TNT (originally an initialism of Turner Network Television) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the Global Linear Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. Its sister networks are TBS, TruTV and Turner Classic Movies, with the former two also having sports coverage. As of, TNT was received by approximately 89.573 million households that subscribe to a subscription television service throughout the United States.[4] By June 2023, this number has dropped to 71.2 million households.[5]
The channel was launched on October 3, 1988,[6] with the purpose to air classic films and television series to which Turner Broadcasting System maintained spillover rights through sister channel TBS. In June 2001, the network went through a major shift in its programming and began to focus on drama series and feature films, along with some sporting events (including NHL, U.S. Soccer, the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament and the professional wrestling show AEW Collision), as TBS shifted its focus to comedic programming.
History
Beginnings
Prior to the launch of the channel in 1988, the Turner Network Television name had been used by the Turner Broadcasting System for an ad hoc syndication service which produced and distributed various sporting events for carriage on Turner's Atlanta, Georgia, superstation WTBS (channel 17, now WPCH-TV, which was separated from its national cable feed, TBS, in October 2007) as well as broadcast television stations throughout the United States.
The Turner Network Television syndication service launched in 1982 to produce two exhibition games organized by the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) during the NFL strike, which were broadcast on WTBS and its national superstation feed. (The agreement with the NFLPA originally called for 18 games to be broadcast by WTBS on Sunday afternoons and Monday nights during the originally proposed strike season, but was reduced to the exhibition games amid lawsuits filed by the National Football League against Turner Broadcasting and the NFLPA union.)[7][8]
High-definition feed
TNT HD is a high definition simulcast feed of TNT, which broadcasts at a picture resolution of 1080i; the HD feed launched on May 21, 2004, coinciding with its broadcast of game 1 of the 2004 NBA Western Conference finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves.[73][74]
TNT was criticized for its practice of initially airing a significant amount of 4:3 standard-definition content stretched to 16:9 on its HD feed, using a nonlinear process similar to the "panorama" setting on many HDTVs that some viewers nicknamed Stretch-o-Vision.[75][76][77]
Programming
Ever since 2001, TNT currently airs a mix of original drama and reality series, and reruns of dramas that originally aired on the major broadcast networks. TNT’s sole original program as of 2025 is The Librarians: The Next Chapter. The channel's daytime, overnight and Saturday morning schedule is heavily dominated by reruns of current and former network police procedural series such as Castle, Bones and TNT mainstay Law & Order, while its weekday morning schedule focuses on sci-fi, supernatural and fantasy series, with Charmed being the longest drama aired on TNT as of now, airing reruns since 2001.
Movies
Feature films have been a mainstay of TNT since its inception. TNT maintains film licensing agreements with sister company Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (primarily releases from Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema), The Walt Disney Studios (primarily releases from Walt Disney Pictures (live-action only), Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm
International
European, Middle Eastern, African, Australian, Latin American and Asian versions of TNT were launched in the middle of 1990s, which were exclusively dedicated to movies, mainly from the MGM and Warner Bros. archives (however, the UK, Scandinavian, and Australian versions of TNT all broadcast WCW Monday Nitro (the UK and Scandinavian versions broadcast the show on Friday nights on a four-day delay from its U.S. broadcast), and the Latin American version aired a children's block called "Magic Box"). The European, Australian and Asian versions of TNT shared channel space with Cartoon Network, while the Latin American version shared space with CNN International. The Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific TNT channels were eventually relaunched as Turner Classic Movies, while the Latin American version retained the TNT branding. The most well-known TNT channel in Canada, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific was (and still is) the French version, which used similar graphics to what the flagship U.S. channel was using at the time.
Canada
No version or feed for TNT exists in Canada though some of its programming is aired on Bell Media channels such as CTV Drama Channel and TSN.
Latin America
External links
References
- Jared Newman. Sling TV bulks up base package with AMC and IFC TechHive, IDG Communications, Inc., March 4, 2015^
- Jared Newman. Sling TV brings back the linear video element that other cord-cutting services lack, but could use some polish and a few more features TechHive, IDG Communications, Inc., January 30, 2015^
- Ian Paul Paul. Sling TV's web-based live television opens to all cord cutters, adds AMC to lineup