CBS
CBS is an American English language commercial broadcast television and radio network, a flagship property of CBS Corporation. The company is headquartered at the CBS Building in New York City with major production facilities and operations in New York City and Los Angeles. CBS is sometimes referred to as the Eye Network, in reference to the company's iconic symbol, in use since 1951, it has been called the "Tiffany Network", alluding to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of William S. Paley, it can refer to some of CBS's first demonstrations of color television, which were held in a former Tiffany & Co. building in New York City in 1950. The network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc. a collection of 16 radio stations, purchased by Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System. Under Paley's guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States, one of the Big Three American broadcast television networks.
In 1974, CBS dropped its former full name and became known as CBS, Inc. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired the network in 1995, renamed its corporate entity to the current CBS Broadcasting, Inc. in 1997, adopted the name of the company it had acquired to become CBS Corporation. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, formed as a spin-off of CBS in 1971. In late 2005, Viacom split itself into two separate companies and re-established CBS Corporation – through the spin-off of its broadcast television and select cable television and non-broadcasting assets – with the CBS television network at its core. CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, which controls the current Viacom. CBS operated the CBS Radio network until 2017, when it merged its radio division with Entercom. Prior to CBS Radio provided news and features content for its portfolio owned-and-operated radio stations in large and mid-sized markets, affiliated radio stations in various other markets.
While CBS Corporation owns a 72% stake in Entercom, it no longer owns or operates any radio stations directly, though CBS still provides radio news broadcasts to its radio affiliates and the new owners of its former radio stations. The television network has more than 240 owned-and-operated and affiliated television stations throughout the United States; the company ranked 197th on the 2018 Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue. The origins of CBS date back to January 27, 1927, with the creation of the "United Independent Broadcasters" network in Chicago by New York City talent-agent Arthur Judson; the fledgling network soon needed additional investors though, the Columbia Phonograph Company, manufacturers of Columbia Records, rescued it in April 1927. Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18, 1927, with a presentation by the Howard L. Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, fifteen affiliates. Operational costs were steep the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, by the end of 1927, Columbia Phonograph wanted out.
In early 1928 Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the network's Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, their partner Jerome Louchheim. None of the three were interested in assuming day-to-day management of the network, so they installed wealthy 26-year-old William S. Paley, son of a Philadelphia cigar family and in-law of the Levys, as president. With the record company out of the picture, Paley streamlined the corporate name to "Columbia Broadcasting System", he believed in the power of radio advertising since his family's "La Palina" cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchhheim share of CBS and became its majority owner with 51% of the business. During Louchheim's brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A. H. Grebe's Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC, which would become the network's flagship station. WABC was upgraded, the signal relocated to 860 kHz.
The physical plant was relocated – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, where much of CBS's programming would originate. By the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates. Paley moved right away to put his network on a firmer financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered into talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures, who planned to move into radio in response to RCA's forays into motion pictures with the advent of talkies; the deal came to fruition in September 1929: Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time. The agreement specified that Paramount would buy that same stock back by March 1, 1932 for a flat $5 million, provided CBS had earned $2 million during 1931 and 1932. For a brief time there was talk that the network might be renamed "Paramount Radio", but it only lasted a month – the 1929 stock market crash sent all stock value tumbling, it galvanized Paley and his troops, who "had no alternative but to turn the network around and earn the $2,000,000 in two years....
This is the atmosphere in which the CBS of today was born." The near-bankrupt movie studio sold its CBS shares back to CBS in 1932. In the first year of Paley's wa
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the source media continuously; as a result, a client media player can begin playing the content immediately. This is known as streaming media. Although IPTV uses the Internet protocol it is not limited to television streamed from the Internet. IPTV is deployed in subscriber-based telecommunications networks with high-speed access channels into end-user premises via set-top boxes or other customer-premises equipment. IPTV is used for media delivery around corporate and private networks. IPTV in the telecommunications arena is notable for its ongoing standardisation process. IPTV services may be classified into three main groups: Live television and live media, with or without related interactivity. Many different definitions of IPTV have appeared, including elementary streams over IP networks, MPEG transport streams over IP networks and a number of proprietary systems.
One official definition approved by the International Telecommunication Union focus group on IPTV is: IPTV is defined as multimedia services such as television/video/audio/text/graphics/data delivered over IP based networks managed to provide the required level of quality of service and experience, security and reliability. Another definition of IPTV, relating to the telecommunications industry, is the one given by Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions IPTV Exploratory Group in 2005: IPTV is defined as the secure and reliable delivery to subscribers of entertainment video and related services; these services may include, for example, Live TV, Video On Demand and Interactive TV. These services are delivered across an access agnostic, packet switched network that employs the IP protocol to transport the audio and control signals. In contrast to video over the public Internet, with IPTV deployments, network security and performance are managed to ensure a superior entertainment experience, resulting in a compelling business environment for content providers and customers alike.
The term IPTV first appeared in 1995 with the founding of Precept Software by Judith Estrin and Bill Carrico. Precept developed an Internet video product named IP/TV. IP/TV was an Mbone compatible Windows and Unix-based application that transmitted single and multi-source audio and video traffic, ranging from low to DVD quality, using both unicast and IP multicast Real-time Transport Protocol and Real time control protocol; the software was written by Steve Casner, Karl Auerbach, Cha Chee Kuan. Precept was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998. Cisco retains the IP/TV trademark. Internet radio company AudioNet started the first continuous live webcasts with content from WFAA-TV in January 1998 and KCTU-LP on 10 January 1998. Kingston Communications, a regional telecommunications operator in the UK, launched Kingston Interactive Television, an IPTV over digital subscriber line service in September 1999; the operator added additional VoD service in October 2001 with a VoD content provider. Kingston was one of the first companies in the world to introduce IPTV and IP VoD over ADSL as a commercial service.
The service became the reference for various changes to UK Government regulations and policy on IPTV. In 2006, the KIT service was discontinued, subscribers having declined from a peak of 10,000 to 4,000. In 1999, NBTel was the first to commercially deploy Internet protocol television over DSL in Canada using the Alcatel 7350 DSLAM and middleware created by iMagic TV; the service was marketed under the brand VibeVision in New Brunswick, expanded into Nova Scotia in early 2000 after the formation of Aliant. IMagic TV was sold to Alcatel. In 2002, Sasktel was the second in Canada to commercially deploy IPTV over DSL, using the Lucent Stinger DSL platform. In 2005, SureWest Communications was the first North American company to offer high-definition television channels over an IPTV service. In 2005, Bredbandsbolaget launched its IPTV service as the first service provider in Sweden; as of January 2009, they are not the biggest supplier any longer. In 2007, TPG became the first internet service provider in Australia to launch IPTV.
By 2010, iiNet and Telstra launched IPTV services in conjunction to internet plans. In 2008, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited launched IPTV under the brand name of PTCL Smart TV in Pakistan; this service is available in 150 major cities of the country offering 140 live channels. In 2010, CenturyLink – after acquiring Embarq and Qwest – entered five U. S. markets with an IPTV service called Prism. This was after successful test marketing in Florida. In 2016, Korean Central Television introduced the set-top box called Manbang providing video-on-demand services in North Korea via quasi-internet protocol television. Manbang allows viewers to watch five different TV channels in real-time, read find political information regarding the Supreme Leader and Juche ideology, read articles from state-run news organizations; the technology was hindered by low broadb
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN Corporation known as ABS-CBN, is a Filipino media and entertainment group based in Quezon City, Philippines. It is the Philippines' largest entertainment and media conglomerate in terms of revenue, operating income, net income, equity, market capitalization, number of employees. ABS-CBN was formed by the merger of Chronicle Broadcasting Network. ABS was founded in 1946 by American electronics engineer James Lindenberg as Bolinao Electronics Corporation. In 1952, BEC was renamed Alto Broadcasting System, after Judge Antonio Quirino — brother of President Elpidio Quirino, who purchased the company; the company that would be merged with ABS to form ABS-CBN was founded in 1956 as Chronicle Broadcasting Network by newspaper mogul Eugenio Lopez, Sr. and his brother Fernando Lopez, the Vice President of the Philippines. The two companies were merged and incorporated as ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation on 1 February 1967, renamed ABS-CBN Corporation in 2010 to reflect the company's diversification.
The common shares of ABS-CBN were first traded on the Philippine Stock Exchange in July 1992 under the ticker symbol ABS. The group owns and operates the ABS-CBN and ABS-CBN Sports+Action national television networks as well as the Radyo Patrol and My Only Radio regional radio networks; the ABS-CBN television network - in particular, is the largest contributor to the group's revenue, generating about 50 to 60 percent of the group's total annual revenue from selling airtime to advertisers. The remaining revenue is generated from consumer sales from ABS-CBN Global Ltd. which distributes international television channels such as The Filipino Channel and Myx TV and from pay TV and broadband internet provider Sky. Other companies which operate under the ABS-CBN group are motion picture company Star Cinema, music recording label Star Music, publishing firm ABS-CBN Publishing, pay TV content provider and distributor Creative Programs, talent agency Star Magic. Among the pay TV networks and channels under the ABS-CBN group are ABS-CBN HD, ABS-CBN News Channel, ABS-CBN Sports+Action HD, Cinema One, Jeepney TV, Metro Channel and Myx.
In recent years, ABS-CBN has ventured and diversified in other businesses such as over-the-top platform iWant, digital terrestrial television service ABS-CBN TV Plus, family entertainment center Kidzania Manila, home shopping network O Shopping. ABS-CBN is the principal owner of the ABS-CBN Philharmonic Orchestra; the nucleus of ABS-CBN Corporation began in 1946 with Bolinao Electronics Corporation. BEC was established by James Lindenberg, one of the founding fathers of Philippine television, an American electronics engineer who went into radio equipment assembly and radio broadcasting. At that time, the largest media company was Manila Broadcasting, with DZRH as the leading radio station. In 1949, James Lindenberg shifted Bolinao to radio broadcasting with DZBC and masterminded the introduction of television to the country in 1953. In 1951, Lindenberg partnered with Antonio Quirino, brother of then-Philippine President Elpidio Quirino, in order to try their hand at television broadcasting. In 1952, BEC was renamed as Alto Broadcasting System or ABS.
"Alto" was a contraction of Quirino's and his wife's first names and Aleli. Though they had little money and resources, ABS was able to put up its TV tower by July 1953 and import some 300 television sets; the initial test broadcasts began on September of the same year. The first full-blown broadcast, was on 23 October 1953, of a party in Tony Quirino's humble abode; the television station was known as DZAQ-TV. In turn, on 24 September 1956, the Chronicle Broadcasting Network was organized; the network, which focused only on radio broadcasting, was owned by Don Eugenio Lopez, Sr. and the then- Philippine Vice President Fernando Lopez, on launched its own TV station, DZXL-TV 9 in April 19, 1958. In 1957, Don Eugenio acquired ABS from Lindenberg. However, it was only on 1 February 1967, that the corporate name was changed to ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation to reflect the merger. Before, it was named ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, the name was reverted to the precursor of the network, Bolinao Electronics Corporation or BEC, but the ABS-CBN brand was first used in 1961.
In 1958, the network's new headquarters at Roxas Boulevard were inaugurated, all radio and television operations were consolidated into its two buildings, the radio stations at the Chronicle Building at Aduana Street, Intramuros and the TV operations at the brand new Roxas Boulevard building in Pasay City. In the late 1950s, Don Eugenio's son, Geny Lopez saw the potential of TV and radio to reach and link Filipinos across the archipelago. By the mid-1960s, the ABS network was leading the radio industry, with stations like DZXL and DZAQ Radyo Patrol in the Manila area, which featured journalists like Ernie Baron, Bong Lapira, Orly Mercado, Joe Taruc, Mario Garcia, Jun Ricafrente, Bobby Guanzon, Rey Langit, various other stations nationwide. ABS made breakthroughs in the TV industry by achieving the country's first color TV broadcast, first satellite feed, first use of videotape, among others, it featured top shows such as Your Evening with Pilita and Tawag ng Tanghalan, the country's first comedy show Buhay Artista, first Philippine game show, What's My Living and the first noontime show Student Canteen, among others.
It was pioneering in marathon election coverage in 1967 when the TV & radio stations of the networ
DWRR-FM
DWRR-FM, branded as MOR 101.9 Manila, is a 24-hour music radio station of ABS-CBN Corporation, is the flagship FM station of MOR Philippines. DWRR-FM is operated by the Manila Radio division and the Star Creatives Group, it is the No. 1 FM radio station in Metro Manila, Mega Manila as well as the entire Philippines according to KBP Radio Research Council. It was founded in 1956 as one of the radio stations of Chronicle Broadcasting Network, it was revived in 1986 and reformatted several times, it is broadcast live throughout the Philippine archipelago, throughout the world via The Filipino Channel. The studios are located at ABS-CBN Broadcasting Center, Sgt. Esguerra Ave. corner Mo. Ignacia Ave. Diliman, Quezon City and its 22.5 kW FM stereo transmitter is located at the Eugenio Lopez Center, Barangay Sta. Cruz, Sumulong Highway, Antipolo City, Rizal. DZYL-FM 102 MHz named DZYK-FM 102.1 MHz, is the first FM radio station in the Philippines and sole FM station of the former Chronicle Broadcasting Network.
DZYK-FM was played the latest pop songs of that time. In 1957, CBN bought Alto Broadcasting System resulting in a merger under the name Bolinao Electronics Corporation named ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation in 1967. Staffed by eight DJs, DZYK-FM 102.1 MHz was popularized to listeners in Greater Manila area. DZYK-FM remained as the FM radio station of ABS-CBN until the station was forced off the air by Ferdinand Marcos under martial law. In 1968, DZYK-FM moved to its current permanent frequency of 101.9 MHz, changed its call letters to DZMM-FM. When martial law was declared in 1972, DZMM-FM along with ABS-CBN's two TV channels and six AM radio stations in Manila were shut down under strict censorship; the FM station was taken over by Roberto Benedicto and changed to DWOK-FM of the Banahaw Broadcasting Corporation, which had aired in 1973 as DWWK, a jazz format radio station. It was staffed by Jing Magsaysay, Wayne Enage, Ed Picson, Dody Lacuna, Ronnie Malig, Pinky Villarama and Ronnie Quintos.
DWOK trailblazed another first in the Philippine radio industry at that time as the first AM-formatted FM station which features news, public service programs, music from the 1950s to the 1970s. Helen Vela came to the station in 1984 with her counselling program Lovingly Yours, Helen. However, DWOK, DWAN and BBC-2 had been dissolved since the government-controlled radio and TV stations were stormed by reformist rebels, it was given back to ABS-CBN after the 1986 EDSA Revolution, returned on the air as DWKO — at that time it was on test broadcast. The fall of the Marcos Regime in the immediate aftermath of the People Power Revolution had paved the way for the return of ABS-CBN in the Philippine broadcasting scene. In July 1986 newly formed Presidential Commission on Good Governance turned two radio stations, DWWW and DWOK-FM, over to ABS-CBN from Marcos ally Roberto Benedicto. DWOK resumed broadcasting four months later. Lito Balquiedra Jr. Vice-President for Radio, spearheaded the return of the giant network to the local broadcasting scene.
The station's former disc jockey Peter Musngi has been the network's voice-over since the reopening in 1986. The slogan of the station was "Panalo Ka Talaga!", voiced by Peter Musngi. The network started recruiting both experienced and new DJs. Prior to the adoption of masa format, all FM stations are English based with the use of the English language during the 1980s and 1990s. After days of careful planning and three months of test broadcast which took place on July 16 that year along with sister stations DZMM 630 and the parent station ABS-CBN Channel 2, DWKO was born – the first FM radio station with an AM format, carrying the name Knock-Out Radio 101.9 on September 14, 1986 and playing the hits during that time. Since KO-Radio has aired Pinoy hits from singers of the 1970s and 1980s such as Rico J. Puno, Yoyoy Villame, APO Hiking Society; the station debuted the songs of Original Pilipino Music stars like Gary V, Regine Velasquez, Janno Gibbs and Donna Cruz, as well as Filipino Christmas songs.
DWKO-FM ended its broadcast on February 28, 1987, became one of the shortest lived iteration aired on the station in a span of 5 months. On March 1, 1987, the station reformatted as Zoo FM 101.9, best known for its diamond logo and a uptrend pop sound led to the introduction of OPM and disco hits. Manned by a group of eight DJs, the slogan of the station was Hayop Talaga!. It served as the home of OPM stars like Gary V, Randy Santiago, Regine Velasquez, Ogie Alcasid and others. Due to its popularity, Zoo FM 101.9 played OPM songs after the implementation of Executive Order No. 255 by President Corazon Aquino and became a trend among listeners, because Zoo FM is being competed with other FM stations such as The Giant 97.1 WLS-FM, 99.5 RT, Magic 89.9, 89 DMZ, NU 107 and more. But because of a massive competition from the rival WLS, Zoo FM decided to end its broadcast, having faltered from WLS's dominant listener ratings in January 1989. T
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider based in El Segundo, California and is a subsidiary of AT&T. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, its primary competitors are cable television providers. On July 24, 2015, after receiving approval from the United States Federal Communications Commission and United States Department of Justice, AT&T acquired DirecTV in a transaction valued at $67.1 billion. As of Q1 2017, DirecTV U. S. had 21 million revenues of $12 billion. On November 30, 2016, DirecTV Now, their internet streaming TV service, was launched. In 1953, Howard Hughes created the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, to which he transferred full ownership of Hughes Aircraft. Ostensibly created as a non-profit medical research foundation, HHMI was accused of being used by Hughes as a tax shelter. Following Hughes' death in 1976, HHMI was incorporated in 1977, litigation ensued to determine whether it would be allowed to maintain its interest in Hughes Aircraft.
In 1984, the court appointed a new board for HHMI, which proceeded to sell off Hughes Aircraft to General Motors on December 20, 1985, for an estimated $5.1 billion. General Motors merged Hughes Aircraft with its subsidiary Delco Electronics to create Hughes Electronics Corporation; the new subsidiary was composed of four units: Delco Electronics Company, Hughes Aircraft Company, Hughes Space and Communications Company, Hughes Network Systems. Stanley E. Hubbard founded United States Satellite Broadcasting in 1981 and was a leading proponent for the development of direct-broadcast satellite service in the United States. USSB was awarded five frequencies at the coveted 101-degree west satellite location. Hughes Communications, Inc. was awarded 27 frequencies at the same 101-degree location. After many years, the technology was developed to enable the building of high-power satellites, digital compression standards were developed that allowed multiple digital television channels to be sent through each satellite frequency.
Hughes attempted to create a joint venture with NBC, News Corp. and Cablevision in 1990, to launch the first high-power digital television service called Sky Cable. Failing to do so, the company instead created DirecTV as a separate division and secured an agreement with USSB to build and launch the first high-power direct-broadcast satellite system. DirecTV's name is a portmanteau of "direct" and "TV". Hughes/DirecTV turned to Thomson Consumer Electronics to develop the digital satellite system for the service that would be capable of receiving 175 channels on a small 18-inch dish; these dishes utilized a new generation of smaller, lighter receiver dishes based on military technology introduced by the Global Broadcast System, which predated DirecTV's viability by ten years. Hughes was awarded the contract to build and launch the new high-powered satellites, USSB and DirecTV agreed that the new satellites would carry the two separate programming services: USSB and DirecTV; the USSB and DirecTV programming services were launched on June 17, 1994.
Digital Equipment Corporation provided the hardware for DirecTV, Matrixx Marketing provided customer care via the Matrixx Plus department, DBS Systems created the billing software. In December 1998, DirecTV acquired USSB for $1.3 billion, combined the two satellite services. In 1999, DirecTV acquired PrimeStar, a competitor in the satellite television industry, for $1.83 billion increasing its share of the satellite television market in the US. In September 1996, Hughes purchased 70% of PanAmSat for $3 billion. In 1997, GM transferred it to Delphi Automotive Systems; that same year, Hughes Aircraft was sold to Raytheon for $9.5 billion. Raytheon filed a lawsuit in 1999 accusing Hughes of overstating the value of Hughes Aircraft by $1 billion. A $635.5-million settlement was reached in 2001. In 2000, Hughes Space and Communications was sold to Boeing for $3.75 billion, which it claimed had been overvalued by Hughes. Hughes settled with Boeing for $360 million; these sales left DirecTV, PanAmSat and Hughes Network Systems as the remaining components of Hughes Electronics.
Direct satellite broadcaster were mandated in 1992 to set aside 4% of its channel space for noncommercial educational and informational programming. DirecTV selected C-SPAN, EWTN and the Trinity Broadcasting Network from its current channel lineup plus request additional proposals from other programmers. DirecTV had given PBS Kids, PBS's original application, carriage that did not count against the set aside six weeks before the deadline. DirecTV selected an additional six channels. In 2000, DirecTV introduced the first live in-flight television service for airlines. In September 2000, GM executives, under pressure from GM's shareholders as a result of its poor performance and the greater market worth of Hughes, authorized Hughes executives to begin seeking buyers. In 2001, News Corporation began negotiations to acquire Hughes Electronics in a deal worth $8 billion, which would allow News Corp. to expand its Sky Global Networks satellite television operations into the United States. Negotiations with News Corp. failed, Hughes entered into an agreement on October 28, 2001 to be purchased for $26 billion
Discovery, Inc.
Discovery, Inc. is an American mass media company based in Silver Spring and established in 1985. The company operates factual television networks, such as its namesake Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science Channel, TLC, other spin-off brands. In March 2018, the company completed its acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive, which added networks such as Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel to its portfolio; the combined company operates five of the ten most-watched U. S. cable channels among women. Discovery owns or has interests in local versions of its channel brands in international markets, in addition to its other major regional operations such as Eurosport, Discovery Communications Nordic, TVN Group in Poland, Lionsgate, an American-Canadian movie studio, UKTV, a British channel group co-owned with BBC Studios, a portfolio of various free-to-air channels in Germany and Italy such as DMAX and Real Time; the company's namesake and flagship brand, Discovery Channel, first launched on June 17, 1985.
In 1991, Discovery Channel's owners acquired The Learning Channel. In October 1996, Discovery launched several new spin-off networks, including Animal Planet, the digital cable channels Discovery Kids, Discovery Travel & Living, Discovery Civilization, Science Channel; this was followed by the 1997 purchase of a 70% stake in Travel Channel, the 1998 launches of Discovery en Español, Discovery Wings, Discovery Health Channel. In 1998, Discovery acquired a stake in the struggling CBS Eye on People channel; the network folded in 2000, being replaced by other Discovery channels on providers. On September 1, 2001, Discovery Communications bought The Health Channel, announced that it would be re-branded as FitTV. In 2002, Discovery re-launched Discovery Civilization as Discovery Times, as part of a joint venture with The New York Times. In June 2002, coinciding with Discovery's 17th anniversary, the company launched a 24/7 high definition channel known as Discovery HD Theater. In 2003, Discovery Communications moved its headquarters from Bethesda to Silver Spring.
In 2003 and 2003, Discovery acquired academic film companies such as AGC, AIMS Multimedia, Clearvue & SVE to form Discovery Education. In March 2007, Discovery sold its stake in Travel Channel back to Cox Communications, in exchange for the stake in Discovery that Cox owned. Cox would sell the controlling interest in the channel to Scripps Networks Interactive in 2009. In June 2008, Discovery Home was replaced by Planet Green, a network devoted to environmentalism and ecological living. On January 15, 2008, Discovery announced that it had entered into a joint venture with Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions to re-launch Discovery Health as a new service, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network, in 2009. In 2008, Discovery Times was re-launched as Investigation Discovery, a new brand that would be dedicated to true crime programs and documentaries. On April 30, 2009, Discovery announced a joint venture with Hasbro to re-launch Discovery Kids as a new youth- and family-oriented entertainment channel; the channel named The Hub, launched on October 10, 2010.
After multiple delays, OWN launched on January 1, 2011. On March 17, 2009, Discovery Communications sued Amazon.com for patent infringement by its Kindle e-reader line, regarding "secure distribution of electronic text and graphics to subscribers and secure storage". The patents were developed by Discovery founder John Hendricks, developing technologies related to e-books and the digitization of television programs. While Discovery had divested the television-related patents, it retained the e-book patents. Amazon subsequently accused Discovery of violating a patent for an "Internet-based customer referral system". On October 4, 2011, due to the wider implementation of high-definition feeds for mainstream cable channels, HD Theater was re-launched as Velocity, a new "upscale male" network focusing on automotive programming. On May 28, 2012, Planet Green was re-launched as Destination America. In January 2014, Discovery launched a website that aggregates online education content. In May 2014, Discovery and its shareholder Liberty Media acquired British television studio All3Media for $930 million in a 50/50 joint venture.
The new ownership stated. In October 2014, Discovery acquired controlling interest in Hub Network from Hasbro and re-branded it as Discovery Family. In November 2014, Curiosity was spun out as a venture-funded startup, receiving $6 million in funding. In December 2015, Discovery launched Discovery Go, a TV Everywhere service offering access to live streaming and on-demand content from Discovery Communications' cable networks. In May 2016, Discovery initiated a restructuring plan aiming to save $40 to $60 million by the third quarter of 2016, including a shift in strategy to "maximize" its linear television business whilst plotting larger investments in content, digital media and international markets. In August 2016, Discovery purchased a minority stake in the Hong Kong-based digital talent and content company VS Media. In October 2016, Discovery purchased a minority stake in Group Nine Media, a digital media holding company consisting of T
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