|
Cinemax (sometimes abbreviated as "Max") is an American premium cable and satellite television network that is owned by the Home Box Office Inc. operating subsidiary of Time Warner. Cinemax primarily broadcasts theatrically released feature films, along with original action series, softcore pornographic series and films, documentaries and special behind-the-scenes features. , Cinemax's programming is available to approximately 21.381 million television households (18.4% of cable, satellite and telco customers) in the United States (20.926 million subscribers or 18% of all households with pay television service receive at least Cinemax's primary channel). ==History== Cinemax launched on August 1, 1980 as HBO's answer to The Movie Channel (which at the time, was owned by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, a joint venture between Time Warner predecessor Warner Communications and American Express; TMC is now owned by the Showtime Networks subsidiary of CBS Corporation – previously under Viacom from 1983 to 2005). Cinemax was originally owned by Time-Life Inc., which later merged with Warner Communications in 1989 to form the present-day Time Warner. Unlike HBO – and most cable and broadcast channels already on the air at the time of its launch – Cinemax had broadcast a 24-hour-a-day schedule from its sign-on (HBO ran only nine hours of programming a day from 3:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern Time until September 1981, when it adopted a 24-hour weekend schedule that ran until midnight Eastern Time on Sunday nights; it implemented the round-the-clock schedule on weekdays as well on December 28 of that year). On-air spokesman Robert Culp told viewers that Cinemax would be about movies, and nothing but movies. At the time, HBO featured a wider range of programming, including some entertainment news interstitials, documentaries, children's programming, sporting events and television specials (in the form of Broadway plays, stand-up comedy acts and concerts). Movie classics were a mainstay of Cinemax at its birth, presented "all uncut and commercial-free" as Culp said on-air. A heavy schedule of films from the 1950s to the 1970s made up most of the channel's program schedule. Cinemax succeeded in its early years because cable television subscribers typically had access to only about three dozen channels due to the fact that system headends at the time of Cinemax's debut were capable of carrying only a limited number of channels. Movies were the most sought-after program category among cable subscribers, and the fact that Cinemax would show classic films without commercial interruptions and editing for time and content made the channel an attractive add-on for HBO subscribers. In many cases, cable providers would not sell Cinemax to customers who did not already have a subscription to HBO. The two channels were typically sold as a package, and were usually offered at a discount for subscribers that chose to get both channels. The typical pricing for a monthly subscription to HBO in the early 1980s was US$12.95 per month, while Cinemax typically could be added for between US$7 and $10 extra per month. In 1983, Time-Life Inc. filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit against independent station KOKI-TV (now a Fox affiliate) in Tulsa, Oklahoma and its owners Tulsa 23, Ltd. over the use of the slogan "We Are Your Movie Star", which both the television station and Cinemax were using as their slogans at that time; the suit went into proceedings in an Oklahoma Federal District Court, Cinemax lost the case. As additional movie-oriented channels launched on cable television, Cinemax began to change its programming philosophy in order to maintain its subscriber base. First, the channel opted to schedule R-rated movies during daytime slots (HBO would only show R-rated movies during the nighttime hours, after 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time, a policy that network largely continues to adhere to ); Cinemax then decided it could compete by airing more adult-oriented movies that contained nudity and depictions of sexual intercourse, launching the weekly "Friday After Dark" late-night block in 1984 (which also featured the short-lived adult drama ''Scandals'', and a series of anthology specials under the ''Eros America'' and ''Eros International'' banners). During the network's first decade on the air, Cinemax had also aired some original music programming: during the mid-to-late 1980s, upon the meteoric rise in popularity of MTV, Cinemax began airing music videos in the form of an interstitial that ran during extended breaks between films called ''MaxTrax''; it also ran music specials under the banner ''Cinemax Sessions'' as well as the music interview and performance series ''Album Flash'' during that same time period. The mid- and late-1980s also saw the addition of a limited amount of series programming onto Cinemax's schedule including the sketch comedy series ''Second City Television'' (whose U.S. broadcast rights were acquired by the channel from NBC in 1983) and the science fiction series ''Max Headroom'' (which had also aired on ABC from 1987 to 1988). Comedy specials were also occasionally broadcast on the channel during the late 1980s, under the ''Cinemax Comedy Experiment'' banner, featuring free-form sketch and improvisational styles from various rising and established stand-up comics (such as Howie Mandel, Chris Elliott and Eric Bogosian). Although its programming had diversified, Cinemax had foremost remained a movie channel. In February 1988, the network premiere broadcast of the 1987 action-comedy ''Lethal Weapon'' became the highest rated telecast in Cinemax's history at that time, averaging a 16.9 rating and 26 share. By 1990, Cinemax limited its programming lineup mainly to movies. However starting in 1992, Cinemax re-entered into television series development with the addition of adult-oriented scripted series similar in content to the softcore pornographic films featured on the channel in late night (such as the network's first original adult series ''Erotic Confessions'', and later series entries such as ''Hot Line'', ''Passion Cove'', ''Lingerie'' and ''Co-Ed Confidential''), marking a return to adult series for the channel. From 1992 to 1997, Cinemax aired daily movie showcases in set timeslots, centering around a certain genre which differed each day of the week; with the introduction of a new on-air presentation package in 1993, the genre of a given showcase was represented by various pictograms that usually appeared within a specialized feature presentation bumper before the start of the movie; the symbols included: "Comedy" (represented by an abstract face made up of various movie props, with an open mouth made to appear like it is laughing),〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.gatasi.com/video/ba9Ti7VboiY/cinemax-monday-comedy.html )〕 "Suspense" (represented by a running man silhouette within a jagged film strip), "Premiere" (represented by an exclamation mark immersed in spotlights), "Horror" (represented by a skull augmented with a devil horn and a gear-shaped eye, overlaid in front on a casket), "Drama" (represented by abstract comedy and tragedy masks), "Vanguard" (represented by a globe overlaid on a film strip), "Action" (represented by a machine gun and an explosion) and "Classic" (represented by a classic movie-era couple embracing and kissing). The particular film genre that played on the specific day (and time) varied by country. In the United States: * Monday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time: Comedy * Tuesday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time: Suspense * Wednesday (originally Friday), 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time: Vanguard * Thursday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time: Drama (originally Horror)〔 * Friday (originally Wednesday),〔 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time: Premiere * Saturday, 10:00 p.m. (originally 11:30 p.m.) Eastern Time:〔 Action * Sunday, Noon Eastern Time: Classic In Latin America: * Monday: Comedy * Tuesday: Classic * Wednesday: Drama * Thursday: Horror / Suspense * Friday: Vanguard * Saturday: Premiere * Sunday: Action These genre-based movie presentations ended in September 1997, as part of an extensive rebranding of the network; Cinemax's only themed movie presentations at that point became a nightly featured movie at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time (under the branding "Max Hits at 8") and a nightly primetime movie at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time (branded as "Max Prime at 10"). Upon the launch of the two multiplex channels in 1998, Cinemax offered "sneak preview" blocks of programs that could be seen on ActionMax and ThrillerMax in primetime, respectively on Saturdays and Sundays. By the mid-2000s, classic films released from the 1940s to the 1970s – which had been a mainstay of the Cinemax schedule from its launch (and continued to air on the main channel in the morning hours during the 1990s and early 2000s) – were relegated to some of its multiplex channels, and became prominent on its multiplex service, 5StarMax. Today, a large majority of mainstream films featured on the main channel are releases from the 1990s to the present, with some films from the 1970s and 1980s included on the schedule. In 2001, Cinemax began to shift its focus from solely airing second-run feature films that were previously broadcast on sister channel HBO before their Cinemax debut, to premiering select blockbuster and lesser-known theatrical films before their initial broadcast on HBO. In February 2011, Cinemax announced that it would begin offering mainstream original programming (in the form of action-themed series aimed at men between the ages of 18 and 49) to compete with sister channel HBO, and rivals Showtime and Starz – as well as due to competition from other movie services such as Netflix; these programs were also added in an effort to change the longstanding image of Cinemax as a channel mostly known for carrying softcore pornographic series and movies (although its adult programming continues to appear as part of the channel's late night schedule). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cinemax」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|