Name | TLC |
---|---|
Logofile | TLC Logo.svg |
Logosize | 200px |
Launch | 1972 (as Appalachian Community Service Network)1980 (As The Learning Channel) |
Owner | Discovery Communications, LLC |
Slogan | Life Surprises. |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Headquarters | Silver Spring, MD, United States |
Sister names | Discovery ChannelOWN: Oprah Winfrey Network (50%)Animal PlanetThe Hub (50%)Planet GreenDiscovery Fit & HealthInvestigation DiscoveryMilitary ChannelScience Channel |
Web | http://tlc.discovery.com |
Sat serv 1 | DirecTV |
Sat chan 1 | Channel 280 (SD/HD) Channel 1280 (VOD) |
Sat serv 2 | Dish Network |
Sat chan 2 | Channel 183 (SD/HD) |
Sat serv 3 | C-Band (4DTV Digital) |
Sat chan 3 | Channel 604 |
Sat serv 4 | Bell TV (Canada) |
Sat chan 4 | Channel 521 (SD), 826 & 1603 (HD) |
Sat serv 5 | Shaw Direct (Canada) |
Sat chan 5 | Channel 195 & 560 (SD), 272 & 362 (HD) |
Cable serv 1 | Available on most cable systems |
Cable chan 1 | Check local listings for details |
Cable serv 2 | Cablevision |
Cable chan 2 | Channel 28 (SD)Channel 28 & 764 (HD) |
Cable serv 3 | Verizon FIOS |
Cable chan 3 | Channel 139 (SD)Channel 639 (HD) |
Adsl serv 1 | Bell Fibe TV (Canada) |
Adsl chan 1 | Channel 521 |
Adsl serv 2 | AT&T; U-verse |
Adsl chan 2 | Channel 250 (SD)Channel 1250 (HD) |
Picture format | 480i (SDTV)1080i (HDTV) |
TLC (former initialism for The Learning Channel) is an American cable TV specialty channel which initially focused on educational content. Since 1991 TLC has been owned by Discovery Communications, the same company that operates the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and The Science Channel, as well as other learning-themed networks. The channel is one of the few cable networks also legally available in Canada under its original American interpretation.
TLC imports a significant amount of programming material from the United Kingdom (such as Junkyard Wars) mostly through its parent company's ties to the BBC. It also produces U.S. versions of some shows (like What Not to Wear, originally a BBC production) as well as original programming (like Robotica).
A High Definition simulcast of TLC was launched on 1 September 2007. It is currently available on Bell TV, Cogeco Cable, Cox, Dish Network, DirecTV, Shaw Cable, Rogers Cable, Mediacom, insight Communications, Bright House Networks, Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS and Comcast.
By the early 1990s, The Learning Channel was a sister channel to the Financial News Network (FNN) which owned 51 percent of the channel with Infotechnology Inc. After FNN went into bankruptcy in 1991, the Discovery Channel's owners went into talks of buying The Learning Channel. An agreement was made with FNN and Infotech to buy their shares for $12.75 million. The non-profit Appalachian Community Service Network owned 35 percent of the network, and was also bought out.
The Learning Channel continued to be focused primarily on instructional and educational programming through much of the '90s, but began to air shows less focused on education and more themed towards popular consumption and mass-marketing; these would be later expanded.
TLC still aired educational programs such as "Paleoworld" (a show about prehistoric creatures), though more and more of its programming began to be devoted to niche audiences for shows regarding subjects like home improvement (HomeTime and Home Savvy were two of the first), arts and crafts (similar to Martha Stewart), crime programs such as The New Detectives, medical programming (particularly reality-based ones following real operations of real people and following them through the process), and other shows that appealed to daytime audiences, particularly housewives. This was to be indicative of a major change in programming content and target audience over the next few years.
In 1998 the channel began to distance itself from its original name "The Learning Channel", and instead began to advertise itself only as "TLC".
During the period of 1999–2001 there was a huge shift in programming, with most programming geared towards reality-drama and interior design shows. The huge success of shows like Trading Spaces, Junkyard Wars, A Wedding Story and A Baby Story exemplified this new shift in programming towards more mass-appeal shows.
This came at a time when Discovery itself was overhauling much of its own programming, introducing shows like American Chopper (which Discovery moved to TLC for a stint). Much of the old, more educationally focused programming can still be found occasionally dispersed amongst other channels owned by Discovery Communications. Most programming today is geared towards reality-based drama or interests such as home design, emergency room dramas, other medical dramas, extreme weather, law enforcement, dating and human interest programs.
An Indian version was launched in 2006 under the jurisdiction of Discovery Channel. It was relaunched as TLC on September 1, 2010.
TLC's American feed is also available in Canada, one of a few American specialty channels allowed entry into Canada as per Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regulation.
The Latin American TLC HD, was launched on December 1, 2009, exclusively in high-definition, in the same style as the American channel (most of TLC's programming is available in standard-definition on Discovery Home & Health).
A Norwegian version of the channel was launched on March 4, 2010 as TLC Norway, replacing the European version of Discovery Travel & Living in Norway.
On September 1, 2010, the Asia Pacific versions of Discovery Travel & Living was relaunched as TLC, with the acronym standing for "Travel and Living Channel".
On October 1, 2010, the Polish version of Discovery Travel & Living was relaunched as TLC Poland, replacing the European version of Discovery Travel & Living in Poland.
TLC Balkans was also launched on October 1, 2010, replacing the European version of the "Travel & Living Channel" Slovenia, Serbia and Bulgaria. TLC Balkans' playout is from Belgrade, Serbia.
On July 4, 2011, a Dutch version was launched, time sharing with Animal Planet's standard definition feed. Animal Planet remains a 24 hour service for high-definition viewers.
On 1st September, 2011, the South African feed will replace the Discovery Travel & Living channel on TopTV by TLC with an all-new schedule.
Category:English-language television stations in the United States Category:Television channels and stations established in 1972 Category:Discovery Communications Category:Orphan initialisms
de:TLC (Fernsehsender) es:TLC (canal de televisión) fr:The Learning Channel nl:TLC (televisiezender) ja:ザ・ラーニング・チャンネル pl:TLC (stacja telewizyjna) pt:TLC (canal de TV) ru:TLC (телеканал) sv:TLC (TV-kanal)This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters.
We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. For example, if you submit an inquiry to us or sign up for our newsletter, you may be asked to provide certain information such as your contact details (name, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.).
When you submit your personally identifiable information through wn.com, you are giving your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you would prefer that we not collect any personally identifiable information from you, please do not provide us with any such information. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we will use the information you provide us only for the purpose of responding to your inquiry or in connection with the service for which you provided such information. We may forward your contact information and inquiry to our affiliates and other divisions of our company that we feel can best address your inquiry or provide you with the requested service. We may also use the information you provide in aggregate form for internal business purposes, such as generating statistics and developing marketing plans. We may share or transfer such non-personally identifiable information with or to our affiliates, licensees, agents and partners.
We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to personally identifiable information needed to perform their functions, but may not use such information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose any information, including personally identifiable information, we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request.
We do not want you to receive unwanted e-mail from us. We try to make it easy to opt-out of any service you have asked to receive. If you sign-up to our e-mail newsletters we do not sell, exchange or give your e-mail address to a third party.
E-mail addresses are collected via the wn.com web site. Users have to physically opt-in to receive the wn.com newsletter and a verification e-mail is sent. wn.com is clearly and conspicuously named at the point of
collection.If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at michaelw(at)wn.com
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during registration and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure, however. Therefore, though we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If we decide to change our e-mail practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we think appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If we make material changes to our e-mail practices, we will notify you here, by e-mail, and by means of a notice on our home page.
The advertising banners and other forms of advertising appearing on this Web site are sometimes delivered to you, on our behalf, by a third party. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, the third party may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. For more information on cookies, you can visit www.cookiecentral.com.
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain aspects of our entities or assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on Wn.com you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.