All News Channel

Last updated
All News Channel
All News Channel.svg
Logo used from 1994 to 2002.
Type
Country United States
Broadcast areaNationwide
Headquarters St. Paul, Minnesota
Programming
Language(s) English
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
Ownership
OwnerCONUS Communications
(Viacom/Hubbard Broadcasting)
Sister channels Ovation
History
LaunchedNovember 30, 1989;34 years ago (1989-11-30)
ClosedSeptember 30, 2002;21 years ago (2002-09-30)
(12 years and 10 months)

All News Channel (ANC) was an American satellite television news channel and broadcast syndication service operated as a joint venture between Viacom and CONUS Communications, itself a division of Hubbard Broadcasting. Launched on November 30, 1989 and operating until September 30, 2002, its format consisted of half-hourly rotating newscasts presented in a rolling news wheel schedule, incorporating story packages gathered from in-house reporting staffs and sourced from local television stations that maintained agreements with CONUS to supply content for the cooperative satellite news video-sharing service.

Contents

ANC primarily syndicated its news programming in blocks of varying length, determined by each carrier station, to local television stations across the United States. The channel was also offered to pay television providers across the country from its inception, though beginning in 1994, it was carried mainly by direct-broadcast satellite providers United States Satellite Broadcasting (USSB) and, after its 1999 acquisition of USSB from Hubbard, DirecTV. All News Channel was headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota at the studios of Hubbard's flagship television and radio stations, including KSTP-TV (channel 5), the ABC affiliate for the Minneapolis–St. Paul market.

History

All News Channel was launched on November 30, 1989; it was co-founded by Hubbard and Viacom as a joint venture between divisions of the respective partners, news wire service CONUS Communications (CONUS being an acronym for Continental United States) and satellite programming distributor Showtime Satellite Services. CONUS was a news video-sharing cooperative service for local television stations nationwide, particularly those affiliated with a major broadcast network; nearly all of ANC's video came from these stations, who in turn utilized satellite news-gathering trucks that had been invented, built and sold by Hubbard beginning in 1984. (The channel's use of video and story packages from local CONUS client stations lent credence to the slogan that it used from 1994 to 2001, "News Straight from America's Hometowns".) CONUS also maintained a small news bureau in Washington, D.C. It was the second nationwide challenger to established cable news channel CNN after the Satellite News Channel (SNC), as well as the first since SNC folded in 1983. [1] [2] [3] [4]

All News Channel, like many other cable networks, struggled with cable carriage throughout its existence; [5] indeed, the service was mainly targeted at home satellite dish users, while sales material for ANC largely focused on the ability for broadcast stations to use ANC programming to fill holes in their schedules, as a replacement for programming blacked out by syndication exclusivity restrictions, or as part of localized news services. [6] [7] Beginning in 1992, ANC switched to an all-barter syndication model (having been previously offered on a cash-plus-barter basis) via All-American Television, in part as a defensive strategy against network-supplied overnight newscasts. [8] The channel's reach was boosted on June 17, 1994, when Hubbard Broadcasting launched United States Satellite Broadcasting (USSB), including ANC as the direct-broadcast satellite service's only option for news; CNN and other news channels were carried on DirecTV, the proprietor of the Digital Satellite System (DSS) that USSB also utilized to transmit its services. [9]

All News Channel/CONUS also produced news content for third parties. Beginning in January 1991 as a response to the Gulf War, All News Channel produced daily news updates for premium cable channel Showtime (at the time, owned by ANC co-parent Viacom and also partially responsible for management and distribution of ANC) that aired during its prime time promotional breaks. [10] The channel also produced the USA Update news interstitials for USA Network from 1993 to 2000 (assuming production responsibilities from Group W's Newsfeed Network satellite video service and Philadelphia station KYW-TV, which had produced the segments since their January 1989 debut, as a consequence of corporate cutbacks that prompted Newsfeed's closure and asset sale to CNN [11] [12] ). From 1991 to 1994, VH1 (also owned by Viacom) carried ANC-produced interstitials during the morning music video block Hits, News & Weather. ANC/CONUS also produced long-form programs for broadcast syndication including the morning financial news program First Business (which saw its national distribution rights transferred to MGM Television shortly after the channel's shutdown), The American Times (a daily evening newscast that was primarily carried nationally on America One) and On the Money (a financial analysis program intended for weekend timeslots). [13] [14]

Upon the completion of Hubbard’s $1.3-billion sale of USSB to then-DirecTV parent Hughes Entertainment, All News Channel—along with the remainder of USSB’s channel suite—migrated to DirecTV’s channel lineup on July 1, 1999; the deal included a long-term programming agreement that allowed DirecTV to distribute up to three Hubbard-owned channels, including ANC and sister arts/culture network Ovation (an additional channel, Reelz, was added in 2006). [15] [16] ANC benefited in part by being the only news channel on the USSB satellite service, though arguably any advantage enjoyed by ANC was undercut by the fact that many USSB subscribers also subscribed to DirecTV and vice-versa; after USSB merged into DirecTV, it was then one of six such channels (alongside CNN, Headline News, Fox News, MSNBC and Newsworld International), and it no longer had the explicit backing of its satellite provider.

All News Channel was never profitable throughout its history and could not withstand the challenges of MSNBC and Fox News Channel (both launched in 1996), which pushed ANC to fifth place in the ratings—behind Headline News—among all cable news channels. (Ironically, then-News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch made an offer to buy ANC and CONUS from the Hubbards, who would ultimately refuse, to serve as the cornerstone for what would become FNC. [1] [17] ) CONUS itself began to be squeezed out of the newsgathering marketplace by rival CNN Newsource, as well as the major networks' own affiliate news services (ABC NewsOne, CBS Newspath and NBC News Channel).

As a result, Hubbard announced the closure of CONUS' newsgathering operations in the fall of 2002 (by which time CONUS only had 100 or so affiliates, down from a self-imposed limit of 125 in 1999); Hubbard continued to maintain their videotape archives and sell transponder time. [18] [19] [20] [21] (A trio of ex-CONUS employees then partnered to buy some of CONUS' assets, including a satellite truck, to form ARCTEK Satellite Productions in January 2003. [22] [23] [24] ) The closure of CONUS also meant the closure of All News Channel, which shut down on September 30, 2002, with veteran anchor Stan Turner thanking those watching and those behind the scenes; [25] stations that carried ANC have since replaced the channel's programming with syndicated and/or paid programming (especially common with NBC stations as the network no longer has an overnight newscast since NBC Nightside ended in 1998) or have expanded their clearance of overnight news programs supplied by their affiliated network.

Format

ANC aired up to five live half-hour newscasts each day (airing at 4:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m., noon, 4:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. Central Time, with an occasional sixth at 4:30 a.m.), with each edition being repeated until the next live newscast aired; however, exceptions to this set scheduling were made for major breaking news stories, with updates being regularly incorporated into the newscasts as new information became available.

Like CNN Headline News and Satellite News Channel before it, ANC's newscasts utilized a news wheel format, which was intended to allow viewers to receive updated information on national and international headlines at any time throughout the day. This format featured national and world headlines at the top of the hour (:00/:30); a national news summary (titled "Across America") at :08/:38 after the hour; national weather forecasts (including a rundown of daily forecasts for 20—later, 15—U.S. cities, accompanied in later years by a notable weather headline and a daily summary of national temperature extremes) at :15/:45 after; consumer reports and stock market summaries at :17/47 after; sports headlines and scores (during the evening and overnight hours) or health and medical news (in the morning and daytime) at :20/50 after; and entertainment and lifestyle reports at :25/:55 after.

If mistakes were made during the live broadcasts, a corrected segment would be produced (sometimes live) for the repeat broadcasts. ANC operated on a fixed schedule, where each news block ran the same length every day, and commercials (which consisted mainly of direct response advertisements, and from 1994 to 1999, promos for USSB's slate of general entertainment and premium channels; the satellite provider's ads were also seen at times on some stations that carried ANC programming) aired at the same time every day.

The on-air talent was mostly exclusive to All News Channel, though some anchors from Hubbard flagship station KSTP also served as ANC anchors, most notably Stan Turner, who worked for the network from 1992 until its closure; KSTP meteorologists and weather producers (Dave Dahl, who was the station's chief meteorologist throughout ANC's existence, among them) also presented taped weather segments for All News Channel until early 2002. Later, ANC show producers voiced their own weather segments, along with other stories.

Distribution

Broadcast syndication

Broadcast television stations in many markets carried All News Channel newscasts as filler programming, usually during the overnight and early morning hours in lieu of signing off, or scheduling movies, infomercials or other syndicated programming during those timeslots (similar to the overnight carriage of Headline News that was also common among stations during the same timeframe). In later years, as NBC, ABC and CBS launched their own overnight news programs (NBC Nightside, World News Now and Up to the Minute respectively), ANC programming continued to air on many of their affiliates—including Hubbard-owned stations—as a complement to these programs and also to provide an overnight news option on weekends, when no such option was offered (outside of Nightside during its 1991–98 run). [26]

Some Hubbard stations ran ANC as a substitute for their affiliated network's overnight newscasts—including KSTP, which offered ANC programming overnights from January 1990 until ANC ceased operations in September 2002, when it began clearing ABC's World News Now (which had been preempted in the Minneapolis–St. Paul market since its August 1991 debut) as a replacement. (From January 1990 to October 1994, KSTP offered ANC programming and live locally produced newscasts in rotating half-hour blocks, as part of an overnight news block branded as Eyewitness News All Night.) In addition, since ANC's newscasts never contained any copyrighted music (by design), stations broadcasting the ANC feed could stay on the air longer without increasing their ASCAP, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), and/or SESAC fees.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Satellite Broadcasting</span> American satellite television service

United States Satellite Broadcasting was a Saint Paul, Minnesota-based satellite television company that ran from 1981 to 1999. It was absorbed into DirecTV in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HLN (TV network)</span> American cable channel

HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by CNN Worldwide, the network primarily carries true-crime programming, recently drifting away from limited live news programming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubbard Broadcasting</span> American television and radio broadcaster

Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc. is an American television and radio broadcasting corporation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded by Stanley E. Hubbard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KSTC-TV</span> Independent TV station in Minneapolis

KSTC-TV is an independent television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area. Owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, it is sister to Saint Paul–licensed ABC affiliate and company flagship KSTP-TV, and radio stations KSTP, KSTP-FM (94.5), and KTMY. The five outlets share studios on University Avenue, on the Saint Paul–Minneapolis border; KSTC-TV's transmitter is located at Telefarm Towers in Shoreview. The station is branded as 45TV in reference to its former analog, digital, and virtual channel number; it is still carried on channel 45 on some cable systems in outlying areas of the market, as well as on DirecTV and Dish Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KHII-TV</span> MyNetworkTV affiliate in Honolulu

KHII-TV is a television station in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States, serving the Hawaiian Islands as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside dual Fox affiliate/CW owned-and-operated station KHON-TV. The two stations share studios at the Haiwaiki Tower in downtown Honolulu; KHII's main transmitter is located in Akupu, Hawaii.

WFTC is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the MyNetworkTV programming service to the Twin Cities area. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside Fox outlet KMSP-TV. Both stations share studios on Viking Drive in Eden Prairie, while WFTC's transmitter is located in Shoreview, Minnesota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KSTP-TV</span> ABC affiliate in Saint Paul, Minnesota

KSTP-TV is a television station licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an affiliate of ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Hubbard Broadcasting, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to Minneapolis-licensed independent station KSTC-TV and radio stations KSTP, KSTP-FM (94.5), and KTMY. The five outlets share studios on University Avenue, on the Saint Paul–Minneapolis border; KSTP-TV's transmitter is located at Telefarm Towers in Shoreview, Minnesota.

NewsNation is an American cable news network owned by Nexstar Media Group.

Late night television is the general term for television programs produced for broadcast during the late evening and overnight hours—most commonly shown after, if not in competition with, local late-evening newscasts; programs that have been showcased in the daypart historically encompassed a particular genre of programming that falls somewhere between a variety show and a talk show. Late-night shows predominantly cater to night owls, people suffering from insomnia, shift workers with irregular schedule assignments, younger male audiences and college students, along with spillover audiences through viewers of entertainment and news programs aired earlier in the evening.

WTOG is an independent television station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, serving the Tampa Bay area. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group, and maintains studios on Northeast 105th Terrace in St. Petersburg, near the west end of the Gandy Bridge; its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WPCH-TV</span> CW affiliate in Atlanta

WPCH-TV, branded on-air as Peachtree TV, is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is owned by locally based Gray Television alongside CBS affiliate and company flagship WANF, and low-power, Class A Telemundo affiliate WKTB-CD. WPCH-TV and WANF share studios on 14th Street Northwest in Atlanta's Home Park neighborhood; WPCH-TV's transmitter is located in the Woodland Hills section of northeastern Atlanta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WYMT-TV</span> CBS affiliate in Hazard, Kentucky

WYMT-TV is a television station licensed to Hazard, Kentucky, United States, serving as the CBS affiliate for the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield region. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Black Gold Boulevard off the KY 15 bypass in Hazard, and its transmitter is located south of the city in the Perry County community of Viper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KHBS</span> ABC/CW affiliate in Fort Smith, Arkansas

KHBS is a television station licensed to Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW Plus. It is simulcast full-time over satellite station KHOG-TV in Fayetteville. Owned by Hearst Television and jointly branded as "40/29", the two stations maintain studios on Ajax Avenue in Rogers. KHBS' transmitter is located on Cavanal Hill in northwestern Le Flore County, Oklahoma, while KHOG-TV's transmitter is based near Ed Edwards Road in rural northeastern Washington County, Arkansas, just southeast of the Fayetteville city limits.

KFJX is a television station licensed to Pittsburg, Kansas, United States, serving the Joplin, Missouri–Pittsburg, Kansas market as an affiliate of Fox and The CW Plus. It is owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting, which maintains joint sales and shared services agreements (JSA/SSA) with Morgan Murphy Media, owner of CBS affiliate KOAM-TV, for the provision of certain services. The two stations share studios and transmitter facilities on US 69 south of Pittsburg, with a secondary studio and news bureau on South Range Line Road in Joplin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satellite News Channel</span> American cable news television channel

Satellite News Channel (SNC) was an American short-lived news-based cable television channel that was operated as a joint venture between the ABC Video Enterprises division of American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. (a.k.a. ABC) and the Group W Satellite Communications subsidiary of Westinghouse Broadcasting Company (a.k.a. Group W). Designed as a satellite-delivered cable network, the channel is best remembered as the first 24-hour news cable competition to the Cable News Network (CNN). SNC's headquarters were based in the New York City suburb of Stamford, Connecticut.

<i>First Business</i> 1989 American TV series or program

First Business is a nationally syndicated financial news and analysis television program, produced by First Business Network LLC, a subsidiary of Weigel Broadcasting, in Chicago. Anchor Angela Miles, reporters Chuck Coppola and Bill Moller, and executive producer Harvey Moshman brought viewers commentary from the floors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange, as well as from their studios in the West Loop. The program covered the financial and economic markets including equities, futures, options, commodities, foreign exchange, and geo-political news.

In broadcasting, local insertion is the act or capability of a broadcast television station, radio station or cable system to insert or replace part of a network feed with content unique to the local station or system. Most often this is a station identification, but is also commonly used for television or radio advertisements, or a weather or traffic report. A digital on-screen graphic, commonly a translucent watermark, may also be keyed (superimposed) with a television station ID over the network feed using a character generator using genlock. In cases where individual broadcast stations carry programs separate from those shown on the main network, this is known as regional variation or an opt-out.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Satellite television in the United States</span>

Currently, there are two primary satellite television providers of subscription based service available to United States consumers: DirecTV and Dish Network, which have 21 and 10 million subscribers respectively.

Family Broadcasting Corporation, formerly known as LeSEA Broadcasting, is an American Christian television network. Founded by Lester Sumrall in 1972, Family Broadcasting Corporation is headquartered in South Bend, Indiana, and broadcasts Christian and family programming. Peter Sumrall, son of Lester Sumrall, served as its president and chief executive officer from 2002 to 2015. His son, Drew Sumrall, now serves in the same position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WGN America</span> American television network (1978–2021)

WGN America was an American subscription television network that operated from November 9, 1978 to February 28, 2021. The service was originally uplinked to satellite by United Video Inc. as a national feed of Chicago independent station WGN-TV, making the station's programming available to cable and satellite providers throughout the United States as the second nationally distributed "superstation".

References

  1. 1 2 Elliott Parker (September 21, 1997). "All News Channel". Michigan State University. Archived from the original on March 4, 2009. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  2. ↑ "HUBBARD MAKES SATELLITE BROADCASTING TAKE OFF". Chicago Tribune. 1986-03-24. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  3. ↑ "Home dish on course" (PDF). World Radio History. 16 October 1989. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  4. ↑ "ANC goes head-to-headline with Turner" (PDF). World Radio History. 4 December 1989. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  5. ↑ "Cable news prepares for war" (PDF). World Radio History. 24 June 1996. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  6. ↑ Hubbard Broadcasting All News Channel (ANC) Sales Demo Video plus coverage KSTP-TV , retrieved 2024-01-02
  7. ↑ "All new at All News Channel" (PDF). World Radio History. 10 September 1990. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  8. ↑ "All-News goes all-barter" (PDF). World Radio History. 14 October 1991. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  9. ↑ Brown, Rich (8 March 1993). "Top programmers bet on DBS and Hubbard" (PDF). World Radio History. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  10. ↑ "Showtime news service" (PDF). World Radio History. 25 February 1991. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  11. ↑ "USA gets into news" (PDF). World Radio History. 31 October 1988. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  12. ↑ Brown, Rich (15 June 1992). "CNN buys and folds Group W Newsfeed" (PDF). World Radio History. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  13. ↑ McAvoy, Kim (16 August 1999). "Taking on the news Goliaths" (PDF). World Radio History. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  14. ↑ Tobenkin, David (18 July 1994). "Conus aims for quality, not quantity" (PDF). World Radio History. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  15. ↑ Monica Hogan (December 20, 1998). "DirecTV to Finally Take Over USSB". Multichannel News. Retrieved September 24, 2024.
  16. ↑ Eriq Gardner (June 16, 2014). "DirecTV Can't Drop Ovation TV, Reelz After Losing Court Ruling (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter .
  17. ↑ McClellan, Steve (17 October 1994). "Fox, Conus discuss news service" (PDF). World Radio History. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  18. ↑ Trigoboff, Dan (2002-09-20). "CONUS to close operations". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  19. ↑ "News service shutting down". Brainerd Dispatch. 2002-09-21. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  20. ↑ "Broadcasting News-September 2002". www.northpine.com. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  21. ↑ "St. Cloud Times from Saint Cloud, Minnesota". Newspapers.com. 2002-09-21. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  22. ↑ Hatten, Mick. "Stanley enjoys advising TV for SCSU, running business". St. Cloud Times. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  23. ↑ "Employees buy Conus satellite operation". Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  24. ↑ "History | ARCTEK Satellite Production". arcteksat.com. Retrieved 2024-01-02.
  25. ↑ All News Channel Ends Service - 2002 , retrieved 2022-06-26
  26. ↑ Freeman, Mike (21 September 1992). "Growing interest in syndicated news services" (PDF). World Radio History. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.