AMC (TV network)
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AMC is a cable television network that primarily airs movies. Its acronym stands for American Movie Classics, although the full name has been deemphasized. AMC is owned by Rainbow Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation, and signed on in 1984.
AMC was originally a premium cable channel that aired classic movies during the afternoons and early evenings, largely pre-1950s, in a commercial-free, generally unedited format. It was not uncommon for the channel to host a Marx Brothers marathon, or show such classics as the original Phantom of the Opera. In the early 1990's, the channel shifted to a 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week format.
The network has since dramatically changed its programming, shifting from premium to basic cable, emphasizing more recent movies, adding a new logo, with a lowercase a (seen above at right) and using a new slogan: "TV For Movie People." With competitors such as Turner Classic Movies and Fox Movie Channel, AMC changed its format from a classic movie network to a broader movie network, airing movies from the 1970's onwards.
The commercial-free format has also been abandoned. Currently, AMC claims to air fewer commercials per hour than any other basic cable channel. [1]
From 1996 to 1998, before the format change, AMC aired its first original series, Remember WENN, a half-hour show about a radio station during the peak of radio's influence in the 1930s.