 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area |
|
| Headquarters |
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| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | 1080iHDTV (downscaled toletterboxed480i for theSDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Warner Bros. Discovery |
| Parent | CNN Worldwide |
| Sister channels | |
| History | |
| Launched | January 1, 1982; 43 years ago (1982-01-01)(as CNN2) August 9, 1982; 43 years ago (1982-08-09)(as Headline News) December 15, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-12-15)(as HLN) |
| Former names |
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| Links | |
| Website | www |
| Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| Audio available via some radio stations | Frequencies vary |
| Streaming media | |
| go.cnn.com | Live simulcast(Pay-TV subscribers only)HBO Max/Discovery+ |
| YouTube TV,Hulu with Live TV,Sling TV,DirecTV Stream | |
HLN is an Americanbasic cable network. Owned byCNN Worldwide, the network primarily carriestrue-crime programming, recentlydrifting away from limited live news programming.
The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982, byTurner Broadcasting asCNN2 (later renamedHeadline News orCNN Headline News), a sister network toCNN that broadcast a looping, half-hour cycle of segments covering various news topics. In 2005, HLN began to diverge from this format and air more personality-based programs, including aprimetimeblock featuringpundits such asGlenn Beck and legal commentatorNancy Grace. In the mid-2010s, HLN repositioned itself as asocial media-centric network, highlighting headlines popular onsocial networks, and introducing social media-themed shows. Under CNN presidentJeff Zucker, the channel began to backpedal on this programming in 2016, gradually shifting to a focus on crime, "regional" headlines, and entertainment stories (in contrast to CNN's current focus on politics) during its daytime programming, with true crime programs airing at all other times.
With the 2022 merger of CNN parentWarnerMedia andDiscovery Inc. to formWarner Bros. Discovery, HLN became a sister to Discovery's true-crime channelInvestigation Discovery (ID). In December 2022, then-new CNN presidentChris Licht announced that HLN would abandon original live news programming entirely as part of a reorganization, with the network now being overseen by ID's staff. For contractual reasons, HLN continues to air news content daily through a simulcast of CNN's early morning programming. The network's schedule outside of that has primarily featured true crime programs as before, in addition to occasional marathons of crime and legal dramas from theWarner Bros. Television library.
As of November 2023[update], HLN is available to approximately 68,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2011 peak of 100,000,000 households.[1] Since the mid-2000s, HLN has been available internationally on pay television providers in parts of Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa, and Canada.
The channel was launched at midnightEastern Time on January 1, 1982, asCNN2. The channel's launch wassimulcast nationwide on sister networks CNN and Superstation WTBS (now simplyTBS), starting at 11:45 p.m. on December 31, 1981, as a preview for cable providers that had not yet reached agreements to carry CNN2. Following a preview reel by original CNN anchorLou Waters and an introduction by founder and then-Turner Broadcasting CEOTed Turner,Chuck Roberts (who would become the channel's longest-serving news anchor, with a 28-year career with CNN2/Headline News that lasted until his retirement on July 30, 2010)[2] andDenise LeClair anchored the channel's first newscast.[3][4]
Originally, the channel's programming was formatted around the idea that a viewer could tune in at any time of day or night (instead of having to wait for the once- or twice-daily national news segments in local newscasts, or morning or evening network news programs), and receive up-to-date information on the top national and international stories in just 30 minutes. This "Headline News Wheel" format—which was derived from the "wheel" segment schedules used byall-news radio stations and repeated each half-hour—featured national and world news at the top of the hour (:00/:30), business and personal finance reports ("Dollars and Sense") at :15/:45 after the hour; sports scores and headlines ("Headline Sports") at :20/50 after; and lifestyle reports at :25/:55 after. The :25/:55 lifestyle segment was designed to allow local cable systems the option of pre-empting it with a local headline "capsule" from an associated regional cable news channel or a localtelevision station. Another regular feature, the "Hollywood Minute", was often fitted-in after the "Headline Sports" segment. In the channel's early years, a two-minuterecap of the hour's top stories, the "CNN Headlines," would run after the sports segment.
On August 9, 1982, what had been called "CNN2" for its first eight months on the air was renamedHeadline News,[5] though the network would be referred to on-air as "CNN Headline News" for much of the mid-1980s. (Beginning around 1988, some newspapers began referring to the channel as "HLN Headline News."[6]) By 1992, the channel was often abbreviated as "HN" (the channel would later incorporate a die-cut "HN" block design within the original variant of its third logo when it was introduced in 1989, before it was fully supplanted by thewordmark that accompanied it in 1992, which was later italicized). During its first year, Headline News had a competitor in the form ofABC/Group W'sSatellite News Channel, which operated from June 21, 1982, to October 27, 1983. After its shutdown, SNC's satellite slot was then purchased byTed Turner to expand Headline News' reach further into additional homes. Shortly after, sister station WTBS handed over production duties for theirNewsWatch news capsules to Headline News (resulting in these interstitials switching from an in-studio anchor format to being presented in voiceover only), and at various times, other specialized news capsules produced by Headline News aired as well; theNewsWatch segments as well as daily Headline News simulcasts were phased out on TBS's local and national feeds in 1996 after theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) relaxed regulatory requirements onpublic affairs programming.
Jon Petrovich was hired in the mid-1980s by Turner to lead Headline News.[7] In 1990, Headline News developedLocal Edition, a six-minute-long local newscast, whose content was produced by a local broadcast station in the participating market, airing at the end of each half-hour of Headline News' rolling news block.[8] The channel included the "CNN" branding in its name intermittently for most of its history, before being incorporated on a regular basis from 1997 to 2007 (though an alternate logo without the CNN logo was used for news broadcasts through 2001).
In 1989, Headline News introduced aticker that appeared at the lower one-third of the screen – except during commercial breaks, which initially showed specific financial data with indexes of the major international markets (including theDow Jones Industrial Average,NASDAQ and theS&P 500) and quotes for major companies during trading hours, which were updated on a 15-minute delay. In 1992, the channel added the "Headline News SportsTicker", which showed sports scores and schedules for the day's upcoming games, creating the first continuous news ticker on television. The redesign resulted in video of the rolling newscasts becomingpillarboxed with blue bars on the left and right wings of the screen (matching the ticker's original coloring), before it returned to a full-screen format, with the ticker becoming a translucent black background overlaid on the lower third of the video, as part of a 1994 update to the channel's graphics package that also added weather forecasts for select major U.S. cities to the ticker. At the same time, the network's bug was integrated into the ticker, and thus, the logo was no longer used in the copyright at the end of each broadcast.
Like CNN, the parent company Turner Broadcasting System was acquired byTime Warner in 1996.[9][10]
On January 8, 1992, Headline News almost became the victim of a hoax. When PresidentGeorge H. W. Bushfainted at a state dinner inTokyo, Japan, a person claiming to be the president's physician called into the channel's Atlanta headquarters and claimed that Bush had died. At 9:45 a.m., anchorDon Harrison prepared to break the story, stating "This just in to CNN Headline News, and we say right off the bat, we have not confirmed this through any other sources..."Executive producer Roger Bahre, who was off-camera, immediately yelled "No! Stop!"[11] After glancing away momentarily, Harrison continued, "We are now getting a correction. We will not give you that story. It was regarding some rather tragic news involving President Bush, but updating that story, President Bush is reported to be resting comfortably." It turned out that anIdaho man, James Edward Smith, called CNN posing as the president's physician. A CNN employee entered the information into a centralized computer used by both CNN and Headline News, and it nearly got out on the air before it could be verified. Smith was subsequently questioned by theSecret Service and hospitalized at a private medical facility for evaluation.[12]
In 1992, Headline News pioneered the use of a digital video "jukebox" to recycle segments of one newscast seamlessly into another. The new technology reduced the number of staffers needed by enabling news segments to be re-used throughout an entire day (previously, anchors read the same stories repeatedly, hour after hour, with the second 15 minutes of each half-hour in the "wheel" being broadcast on videotape every third and fourth hour). This resulted in the layoffs of part of its staff, including suchstalwart anchors asLyn Vaughn,David Goodnow andBob Losure, all of whom had been with Headline News for over 10 years.
On June 15, 1999, the network underwent a complete visual revamp, including an updated ticker (now dubbed the "Superticker"), a brand-new newsroom and studio, and a sectioning of the channel's schedule into four distinct dayparts, to convey the idea that, unlike CNN, which aired long-form programming such as discussion shows and documentaries, Headline News never stopped offering straight news coverage. The daypart blocks each ran for six hours and utilized their own special branding and color-coding (which extended to the graphics and segment introductions):First Watch (from 6:00 a.m.-12 midday Eastern Time, colored yellow),Second Watch (12 midday - 6:00 p.m. ET, colored red),Third Watch (6:00 p.m.-12 midnight ET, colored green), andLate Watch (12 midnight - 6:00 a.m. ET, colored blue). Additional segments were also added prior to commercial breaks:Best Bets On..., which provided top picks in categories such as films (with information supplied by publications owned by then-sister companyTime Inc.), andWeek-At-A-Glance, which provided summaries of important events occurring that week. To promote the change, two new slogans were introduced:Get To The Point News and24 Hour Nonstop Headlines (the latter frequently used in ident bumpers).[13]
On August 6, 2001, CNN Headline News unveiled a revamp of the network's on-air format, promoted with a new slogan,Real news, real fast. The centerpiece of the new format was the replacement of the network's ticker with a large pane across the bottom of the screen, which displayed headlines and other information (such as weather updates and sports news). The network also introduced another new studio and multi-anchor format, and announced plans to add more live rolling news coverage. CNN described the new design as being inspired by theinternet, in an attempt to appeal to younger viewers; theChicago Tribune noted that the channel's viewership had been dropping, and skewing towards viewers over 50, which are not desirable to most advertisers.[14][15]
Upon its launch, the new format received mixed reviews, with critics arguing that the new screen format conveyedtoo much information at once, distracting viewers from its main video programming. Critics also drew comparisons to financial news channels, as well as a similar increase in on-screen information announced by sports news serviceESPNews. Steve Johnson of theChicago Tribune explained that "the video portion of Headline News' subdivided screen occupies only about a third of the total real estate. My 27-inch set shrinks, in effect, to a 14-incher when tuned to Headline News. Never mind the old-school problem of trying to spot the hockey puck; people with smaller sets watching sports highlights here will have trouble finding a basketball."[14][15][16]
On February 3, 2003 Headline News moved to a fully live format from 6AM-Midnight weekdays.[17]This line-up would continue until Headline News began to move away from the newswheel in 2005.[18]
In February 2005, the network launched a new primetime block known asHeadline Prime; the block was designed to feature opinion-driven and personality-based programs (in contrast to the "hard news" programming of CNN), which network executiveKen Jautz described as a shift to "news to views".[19] Its launch lineup featuredPrime News Tonight, the entertainment news programShowbiz Tonight withA. J. Hammer, and aneponymous current affairs program hosted by legal commentatorNancy Grace, which featured news and analysis related to crime and court cases.[20][21]Noam Cohen ofThe New York Times described the new lineup as being reminiscent ofFox News Channel.[19]
In May 2006,Headline Prime added aneponymous program hosted byconservative talk radio hostGlenn Beck. BothNancy Grace andGlenn Beck brought major ratings gains to Headline News, especially within thekey demographics, although its daytime programming only saw modest increases.Exposed: The Extremist Agenda, a Glenn Beck special aired in November 2006, broke a million viewers and was the network's most-watched program of the year.[19] That year, Headline News also launched a morning show hosted byRobin Meade,Robin & Company—which was later re-branded asMorning Express in 2007.[22]
On December 15, 2008, alongside an associated revamp of CNN's on-air presentation, Headline News underwent a rebranding with a newspeech bubble-themed logo, and officially adopted the initialism "HLN" as its on-air name. "News and Views" was also adopted as the network's new slogan.[23][24] In September 2010,Scott Safon was named as president of HLN, succeeding Jautz (who was promoted to president of the main CNN channel).[25]
On November 4, 2011, HLN launched its own website at HLNtv.com, which featured content related to HLN television programs, and other "must see and must share" stories.[26]
In May 2012, HLN acquired the rights to broadcast theDaytime Emmy Awards, beginning with the39th annual event on June 23, 2012; this marked the first time that the awards ceremony was aired on pay television, instead ofterrestrial television.[27] With 912,000 viewers (not counting four repeat broadcasts, which brought the total to two million), the broadcast was "the most watched regularly scheduled, non-news telecast" ever on HLN.[28]
Nancy Grace would achieve notoriety for its extensive coverage of thedisappearance and death of two year-old Caylee Anthony;[29] HLN was credited with having "almost single-handedly inflated the Anthony case from a routine local murder into a national obsession".[30][31] HLN subsequently devoted a significant amount of coverage to the murder trial against Caylee's mother Casey Anthony—whom Grace referred to as the "tot mom" on-air[29]—including live gavel-to-gavel coverage, followed by continued coverage and commentary during primetime programs such asNancy Grace. HLN reached an average audience of 982,000 viewers in June 2011, andNancy Grace experienced an 80% increase in viewership—second only toThe O'Reilly Factor on Fox News in its time slot.[32][33]
During the reading of the verdict on July 5, 2011, HLN achieved a record-high peak audience of 5.2 million viewers, whileNancy Grace achieved a record-high 2.9 million viewers, beating other basic cable news channels (including Fox News) in the 8 p.m. hour.[34] HLN executive vice president Scot Safon called the trial "a gigantic deal" for the network.[35]
Later that year, HLN provided similar coverage for the trial ofConrad Murray, who wasaccused of prescribing the drugs that caused thedeath of Michael Jackson. Although the Conrad Murray trial did not initially have as strong of an impact on ratings as the Casey Anthony trial, viewership began to increase during the testimony phase, and HLN reported that 2.1 million viewers were watching the network during the reading of the guilty verdict. The network reported a 98% year-over-year gain in viewership for the month of October 2011.[36]
Albie Hecht joined HLN as Executive Vice President and GM in September 2013.[37] In November 2013, consumer advocateClark Howard ended his five-year relationship with HLN, including his appearances onMorning Express with Robin Meade andEvening Express as well as his own eponymous weekend afternoon program. The move came in response to planned changes occurring at HLN, which sought to re-position the network as the "first TV home for thesocial media generation."[38]
Throughout 2014, HLN's news content began to skew towardsmillennials, with an increasing focus on content popular onsocial networks alongside major headlines. For a period, HLN also airedRightThisMinute, asyndicated program focusing onviral videos. In June 2014, Time Warner made a bid to acquire a stake inVice Media, with an intent for the company to take over and relaunch HLN. Time Warner abandoned the deal in August,[39][40] and Vice subsequently partnered withA&E Networks to launchViceland in 2016.[41]
These plans culminated on January 13, 2015, when HLN underwent a major revamp in its programming and on-air presentation; the network introduced several new social media-themed programs, including the new afternoon blockThe Daily Share,Jack Vale: Offline – adocusoap followingYouTuberJack Vale,Ali Nejad'sThe Social Life, andKeywords, a social media-themedgame show hosted bySummer Sanders. HLN also adopted an updated logo, and introduced a new set at Studio 7 of the CNN Center, used byMorning Express andThe Daily Share. The new studio had a "coffee house"-styled design with no traditional anchor desk, and a "Social Circle" designed to encourage interaction between hosts and guests.T-Mobile US also signed on to serve as a sponsor forThe Daily Share, allowing on-set branding and sponsored segments during the program.[42][43]
In late-May 2015,The Daily Share was cut from five hours to two, with the remainder of its timeslot filled by CNN original series and specials, followed by next-day encores ofNancy Grace andDr. Drew On Call.[44]
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On November 24, 2015, CNN Worldwide presidentJeff Zucker announced, in a memo to network staff, that Hecht would depart HLN; Ken Jautz, who oversaw the network as its president prior to Hecht's appointment in 2013, would head the network in the interim. The memo outlined plans to restructure its daytime and overnight programming to more closely resemble CNN, including a focus on documentary films.[45][46][47][48]
In June 2016, HLN announced thatErica Hill would re-join the network to host a new, afternoon program fromNew York later in the year.[49] Later that month, HLN also announced thatMichaela Pereira, a former anchor of CNN'sNew Day, would host the new Los Angeles-based morning showMichaeLA beginning on July 11, 2016. The new program was positioned as a companion toMorning Express, airing from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET (7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. PT), and promoted as an alternative to network morning showstape-delayed from airings for the East Coast.[50]
On June 30, 2016,Nancy Grace announced that she would end her show and leave HLN in October 2016, after nearly a decade with the network.[51] It was replaced by a new program,Primetime Justice withAshleigh Banfield.[52] Erica Hill's new program,On the Story, premiered on October 10, 2016.[53]
In January 2017, HLN announced the January 27 premiere ofHow It Really Happened, a new documentary series hosted byHill Harper reporting on the "most notorious crimes, mysteries, trials, and celebrity tragedies of our time". The series was the first production of CNN's Original Series Development staff that was developed specifically for HLN.[54] On January 30, 2017, it was announced that CNN anchorCarol Costello would return to HLN to host a new program from Los Angeles.[55] In March 2017, HLN announced thatS.E. Cupp would host a new early-evening program on HLN,S. E. Cupp Unfiltered, beginning in June 2017.[56]
On May 8, 2017, HLN underwent a rebranding, adopting a new logo and slogan, "News that hits home". The network began to position its news content towards regional headlines, crime, and entertainment stories — leaving CNN to focus upon "in-depth" political coverage and world affairs.[57] In January 2018, HLN began to reintroduce the Headline News brand during its news programming (although HLN remains the network's primary name), and also introducedHeadlines Now—a recap of top stories airing every half-hour during its daytime lineup.[58]
In August 2018,S.E. Cupp Unfiltered was quietly moved to CNN as a weekly program on Saturday evenings.[59] On October 16, 2018, HLN cancelledAcross America with Carol Costello,MichaeLA, andCrime & Justice with Ashleigh Banfield. With the cancellation of the three shows,Morning Express with Robin Meade brought back its original five-hour timeslot from 6:00 a.m. to noon, andOn the Story was expanded to three hours and will air from noon until 3:00 p.m.[60]
By 2022,On the Story and other live programming such asTrue Crime Live had been cancelled, leaving only one news program each day –Morning Express on weekdays, andWeekend Express on Saturday and Sunday mornings – which were followed bytrue crime documentaries such asForensic Files for the remainder of the broadcast day.
On December 1, 2022, as part of cost-cutting measures imposed by new ownerWarner Bros. Discovery (WBD)—formed earlier that year with the merger of previous ownerWarnerMedia withDiscovery, Inc.—new CNN presidentChris Licht announced that HLN would no longer produce original live news programming effective December 6, and that HLN would merge its operations with sister channelInvestigation Discovery under Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks head Kathleen Finch.[61] Licht stated that the company was aiming to direct its resources towards CNN's "core news programming and products" going forward.[62]
On December 6, the channel began simulcastingCNN This Morning daily during part of the previousMorning Express andWeekend Express timeslots, transitioning to the morning edition ofCNN News Central as of February 26, 2024; one observer has indicated that HLN is still required to carry some news programming in order to fulfill contracts with cable providers.[63] True crime documentary programs—primarilyForensic Files, though initially including original episodes of series commissioned prior to the restructuring such asReal Life Nightmare—air throughout the rest of the day, along with marathons ofWarner Bros. Television drama series on weekends to promote their availability onthe Max streaming service.[61][62] Some analysts have suggested that this may be just a transitional move towards WBD using the channel space for a different format entirely.[64]
Prior to its reformulation as a true crime channel, HLN's weekday lineup consisted primarily of rolling news programming during the morning and early afternoon. The final original news programs that aired under this format wereMorning Express, amorning news program hosted byRobin Meade with co-anchorsBob Van Dillen,Jennifer Westhoven andHines Ward, and Saturday and Sunday equivalentWeekend Express, hosted bySusan Hendricks, both of which were canceled in December 2022.[62] As of this time, the only remaining live news program on the channel is a simulcast of the morning edition ofCNN News Central, intended primarily to satisfy carriage agreements requiring a quota of live news programming on the channel.[61][62]
HLN's remaining dayparts primarily feature a focus ontrue crime programming. The network has extensively airedreruns of the formerCourt TV seriesForensic Files; as of April 2016, the program took up about 58% of the channel's weekly schedule.[65] In March 2017, HLN executive Ken Jautz stated that the network was making an effort to produce more original series; some of the new series that were slated to premiere in 2017, includingBeyond Reasonable Doubt,Something's Killing Me,Inside with Chris Cuomo (which premiered October 20),[66] and the second season ofHow It Really Happened (whose first season premiered January 27, 2017), were designed to complement the popularity ofForensic Files and other true crime programs, as well as HLN's renewed focus on crime coverage as part of its news programming.[56][54][57] After airing new episodes in simulcast with CNN in 2016,[67]The Hunt with John Walsh moved to HLN for its fourth season.[68] In February 2020, HLN premieredForensic Files II, a revival ofForensic Files.[69] In April 2024,How It Really Happened moved its first-run episodes to CNN.[70]
HLN has occasionally experimented with entertainment programming carrying news and political themes; on February 12, 2015, HLN aired the filmGlory under the bannerNews and a Movie, which was accompanied by panel discussions on the film's cultural relevance in the present day.[71] AlongsideTruTV, HLN also aired encores of special episodes of TBS'slate night talk showConan set inCuba andArmenia.[72][73] In November 2022, HLN aired a marathon of the first four seasons of Warner Bros.-produced political dramaThe West Wing over theThanksgiving holiday weekend, marking the first time HLN had aired a scripted television series.[74]
The network has also, in recent years, served as an additional outlet forTNT Sports broadcasts, including joining its sister channels in simulcasting Turner's golf event franchiseThe Match,[75] and serving as an overflow channel in the event of conflicts with TBS, TNT, andTruTV.[76]
At 4:00 a.m. ET on weekdays, HLN used to broadcastCNN Student News (formerly known asCNN Newsroom from its 1989 debut, not to be confused with the current CNN program of the same name), a 10-minute news program designed for broadcast in schools that is produced as part of theCable in the Classroom initiative; the program is anchored by Carl Azuz, with reports on the day's news presented in a simplified format (and with stories featuring graphic imagery or adult themes usually left out from the program). It no longer airs on HLN as of 2014, but is still available as a free podcast on CNN's website andiTunes. On December 16, 2016, the program was renamedCNN 10.
Due to the channel's tradition of airing rolling news coverage, HLN had become popular with people who may not have time to watch lengthy news reports, and as a fast source of news for public locations likeairports,bars, and many other places.Supermarkets that carried the discontinuedCNN Checkout Channel service were offered a feed of Headline News to broadcast on its televisions.[77]
The channel's program audio was alsosimulcast on AM radio stations across the country viaWestwood One, including a station in Atlanta which was not owned by Turner,WCNN (today asports talk station with the same call letters), which broadcast from CNN Center with local contributions; all of CNN's U.S. radio operations (including the HLN simulcast) were discontinued on April 1, 2012, as part of Westwood One's dissolution intoDial Global. HLN's audio feed was carried onXM Satellite Radio channel 123 andSirius Satellite Radio channel 116. Since the merger of both entities asSirius XM, it is now carried on channel 117. From February 2019 to May 2023, the audio simulcast was also distributed onEntercom's Radio.com (nowAudacy) website and app.[78]
On July 18, 2011, HLN launchedTV Everywhere streaming through the CNNmobile app for subscribers on participating television providers.[79]
From its inception, Turner Broadcasting hadsyndicated portions of CNN2/Headline News's schedule to local television stations throughout the country—typically in half-hour or hour-long blocks—for broadcast in various timeslots of their choice (usually in morning, daytime or late access slots during the network's early years). Most of them were commercial outlets, including both major network affiliates andindependent stations (some likeWSVN inMiami, following its January 1989affiliation switch from NBC toFox, even carried it as a stand-in evening network newscast), though a fewpublic television stations (such asPBS memberWTTW inChicago) carried blocks of its newscasts into the late 1980s.
WTBS, initially to encourage its national viewers to ask their local cable provider to carry the network full-time, aired a half-hour simulcast of Headline News each morning at 5:30 a.m. ET from the latter's inception until 1996 (a separate simulcast aired locally at 6:00 a.m. in the Atlanta market). Abbreviated Headline News broadcasts would also occasionally serve as filler (bookended by theNewsWatch intro and outro) before the start of movie presentations or live sporting events. (WPCH-TV, which fully separated its Atlanta signal from the national TBS feed in October 2007, aired a simulcast of the first hour ofMorning Express daily at 6:00 a.m. untilMeredith Corporation—which had been managing the station alongside CBS-affiliated sister WGCL-TV (nowWANF) since 2011—completed its purchase of WPCH from Turner/Time Warner in 2017, replacing it with a simulcast of WGCL's local morning newscast.)
The early 1990s saw the culmination of Headline News' supplemental syndication model as many commercial stations (particularly affiliates of ABC,NBC andCBS) that were transitioning over to instituting 24-hour broadcasts began taking feeds of the channel's overnight programming, in lieu of scheduling syndicated entertainment programs, movies orinfomercials to fill their previous nightlysign-off periods. Headline News had gained competition in that market during that approximate timeframe through the November 1989 launch ofAll News Channel, a hybrid syndicated news service and satellite television network (operated by theHubbard Broadcasting–Viacom joint venture CONUS Communications) that also began syndicating its programming feed to stations seeking to fill local airtime in overnight time periods as well as other dayparts. In later years, even after the "Big Three" networks launched their own overnight news programs—Nightside on NBC,World News Now on ABC, andUp to the Minute on CBS—over the course of the 1991–92 season in the wake of theGulf War (which they developed coincidentally to compete with CNN, which was lauded for its round-the-clock war coverage in early 1991), Headline News programming continued to air on many of their affiliates as a complement to the network broadcasts; besides this, it also provided them with an overnight news option during the weekend, when no such option was offered (outside ofNightside during its 1991–98 run).[80][81]
The supplemental broadcast distribution ended following the 2005 introduction of the "Headline Prime" block, forcing many affiliates (including NBC stations that lost a network news option following the September 1998 cancellation ofNightside) to fill airtime previously reserved for Headline News broadcasts with syndicated and paid programming.
Until 1995, much of Headline News' programming was simulcast on sister channel CNN International; the channel's news ticker was not displayed on CNN International during its simulcasts of Headline News programming.
London'sThames Television, as part of theirThames Into The Night overnight service, briefly aired a half-hour of Headline News at 5:30 AM in 1988, before ITN launched their ownearly morning bulletin later that year.[82][83][84]
Beginning in the mid-2000s, the channel has been available in certain countries outside the United States, particularly inAsia,Latin America,Middle East andNorth Africa. Although the international feed's programming lineup is identical to the U.S. feed, program teasers, stock market figures, and weather forecasts for Asian and Latin American, Middle East and North African cities are used as break fillers in lieu of US-oriented commercials.
In Canada, the American feed of HLN is available on most cable and satellite providers, as it is authorized for carriage as a foreign cable television service by theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission; save for a few differences it features the same programming schedule as that seen in the United States, although some programs are blacked out to protect other rightsholders.
An hour ofMorning Express aired on tape-delay during the overnight on the cable/satellite feed of CNN Philippines.
HLN broadcasts inhigh definition1080i resolution format. It is available nationally on nearly all pay-TV providers within the United States, and in Canada on satellite providerBell Satellite TV, which downconverts the HD feed's picture resolution to720p.
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