TCM Movies (formerly Turner Classic Movies) is a British

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

channel featuring classic movies, mostly from the

Turner Entertainment Turner Entertainment Company is an American multimedia company founded by Ted Turner in 1986. Purchased by Time Warner in 1996 as part of its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the company was largely responsible for overseeing th ...

and

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

film libraries, which include many

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

titles.

History

It was launched in 1999, when its predecessor, TNT, dropped its film programming to become a general entertainment channel. Its penetration increased when it took over TNT's space on various platforms on 1 July 2000. Unlike other versions of Turner Classic Movies and the other Turner channels in the UK, Turner Classic Movies UK was for a long time broadcast

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...

. The channel became encrypted in January 2004 when it joined Sky's subscription packages. In 2009, Turner Classic Movies received a graphical makeover and a new logo in an attempt to attract a younger audience. With the makeover several new films were added to the channel's catalogue. A high definition version of the channel launched on 4 September 2012, at the same time the standard definition version began broadcasting in 16:9

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

, whereas Turner Classic Movies 2 continued to be broadcast in 4:3. On 2 March 2009, Turner Classic Movies UK sold the Sky EPG slot, when Travel Channel 2 closed. A one-hour timeshift, Turner Classic Movies +1, launched on 13 August 2013, replacing Turner Classic Movies 2. On 25 July 2019, the HD channel closed on Sky. Turner Classic Movies was renamed TCM Movies on 1 August 2019.

Television series

* '' Band of Brothers'' * '' Deadwood'' * ''

Gunsmoke ''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character ...

'' * ''

Wild Boys ''Wild Boys'' is an Australian television period drama series that began airing on the Seven Network on 4 September 2011. It is produced by Julie McGauran and Sarah Smith from Southern Star and John Holmes. The series is set in and around the ...

'' * ''

The Pillars of the Earth ''The Pillars of the Earth'' is a historical novel by British author Ken Follett published in 1989 about the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, England. Set in the 12th century, the novel covers the time between the ...

'' * ''

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

'' * ''

The Thorn Birds ''The Thorn Birds'' is a 1977 novel by Australian author Colleen McCullough. Set primarily on Drogheda – a fictional sheep station in the Australian Outback named after Drogheda, Ireland, the story focuses on the Cleary family and spans 1 ...

'' * ''

Hell on Wheels Hell on Wheels was the itinerant collection of flimsily assembled gambling houses, dance halls, saloons, and brothels that followed the army of Union Pacific railroad workers westward as they constructed the First transcontinental railroad in 186 ...

'' * ''Ed Sullivan's Rock n'Roll Classics'' * ''The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show''

Turner Classic Movies 2

Turner Classic Movies 2 (TCM2) was a spin-off of the original channel. It also showed popular films from the

library (which includes

and

films). Films were shown from 8pm to 4am (interspersed with various original short films about the films) from Monday-Sunday, and the following week included a new line-up. This allowed the viewer to "catch-up on the big films", thus allowing the chance to see the preferred film on any day of the week. The channel timeshared with

Cartoonito Cartoonito is a brand name used by Warner Bros. Discovery for a collection of television networks and programming blocks that target preschool-age children. The name combines the "cartoon" with the Spanish suffix "ito", meaning "small". As of 2 ...

, another UK-only spin-off channel. The channel began airing

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

at 10pm every Wednesday as of 4 January 2012, before moving to Friday later in April 2012. For unknown reasons, Turner Classic Movies 2 closed at 4am on 12 August 2013 with Turner Classic Movies +1 launching the next day, 13 August 2013.

Adult Swim

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

shows cannot be shown on the UK version of

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

(as

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

regulated children's channels are not allowed to broadcast adult content), they were shown on Turner Classic Movies 2 instead. They typically started at 1:15 AM on Saturday and included shows such as: * ''

Aqua Teen Hunger Force ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' (also known by various alternative titles), sometimes abbreviated as ''ATHF'' or ''Aqua Teen'', is an American adult animated television series created by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro for Cartoon Network's late ni ...

'' * ''

Robot Chicken ''Robot Chicken'' is an American adult animated stop motion sketch comedy television series, created and executive produced for Adult Swim by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. The writers, ...

'' * ''

Metalocalypse ''Metalocalypse'' is an American adult animated television series, created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha, which premiered on August 6, 2006, followed by a musical one-hour special, '' Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem'', on October 27, 2 ...

'' * ''

The Venture Bros. ''The Venture Bros.'' is an American adult animated action comedy TV series created by Chris McCulloch (also known as "Jackson Publick") for Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. Following a pilot episode on February 16, 200 ...

'' * ''

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! ''Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!'' is an American sketch comedy series created by and starring Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, which premiered February 11, 2007 on Adult Swim and ran until May 2010. The show features surreal and often sa ...

'' * ''

Squidbillies ''Squidbillies'' is an American animated television series created by Jim Fortier and Dave Willis for Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. An unofficial pilot for the series aired on April 1, 2005. The series later made ...

TNT UK

TNT UK was launched on 17 September 1993 along with

Cartoon Network UK Cartoon Network (commonly abbreviated as CN) is a British pay television channel aimed at children which airs animated programming targeting children and young aged 6 to 12.

. The two channels shared the same transponder with Cartoon Network broadcasting during the day with TNT taking over for the evening and overnight period. Initially TNT was on air from 7pm until 5am although in 1996 TNT's start time was pushed back to 9pm. In the early years TNT was primarily a movie channel although the final year saw the channel move to a general entertainment schedule until TNT (UK) was replaced by Turner Classic Movies on 1 July 2000. Its old slogan was "Classic Movies". World Championship Wrestling launched on TNT (UK) in April 1996 with

WCW Monday Nitro ''WCW Monday Nitro'', also known as ''WCW Nitro'' or simply ''Nitro'', is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and broadcast weekly every Monday night on TNT in the Unite ...

. On 9 October 1998

WCW Thunder ''WCW Thunder'', or simply ''Thunder'', is an American professional wrestling show that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) which aired on TBS from January 8, 1998 to March 21, 2001. The popularity of WCW in 1996 and 1997 allo ...

was added. Both aired in a 9pm to 12.30am (variant) block starting with the debut of Thunder. When TNT (UK) was closed down, WCW programming was briefly moved over to Turner Classic Movies and then

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels *Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 *Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...

. Trailers aired on Turner Classic Movies informing viewers of the change. WCW Nitro * 1996 to 1997 - Friday Nights - 9pm - 10pm * 1997 to 1998 - Friday Nights - 9pm - 11pm * 1998 to 2000 - Friday Nights - 9pm - 11.35pm * 2000 - Friday Nights - 9pm - 11pm (WCW Nitro then changed to Bravo in 2000, on Thursday Nights - 9pm - 11pm, until March 2001, when WCW was purchased by the

World Wrestling Federation World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

). WCW Thunder * 9 October 1998 to 2000 - Friday Nights - 11.35pm - 1am

References

External links

Official UK Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turner Classic Movies (Uk and Ireland) Movie channels in the United Kingdom Turner Broadcasting System UK & Ireland Turner Classic Movies Movie channels Television channels and stations established in 1999 Classic television networks 1999 establishments in the United Kingdom

History

Television series

Turner Classic Movies 2

Adult Swim

TNT UK

See also

References

External links