Showtime around the world
Encyclopedia
Showtime, originally established as a cable television
brand in the United States
, has expanded worldwide.
, NBC Universal
, CBS Corporation
, News Corporation
and Liberty Media
. This means CBS has only a small stake in the service.
Showtime Australia’s channels include:
This group of channels is available on both Foxtel and Austar.
service in the Middle East
and North Africa
. It is a joint venture between KIPCO
(50% stake) and Mawarid Holding
(50% stake), the company was founded through a merger between Orbit Communications Company and Showtime Arabia
. The company has its headquarters at Dubai Media City
in Dubai
, United Arab Emirates
.
Orbit Showtime Network broadcasts in Arabic
, English
, and Filipino
.
The Orbit Showtime Network package
is available via the Nilesat
satellite. It has a channel line up of more than 40 channels.
, News Corporation
and MGM in Cinecanal. Cinecanal was originally called "Cinecanal/Showtime".
, at the launch of its cable operator, TVA. However, several years later, Showtime was replaced with a local version of its US competitor, HBO.
A Showtime channel is available in Denmark
, Norway
, Sweden
and Finland
. The channel is operated by NonStop Television
, which licenses the name and logo from Showtime Networks Inc. and brands the channel with the Showtime logo, but does not otherwise show any Showtime programming. Programming is mostly action movies from the 1970s to today. The channel does not premiere recent Hollywood films. Availability differs; it is available for an additional cost in some basic cable TV packages, such as Canal Digital
, although for a much lower price than first-run subscription film channels. The channel is commercial-free. NonStop also operates Star! Scandinavia
and Silver
.
, English
and Catalan
. It is operated by Factoría de Canales which also licences the name and logo from Showtime Networks, Inc.
, Showtime channel is on Digiturk
, yet it does not feature any of the original programming, only movies.
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
brand in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, has expanded worldwide.
Australia
Showtime Australia is a group of movie channels in Australia that began broadcasting in 1995. They show a limited number of television shows or series, as well as the occasional mini-series. Their owner, Premium Movie Partnership is owned equally by SonySony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, NBC Universal
NBC Universal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
, CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
, News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
and Liberty Media
Liberty Media
Liberty Media Corporation is an American media conglomerate and the control is exercised by company Chairman John C. Malone, who owns a majority of the voting shares....
. This means CBS has only a small stake in the service.
Showtime Australia’s channels include:
- Showtime Premiere - recent mainstream movies, mini-series (Available in HD)
- Showtime Premiere 2 - the Showtime channel on two-hour delay
- Showcase - recent movies mixed with many cable television shows from the US such as The TudorsThe TudorsThe Tudors is a Canadian produced historical fiction television series filmed in Ireland, created by Michael Hirst and produced for the American premium cable television channel Showtime...
, DexterDexter (TV series)Dexter is an American television drama series, which debuted on Showtime on October 1, 2006. The sixth season premiered on October 2, 2011. The series centers on Dexter Morgan , a bloodstain pattern analyst for the Miami Metro Police Department who moonlights as a serial killer...
, United States of Tara and many others (Available in HD) - Showcase 2 - the Showcase channel on two-hour delay
- Showtime Action - channel dedicated exclusively to action movies (Available in HD)
- Showtime Comedy - channel dedicated exclusively to comedy movies
- Showtime Drama - channel dedicated exclusively to drama movies
This group of channels is available on both Foxtel and Austar.
Middle East, North Africa and the Levant territories
Orbit Showtime Network is the dominant subscription televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
service in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
. It is a joint venture between KIPCO
KIPCO
Kuwait Projects Company , popularly known as KIPCO, is one of the premier investment holding companies in the Middle East and North Africa region. KIPCO has substantial ownership interests in a diversified portfolio of companies in Europe, the Middle East, and the USA...
(50% stake) and Mawarid Holding
Mawarid Holding
Mawarid Holding is a private Saudi investment company . It manages and controls several investments which have diversified businesses in financial services, telecommunications, satellite television and radio network, construction, general distribution and trading, catering and restaurants.-Major...
(50% stake), the company was founded through a merger between Orbit Communications Company and Showtime Arabia
Showtime Arabia
Showtime Arabia, as it was called to distinguish itself from its U.S. counterpart , was a subscription television service in the Middle East and North Africa. It was a joint venture between KIPCO and CBS Corporation , CBS Corp being a minor partner...
. The company has its headquarters at Dubai Media City
Dubai Media City
Dubai Media City , part of Dubai Holding, is a tax-free zone within Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It has been built by the Dubai government to boost UAE's media foothold, and has become a regional hub for media organizations including news agencies, publishing, online media, advertising, production,...
in Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...
.
Orbit Showtime Network broadcasts in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, and Filipino
Filipino language
This move has drawn much criticism from other regional groups.In 1987, a new constitution introduced many provisions for the language.Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:...
.
The Orbit Showtime Network package
Orbit Showtime
Orbit Showtime Network, now officially branded as OSN, is a subscription television service in the Middle East and North Africa. The platform is owned by Panther Media Group, and the company is registered in DIFC. OSN is a joint venture between the Kuwait-based KIPCO and Saudi Arabia-based Mawarid...
is available via the Nilesat
Nilesat
Nilesat is an Egyptian company, and the name of a series of Egyptian communications satellites. It was established in 1996 with the purpose of operating Egyptian satellites and their associated ground control station and uplinking facilities...
satellite. It has a channel line up of more than 40 channels.
Latin America
In the 1990s, Showtime had an early investment with TelevisaTelevisa
Televisa is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract...
, News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
and MGM in Cinecanal. Cinecanal was originally called "Cinecanal/Showtime".
Brazil
Showtime also had an early investment in Brazil with Grupo AbrilGrupo Abril
Grupo Abril is the second largest Brazilian media conglomerate with its headquarter in São Paulo. The group is the holding company of Editora Abril, who publishes the weekly newsmagazine Veja....
, at the launch of its cable operator, TVA. However, several years later, Showtime was replaced with a local version of its US competitor, HBO.
Scandinavia
A Showtime channel is available in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. The channel is operated by NonStop Television
NonStop Television
NonStop Television is a Scandinavian television company, part of Turner Broadcasting System, packaging and distributing a number of specialty channels, mostly to the Nordic region. The company is a part of Millennium Media Group...
, which licenses the name and logo from Showtime Networks Inc. and brands the channel with the Showtime logo, but does not otherwise show any Showtime programming. Programming is mostly action movies from the 1970s to today. The channel does not premiere recent Hollywood films. Availability differs; it is available for an additional cost in some basic cable TV packages, such as Canal Digital
Canal Digital
Canal Digital is a Scandinavian television distributor and internet service provider that was founded in March 1997 as a joint venture between the French pay-TV company Canal+ and the Norwegian telecommunications operator Telenor...
, although for a much lower price than first-run subscription film channels. The channel is commercial-free. NonStop also operates Star! Scandinavia
Star! Scandinavia
Star! Scandinavia is a television channel in northern Europe that is devoted to entertainment and celebrity news and programming. The channel is managed by Scandinavian television broadcaster NonStop Television, part of Turner Broadcasting System, TBS, Inc., which merged with Time Warner in 1996,...
and Silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
.
Spain
In Spain, the channel is branded as Showtime Extreme; it provides three different audio layers, SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
. It is operated by Factoría de Canales which also licences the name and logo from Showtime Networks, Inc.
Turkey
In TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, Showtime channel is on Digiturk
Digiturk
Digiturk is a Turkish Satellite television provider, founded in 1999, with services starting in mid-2000. They offer, both national cable TV channels and their own channels, national radio, and music streams of different genres. Digiturk is also the current owner of the broadcasting rights of...
, yet it does not feature any of the original programming, only movies.