USA Network
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 Logo used since 2005 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | United States |
| Headquarters | 229 West 43rd Street, New York City |
| Programming | |
| Languages | English Spanish |
| Picture format | 1080i HDTV 4K (upscaled from 1080i, special occasions[1]) (downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Parent |
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| Sister channels | |
| History | |
| Launched |
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| Founder | Kay Koplovitz |
| Former names | Madison Square Garden Sports Network (1977–1980) |
| Links | |
| Website | usanetwork.com |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Affiliated streaming service | Fandango |
| Livestream services | DirecTV Stream, FuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, YouTube TV |
USA Network (stylized in all lowercase as usa) is an American basic cable television channel owned by Versant. It was launched on September 22, 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports cable television channels.
It was relaunched under its current name on April 9, 1980, and in the years since then, USA steadily gained popularity through its original programming, a long-established partnership with WWF/WWE and, for many years, limited sports programming. For more than 20 years, from 2004 to 2026, the network was owned by Comcast as part of NBCUniversal. USA increased its sports coverage significantly in 2022, after the initial shutdown of NBCSN, and served as the main cable component of NBC Sports until NBCSN was relaunched in 2025.
As of November 2023[update], USA Network is available to approximately 70 million pay television households in the United States, down from its 2011 peak of 100 million households.[2]
History
[edit]Madison Square Garden Sports Network (1977–1980)
[edit]USA Network was launched on September 22, 1977, as the Madison Square Garden Sports Network[3] (not to be confused with the New York City-area regional sports network now known as the MSG Network). The network was founded by cable provider UA-Columbia Cablevision and the Madison Square Garden Corp. For its first two decades, the network was run by chairwoman and CEO Kay Koplovitz.[4] The channel was one of the first national cable television channels, utilizing satellite delivery as opposed to the then-industry standard microwave relay to distribute its programming to cable systems. Unlike other cable networks at the time, it also was the first to rely greatly on advertising revenue.[5] At launch the network mostly broadcast sporting events from Madison Square Garden to a national audience (sharing programming with the aforementioned MSG Network). The network quickly added a mix of college and less well-known professional sports held at other venues, similar to those found during the early years of ESPN. In 1978, children's programming was also added to the lineup.[4]
MCA/Paramount ownership (1981–1994) and Time ownership (1981–1987)
[edit]On April 9, 1980, the channel changed its name to USA Network. It also added a children's program called Calliope to its schedule and some talk shows in an effort to appeal to women. The new network also offered a programming block from Black Entertainment Television (which would eventually launch as its own network three years later, but now owned by Paramount as of 2001) and carried C-SPAN during the day.[6]
In 1981, ownership of the network changed. First, Time Inc. agreed to buy UA-Columbia's share of the network contingent upon Madison Square Garden owner Gulf + Western transferring its share of the network to its Paramount Pictures division.[7] Shortly thereafter MCA Inc. also bought into the network with the three companies each owning an equal share.[8][9] The three partners had a non-compete clause that would prevent them from owning other basic cable networks independently from the USA joint venture; however, it was acknowledged that Time also owned powerful USA Network rival Home Box Office.[10] This clause would cause Time Inc. to drop out of the venture in 1987, as the company attempted (but failed) to buy CNN from Ted Turner and run it independently from USA.[11] MCA and Paramount subsequently became the sole owners of the channel (being a 50/50 joint venture between the two companies).
C-SPAN stopped sharing satellite space with USA on April 1, 1982, after having launched its own 24-hour feed two months earlier.[12] USA began operating on a 24-hour schedule, programming its new daytime block with the British soap opera Coronation Street, a health-oriented show named Alive and Well, and an afternoon movie.[13]
In fall 1982, the channel began running a mix of 1960s and 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons each weekday evening from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. as part of the new USA Cartoon Express block, with sports programming airing after 7:00 p.m., which were rebroadcast during the overnight hours. Weekends featured a mix of movies, some older drama series and talk shows during the morning hours, and sports during the afternoons and evenings. Overnights consisted of old low-budget films and film shorts, and music videos as part of a show called Night Flight.
By August 1983, then-Paramount head Barry Diller became more focused on having the network increase its relationship with the Madison Square Garden Network.[14] This included a deal which made the USA Network a source for the Madison Square Garden Network programming and having the network also being more tied to sporting organizations which could air events in Madison Square Garden.[14]
Between 1984 and 1986, however, USA's programming focus began shifting away from sports,[15] and shifted towards general entertainment programs not found on broadcast stations, including some less common network drama series, situation comedies and cartoons. Nevertheless, the network would still focus on airing World Wrestling Federation programs.[15]
For the 1985–1986 season, the channel had four hours of original and exclusive shows. One original series from the 1985–1986 season was the comedy Check It Out!. USA, wanting to become the flagship cable channel and compete directly with the broadcast networks, committed to 26 half-hours of part exclusive off-broadcast network and part original programming for the 1986–1987 season at an increase of $30 million. In one case, the channel picked up Airwolf for 58 off-network episodes, while commissioning 24 new episodes without the original cast.[16]
One tradition on USA was an afternoon lineup of game show reruns mixed in with several original low-budget productions that aired over the years. It began in October 1984 with reruns of The Gong Show and Make Me Laugh. In September 1985, the network began airing its first original game show, a revival of the mid-1970s game show Jackpot; two more original game shows, Love Me, Love Me Not, and a revival of the 1980 series Chain Reaction, were added in September 1986. More shows were progressively added soon afterward such as The Joker's Wild, Tic-Tac-Dough, Press Your Luck, High Rollers, and Hollywood Squares (hosted by John Davidson), along with Wipeout, Face the Music, and Name That Tune. In June 1987, the channel debuted another original game show, Bumper Stumpers (all four USA original game shows in this era were taped in Canada). When it began, the game-show block ran for an hour, but it expanded significantly the following year. By 1989, the network ran game shows Monday through Fridays from noon to 5:00 p.m. eastern. USA also aired late night reruns of Procter & Gamble soap operas The Edge Of Night from August 5, 1985, to January 19, 1989, along with Search For Tomorrow from 1987 until the summer of 1989. In January 1989, USA debuted USA Up All Night, a showcase of low-budget feature films that aired as part of its weekend overnight schedule. Up All Night became a cult favorite among viewers for the comedic wraparound segments that were usually shown during breaks leading into (and sometimes, out of) commercials and between films that were hosted by comedian Gilbert Gottfried and model/actress Rhonda Shear, the latter of whom had replaced original co-host Caroline Schlitt in 1991. Though this program was discontinued on March 7, 1998, late-night movie telecasts on USA continued to be branded under the "Up All Night" banner until 2002.
Short news updates, branded as USA Updates, were broadcast early on, from 1989 until 2000. These segments were first produced out of KYW-TV in Philadelphia, as the station had already produced a number of syndicated news services (including the Group W Newsfeed) and Steve Bell, the former newsreader on Good Morning America, was employed as a primary anchor at the station. By 1993, production of USA Updates had been taken over by the All News Channel (operated as a joint venture of Hubbard Broadcasting's and Viacom's CONUS Communications); Bell had left KYW in 1992, when KYW's news operations were heavily revamped in response to falling ratings. Via the ANC connection, USA also aired the financial news program First Business (then produced by CONUS) at 6:30am weekday mornings for a time (the network had previously carried Wall Street Journal-produced financial news updates and a late-night report in the 1980s[17][18]).[19][20] The ANC-produced updates continued through 2000 (ANC was suffering heavily around this time due to competition with other cable news channels such as CNN and the then-similarly formatted Headline News, and ended up shutting down in 2002); USA Network has not carried any news programming since the news updates were removed.
USA was the first basic cable channel to pre-empt the syndicated television market by purchasing a package of 26 films from Disney's Touchstone Pictures library in October 1989. To obtain the package, it spent an estimated $50 million to $60 million, with films including such box office hits as Dead Poets Society, Good Morning, Vietnam, and Three Men and a Baby.[21]
The tradition of game show reruns continued into the 1990s with the $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, the early 1990s revivals of The Joker's Wild and Tic-Tac-Dough, and other well-known shows such as Scrabble, Sale of the Century, Talk About, and Caesars Challenge. Additionally, two more original game shows were added in June 1994; these were Free 4 All and Quicksilver. In September 1991, the block was reduced to three hours, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Eastern. However, an additional hour was added in March 1993. In November 1994, the game show block was cut back to only two hours, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
On September 24, 1992, USA launched a sister network, the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy), focusing on science fiction series and films.
In January 1993, the channel began showing WWF Monday Night Raw, which was the first weekly WWF program on USA to air in front of a live audience. In September 1993, USA adopted a new on-air look centering on the slogan "The Remote Stops Here", with flat graphics suggesting a television camera's in-lens symbols and music consisting of electric guitar and synthesized noises, though the movie presentation openers were retained from the previous design.
USA Networks ownership (1994–2002)
[edit]In 1994, Paramount Pictures parent Paramount Communications was sold to the original iteration of Viacom; the following year, MCA was acquired by Seagram. In April 1996, Viacom, which also owned MTV Networks, launched a new classic television network called TV Land. MCA subsequently sued Viacom for breach of contract, claiming that it had violated the non-compete clause in its joint venture agreement with MCA.[22] A judge presiding over the case sided with MCA,[23] and Viacom subsequently sold its stake in USA and the Sci-Fi Channel to Seagram for $1.7 billion.[24] In turn, Seagram sold a controlling interest in the networks to Barry Diller – who was previously head of Paramount Pictures when the company owned part of the network in the early 1980s and who was also credited with putting together the 1981 agreement which resulted in joint Paramount-Time-MCA ownership of the network[10] – in February 1998, which led to the creation of USA Networks, Inc.;[25][26] the company also merged the cable channels with Diller's existing television properties including the Home Shopping Network and its broadcasting unit Silver King Broadcasting (which was restructured as USA Broadcasting, and eventually sold its stations to Univision Communications in 2001 to form the nucleus of Telefutura/UniMás). Despite that, Universal would still retain a 45% ownership stake in the USA Network, with Diller also taking advantage of this to acquire ownership of Universal's television assets.[26][27][28]
In July 1995, USA began simulcasting the business news channel Bloomberg Information TV Monday thru Saturday from 5:00 to 7:00 a.m. Eastern; in 2004, the Bloomberg simulcast moved to E!, where it ran until 2007 (USA was actually the second television network to simulcast Bloomberg's programming, the now-defunct American Independent Network also carried a simulcast of the channel during the mid-1990s). Bloomberg purchased the airtime from USA.[29] In October 1995, the network dropped the entire game show block; it was replaced with a block called USA Live, which carried reruns of Love Connection and The People's Court, with live hosted wraparound segments between shows; that block was dropped by 1997 (some of the game shows that USA had aired can still be seen on GSN and Buzzr).
On June 17, 1996, the network unveiled a new on-air appearance, which included the introduction of a new logo (incorporating a star ridged into the "U" of the now-serifed "USA" logotype, replacing the Futura-typeface logo that had been in use since the network's start under the USA Network name in 1980), and a three-note jingle. Network IDs, feature presentation intros for movies and promo graphics were based around a behind-the-scenes look at the fictional "USA Studios"; some of the IDs showed people in the control room, while a studio that was being set-up by a crew was the backdrop for the "Tonight" menu that displayed the evening's schedule. Opening sequences leading into movie telecasts showed people running through the "USA Studios Film Vault". The new look coincided with a shift in focus, more towards off-network reruns and original programming; game shows and court shows were dropped from the schedule, while cartoons were phased out. USA Studios also became the branding for USA-produced programming at this point. This logo was replaced in July 1999 in favor of a 'USA flag'-styled logo (whose design was slightly modified in 2002).
In September 1996, USA replaced the USA Cartoon Express with the action-oriented children's block, USA Action Extreme Team; the channel discontinued its animation block outright in September 1998 (other than airing the first-run teen sitcom USA High and reruns of Saved by the Bell: The New Class from 1997 to 2001, USA has not aired children's programming since that time), and replaced it with a block called "USAM", which advertised itself as "Primetime Comedy in the Morning". The block mainly featured sitcoms originally aired on network television that were cancelled before making it to 100 episodes (such as The Jeff Foxworthy Show, Hearts Afire and Something So Right); however, for a time, the block also included the 1989–1994 episodes of the Bob Saget run of America's Funniest Home Videos. "USAM" was discontinued in 2002; by that point, the only sitcoms airing on USA were daytime and late night reruns of Martin and overnight airings of Living Single, Cheers and Wings, with drama series and movies populating much of the channel's daytime and primetime schedule.
In 2000, USA Networks bought Canadian media company North American Television, Inc. (a joint partnership between the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Power Corporation of Canada), owner of cable television channels Trio and Newsworld International (the CBC continued to handle programming responsibilities for NWI until 2005, when eventual USA owner Vivendi sold the channel to a group led by Al Gore, who relaunched it as Current TV). One major shock happened when USA lost the broadcasting rights of the WWF to Viacom in June 2000; Raw (which had been retitled Raw is War) was moved to TNN in September of that year.
Vivendi ownership (2002–2004)
[edit]In May 2002, USA Networks sold its non-shopping television and film assets (including USA Network, the Sci-Fi Channel, Trio, USA Films (which was rechristened as Focus Features) and Studios USA) to Vivendi Universal for $10.3 billion.[30] USA and the other channels were folded into Vivendi's Universal Television Group.
In July 2002, the channel debuted Monk, a comedy-drama police procedural that starred Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk, a former San Francisco police inspector-turned-consultant who suffers from various obsessive-compulsive behaviors that include the ability to pay attention to detail when solving crimes. It became one of USA Network's first breakout hit series, and ran for eight seasons until it ended on December 4, 2009.
NBCUniversal/Comcast ownership (2004–2026)
[edit]In 2003, General Electric (GE) agreed to merge NBC and its sibling companies with Vivendi Universal's North American-based filmed entertainment assets, including Universal Pictures and Universal Television Group in a multibillion-dollar purchase, renaming the merged company NBC Universal. GE retained an 80% ownership stake in the new company, while Vivendi retained a 20% stake. NBC Universal officially took over as owner of USA and its sibling cable channels (except for Newsworld International) in 2004. That year, USA premiered the sci-fi series The 4400.
"Characters Welcome", the "blue sky" era (2005–2016)
[edit]In 2005, USA Network introduced a new logo and associated marketing campaign, "Characters Welcome". The slogan was designed to help emphasize the wide range of programming the network offered, and to help USA Network establish itself more prominently as a brand. The launch of the campaign featured promos themed around the daily lives of characters from the network's programs.[31] To contrast itself from the "grittier" offerings of other mainstream cable networks, USA Network's original programming during this era was marked by a focus on action and drama series with comedic elements and "optimistic" tones, referred to as a "blue sky" approach. Notable examples of this programming strategy included Psych (2006),[32] Burn Notice (2007), and Royal Pains (2009).[33][34] In October 2005, Raw returned to USA Network after Viacom did not renew its broadcasting agreement with the WWE.
On May 13, 2007 (in advance of NBC's 2007–08 fall upfronts presentation), NBC Universal announced that new episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent would be moved to USA Network beginning with the drama's seventh season in the fall of 2007; episodes would then be re-aired later in the season on NBC, most likely to shore up any programming holes created by the cancellation of a failed new series. Although this is not the first time a broadcast series has moved to cable (USA had acquired first-run rights to the revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents from NBC in 1987, while The Paper Chase had moved beforehand from CBS to Showtime in 1983), it marked the first time that a series which moved its first-run episodes from broadcast to cable television would continue to air episodes on a broadcast network while it was still a first-run program.[35] On December 7, 2007, it was announced that USA Network would continue broadcasting first-run episodes of Raw through at least 2010.[36]
The June 1, 2008, premiere of In Plain Sight, starring Mary McCormack, was USA's highest-rated series premiere since the 2006 debut of Psych, with 5.3 million viewers.[37] In early 2009, USA Network acquired the network television rights for 24 recent and upcoming Universal Pictures films, including Duplicity, Funny People, Frost/Nixon, Land of the Lost, Milk, and State of Play.[38]
In 2011, control and majority ownership of then-parent NBC Universal passed from General Electric to Comcast. Comcast would buy out GE's remaining ownership in NBCUniversal two years later.[39] USA Network was considered the key piece of the NBCUniversal-Comcast merger; Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Harrigan projected that USA contributed $9.5 billion to NBCUniversal's $44.8 billion value, with NBCUniversal contributing only $408 million.[40] In 2014, the channel had dropped 18% in viewership and out of first place among the major cable channels. USA has been a key NBCUniversal asset accounting for one-third of advertising revenue for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group and $1 billion in annual earnings over the past few years.[41]
In April 2015, it was announced that WWE SmackDown would move to USA from sister network Syfy.[42]
End of the "blue sky" era, expansion of sports coverage, and Versant era (2016–present)
[edit]In April 2016, USA Network unveiled a new branding campaign and slogan, "We the Bold". The campaign was designed to reflect the channel's current focus on "rich, captivating stories about unlikely heroes who defy the status quo, push boundaries and are willing to risk everything for what they believe in".[43] USA had quietly discontinued the "Characters Welcome" tagline in the lead-up to the rebranding, whose associated programming shift was led by the premieres of Mr. Robot and Colony. Variety reported that the new programming strategy was designed to appeal to themes of "authenticity, resiliency, bravery and innovation".[31] The Washington Post felt that the re-branding symbolically marked the end of USA's "blue sky" era, as the channel had been increasingly producing more "intense" series with darker themes.[41][33] NBCUniversal marketing executive Alexandra Shapiro explained that the "Characters Welcome" campaign and associated programming was reflective of the "weirdly optimistic" mood of the network's key demographic at the time.[31]
In August 2016, NBCUniversal acquired the television rights to the Harry Potter film franchise from 2018 through 2025, including the main film series and their spin-offs (with the first, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, to have its cable premiere in 2019), and other content. On cable, the films are to primarily be aired by USA Network and Syfy, and the deal also includes the ability for Universal Parks & Resorts to offer "exclusive content and events" related to the franchise (Universal Parks had already been involved in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter attractions). The deal succeeded one with Freeform; The Wall Street Journal reported the deal was valued around $250 million over the length of the agreement, making it one of the highest-valued film franchise deals.[44][45] To launch the new rights, Syfy and USA both aired Harry Potter marathons over the July 13–15, 2018 weekend, airing all eight films (including directors' cuts of the first six) with limited commercial interruption.[46]
Amid the growth of streaming services (including NBCUniversal's newly launched Peacock) and the decline of traditional cable television, USA Network began to cut back on scripted programming, in favor of reality shows, television events (including scripted miniseries), and live programming—the latter including WWE programs and sporting events. In 2020, the network cancelled