.svg){kind=logo} | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | 30 Rockefeller Plaza,New York City |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English Spanish |
| Picture format | 1080iHDTV 4K (upscaled from 1080i, special occasions[1]) (downscaled toletterboxed480i for theSDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| Parent | NBCUniversal Media Group |
| Sister channels | |
| History | |
| Launched |
|
| Founder | Kay Koplovitz |
| Former names | Madison Square Garden Sports Network (1977–1980) |
| Links | |
| Website | usanetwork.com |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Streaming Services | YouTube TV,Hulu with Live TV,Sling TV,DirecTV Stream,FuboTV |
USA Network (or simplyUSA) is an Americanbasic cabletelevision channel owned by theNBCUniversal Media Group division ofComcast'sNBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 asMadison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports cable television channels.
It was relaunched under its current name on April 9, 1980, and in the years since then, USA steadily gained popularity through its original programming, a long-established partnership with WWF/WWE and, for many years, limitedsports programming. USA increased its sports coverage significantly in 2022, after the shutdown ofNBCSN, and now serves as the main cable component ofNBC Sports.
As of November 2023[update], USA Network is available to approximately 70,000,000 pay television households in the United States, down from its 2011 peak of 100,000,000 households.[2]
USA Network was launched on September 22, 1977, as the Madison Square Garden Sports Network[3] (not to be confused with theNew York City-arearegional sports network now known as theMSG Network). The network was founded by cable providerUA-Columbia Cablevision and theMadison Square Garden Corp. From its first two decades, the network was run by chairwoman and CEOKay Koplovitz.[4] The channel was one of the first national cable television channels, utilizingsatellite delivery as opposed to the then-industry standardmicrowave relay to distribute its programming to cable systems. Unlike other cable networks at the time, it also was the first to rely greatly on advertising revenue.[5] At launch the network mostly broadcast sporting events from Madison Square Garden to a national audience (sharing programming with the aforementioned MSG Network). The network quickly added a mix of college and less well-known professional sports held at other venues, similar to those found during the early years ofESPN. In 1978, children's programming was also added to the lineup.[4]
On April 9, 1980, the channel changed its name to USA Network. It also added a children's program calledCalliope to its schedule and sometalk shows in an effort to appeal to women. The new network also offered a programming block fromBlack Entertainment Television (which would eventually launch as its own network three years later, but now owned by Paramount as of 2001) and carriedC-SPAN during the day.[6]
In 1981, ownership of the network changed. First,Time Inc. agreed to buy UA-Columbia's share of the network contingent upon Madison Square Garden ownerGulf + Western transferring its share of the network to itsParamount Pictures division.[7] Shortly thereafterMCA Inc. also bought into the network with the three companies each owning an equal share.[8] The three partners had anon-compete clause that would prevent them from owning other basic cable networks independently from the USA joint venture; however, it was acknowledged that Time also owned powerful USA Network rivalHome Box Office.[9] This clause would cause Time Inc. to drop out of the venture in 1987, as the company attempted (but failed) to buyCNN fromTed Turner and run it independently from USA.[10] MCA and Paramount subsequently became the sole owners of the channel (being a 50/50 joint venture between the two companies).
C-SPAN stopped sharing satellite space with USA on April 1, 1982, after having launched its own 24-hour feed two months earlier.[11] USA began operating on a 24-hour schedule, programming its new daytime block with the British soap operaCoronation Street, a health-oriented show namedAlive and Well, and an afternoon movie.[12]
In fall 1982, the channel began running a mix of 1960s and 1970sHanna-Barbera cartoons each weekday evening from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. as part of the newUSA Cartoon Express block, with sports programming airing after 7:00 p.m., which were rebroadcast during the overnight hours. Weekends featured a mix of movies, some older drama series and talk shows during the morning hours, and sports during the afternoons and evenings. Overnights consisted of old low-budget films and film shorts, and music videos as part of a show calledNight Flight.
Between 1984 and 1986, USA's programming focus began shifting away from sports,[13] and shifted towards general entertainment programs not found on broadcast stations, including some less common network drama series, situation comedies and cartoons.
For the 1985–1986 season, the channel had four hours of original and exclusive shows. One original series from the 1985–1986 season was the comedyCheck It Out!. USA, wanting to become the flagship cable channel and compete directly with the broadcast networks, committed to 26 half-hours of part exclusive off-broadcast network and part original programming for the 1986–1987 season at an increase of $30 million. In one case, the channel picked upAirwolf for 58 off-network episodes, while commissioning 24 new episodes without the original cast.[14]
One tradition on USA was an afternoon lineup ofgame show reruns mixed in with several original low-budget productions that aired over the years. It began in October 1984 with reruns ofThe Gong Show andMake Me Laugh. In September 1985, the network began airing its first original game show, a revival of the mid-1970s game showJackpot; two more original game shows,Love Me, Love Me Not, and a revival of the 1980 seriesChain Reaction, were added in September 1986. More shows were progressively added soon afterward such asThe Joker's Wild,Tic-Tac-Dough,Press Your Luck,High Rollers, andHollywood Squares (withJohn Davidson as its "Square-Master", or host), along withWipeout,Face the Music, andName That Tune. In June 1987, the channel debuted another original game show,Bumper Stumpers (all four USA original game shows in this era were taped in Canada). When it began, the game-show block ran for an hour, but it expanded significantly the following year. By 1989, the network ran game shows Monday through Fridays from noon to 5:00 p.m. eastern. USA also aired late night reruns ofProcter & Gamble soap operasThe Edge Of Night from August 5, 1985, to January 19, 1989, along withSearch For Tomorrow from 1987 until the summer of 1989. In January 1989, USA debutedUSA Up All Night, a showcase of low-budget feature films that aired as part of its weekend overnight schedule.Up All Night became a cult favorite among viewers for the comedic wraparound segments that were usually shown during breaks leading into (and sometimes, out of) commercials and between films that were hosted by comedianGilbert Gottfried and model/actressRhonda Shear, the latter of whom had replaced original co-host Caroline Schlitt in 1991. Though this program was discontinued on March 7, 1998, late-night movie telecasts on USA continued to be branded under the "Up All Night" banner until 2002.
Short news updates, branded asUSA Updates, were broadcast early on, from 1989 until 2000. These segments were first produced out ofKYW-TV inPhiladelphia, as the station had already produced a number of syndicated news services (including theGroup W Newsfeed) andSteve Bell, the former newsreader onGood Morning America, was employed as a primary anchor at the station. By 1993, production of USA Updates had been taken over by theAll News Channel (operated as a joint venture ofHubbard Broadcasting's andViacom's CONUS Communications); Bell had left KYW in 1992, when KYW's news operations were heavily revamped in response to falling ratings. Via the ANC connection, USA also aired the financial news programFirst Business (then produced by CONUS) at 6:30am weekday mornings for a time (the network had previously carriedWall Street Journal-produced financial news updates and a late-night report in the 1980s[15][16]).[17][18] The ANC-produced updates continued through 2000 (ANC was suffering heavily around this time due to competition with other cable news channels such asCNN and the then-similarly formattedHeadline News, and ended up shutting down in 2002); USA Network has not carried any news programming since the news updates were removed.
USA was the first basic cable channel to pre-empt the syndicated television market by purchasing a package of 26 films fromDisney'sTouchstone Pictures library in October 1989. To obtain the package, it spent an estimated $50 million to $60 million, with films including such box office hits asDead Poets Society,Good Morning, Vietnam, andThree Men and a Baby.[19]
The tradition of game show reruns continued into the 1990s with the$25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, the early 1990s revivals ofThe Joker's Wild andTic-Tac-Dough, and other well-known shows such asScrabble,Sale of the Century,Talk About, andCaesars Challenge. Additionally, two more original game shows were added in June 1994; these wereFree 4 All andQuicksilver. In September 1991, the block was reduced to three hours, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Eastern. However, an additional hour was added in March 1993. In November 1994, the game show block was cut back to only two hours, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
On September 24, 1992, USA launched a sister network, the Sci-Fi Channel (nowSyfy), focusing onscience fiction series and films.
In January 1993, the channel began showingWWF Monday Night Raw, which was the first weekly WWF program on USA to air in front of a live audience. In September 1993, USA adopted a new on-air look centering on the slogan "The Remote Stops Here", with flat graphics suggesting a television camera's in-lens symbols and music consisting of electric guitar and synthesized noises, though the movie presentation openers were retained from the previous design.
In 1994, Paramount Pictures parent Paramount Communications was sold tothe original iteration of Viacom; the following year, MCA was acquired bySeagram. In April 1996, Viacom, which also ownedMTV Networks, launched a new classic television network calledTV Land. MCA subsequently sued Viacom forbreach of contract, claiming that it had violated the non-compete clause in its joint venture agreement with MCA.[20] A judge presiding over the case sided with MCA,[21] and Viacom subsequently sold its stake in USA and the Sci-Fi Channel to Seagram for $1.7 billion.[22] In turn, Seagram sold acontrolling interest in the networks toBarry Diller – who was previously head of Paramount Pictures when the company owned part of the network in the early 1980s and who was also credited with putting together the 1981 agreement which resulted in joint Paramount-Time-MCA ownership of the network[9] – in February 1998, which led to the creation ofUSA Networks, Inc.;[23][24] the company also merged the cable channels with Diller's existing television properties including theHome Shopping Network and its broadcasting unit Silver King Broadcasting (which was restructured asUSA Broadcasting, and eventually sold its stations toUnivision Communications in 2001 to form the nucleus ofTelefutura/UniMás).
In July 1995, USA began simulcasting the business news channelBloomberg Information TV Monday thru Saturday from 5:00 to 7:00 a.m. Eastern; in 2004, the Bloomberg simulcast moved toE!, where it ran until 2007 (USA was actually the second television network to simulcast Bloomberg's programming, the now-defunctAmerican Independent Network also carried a simulcast of the channel during the mid-1990s). Bloomberg purchased the airtime from USA.[25] In October 1995, the network dropped the entire game show block; it was replaced with a block calledUSA Live, which carried reruns ofLove Connection andThe People's Court, with live hosted wraparound segments between shows; that block was dropped by 1997 (some of the game shows that USA had aired can still be seen onGSN andBuzzr).
On June 17, 1996, the network unveiled a new on-air appearance, which included the introduction of a new logo (incorporating a star ridged into the "U" of the now-serifed "USA" logotype, replacing the Futura-typeface logo that had been in use since the network's start under the USA Network name in 1980), and a three-note jingle. Network IDs, feature presentation intros for movies and promo graphics were based around a behind-the-scenes look at the fictional "USA Studios"; some of the IDs showed people in the control room, while a studio that was being set-up by a crew was the backdrop for the "Tonight" menu that displayed the evening's schedule. Opening sequences leading into movie telecasts showed people running through the "USA Studios Film Vault". The new look coincided with a shift in focus, more towards off-network reruns and original programming; game shows and court shows were dropped from the schedule, while cartoons were phased out. USA Studios also became the branding for USA-produced programming at this point. This logo was replaced in July 1999 in favor of a 'USA flag'-styled logo (whose design was slightly modified in 2002).
In September 1996, USA replaced theUSA Cartoon Express with the action-oriented children's block,USA Action Extreme Team; the channel discontinued its animation block outright in September 1998 (other than airing the first-run teen sitcomUSA High and reruns ofSaved by the Bell: The New Class from 1997 to 2001, USA has not aired children's programming since that time), and replaced it with a block called "USAM", which advertised itself as "Primetime Comedy in the Morning". The block mainly featured sitcoms originally aired on network television that were cancelled before making it to100 episodes (such asThe Jeff Foxworthy Show,Hearts Afire andSomething So Right); however, for a time, the block also included the 1989–1994 episodes of theBob Saget run ofAmerica's Funniest Home Videos. "USAM" was discontinued in 2002; by that point, the only sitcoms airing on USA were daytime and late night reruns ofMartin and overnight airings ofLiving Single,Cheers andWings, with drama series and movies populating much of the channel's daytime and primetime schedule.
In 2000, USA Networks bought Canadian media company North American Television, Inc. (a joint partnership between theCanadian Broadcasting Corporation andPower Corporation of Canada), owner of cable television channelsTrio andNewsworld International (the CBC continued to handle programming responsibilities for NWI until 2005, when eventual USA ownerVivendi sold the channel to a group led byAl Gore, who relaunched it asCurrent TV). One major shock happened when USA lost the broadcasting rights of the WWF to Viacom in June 2000;Raw (which had been retitledRaw is War) was moved toTNN in September of that year.
In May 2002, USA Networks sold its non-shopping television and film assets (including USA Network, the Sci-Fi Channel, Trio, USA Films (which was rechristened asFocus Features) andStudios USA) toVivendi Universal for $10.3 billion.[26] USA and the other channels were folded into Vivendi's Universal Television Group.
In July 2002, the channel debutedMonk, a comedy-dramapolice procedural that starredTony Shalhoub asAdrian Monk, a formerSan Francisco police inspector-turned-consultant who suffers from various obsessive-compulsive behaviors that include the ability to pay attention to detail when solving crimes. It became one of USA Network's first breakout hit series, and ran for eight seasons until it ended on December 4, 2009.
In 2003,General Electric (GE) agreed to mergeNBC and its sibling companies withVivendi Universal's North American-based filmed entertainment assets, includingUniversal Pictures andUniversal Television Group in a multibillion-dollar purchase, renaming the merged companyNBC Universal. GE retained an 80% ownership stake in the new company, while Vivendi retained a 20% stake. NBC Universal officially took over as owner of USA and its sibling cable channels (except for Newsworld International) in 2004. That year, USA premiered the sci-fi seriesThe 4400.
In 2005, USA Network introduced a new logo and associated marketing campaign, "Characters Welcome". The slogan was designed to help emphasize the wide range of programming the network offered, and to help USA Network establish itself more prominently as a brand. The launch of the campaign featured promos themed around the daily lives of characters from the network's programs.[27] To contrast itself from the "grittier" offerings of other mainstream cable networks, USA Network's original programming during this era was marked by a focus on comedic and "optimistic" action anddrama series, referred to as a "blue sky" approach. Notable examples of this programming strategy includedPsych (2006),[28]Burn Notice (2007), andRoyal Pains (2009).[29][30] In October 2005,Raw returned to USA Network after Viacom did not renew its broadcasting agreement with the WWE.
On May 13, 2007 (in advance of NBC's 2007–08 fall upfronts presentation), NBC Universal announced that new episodes ofLaw & Order: Criminal Intent would be moved to USA Network beginning with the drama's seventh season in the fall of 2007; episodes would then be re-aired later in the season on NBC, most likely to shore up any programming holes created by the cancellation of a failed new series. Although this is not the first time a broadcast series has moved to cable (USA had acquired first-run rights to the revival ofAlfred Hitchcock Presents from NBC in1987, whileThe Paper Chase had moved beforehand fromCBS toShowtime in 1983), it marked the first time that a series which moved its first-run episodes from broadcast to cable television would continue to air episodes on a broadcast network while it was still a first-run program.[31] On December 7, 2007, it was announced that USA Network would continue broadcasting first-run episodes ofRaw through at least 2010.[32]
The June 1, 2008, premiere ofIn Plain Sight, starringMary McCormack, was USA's highest-rated series premiere since the 2006 debut ofPsych, with 5.3 million viewers.[33] In early 2009, USA Network acquired the network television rights for 24 recent and upcomingUniversal Pictures films, includingDuplicity,Funny People,Frost/Nixon,Land of the Lost,Milk, andState of Play.[34]
In 2011, control and majority ownership of then-parentNBC Universal passed fromGeneral Electric toComcast. Comcast would buy out GE's remaining ownership in NBCU two years later.[35] USA Network was considered the key piece of the NBC-Comcast merger; Wunderlich Securities analyst Matthew Harrigan projected that USA contributed $9.5 billion to NBCUniversal's $44.8 billion value, with NBC contributing only $408 million.[36] In 2014, the channel had dropped 18% in viewership and out of first place among the major cable channels. USA has been a key NBCUniversal asset accounting for one-third of advertising revenue forNBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group and $1 billion in annual earnings over the past few years.[37]
In April 2015, it was announced thatWWE SmackDown would move to USA from sister networkSyfy.[38]
In April 2016, USA Network unveiled a new branding campaign and slogan, "We the Bold". The campaign was designed to reflect the channel's current focus on "rich, captivating stories about unlikely heroes who defy the status quo, push boundaries and are willing to risk everything for what they believe in".[39] USA had quietly discontinued the "Characters Welcome" tagline in the lead-up to the rebranding, whose associated programming shift was led by the premieres ofMr. Robot andColony.Variety reported that the new programming strategy was designed to appeal to themes of "authenticity, resiliency, bravery and innovation".[27] TheWashington Post felt that the re-branding symbolically marked the end of USA's "blue sky" era, as the channel had been increasingly producing more "intense" series with darker themes.[37][29] NBCUniversal marketing executive Alexandra Shapiro explained that the "Characters Welcome" campaign and associated programming was reflective of the "weirdly optimistic" mood of the network's key demographic at the time.[27]
In August 2016, NBCUniversal acquired the television rights to theHarry Potter film franchise from 2018 through 2025, including the main film series and their spin-offs (with the first,Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, to have its cable premiere in 2019), and other content. On cable, the films are to primarily be aired by USA Network and Syfy, and the deal also includes the ability for Universal Parks & Resorts to offer "exclusive content and events" related to the franchise (Universal Parks had already been involved inThe Wizarding World of Harry Potter attractions). The deal succeeded one withFreeform;The Wall Street Journal reported the deal was valued around $250 million over the length of the agreement, making it one of the highest-valued film franchise deals.[40][41] To launch the new rights, Syfy and USA both airedHarry Pottermarathons over the July 13–15, 2018 weekend, airing all eight films (including directors' cuts of the first six) with limited commercial interruption.[42]
Amid the growth of streaming services (including NBCUniversal's newly launchedPeacock) and the decline of traditional cable television, USA Network began to cut back on scripted programming, in favor ofreality shows,television events (including scriptedminiseries), and live programming—the latter includingWWE programs and sporting events. In 2020, the network cancelledDare Me,The Purge,The Sinner, andTreadstone.[43][44] With the announcement thatNBCSN would shut down on December 31, 2021, it was subsequently revealed that USA andPeacock would collectively assume its remaining sports broadcasts.[45]
In December 2023,Deadline Hollywood reported that USA Network was considering a return to original scripted series in the vein of the "blue sky" era, citing the recent resurgence in the popularity ofSuits (which concluded in 2019) after the series was acquired by Netflix that year.[46]
USA Network has achieved a viewership foothold with its original programming; this began in the 1990s with initial hits such asSilk Stalkings,Duckman andLa Femme Nikita, which were gradually followed in the following two decades by series such asMonk,Psych,Shooter,White Collar,Mr. Robot,Suits,Burn Notice andRoyal Pains.
In addition to its original productions, the network airs syndicated reruns of current and former network series such asLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit,Chicago P.D.,Law & Order: Criminal Intent (which spent the final four seasons of its run as a first-run program on USA) andNCIS. The network also broadcasts a variety of films from theUniversal Pictures library and select films from other movie studios (such asSony Pictures Entertainment,Paramount Pictures,Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures andWarner Bros. Entertainment), airing primarily as part of its overnight and weekend schedule, and occasionally during primetime on nights when original programming or marathons of its acquired programs are not scheduled.
USA Network has a longstanding history with sports, dating back to its existence as theMadison Square Garden Network. The network carriedMajor League Baseball games onThursday nights from 1979 to 1983, and theNHL on USA ran from 1979 to 1985.College Football on USA ran from 1980 to 1986, and its telecast of the1981 Liberty Bowl was the first collegebowl game to be exclusively broadcast on cable television. TheNBA on USA also aired from 1979 to 1984, the first time that the NBA had a cable television partner.
For 17 years from 1981 to 1998, USA aired a weeklyboxing show,USA Tuesday Night Fights, which showcased bouts featuring up-and-coming boxers.Tennis on USA aired professional tournaments in the United States from 1984 to 2008, and was the longtime cable home of theUS Open before its cable television rights moved toESPN2 and theTennis Channel in 2009.[47][48] ThePGA Tour on USA covered the opening two rounds of theMasters Tournament from 1982 to 2007,[49][50][51]Ryder Cup matches from 1989 to 2010, and various other events.
The USA Network aired most games of the NFL-runWorld League of American Football (later NFL Europe/Europa) in its first two seasons of operation in 1991 and 1992; one innovation introduced for the network's WLAF telecasts was the in-helmet camera.
Upon the 2004 purchase of Vivendi Universal by NBC, USA's sports division was immediately merged intoNBC Sports. Since2004, the network has broadcast select events from theOlympic Games, as part of an expansion of NBCUniversal's broadcast rights to theSummer andWinter Olympics that allowed several of the company's cable channels rights to telecast Olympic events live (some of which are later re-aired ontape delay on NBC as part of the network's primetime and late night Olympic coverage). USA Network also carried games from theInternational Ice Hockey Federation in 2006 and 2010.
During the2014 Winter Olympics, USA airedPremier Leaguesoccer matches in lieu of sister channelNBCSN, due to that channel's full devotion to carrying coverage of Olympic events. After ratings success with those matches, USA began to air mid-afternoon Saturday games weekly during the 2015–16 season. USA also participates in NBC Sports' broader effort of carrying all tenSurvival Sunday matches across its numerous channels during the final matchday of the Premier League season. Starting in 2015, USA Network was similarly incorporated into NBC's coverage of theStanley Cup Playoffs. In 2016, USA aired threeNASCAR races as overflow during the2016 Summer Olympics.[52]
In September2020, aNotre Dame Fighting Irishfootball game was scheduled for USA Network due to NBC's commitments to the2020 U.S. Open.[53] Coverage of aprimetime game against Clemson on November 7, 2020, was also briefly moved from NBC to USA Network due toNBC News coverage of a victory speech bypresident-electJoe Biden.[54]
With the shutdown of NBCSN at the end of 2021, USA Network once again became the main cable outlet of NBC Sports in 2022, with sports properties such as the Premier League,[55] NASCAR,[45][56] and the Olympics (including U.S. Olympic trials)[57] moving to USA at this time. TheU.S. Open,U.S. Women's Open,The Open Championship, and theWomen's Open would move their early-round telecasts from Golf Channel to USA beginning in 2022.[58] USA Network also carried eight games as part of the inaugural season of the revivedUSFL, and is one of the broadcast partners of theSuperMotocross World Championship and itsSupercross andMotocross feeder series.
From 1984 to 2016, USA Network was the longtime home of theWestminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
USA Network is also the home of the professional wrestling companyWWE. WWE (formerly WWF) has had a longstanding relationship with USA Network going back to 1977 when broadcasts of Madison Square Garden events would air on USA Network. The first weekly WWE show on USA Network debuted on September 4, 1983, withWWF All American Wrestling.WWF Prime Time Wrestling broadcast on USA Network from 1985 to 1993 until it was superseded by WWE's flagship cable programRaw. The series originally aired on USA Network from its debut in January 1993 (when the promotion was known as the World Wrestling Federation) until the series moved toTNN in September 2000, before returning to USA Network in October 2005.
On January 7, 2016, WWE's second flagship programSmackDown moved to USA Network fromSyfy.[59] In 2018, USA Network renewed its rights toRaw for five additional years, but lost the rights forSmackDown toFox beginning in October 2019. In August 2019, WWE announced that its tertiary weekly programWWE NXT would return to USA Network on September 18, 2019, airing on Wednesday nights in a two-hour live format.[60][61]
In September 2023, it was announced thatSmackDown would return to USA in 2024 under a five-year deal with NBCUniversal, which would also include a slate of four annual primetime specials on NBC per-year.[62] In November 2023, it was then announced thatNXT would move toThe CW,[63] and in January 2024 it was announced thatRaw would move toNetflix in 2025.[64][65][66]
High-definition simulcasts of USA Network sports coverage, and reruns of original programs produced in the format, were originally carried byUniversal HD.[67][68] In 2007, USA Network launched a HD feed.[69]
In February 2007,Shaw Communications submitted an application to theCanadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), to carry the USA Network in Canada as a foreign service that would be eligible for carriage by domestic cable and satellite providers (and to automatically allow all English-language general interest cable networks from the United States into Canada). However, because of programming rights issues with other Canadianspecialty channels, certain programs would be subjected toblackout restrictions, includingWWE Raw.[70]
In September 2007, the CRTC refused Shaw's request to carry USA Network in Canada on the basis that the channel carried too much programming that overlapped with the English languagedigital cablespecialty channelMystery TV (which is then owned byCanwest – laterShaw Media – and formerly,Groupe TVA).[71] However, on September 20, the CRTC stated that it would reconsider their denial of the eligible foreign carriage proposal for USA Network at a later date, when Shaw instead offered to carry the channel on the digital cable tiers of its Shaw Cable systems.[72] In spite of this, the CRTC has since rejected the restructured proposal on the basis that USA's programming would be competitive with Mystery TV.
On October 17, 2024, NBCUniversal announced an agreement withBell Media to launch a Canadian version of USA Network on January 1, 2025. The channel is a relaunch of Bell'sDiscovery Channel, following that company's loss of rights to the formerDiscovery, Inc. channel brands toRogers Communications. This iteration of USA Network will still be maintained by CTV Specialty Television—a joint venture ofBell Media andESPN Inc.—stemming from the channel having originally been established by the ownership group of sister sports networkTSN; and Warner Bros. Discovery (who also owns 20% of the channel).[73] The new channel will also mirror some of USA Network's sports offerings via content sublicensed from TSN, includingAll Elite Wrestling andNASCAR Xfinity Series coverage. Even with the pivot to a general entertainment format, some of the original factual programming it aired as Discovery (including documentary seriesMayday and reality showHighway Thru Hell) remain on USA Network's schedule.[74]
Regional versions of USA Network previously operated in certain Latin American countries (such as Argentina and Brazil); in September 2004, most of these services were renamed under theUniversal Channel banner to take advantage of the more well-known brand, and to reduce the awkwardness of a channel branded with the initials of another nation.
In 2023 it was announced by NBCUniversal that the channel will be revived in Latin America during the Q4 of 2023 after 19 years of absence in the region.[75] The channel will broadcast dramas likeBriarpatch andDr. Death, also the channel will be the official broadcaster of theMiss Universe pageant which was broadcast on November 18.[76] USA Network was relaunched on October 1, 2023, replacingSyfy in the region.[77]
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