HGTV (United States) - History

History

Kenneth W. Lowe (then a radio executive with The E.W. Scripps Company and subsequently the chief executive officer of Scripps Networks Interactive) envisioned HGTV in 1992. With modest financial support from the E.W. Scripps board he purchased Cinetel, a small video-production company in Knoxville, as the base and production hub of the new network.

Cinetel became Scripps Productions, but producing more than thirty programs simultaneously proved daunting. The organization brought in former CBS television executive Ed Spray who implemented a system of producing (nearly all) programming through independent production houses around the US. Burton Jablin, as Vice President of Programming, set the tone and oversaw the production of the early series. About ninety percent of the channel was original at launch, with ten percent licensed and re-run from Canadian, PBS, and other sources.

Using local Scripps cable franchises (since divested), the U.S. Federal Communications Commission "must carry" provisions of Scripps medium-market television stations and other small television operators to gain cable carriage, the channel launched in 1994. The major programming themes, unchanged since the beginning, were home building and remodeling, landscaping and gardening, decorating and design, and crafts and hobbies.

During its development, the channel was the Home, Lawn, and Garden Channel. The name was later shortened and a logo developed. The logo was amended in 2010, with this version debuting on March 1 of that year. The square with "G" in it is gone, the roof is larger and the "HGTV" letters are now set in Gotham Black, with the other Gotham fonts being used around the network. The network debuted with a skeletal staff, but with gradual acceptance by other cable operators, it now reaches 94 million households in the United States and has either partner networks, or network interests, in Canada, Japan, and elsewhere. It is now referred to simply as "HGTV", the full name of the channel is de-emphasized.

In July 2008, E.W. Scripps spun off the channel and the other Scripps cable channels and web-based properties into a separate company, Scripps Networks Interactive; E.W. Scripps broadcast television and newspaper properties remain in the original company.

In December 2011, the channel began broadcasting all of its programming in 16:9 aspect-ratio (or letterbox) format on its standard-definition (SD) channel. There are black bars on the top and bottom of the screen; its high-definition (HD) channel covers the entire screen.