Turner Classic Movies was an Asian digital classic film channel featuring commercial-free 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. film libraries, which include many MGM titles. It was the Asian version of the US Turner Classic Movies and aired in the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, In ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

and

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

. After 24 years of operation, the channel was shut down on 2 January 2019.

History

The channel normally launched as TNT in October 1994, it was time shared with Cartoon Network, and aired from 21:00 CET to 6:00 CET (from 20:00 UTC to 5:00 UTC) and IST respectively and Cartoon Network the remaining time, mainly for analogue cable systems across Europe and India, although it was originally targeted at the Republic of Ireland, India and the United Kingdom. It was formerly free-to-air, but is now carried encrypted and provided only to cable companies and on some commercial satellite systems. It was one of the three movie channels available on

Foxtel Foxtel is an Australian pay television company—operating in cable television, direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV streaming services. It was formed in April 2018, superseding an earlier company from 1995. The service was establi ...

, and

Austar Austar was an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity was subscription television but it has also been involved with internet access and mobile phones. It was founded in 1995 under the name Community Entertainment Tele ...

in Australia. Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network became two separate channels operating in Europe and the Indian subcontinent in 1999. On 3 April 2000, TNT was relaunched as an Asian version of Turner Classic Movies. In Malaysia, the channel was available on Mega TV until 1 October 2001. The channel has been discontinued on Mega TV from 1 October 2001. In India, this channel was exclusively available on

Dish TV Dish, dishes or DISH may refer to: Culinary * Dish (food), something prepared to be eaten * Dishware, plates and bowls for eating, cutting boards, silverware Communications * Dish antenna a type of antenna * Dish Network, a satellite televisio ...

until 15 March 2009. Now it is available on IN Digital Cable from the

Hinduja Group Hinduja Group is an Indian transnational conglomerate. The group is present in eleven sectors including automotive, oil and specialty chemicals, banking and finance, IT and ITeS, cyber security, healthcare, trading, infrastructure project ...

and from 31 August 2009, on

Tata Sky Tata Play (stylised as TΛTΛ PLΛY, formerly TΛTΛ , sky) is an Indian direct broadcast satellite (DTH) service provider using MPEG-4 digital compression technology, transmitting using INSAT-4A and GSAT-10 satellite. Incorporated in 2005; i ...

. The channel has been discontinued on

from 15 September 2012. From 1 July 2011, TCM's Australian and New Zealand feed began broadcasting in 16:9

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), 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 ...

. From 12 June 2012, TCM's Asian feed began broadcasting in 16:9

. From 13 December 2016, Australian satellite and cable provider Foxtel ceased to offer TCM. It is believed the cause of the removal was due to the channel's repeated broadcasting of a limited catalogue of films. Ultimately, this saw TCM no longer available in Australia. Foxtel has since been criticised by its customers for its decision. In December 2017 Starhub in Singapore unilaterally announced they were removing Turner Classic Movies from their channel line up at the end of the year, Meanwhile, Turner Classic Movies was only available on

Singtel TV Singtel TV (formerly known as Singtel IPTV and mio TV) is a pay television service provided by Singtel in Singapore. It is transmitted through Singtel's broadband network via an IPTV platform which uses Ericsson Mediaroom (originally develope ...

. On 30 November 2018,

Sky Network Television Sky Network Television Limited, more commonly known as Sky, is a New Zealand broadcasting company that provides pay television services via satellite, media streaming services and broadband internet services. It is also a wholesale channel prov ...

in New Zealand replaced the channel with their own version called Sky Movies Vintage. On 31 December 2018, Filipino cable provider

SkyCable Sky Cable (stylized as SKYcable) is a cable television service of Sky Cable Corporation in the Philippines. It covers areas across the country with both digital and analog cable services, and it has 700,000 subscribers, controlling 45% of ...

and Singaporean cable provider

Singtel Singapore Telecommunications Limited, commonly known as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate and one of the four major telcos operating in the country. The company is the largest mobile network operator in Singapore with ...

ceased to provide the channel. The channel ceased broadcasting on 2 January 2019, after which the channel space created in 1994 by TNT ceased to exist.

References

{{Authority control Movie channels in Australia Movie channels in Taiwan Warner Bros. Discovery Asia-Pacific Television channels and stations established in 1994 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2019 English-language television stations in Australia English-language television stations in New Zealand Turner Classic Movies Classic television networks Defunct television channels in India Defunct television channels