E!
For the Canadian equivalent, see E! (Canada).
E!: Entertainment Television (or simply E!) is an American cable television and direct broadcast satellite network. From November 2006 onwards, it became wholly owned by Comcast.
History
The brain child of Alan Mruvka, E! Entertainment Television was launched by Alan Mruvka and Larry Namer on July 31, 1987 as Movietime, a low-budget service that aired movie trailers, entertainment news, event coverage, and interviews .
Early Movietime hosts included Greg Kinnear, Paula Abdul, Katie Wagner, and Richard Blade. Three years later, in June 1990, Movietime was renamed E! Entertainment Television to emphasize its widening coverage of the celebrity-industrial complex, contemporary film, television and music, entertainment awards shows, daily Hollywood news and gossip, and fashion.
In November 2006, Comcast acquired the Walt Disney Company's 39.5% share of E! for $1.23 billion to gain full ownership of the network as part of a broader programming carriage agreement between Disney/ABC and Comcast .
E! has an audience reach of 88 million cable and satellite viewers in the U.S. E!'s sister networks are the Style Network and G4, along with Comcast's sports networks Versus and Golf Channel.
In the case of Versus, E! staff produce that network's Sports Soup, while the Orlando-based Golf Channel features no crossovers with E! at all due to incompatible audiences and operations.
Michael Jackson trial
E! reported on Michael Jackson's 2005 trial and acquittal. As no cameras were allowed in the courtroom, E! used the transcripts of the court case and actors to reenact the day's proceedings.
Your closest friends in the world surround you, either in the band or in your crew. Thinking he's a security guy or a drunk fan who's just a bit out a line, you continue to perform.
Two seconds later, he lifts his arms, aims a rifle at your brother, your best friend, your buddy and blows his brains out, not three feet from where you are.
Now imagine it's a few years later and you turn on the TV set. Only with some two bit actor who thinks this is his big Hollywood break.
International
E! has licensed its name and brand identity to regional cable television networks in nearly every country worldwide.
When this contract expired in September 2007, the E! library was reassigned to Canwest, which relaunched its secondary television system, CH, as a Canadian version of E!, combining the American channel's entertainment programming with lower-profile primetime programming mainly acquired from the major U.S. broadcast networks.
In the Philippines, the network has delayed telecast from the selected programs in U.S.