History
Originally launched as International Channel Networks in 1996, the company was owned by Liberty Media and JJS II Communications, LLC. They owned and operated The International Channel or I-Channel, which was a basic cable channel that featured multilingual, multi-ethnic programming to audiences in the United States. The channel offered programming from Europe, Asia & the Middle East in over 25 languages. In 1998, the company began offering a tier of premium networks featuring various channels from around the world. This tier has since grown and currently consists of over 20 networks.
In July 2004, as part of a larger deal, International Channel Networks was sold to Comcast. In 2005, Comcast re-branded the International Channel as AZN Television, a channel catering to Asian Americans and featuring several original programmes. The company was subsequently renamed International Networks.
On April 9, 2008, AZN television ceased operations as Comcast decided to shut down the channel due to distribution and advertising difficulties.
On March 10, 2009, Comcast decided to rename the company yet again this time as International Media Distribution. The re-brand was undertaken to reflect the growth of the company and to emphasize the focus which is now on the distribution of premium international channels from around the world. In 2011, the company was contributed by Comcast to NBCUniversal, a joint venture of Comcast and General Electric.
Read more about this topic: International Media Distribution
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)