Showtime (brand)
Showtime, originally established as a cable television brand in the United States, has expanded worldwide.
Australia
Showtime Australia is a group of movie channels in Australia that began broadcasting in 1995. They show a limited number of television shows or series, as well as the occasional mini-series. Their owner, Premium Movie Partnership is owned equally by Sony, NBC Universal, CBS Corporation, News Corporation and Liberty Media. This means CBS has only a small stake in the service.
Showtime Australia’s channels include:
- Showtime Premiere - recent mainstream movies, mini-series (Available in HD)
- Showtime Premiere 2 - the Showtime channel on two-hour delay
- Showcase - recent movies mixed with many cable television shows from the US such as The Tudors, Dexter, United States of Tara and many others (Available in HD)
- Showcase 2 - the Showcase channel on two-hour delay
- Showtime Action - channel dedicated exclusively to action movies (Available in HD)
- Showtime Comedy - channel dedicated exclusively to comedy movies
- Showtime Drama - channel dedicated exclusively to drama movies
This group of channels is available on both Foxtel and Austar.
Middle East, North Africa and the Levant territories
Orbit Showtime Network is the dominant subscription television service in the Middle East and North Africa. It is a joint venture between KIPCO (50% stake) and Mawarid Holding (50% stake), the company was founded through a merger between Orbit Communications Company and Showtime Arabia. The company has its headquarters at Dubai Media City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[1] Orbit Showtime Network broadcasts in Arabic, English, and Filipino.
The Orbit Showtime Network package is available via the Nilesat satellite. It has a channel line up of more than 40 channels.
Latin America
In the 1990s, Showtime had an early investment with Televisa, News Corporation and MGM in Cinecanal. Cinecanal was originally called "Cinecanal/Showtime".
Brazil
Showtime also had an early investment in Brazil with Grupo Abril, at the launch of its cable operator, TVA. However, several years later, Showtime was replaced with a local version of its US competitor, HBO.
A Showtime channel is available in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The channel is operated by NonStop Television, which licenses the name and logo from Showtime Networks Inc. and brands the channel with the Showtime logo, but does not otherwise show any Showtime programming. Programming is mostly action movies from the 1970s to today. The channel does not premiere recent Hollywood films. Availability differs; it is available for an additional cost in some basic cable TV packages, such as Canal Digital, although for a much lower price than first-run subscription film channels. The channel is commercial-free. NonStop also operates Star! Scandinavia and Silver.
Spain
In Spain, the channel is branded as Showtime Extreme; it provides three different audio layers, Spanish, English and Catalan. It is operated by Factoría de Canales which also licences the name and logo from Showtime Networks, Inc.
Turkey
In Turkey, Showtime channel is on Digiturk, yet it does not feature any of the original programming, only movies.
