TV Guide Network (formerly known as TV Guide Channel, Prevue Channel, Prevue Guide, and Electronic Program Guide) is an American cable network owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation.
At the bottom third of the screen, TV Guide Network provides a scrolling grid, or "scrid" for short, listing all channels available to the viewer coupled with the titles of the television programs and films those channels are currently showing. Appearing in the top three-quarters of the screen is the network's programming, currently consisting mostly of reruns of television series from the 1990s and 2000s; prior to 2012, TV Guide Network programming focused on programs featuring movie previews and celebrity news. The majority of the network's audience consists of channel surfers looking to see what's on, and what's coming on next, on their respective cable and satellite systems' channel lineups.
Although its bottom-screen program listings grid continues to be the major feature of the channel, TV Guide Network has attempted to reposition itself as a destination channel for television news and information through its original series and specials. This is because internet-based TV listings sites and the on-screen interactive program guides (IPGs) built directly into most of today's cable and satellite set top terminals, as well as into digital video recorders like TiVo, have mostly eliminated the need for a dedicated TV listings channel by providing the same information in a speedier manner, and often in much more detail and with greater flexibility. TV Guide offers its own IPG software for digital cable boxes, called TV Guide Interactive. It is visually similar in its presentation to the TV Guide Network's bottom-screen program listings grid.
TV Guide Network is only available from within the digital tiers of certain cable providers in some markets. As its programming is considered non-critical, many cable providers also use the TV Guide Network's channel space as a default Emergency Alert System conduit for transmitting warning information applicable to their local service areas, or as channel space for a regional sports network's "RSN2"/"RSN+" alternate feed for sports right conflicts.
A gridless version of the channel, featuring all of its programming full-screen, is offered to cable and satellite operators providing only digital television service and whose digital set top receivers already include integrated IPGs; though some digital cable providers use the scrolling grid version even if they use IPGs integrated within set top boxes.
Read more about TV Guide Network: Sneak Prevue
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