[quote name=\'Matt Ottinger\' date=\'Jun 16 2003, 10:39 AM\']\"GSN has more than tripled its reach, to 51 million cable homes, since 1999, but it still ranks 46th out of 61 cable networks.\" I'm not sure what \"out of 61\" means, since there are a lot more than 61 cable networks out there, but it would seem to me that 46th in the cable universe isn't really all that bad for a niche service that doesn't have the backing of a cable giant, is typically relegated to the digital tiers and is less than a decade old.[/quote]
We tend to forget that GSN has been half-owned by a cable giant for the last two years--Liberty Media. Here's proof:
AOL Time Warner Inc.--owns 4%
Corus Entertainment Inc.--18%
Court TV (75.3 million homes)--50%
Discovery Communications, Inc.--owns 50%
Discovery Channel (86.5M homes)
The Learning Channel (84.7M)
Animal Planet (81.3M)
Travel Channel (70.5M)
Discovery Health Channel (42.5M)
Discovery Digital (only aggregate figure given)
Discovery Times
Discovery Home & Leisure
Discovery Kids
The Science Channel
Discovery Wings
Discovery en Español
International Discovery and Animal Planet Networks
Discovery.com, Inc. Online 1995
DMX MUSIC, Inc.--owns 56%
E! Entertainment Television (80.3M homes)--owns 10%
style. (24.9M)
Game Show Network (50.5M)--owns 50%
Hallmark Entertainment Investments Co.--owns 18%
International Channel (12.4M)--owns 90%
Canales ñ (940K homes)
Jupiter Programming Co., Ltd. (Japan)--owns 50%
(various Japanese cable channels)
MacNeil/Lehrer Productions--owns 67% (that's right, the PBS \"NewsHour\" people)
The News Corporation Limited (Fox)--owns 18%
Pramer S.C.A. (Argentina)--owns 100%
(various cable channels)
The Premium Movie Partnership (Australia)--owns 20% (Australian Showtime and Encore)
QVC, Inc.--owns 42%
QVC (75.8M homes)
International QVC channels
iQVC Online
Starz Encore Group LLC--owns 100%
Encore (21.3M homes)
MOVIEplex (5.4)
Thematic Multiplex (over 100 million *combined*)
Love Stories
Westerns
Mystery
Action
True Stories
WAM! America’s Kidz Network
STARZ! (13M homes)
STARZ! Theater
BLACK STARZ!
STARZ! Family
STARZ! Cinema
Torneos y Competencias, S.A.--owns 54%
USA Interactive, Inc.--owns 20% (Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, CitySearch--the part of USA still controlled by Barry Diller)
Viacom Inc.--owns less than 1%
Vivendi Universal, S.A.--owns 3%
And that's not even getting into Liberty's cable, satellite and interactive holdings. You also have to note that at one time Liberty owned major portions of Fox Sports Net, FX, Fox Family and BET.
Finally, it was Liberty that brought Rich Cronin into GSN to preside over what has essentially and unarguably been the most successful two years in GSN's history in almost every way, shape and form--a success the network would probably not have enjoyed under Sony ownership alone (and those of us who suffered \"Extreme Gong\" and \"Burt Luddin\" will not take that era back for anything).