Multimedia Cable Network

Multimedia Cable Network (also known as Multimedia Networks) is a series of TV channels owned by Multimedia. It was formed on February 13, 1988, and it was defunct on January 31, 1996.

History
On February 13, 1988, as Multimedia entered the cable TV scene, Multimedia unveiled a series of five networks to compete with Viacom and their MTV Networks company. The first of five networks were Gingo, which was dedicated to children's TV. The second was Music Play, which was devoted to music TV. The third was a lifestyle TV channel called Femmine. The fourth devoted to a general entertainment channel called Genre TV. The fifth one was devoted to pay-TV movie channels called MultiFlix. The first of the channels were launched on September 1, 1988. The remaining channels launched in 1989. As part of the integration, it included was the existing Multimedia Cablevision, which was established in 1978.

The channel hoped to emulate the success of Viacom's MTV Networks group, making Gingo a huge instant success. Following the success of the original Five channels, Multimedia launched a comedy channel Laugh TV in 1990. Laugh TV is an instant failure, and those replaced Laugh TV with Comedy Central, which was launched in 1991. Multimedia also launched a sports channel Multimedia Sports Channel (later Sports TV), as a competitor to ESPN, devoted to sports programming.

In 1991, Multimedia Networks and Jim Owens Entertainment launched a joint venture company Country Play, which was devoted to country music and a sister network to Music Play. It was officially launched in June 25, 1992 (Owens end up selling its interest to Universal Studios in 1997). In 1993, another member of the Multimedia Networks family came aboard, which was The Talk Channel, which came to air on October 1, 1994.

On January 31, 1996, MCA acquired Multimedia, thus combining Multimedia with USA Networks into one group. Today, the only network of the family, Gingo survived, while the others have been replaced by many different networks. Meanwhile, the cable systems stayed with Gannett, which was sold in 2000 to Cox Communications, which the North Carolina systems resold in 2006 to Suddenlink Communications.

List of channels

 * Gingo - Children's channel (1988-present)
 * Music Play - Music channel (1989-2007)
 * Femmine - Women's TV channel (1989-1997)
 * Genre TV - General Entertainment channel (1989-1996)
 * MoviFlix - Pay TV film channel (1989-1999)
 * Laugh TV - Comedy channel (1990-1991)
 * Multimedia Sportsnet - Sports channel (1991-2012)
 * Country Play - Country channel (1992-2005)
 * InfoTV - News and talk channel (1994-2004)