ImaginAsian Entertainment, Inc was a multimedia company founded by Michael Hong and Augustine Hong and a group of investors that recognized the emerging importance of "all-things Asian." Based in New York City, its main attraction was a
television network
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...
, iaTV, which premiered in 2004 and which focused on entertainment featuring Korean, Japanese, and South-East Asian content. The channel competed in certain markets with
AZN Television
AZN Television (formerly called International Channel) was a cable TV channel which promoted itself as "the network for Asian America". It was run by International Networks, a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. The channel's programm ...
until April 2008, when the competing network ceased broadcasting. ImaginAsian itself ceased operations in 2011, selling its channel slot to
CJ E&M
CJ E&M (Hangul: 씨제이이앤엠, an initialism for CJ Entertainment & Media) is a South Korean entertainment and mass media company created by CJ Group in 2011. As of July 2018, CJ E&M is a division of CJ ENM.
History
CJ E&M was established a ...
for broadcast of the world feed of
Mnet
M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...
.
They also operated
The ImaginAsian
The ImaginAsian was a movie theater in midtown Manhattan, New York City, dedicated to exclusively showcasing Asian and Asian American films. Located on 59th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, The ImaginAsian was owned by ImaginAsian Entertain ...
, a renovated movie theater located in Midtown Manhattan that shows only first-run and classic East Asian films, as well as several film festivals per year. The company renovated a second former movie theater in Los Angeles that opened in December 2007, the former Linda Lea Theater, which originally showed Japanese films and served the Little Tokyo area before shuttering in the 1980s.
In addition, past divisions of the company consisted of iaLink, ImaginAsian Entertainment's monthly on-line magazine, which at one point had over ten million subscribers, ImaginAsian Pictures and Home Entertainment, a film and DVD distribution division that released several DVDs of East Asian films and iaTV original shows, and the successful theatrical and DVD release of the Vietnamese American film ''
Journey from the Fall
''Journey from the Fall'' ( vi, Vượt Sóng) is a 2006 independent film by writer/director/editor Ham Tran, about the Vietnamese re-education camp and boat people experience following the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. This drama was released ...
'', and iaRadio, a block of radio programming both streamed on-line as well as made available on certain terrestrial stations.
List of corporate affiliates
*ImaginAsian Entertainment (IAEI) is the corporate parent
*ImaginAsianTV (iaTV) is the television network
*ImaginAsian Radio (iaRadio) is a streaming online radio
*iaLink is an online e-zine
*
The ImaginAsian Theater
The ImaginAsian was a movie theater in midtown Manhattan, New York City, dedicated to exclusively showcasing Asian and Asian American films. Located on 59th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, The ImaginAsian was owned by ImaginAsian Entertainm ...
, a movie theater in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
which is now owned by Phoenix Theatres
*
ImaginAsian Pictures is for the creation, distribution, and promotion of films
*
ImaginAsian Home Entertainment is the DVD and home video division
*
The ImaginAsian Center is the film/event theatre in the
Gallery Row
Gallery Row is a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles designated by the City Council in 2003 to promote the concentration of art galleries along Main Street and Spring Street.
Geography
Gallery Row spans north–south along Main and Spring Stre ...
area of Los Angeles, California, which opened on December 1, 2007. The Los Angeles center seems to have stopped operations in October 2008, though its web site (https://web.archive.org/web/20090105222531/http://www.theimaginasian.com/la) is still up.
Shows aired on ImaginAsian
Television programs
Eastern Animation
Japanese
Korean
List of over-the-air TV channels and cable providers
Cable/satellite providers
*
New York, New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...
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Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
Channel 560
*
Hudson Valley, New York -
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
Channel 560
*
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
-
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
Channel 157
**
Charter Communications
Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, ...
Channel 143
**
Champion Broadband
Champion Broadband was a cable, Internet, and telephone provider in the United States. It previously operated in the Denver and Los Angeles markets along with smaller rural markets.
In August 2014, it was announced that the internet and telephon ...
Channel 196 (Arcadia, Monrovia and Pasadena)
*
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
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Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
Channel 28
*
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
-
Patriot Media Channel 149
*
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
-
Comcast
Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...
Channel 241
**
TVMax
TVMax is a commercial privately owned TV station in Panama City, Panama
Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population o ...
Channel 109
**
Fision Channel 349
*
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...
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Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
Channel 342
*
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...
-
Cox Communications
Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services. It i ...
Channel 465
*
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
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Oceanic Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
Channel 134
Broadcast television stations
*
Edison, New Jersey
Edison is a township located in Middlesex County,in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated in Central New Jersey within the core of the state's Raritan Valley region, Edison is a commercial hub, home to Menlo Park Mall and Little India. It is ...
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WDVB-CA
WDVB-CD (channel 23) is a low-power, Class A TBN Inspire owned-and-operated television station licensed to Edison, New Jersey, United States, and serving the New York City television market. Owned by the Tustin, California–based Trinity Br ...
(Formerly W36AS) Channel 39 (Middlesex, Monmouth, Essex and Union Counties)
See also
*
List of United States over-the-air television networks
In the United States, for most of the history of broadcasting, there were only three or four major commercial national terrestrial networks. From 1946 to 1956, these were ABC, CBS, NBC and DuMont (though the Paramount Television Network had so ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Imaginasian
Television networks in the United States
Asian-American television
Mass media companies established in 2004
Companies disestablished in 2011
Television channels and stations established in 2004
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2011
Companies based in New York City