Satellite Syndicated Systems

Last updated

Satellite Syndicated Systems, Inc. (SSS) was a company founded in 1978 as a division of Southern Satellite Systems, Inc., dedicated to the exploration and development of new satellite communication opportunities, especially for the then-new industry of satellite television distribution.

Southern Satellite Systems was founded in 1976 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was formed for the sole purpose of distributing WTCG (later WTBS), an Atlanta UHF television station (Turner Broadcasting) nationwide via satellite.

In 1978, Satellite Syndicated Systems, Inc. was founded, and established as the parent to Southern. Southern Satellite Systems remained intact under the TEMPO Enterprises umbrella (SSS would change their name to TEMPO Enterprises in the early 1980s) as a separate wholly owned subsidiary and distributed the "Superstation WTBS" signal to cable TV systems all across the country.

TEMPO Enterprises served as the parent and holding company to several subsidiaries, including TEMPO Television, TEMPO International, TEMPO Productions, TEMPO Cable, TEMPO Sound, TEMPO Data and TEMPO Travel. TEMPO Enterprises (under its former name Satellite Syndicated Systems, Inc.) entered the arena of publicly traded companies in August 1983. The company was part of the NASDAQ National Market System under the stock symbol TMPO. [1]

Satellite Syndicated Systems, its subsidiaries, and divisions were sold to cable television company Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) in 1989, which were either absorbed by TCI or re-sold to other communication companies. Satellite Program Network, a satellite and cable TV network founded in 1979 and acquired by Tempo in 1985 and renamed TEMPO Television, was shut down in 1989 by Tempo, with its former satellite channel space leased to NBC in 1989 to make way for their CNBC channel. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turner Broadcasting System</span> American media conglomerate (1965–2019)

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its assets are now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The headquarters of Turner's properties are largely located at the CNN Center in Downtown Atlanta, and the Turner Broadcasting campus off Techwood Drive in Midtown Atlanta, which also houses Techwood Studios. Some of their operations are housed within WBD's corporate and global headquarters inside 30 Hudson Yards in Manhattan's West Side district, and at 230 Park Avenue South in Midtown Manhattan, both in New York City, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flix (TV network)</span> American movie-oriented pay television network

Flix is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Showtime Networks, a subsidiary of Paramount Global operated through its Paramount Media Networks division. Its programming consists solely of theatrically released motion pictures released from the 1970s to the present day, interspersed with some films from the 1950s and 1960s.

Superstation is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a broadcast television signal—usually a commercially licensed station—that is retransmitted via communications satellite or microwave relay to multichannel television providers over a broad area beyond its primary terrestrial signal range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electra (teletext)</span> American teletext service

Electra was a teletext service in the United States that was in operation from 1982 up until 1993, when it was shut down due to a lack of funding, and discontinuation of teletext-capable television sets by the only US television manufacturer offering teletext capability at the time, Zenith. It was owned, operated and maintained by Cincinnati-based Taft Broadcasting and Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Satellite Syndicated Systems (SSS), later known as Tempo Enterprises, in cooperation with cable/satellite TV station Superstation WTBS, who carried Electra's data on their vertical blanking interval. SSS's own TV network, the Satellite Program Network, carried the service before it was shut down in 1989. The service was also available to C-band satellite dish users via the Galaxy 1 and Satcom 3R satellites.

WPXD-TV is a television station licensed to Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, serving as the Ion Television affiliate for the Detroit area. Owned by Inyo Broadcast Holdings, the station broadcasts from a transmitter on West 11 Mile Road in Southfield, Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WPCH-TV</span> TV station 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.

Syndication exclusivity is a federal law implemented by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States that is designed to protect a local television station's rights to syndicated television programs by granting exclusive broadcast rights to the station for that program in their local market, usually defined by a station's Nielsen Designated Market Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KMYT-TV</span> MyNetworkTV affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma

KMYT-TV is a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Imagicomm Communications alongside Fox affiliate KOKI-TV. The two stations share studios on East 27th Street and South Memorial Drive in the Audubon neighborhood of southeast Tulsa; KMYT-TV's transmitter is located on South 273rd East Avenue in the western city limits of Coweta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Showtime Networks</span> American entertainment company

Showtime Networks, Inc. is a subsidiary of American media conglomerate Paramount Global under its networks division that oversees the company's premium cable television channels, including its flagship namesake service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KWHB</span> Religious TV station in Tulsa, Oklahoma

KWHB is a religious television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, owned and operated by the Christian Television Network (CTN). The station's studios are located on Yellowood Avenue in Broken Arrow, and it transmits from atop the CityPlex Towers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Griffin Media</span> Media company in Oklahoma

Griffin Media is an American media company based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The company began as a subsidiary of Muskogee-based Griffin Foods, which produces a line of pancake and waffle syrups and other foods.

<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.

Prime Sports is the collective name for a former group of regional sports networks in the United States that were owned by Liberty Media, operating from November 1988 to October 31, 1996. While Liberty owned many of these networks, some of Prime's member networks were owned by other companies, and carried programming distributed for the group through affiliation agreements. As a result, Prime-affiliated networks had the right to select Prime Network programs to broadcast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gemstar–TV Guide International</span> Defunct American media company

Gemstar–TV Guide International, Inc. was a media company that licensed interactive program guide technology to multichannel video programming distributors such as cable and satellite television providers, and consumer electronics manufacturers; video recorder scheduling codes under brands such as VCR Plus; as well as serving as publishers of TV Guide magazine as well as operators of tvguide.com, owners of TV Guide Network and TVG Network, and provided various related services. On May 2, 2008, Gemstar–TV Guide International, Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Macrovision Solutions Corporation, which later changed its name to Rovi Corporation on July 16, 2009.

Several Major League Baseball teams have historically carried their games on superstations, which are broadcast television stations that are distributed on a regional or national basis on cable and satellite television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Home Box Office, Inc.</span> American mass media company owned by Warner Bros. Discovery

Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO) is an American multinational media and entertainment company operating as a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. Founded by Charles Dolan and based out of WarnerMedia's former corporate headquarters at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in the West Side of Manhattan, its main properties include its namesake pay television network Home Box Office (HBO), sister service Cinemax, HBO Films, and the international HBO Go streaming service. It has also licensed or maintained ownership interests in international versions of HBO and Cinemax, most of which are managed by Home Box Office, Inc. through sister division Warner Bros. Discovery International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viacom (1952–2005)</span> American media conglomerate (1952–2005)

The original phase of Viacom Inc. was an American mass media and entertainment conglomerate based in New York City. It began as CBS Television Film Sales, the broadcast syndication division of the CBS television network in 1952; it was renamed CBS Films in 1958, renamed CBS Enterprises in 1968, renamed Viacom in 1970, and spun off into its own company in 1971. Viacom was a distributor of CBS television series throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and also distributed syndicated television programs. The company went under Sumner Redstone's control in 1987 through his cinema chain company National Amusements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TBS (American TV channel)</span> American television channel

TBS, stylized as tbs, is an American basic cable television network owned by the Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It carries a variety of programming, with a focus on comedy, along with some sports events through TNT Sports, including Major League Baseball, Stanley Cup playoffs, and the NCAA men's basketball tournament. As of September 2018, TBS was received by approximately 90.391 million households that subscribe to a pay television service throughout the United States. By June 2023, this number has dropped to 71.3 million households.

UPI Newstime was a cable television network founded by United Press International in 1978, and premiered on July 3 of that year. UPI Newstime was the second 24-hour all-news television network in the US for cable TV, following AP Newscable for 13 years and predating CNN by 2 years. UPI Newstime was unique in how it distributed its programming to local cable TV (CATV) headends via satellite, using a form of slow-scan television, or SSTV technology. Using SSTV reduced satellite transmission costs for UPI and was suitable at the time for the programming produced by UPI for the channel, which mainly relied on still slides and wirephotos acquired by UPI's own newsgathering operations.

<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. TEMPO Enterprises company brochure
  2. Cable Company To Drop Programs. The Tulsa Oklahoman, 2/2/1989 Archived 2015-04-02 at the Wayback Machine