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The Retro Television Network (branded on-air as Retrotv and alternately abbreviated below by its former on-air brand RTN for brevity) is an American broadcast television network that is owned by Luken Communications. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through the 1980s, although it also includes more recent programs from the 1990s and 2000s. Through its ownership by Luken, the Retro Television Network is a sister network to several broadcast network properties that are wholly or jointly owned by the company, including the family-oriented Family Channel and country music-oriented network Heartland. At its outset, the Retro Television Network was designed to be broadcast on the digital subchannels of television stations; however in recent years, the network's affiliate body has been drawn down to primarily low-power stations, as many station groups have replaced the network on the subchannels of their full-power major network affiliates with similarly formatted networks such as Antenna TV and Me-TV, which have assumed rights to many of the distributors that formerly held programming agreements with RTN. The network is also available nationwide on free-to-air C-band satellite via SES-2 in DVB-S2 format;〔(SES-2 at 87.0°W ), LyngSat 〕〔(Free TV from United States ), LyngSat 〕 as individualised transmitter-ready feeds for each station are centrally generated using broadcast automation and delivered to the stations by satellite. ==History== The Retro Television Network (originally branded as "RTN") launched in July 2005 on select television stations owned by the Equity Broadcasting Corporation (later known as Equity Media Holdings), a chain of small (often low-powered) satellite-fed UHF television stations controlled directly from Equity's headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. Equity had expanded quickly with purchases of many small stations in the early 2000s, but by 2008, the company was struggling to meet its obligations. In June 2008, while the company was undergoing financial troubles, Equity Media Holdings sold RTN to Henry Luken III's – Equity's former president and CEO, and the company's largest shareholder – Luken Communications for $18.5 million in cash. Equity had an option to repurchase the network for $27.75 million; the purchase option was not exercised and expired on December 24, 2008. Equity had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy three weeks before the expiration of the purchase option.〔(Arkansas Business: "Creditor Files to Liquidate Equity Media, Claims Company Cannot Meet Payroll Obligations", 12/10/2008. ) 〕 On January 4, 2009, a contract conflict between Equity and Luken Communications interrupted RTN programming on many of its affiliates with Luken alleging that Equity had left many obligations to RTN's creditors, including programming suppliers, unpaid. As a result, Luken restored a national feed of the network from its Chattanooga headquarters with individual feeds to affiliates not owned by Equity following suit on a piecemeal basis. Equity-owned-or-operated stations lost RTN affiliation, though Luken vowed to find new affiliates for the network in the affected areas. The Retro Television Network changed its on-air branding to "RTV" in June 2009 (a nod to the digital television transition that occurred that month, though a trademark dispute with the Racetrack Television Network was also a factor in the change)〔("RTN Rebrands as RTV" ), from broadcastingcable.com 6/17/2009 〕 In 2012, Retro dropped from 120 to 80 affiliates with many ABC affiliates switching to the Live Well Network. The network was rebranded as "Retro TV" in 2013. 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「Retro Television Network」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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