Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, but also increasingly via digital terrestrial and streaming television. In the United States, subscription television began in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the form of encrypted analog over-the-air broadcast television which could be decrypted with special equipment. The concept rapidly expanded through the multi-channel transition and into the post-network era. Other parts of the world beyond the United States, such as France and Latin America have also offered encrypted analog terrestrial signals available for subscription.
ABC1 was a television channel owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company (50%) and Sky plc (50%), available to the viewers in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. ABC1 used the branding of the Disney-owned American network, ABC.
Starz is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lionsgate, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Launched in 1994 as a multiplex service of Starz Encore, programming on Starz consists of theatrically released motion pictures and first-run original television series.
Crave is a Canadian premium television network and streaming service owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc.
Dylan Thomas Sprouse and Cole Mitchell Sprouse are American actors. They are twins and are sometimes referred to as the Sprouse brothers or Sprouse Bros. Their first major theatrical film role was in the 1999 comedy Big Daddy, in which they co-starred with Adam Sandler. They later appeared in several television sitcoms and starred in the television film I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and straight-to-DVD Just for Kicks.
Starz Encore is an American premium television channel owned by Starz Inc. a subsidiary of Lionsgate and headquartered at the Meridian International Business Center complex in Meridian, Colorado, United States. Launched as Encore on 1 April 1991, its programming features mainly older and recent theatrically released feature films, although some of its multiplex channels also carry acquired television series. It is the sister channel of Starz and MoviePlex.
ABC Television, the television network of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcasts two children's television channels as of 2021, with ABC Kids and ABC Family being the two most watched children's networks in the country.
Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! is an American animated children's educational television series created by Bob Boyle for Nickelodeon. The series was produced by Bolder Media and Starz Media in association with Film Roman, and it was animated by Bardel Entertainment using Toon Boom and Adobe Flash software. Bob Boyle, Susan Miller, and Fred Seibert served as executive producers.
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based at Warner Bros. Discovery's corporate headquarters inside 30 Hudson Yards in Manhattan. Programming featured on the network consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures and original television programs as well as made-for-cable movies, documentaries, occasional comedy, and concert specials, and periodic interstitial programs.
Disney Channel Games are a Battle of the Network Stars-based annual television series that aired on the Disney Channel during the summer from 2006 to 2008. Phill Lewis was the co-host of the 2006 and 2007 editions and Brian Stepanek hosted all three of them. The show had various stars from Disney Channel and its international iterations competing for charity as team-based contestants. The Games were filmed at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Orlando.
ABC Entertains is an Australian English language general entertainment free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was launched on 4 December 2009 as a children's channel called ABC3. It was rebranded on 19 September 2016 to ABC Me. It rebranded once more on 3 June 2024 to ABC Entertains, now focusing on general entertainment programming.
Deborah Ann Ryan is an American actress and singer. She started acting professionally onstage at the age of seven, and was later discovered during Disney Channel's nationwide search for new talent. She had starring roles in the series The Suite Life on Deck (2008–2011), the film 16 Wishes (2010), the series Jessie (2011–2015), and the film Radio Rebel (2012). She also appeared in the drama film What If... (2010), the series Insatiable (2018–2019), the comedy films The Opening Act (2020) and Shortcomings (2023), the thriller film Night Teeth (2021), and the Jeff Baena films Horse Girl (2020) and Spin Me Round (2022).
Connor Undercover is a Canadian teen action comedy TV series airing on Canadian specialty channel Family Channel. And Also Airing on Nickelodeon, Disney XD, YouTube, Qubo, Boomerang, Gulli, Vimeo, ABC Entertains, Dailymotion, IMDB and Family CHRGD. It stars Max Morrow as the title character Connor Heath. It is co-produced by Heroic Film Company and Shaftesbury Films. In early 2010, Family Channel renewed the series for a second season.
Founded in 2000, Heroic Television is a television production and development company consisting of John May and Suzanne Bolch.
Really Me is a Canadian teen sitcom series that originally aired on Family. It premiered on April 22, 2011 and on the French-language VRAK.TV on August 31, 2011. On June 13, 2011, Family announced that the series was being renewed for a second season, which premiered on October 5, 2012. No season 3 was planned for the series according to the Fresh TV website in 2012. The final episode aired on April 5, 2013 in Canada. It started airing on Netflix in the U.S. on June 15, 2015.
ABC Kids is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's part-time channel, broadcasting shows between the hours of 5 am and 7:30 pm for children 6 years old and younger, including an upper preschool audience. It shares the same bandwidth as ABC Family which broadcasts outside ABC Kids' scheduled hours.
Kelli Michelle Berglund is an American actress. She is known for portraying Bree Davenport in the Disney XD series Lab Rats/Lab Rats: Elite Force and also guest starred in its spinoff Mighty Med. In 2014, she starred in the Disney Channel Original Movie How to Build a Better Boy, where she portrays Mae Hartley. Berglund starred as Carly Carson in the 2019 Starz television drama series Now Apocalypse. She has also played the lead in two sports-themed films set in Australia, 2016's Raising the Bar and 2018's Going for Gold. She stars as Crystal in the 2021 Starz drama television series Heels.
Gasp! is a short-lived Australian animated television series based on the book of the same name written and illustrated by Terry Denton.
