Encore (TV Channel) - History

History

Encore launched on April 1, 1991 at 9 p.m. ET on four TCI cable systems (both it and Liberty Media were controlled by John Malone); the channel debuted with an introduction by founder John Sie, who served as the president of the network from its launch until 1999 and CEO until his retirement in 2004, which was then followed by Encore's first film telecast, the 1980 film 9 to 5, starring Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin. Initially, the channel's focus was on movies made primarily in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and was formatted similarly to American Movie Classics, with hosted introductions to the movies.

Breaks between films on Encore in its early days were quite lively, consisting less of promotions and more trivia and nostalgia, fitting in with Encore's motto "The Movies of Your Life." There was even a segment that informing viewers about the movies and other programming that were scheduled to air on other premium channels in prime time. The channel had initially broadcast films from Warner Bros. Pictures (owned by Time Warner, the parent company of rival pay service HBO), Columbia/TriStar, Orion Pictures, 20th Century Fox, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Paramount Pictures, Turner Entertainment Co. and MGM/UA. The channel was formatted as a "mini-pay" service, available to subscribers for a $1 monthly fee, with TCI initially offering the channel as a "negative option", in which customers must notify TCI that they do not wish to have the channel after an introductory offer, or the company would automatically add on a $1 monthly charge to their cable bill, which would have then increased to $4.95 a month by May 1992; the negative option fee led to lawsuits filed against TCI by ten states, eventually causing TCI not to use the negative option plan for the channel.

Many cable providers outside of TCI, however, were reluctant to offer Encore on their systems in its early years due to the fear that it would cannibalize subscriptions of other premium channel services. However John Sie positioned the channel as such that would bolster the growth of what had been a lagging pay TV industry, as premium channels overall had been seeing a steady decline in subscribers since the late 1980s.

Around the time of its launch, there was some debate as to whether Viacom or TCI originally conceived the idea for Encore; with Viacom executives insisting TCI lifted part of the plan from Viacom-owned Showtime Networks. Then-Encore president John Sie said in an 1991 interview with Multichannel News that TCI brought up the concept of the Encore network as a way to revitalize Showtime, either by launching a new service from scratch or overhauling the format of Showtime sister network The Movie Channel. Incidentally, TCI made a failed attempt to acquired a 50 percent stake in Showtime in 1989. Showtime Networks would launch a mini-pay service formatted similar to Encore, called Flix in 1992. Encore had increased its subscriber base to an estimated 7 million subscribers nationwide by 1996.

On June 2, 1997, TCI announced a deal in which it would transfer majority ownership of its Encore Media Group subsidiary to sister company Liberty Media, with TCI retaining a minority 20% ownership. By May 1998, Encore had a subscriber base of 11.4 million cable homes. As the channel aged, it adopted a more conventional presentation style: first in 1998, the channel began to incorporate two first-run feature film exclusives each month, and on May 24, 1999 as part of a major rebrand of the channel, Encore shifted its focus to hit movies, primarily recent ones but with notable classics mixed in as well. Encore used to identify itself as guaranteeing to air a great movie every night, even setting up a special 1-800-number in which Encore would give a $2.50 refund to unsatisfied subscribers. Encore eventually began to be sold as either premium channel or a digital basic network, retaining the uncut/commercial-free nature of its programming, and by September 2005, was available in 25 million homes nationwide. On November 19, 2009, Liberty Media spun off Starz and Encore into a new company called Liberty Starz.