HLN (TV network)


HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by CNN Worldwide, the network primarily carries true-crime programming, recently drifting away from limited live news programming.
The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982, by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2, a sister network to CNN 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 a primetime block featuring pundits such as Glenn Beck and legal commentator Nancy Grace. In the mid-2010s, HLN repositioned itself as a social media-centric network, highlighting headlines popular on social networks, and introducing social media-themed shows. Under CNN president Jeff Zucker, the channel began to backpedal on this programming in 2016, gradually shifting to a focus on crime, "regional" headlines, and entertainment stories during its daytime programming, with true crime programs airing at all other times.
With the 2022 merger of CNN parent WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery, HLN became a sister to Discovery's true-crime channel Investigation Discovery. In December 2022, then-new CNN president Chris 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 the Warner Bros. Television library.
, 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. 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.

History

Launch and early years

The channel was launched at midnight Eastern Time on January 1, 1982, as CNN2. The channel's launch was simulcast nationwide on sister networks CNN and Superstation WTBS, 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 anchor Lou Waters and an introduction by founder and then-Turner Broadcasting CEO Ted Turner, Chuck Roberts and Denise LeClair anchored the channel's first newscast.
Originally, the channel's programming was formatted around the idea that a viewer could tune in at any time of day or night, 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 by all-news radio stations and repeated each half-hour—featured national and world news at the top of the hour, business and personal finance reports at :15/:45 after the hour; sports scores and headlines 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 local television station. Another regular feature, the "Hollywood Minute", was often fitted-in after the "Headline Sports" segment. In the channel's early years, a two-minute recap 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 renamed Headline News, though the network would be referred to on-air as "CNN Headline News" for much of the mid-1980s. By 1992, the channel was often abbreviated as "HN". During its first year, Headline News had a competitor in the form of ABC/Group W's Satellite News Channel, which operated from June 21, 1982, to October 27, 1983. After its shutdown, SNC's satellite slot was then purchased by Ted Turner to expand Headline News' reach further into additional homes. Shortly after, sister station WTBS handed over production duties for their NewsWatch news capsules to Headline News, and at various times, other specialized news capsules produced by Headline News aired as well; the NewsWatch segments as well as daily Headline News simulcasts were phased out on TBS's local and national feeds in 1996 after the Federal Communications Commission relaxed regulatory requirements on public affairs programming.
Jon Petrovich was hired in the mid-1980s by Turner to lead Headline News. In 1990, Headline News developed Local 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. 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.
In 1989, Headline News introduced a ticker 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 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 becoming pillarboxed with blue bars on the left and right wings of the screen, 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 by Time Warner in 1996.

George H. W. Bush death hoax

On January 8, 1992, Headline News almost became the victim of a hoax. When President George H. W. Bush fainted at a state dinner in Tokyo, 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., anchor Don 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!" 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 an Idaho 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 the Secret Service and hospitalized at a private medical facility for evaluation.

Jukebox effect

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. This resulted in the layoffs of part of its staff, including such stalwart anchors as Lyn Vaughn, David Goodnow and Bob Losure, all of whom had been with Headline News for over 10 years.

1999 reformatting

On June 15, 1999, the network underwent a complete visual revamp, including an updated ticker, 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 : First Watch, Second Watch, Third Watch, and Late Watch. Additional segments were also added prior to commercial breaks: Best Bets On..., which provided top picks in categories such as films, and Week-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 and 24 Hour Nonstop Headlines.

2001 re-launch

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. 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 the internet, in an attempt to appeal to younger viewers; the Chicago Tribune noted that the channel's viewership had been dropping, and skewing towards viewers over 50, which are not desirable to most advertisers.
Upon its launch, the new format received mixed reviews, with critics arguing that the new screen format conveyed too 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 service ESPNews. Steve Johnson of the Chicago 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."
On February 3, 2003 Headline News moved to a fully live format from 6AM-Midnight weekdays.
This line-up would continue until Headline News began to move away from the newswheel in 2005.