Fearnet was an American

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previ ...

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 pay television providers. Until the mid ...

, website and

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

service owned by

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 ...

. The network specialized in horror entertainment programming through a mix of acquired and original series, and feature films.

Background and platforms

Fearnet on Demand

Fearnet launched on October 31, 2006 as a

service, Fearnet On Demand. It was originally operated as a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...

between

Lions Gate Entertainment Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

, and

Sony Pictures Entertainment Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

. The on-demand service featured full-length horror, thriller, and suspense films as well as shorts,

trailers Trailer may refer to: a Transportation * Trailer (vehicle), an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle ** Bicycle trailer, a wheeled frame for hitching to a bicycle to tow cargo or passengers ** Full-trailer ** Semi-trailer **Horse traile ...

, interviews, and behind-the-scenes featurettes. It was available to subscribers of Comcast,

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 ...

, Verizon FiOS,

AT&T U-verse U-verse TV is a DirecTV brand of IPTV service. Launched on June 26, 2006, U-verse included broadband Internet (now AT&T Internet or AT&T Fiber), IP telephone (now AT&T Phone), and IPTV (U-verse TV) services in 48 states.Insight Communications,

Bresnan Communications Bresnan Communications was an American cable television provider formed by William Bresnan in 1984. It originally operated cable systems on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Over the next fourteen years, its operations spread to Minnesota Wisconsin, M ...

, Guadalupe Valley Systems,

Buckeye CableSystem Buckeye Broadband (formerly known as the Buckeye CableSystem from August 1996 until May 2016, and as The CableSystem prior to August 1996) is a cable and telecommunications company located in Toledo, Ohio, owned by Block Communications (which a ...

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, opera ...

, Wave Broadband,

Bright House Networks Bright House Networks, LLC also simply known as Bright House, was an American telecom company. Prior to its purchase by Charter Communications, it was the tenth-largest multichannel video service provider and the 6th largest cable internet prov ...

, and

CenturyLink Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink) is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, that offers communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice, and managed services. The company is ...

Fearnet cable channel

Fearnet launched as a linear

cable channel Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

on October 31, 2010. The network was originally scheduled to launch four weeks earlier on October 1, but the date was pushed back as Fearnet was in the midst of carriage negotiations with cable providers to carry the linear channel. The Fearnet channel was available through Comcast (in select markets),

, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS,

, and CenturyLink. The network aired over 350 full-length feature films annually, as well as popular series (such as ''

Tales from the Crypt Tales from the Crypt may refer to: * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s ** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...

'' and ''

Reaper A reaper is a farm implement or person that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used in Roma ...

'') and original content (such as '' Holliston'') and the weekend program block called "Funhouse". In September 2012, Fearnet became the first television network to offer Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), technology which decreases integration time from four weeks to as few as three days, and allows advertisers to refresh creative mid-campaign and track impressions on a daily basis.

Fearnet.com

The Fearnet website featured thriller, suspense, and horror films available for

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...

(with available content updated each week); other videos including movie trailers and

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ...

; daily news and reviews that covered all aspects of the genre; and sweepstakes, chats, and forums. The website had over 270,000 registered users.

Leadership and ownership changes

In 2010, Peter Block (who launched the top-grossing ''Saw'' horror film franchise, and produced several other blockbuster horror and thriller films including ''

Hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or share ...

'', '' Cabin Fever'', '' Open Water'', and '' House at the End of the Street'') was named president and

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of Fearnet, replacing Diane Robina. In addition to his duties at Fearnet, Block continued to run his production company A Bigger Boat.

Merger with Chiller

On April 14, 2014, Comcast purchased Lions Gate Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment's stakes in Fearnet to acquire full ownership of the channel. Comcast planned to fold Fearnet's programming into its existing horror- and thriller-focused network

Chiller A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid coolant via a vapor-compression, adsorption refrigeration, or absorption refrigeration cycles. This liquid can then be circulated through a heat exchanger to cool equipment, or another p ...

(owned by the company's NBCUniversal Cable unit) and move some of Fearnet's programming to

Syfy Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. La ...

. The merger occurred on July 30, 2014 at midnight, after an airing of ''

House of 1000 Corpses ''House of 1000 Corpses'' is a 2003 American black comedy horror film written, co-scored, and directed by Rob Zombie in his directorial debut, and the first film in the ''Firefly'' film series. It stars Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon, K ...

''. Chiller ceased operations on December 31, 2017 folding the former Fearnet channel space.

Programming

Original programming

On April 3, 2012, Fearnet premiered its first original series, '' Holliston'', a horror/comedy series starring real-life filmmakers Adam Green and Joe Lynch as two college graduates chasing the dream of becoming successful horror filmmakers while struggling to make ends meet through their jobs at a

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

public-access cable channel. The series was renewed for a second season which aired in 2013.

''Funhouse''

In August 2012, Fearnet debuted a two-hour program block on Saturday and Sunday mornings called "Funhouse", featuring reruns of science-fiction and horror series aimed at children, including: '' The Real Ghostbusters'', '' Tales from the Cryptkeeper'', ''

Eerie, Indiana ''Eerie, Indiana'' is an American horror science fiction television series that originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1991, to December 09, 1993. The series was created by José Rivera and Karl Schaefer, with Joe Dante serving as creati ...

'', and ''

Dark Oracle ''Dark Oracle'' is a Canadian teen fantasy television series that premiered in 2004 on YTV. It was created by Jana Sinyor (former writer for '' Degrassi: The Next Generation'' and creator of ''Being Erica''), and co-developed by Heather Conkie. I ...

''.

References

{{U.S. television movie channels Streaming television NBCUniversal networks Companies based in Santa Monica, California English-language television stations in the United States Defunct television networks in the United States Television channels and stations established in 2006 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2014 Horror fiction websites Former Lionsgate subsidiaries Former Sony subsidiaries