are required to carry, and moderates disputes over the fees and conditions of any particular agreement. In 1969, the FCC issued rules requiring all CATV systems with over 3,500 subscribers to have facilities for local origination of programming by April 1, 1971;
20280-509: The restorer, and the economics of film restoration vs. digital restoration. As of 2014 , digital scanners can capture images as large as 65 mm in full resolution. That is the typical image size on a traditional (as opposed to the IMAX process) 70 mm film which used a portion of the film surface for its multitrack magnetic sound stripe. The cost of a 70 mm print of a two and a half hour film as of 2012 ran upwards of $ 170,000; while
20436-407: The same available bandwidth , by converting cable channels to a digital signal and then compressing the signal. Currently, most systems offer a hybrid analog/digital cable system. This means they offer a certain number of analog channels via their basic cable service with additional channels being made available via their digital cable service. Digital cable channels are touted as being able to offer
20592-578: The segments that AMC played to fill out the timeslot (Saturday nights from 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time ): classic movie trailers , drive-in movie ads and snipes (bits extolling viewers to visit the snack bar, etc.), along with music videos cribbed from movie musicals from the period. The majority of the films presented on AMC during the 1990s had originally been released by Paramount Pictures , 20th Century Fox , Columbia Pictures , and Universal Pictures . The channel also occasionally showed classic silent films . The regular hosts of
20748-404: The sensor. Of course, having an intermediate digital stage, followed by forming a new film master by lasering the digital results onto new film stock does represent an extra generation. So would an intermediate film master that was restored frame-by-frame by hand. The choice of film vs. digital restoration will be driven by the amount, if any, of restoration required, the taste and skill set of
20904-463: The service for carriage which was in disproportion with the lower audience viewership for the channels. AMC Networks cited the removal as being related to a breach of contract lawsuit filed against Dish Network by the channel's former parent Rainbow Media's Voom HD Networks in 2008 for improperly terminating its carriage contract; Dish Network denied that the lawsuit had any relation to the decision to remove AMC and its sister channels and that it ended
21060-762: The service). Cable television systems are also required to offer a subscription package that provides these broadcast channels at a lower rate than the standard subscription rate. The basic programming package offered by cable television systems is usually known as "basic cable" and provides access to a large number of cable television channels, as well as broadcast television networks (e.g., ABC , CBS , NBC , Fox , The CW , MyNetworkTV , Telemundo , Univision , UniMás , PBS ), public, educational, and government access channels, free or low-cost public service channels such as C-SPAN and NASA TV , and several channels devoted to infomercials , brokered televangelism and home shopping to defray costs. Some providers may provide
21216-412: The shift from analogue to digital preservation of film as ethically unacceptable, arguing, on philosophical terms, that the medium of film is an essential ontological precondition for the existence of cinema. In 2009, the senior curator of EYE Film Institute Netherlands Giovanna Fossati has discussed the use of digital technologies for the restoration and preservation of film in a more optimistic way as
21372-478: The show featured out-of-work actors who believed they were auditioning for a major role in a real movie, only to be told that they were the subject of a prank and no film actually existed. A New York Times article on the show said that " FilmFakers may go down as one of the meanest reality series yet." From 2003 to 2007, AMC was a channel focused on American films partially classics as well as documentaries about film history such as Backstory and Movies that Shook
21528-647: The subscriber still receives channels below 45 and above 50). This allowed cable providers to open standardized ranges of premium channels to the subscriber, but notch filtering was not a feasible way to offer each subscriber their own individual choice of channels. To offer "à la carte" service using an analog signal, a cable provider would most likely have to scramble every channel and send a technician to each subscriber's home to unscramble their choice of channels on their set-top box. Each change an analog cable customer made in their subscription would then require an additional home visit to reprogram their set-top box. Offering
21684-518: The telecasts were Bob Dorian and later, Nick Clooney (brother of singer Rosemary and father of actor and businessman George ), as well as New York City radio personality Gene Klavan from WNEW (1130 AM, now WBBR ). Another WNEW alum, Al "Jazzbo" Collins , provided his voice for the "Jazzbo's Swingin' Soundies" series of interstitials . For most of its first 18 years in existence, AMC provided uncut and uncolorized films without commercial interruption. Its revenue came from carriage fees provided by
21840-417: The television stations in San Diego did not want the signals to be imported. The television stations won, not allowing the signals on future cable lines in San Diego and its environs. The FCC's reasoning was to protect existing and future UHF stations in San Diego. (One of the pioneers of cable TV was KSA-TV ) In the First Report and Order by the Federal Communications Commission on CATV, the FCC gave itself
21996-684: The twentieth century. The collection was stored for many decades in two large barrels following the winding-up of the firm, and was discovered in Blackburn in the early 1990s. The restored films now offer a unique social record of early 20th-century British life. Individual preservationists who have contributed to the cause include Robert A. Harris and James Katz ( Lawrence of Arabia , My Fair Lady , and several Alfred Hitchcock films), Michael Thau ( Superman ), and Kevin Brownlow ( Intolerance and Napoleon ). Other organizations, such as
22152-408: The use of a converter box ). Because their programming is commercial-free (except for promotions in-between shows for the networks' own content), these networks command much higher fees from cable systems. Premium services have the discretion to offer the service unencrypted to a certain number of participating cable providers during a short-term free preview period to allow those who do not receive
22308-672: The valley community below (where broadcast reception was very poor). Walson's "first" claim has long been questioned and his claimed starting date can not be verified. The United States Congress and the National Cable Television Association have recognized Walson as having invented cable television in the spring of 1948. A CATV system was developed in the late 1940s by James F. Reynolds in his town of Maple Dale, Pennsylvania, which grew to include Sandy Lake , Stoneboro , Polk , Cochranton , and Meadville . Even though Eastern Pennsylvania, particularly
22464-723: The whole month of October. AMC had typically aired a rotating lineup of five to six Christmas movies during the holiday season. In 2018, the channel introduced a more extensive holiday lineup branded as Best Christmas Ever, running from November 26 to December 25, featuring a mix of popular Christmas and family films, along with other acquired specials. The schedule included notable acquisitions from Warner Bros. , including Elf , National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation , The Polar Express , and 12 Rankin/Bass specials (the films had been recent mainstays of Freeform 's competing 25 Days of Christmas schedule, with Elf in particular having received extensive airplay and high viewership during
22620-409: The widespread decay of film stocks. The problem of film decay is not limited to films made on cellulose nitrate . Film industry researchers and specialists have found that color films (made using processes for Technicolor and its successors) are also decaying at an increasingly rapid rate. A number of well-known films only exist as copies of original film productions or exhibition elements because
22776-430: The year 3,000 and 4,000 A.D. may learn about us". Beginning in the 1970s, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , aware that the original negatives to many of its Golden Age films had been destroyed in a fire, began a preservation program to restore and preserve all of its films by using whatever negatives survived, or, in many cases, the next best available elements (whether it be a fine-grain master positive or mint archival print). From
22932-439: The years, their negatives and prints crumbled into powder or dust. Many of them were recycled for their silver content, or destroyed in studio or vault fires. The largest cause, however, was intentional destruction. As film preservationist Robert A. Harris explains, "Most of the early films did not survive because of wholesale junking by the studios. There was no thought of ever saving these films. They simply needed vault space and
23088-548: Was a broadcast station, the restriction did not apply. This led to both companies filing lawsuits against each other in September, and MGM/UA terminating the agreement with Rainbow after alleging that Rainbow had breached it by announcing its intention to offer a premium tier to the AMC cable service. By October, the lawsuit was settled. Rainbow received $ 50 million and agreed to terminate the licensing deal on December 31, 1985, before which time AMC would not be allowed to convert to
23244-511: Was followed up by The Lot , which lasted for only 17 episodes). Despite a well publicized write-in campaign to save the series, the show was not renewed for its originally scheduled fifth season. One popular AMC program was American Pop! (originally intended as a preview of a new 24-hour cable channel), which ran from 1998 to 2003 and featured movies from the 1950s and 1960s aimed at baby boomers (such as Beach Blanket Bingo and Ski Party ). Of particular interest to movie completists were
23400-610: Was from old newsreel and archive film and was obtained by Morrison from several sources, such as the George Eastman House , the archives of the Museum of Modern Art , and the Fox Movietone News film archives at the University of South Carolina . The preservation of film usually refers to physical storage of the film in a climate-controlled vault, and sometimes to the actual repair and copying of
23556-449: Was joined in this effort by fellow film makers who served on the foundation's board of directors— Woody Allen , Robert Altman , Francis Ford Coppola , Clint Eastwood , Stanley Kubrick , George Lucas , Sydney Pollack , Robert Redford , and Steven Spielberg . In 2006, Paul Thomas Anderson , Wes Anderson , Curtis Hanson , Peter Jackson , Ang Lee , and Alexander Payne were added to the board of directors of The Film Foundation, which
23712-521: Was located too far away to receive the signal with set-top antennas alone. Leroy E. "Ed" Parsons built the first cable television system in the United States that used coaxial cable , amplifiers, and a community antenna to deliver television signals to an area that otherwise would not have been able to receive broadcast television signals. In 1948, Parsons owned a radio station in Astoria, Oregon . A year earlier he and his wife had first seen television at
23868-567: Was originally developed for AMC, premiered on AMC's sister channel Sundance Channel to jump-start that network's emerging slate of original scripted programming. It was then followed by the July announcement that fellow sister channel WE tv had picked up another series originally developed for AMC for the 2012-13 development slate, The Divide , to series. During this timeframe, AMC had started to run marathons of certain shows and cross-promote programs from its co-owned sister channels. In July 2013,
24024-508: Was received by approximately 94,832,000 households in the United States that subscribe to a pay television service (81.5% of U.S. households with at least one television set). By December 2023, that number has dropped to approximately 65,054,000 households. American Movie Classics, as AMC was originally known, debuted on October 1, 1984, as a premium channel by Rainbow Programming Services (a subsidiary of Cablevision ). Its original format focused on classic movies – largely those made prior to
24180-829: Was subsequently renamed Fox Family in 1998 after it was acquired by a partnership between Fox Entertainment Group and Saban Entertainment , then ABC Family after its 2001 sale to ABC parent The Walt Disney Company , and finally to its current name, Freeform in 2016. The origins of premium cable lie in two areas: early pay television systems of the 1950s and 1960s and early cable (CATV) operators' small efforts to add extra channels to their systems that were not derived from free-to-air signals. In more recent years, premium cable refers to networks–such as Home Box Office (HBO) , Cinemax , Showtime , The Movie Channel , Flix , Starz , MoviePlex , and Epix –that scramble or encrypt their signals so that only those paying additional monthly fees to their cable system can legally view them (via
24336-745: Was the CBN Satellite Service, a Christian television service launched by televangelist Pat Robertson in April 1977 as the television ministry of his Christian Broadcasting Network , that was delivered by satellite as a more efficient way to distribute the programming. For years, the CBN Satellite Service (later renamed CBN Cable Network in 1984) mixed religious programming with reruns of classic television series to fill out its 24-hour schedule. The network changed its name to The CBN Family Channel in 1988 (revised to The Family Channel in 1990 once CBN spun it out to an indirectly owned for-profit company, International Family Entertainment ). It
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