USA Network
USA Network is an American basic cable television channel owned by Versant. It was launched on September 22, 1977 as Madison 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, limited sports programming. USA increased its sports coverage significantly in 2022, after the initial shutdown of NBCSN, and served as the main cable component of NBC Sports until NBCSN was relaunched in 2025.
, USA Network is available to approximately 70 million pay television households in the United States, down from its 2011 peak of 100 million households.
History
Madison Square Garden Sports Network (1977–1980)
USA Network was launched on September 22, 1977, as the Madison Square Garden Sports Network. The network was founded by cable provider UA-Columbia Cablevision and the Madison Square Garden Corp. From its first two decades, the network was run by chairwoman and CEO Kay Koplovitz. The channel was one of the first national cable television channels, utilizing satellite delivery as opposed to the then-industry standard microwave 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. At launch the network mostly broadcast sporting events from Madison Square Garden to a national audience. 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 of ESPN. In 1978, children's programming was also added to the lineup.MCA/Paramount ownership (1981–1994) and Time ownership (1981–1987)
On April 9, 1980, the channel changed its name to USA Network. It also added a children's program called Calliope to its schedule and some talk shows in an effort to appeal to women. The new network also offered a programming block from Black Entertainment Television and carried C-SPAN during the day.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 owner Gulf + Western transferring its share of the network to its Paramount Pictures division. Shortly thereafter MCA Inc. also bought into the network with the three companies each owning an equal share. The three partners had a non-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 rival Home Box Office. This clause would cause Time Inc. to drop out of the venture in 1987, as the company attempted to buy CNN from Ted Turner and run it independently from USA. MCA and Paramount subsequently became the sole owners of the channel.
C-SPAN stopped sharing satellite space with USA on April 1, 1982, after having launched its own 24-hour feed two months earlier. USA began operating on a 24-hour schedule, programming its new daytime block with the British soap opera Coronation Street, a health-oriented show named Alive and Well, and an afternoon movie.
In fall 1982, the channel began running a mix of 1960s and 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons each weekday evening from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. as part of the new USA 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 called Night Flight.
By August 1983, then-Paramount head Barry Diller became more focused on having the network increase its relationship with the Madison Square Garden Network. This included a deal which made the USA Network a source for the Madison Square Garden Network programming and having the network also being more tied to sporting organizations which could air events in Madison Square Garden.
Between 1984 and 1986, however, USA's programming focus began shifting away from sports, and shifted towards general entertainment programs not found on broadcast stations, including some less common network drama series, situation comedies and cartoons. Nevertheless, the network would still focus on airing World Wrestling Federation programs.
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 comedy Check 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 up Airwolf for 58 off-network episodes, while commissioning 24 new episodes without the original cast.
One tradition on USA was an afternoon lineup of game show reruns mixed in with several original low-budget productions that aired over the years. It began in October 1984 with reruns of The Gong Show and Make Me Laugh. In September 1985, the network began airing its first original game show, a revival of the mid-1970s game show Jackpot; two more original game shows, Love Me, Love Me Not, and a revival of the 1980 series Chain Reaction, were added in September 1986. More shows were progressively added soon afterward such as The Joker's Wild, ''Tic-Tac-Dough, Press Your Luck, High Rollers, and Hollywood Squares, along with Wipeout, Face the Music, and Name That Tune. In June 1987, the channel debuted another original game show, Bumper Stumpers. 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 of Procter & Gamble soap operas The Edge Of Night from August 5, 1985, to January 19, 1989, along with Search For Tomorrow from 1987 until the summer of 1989. In January 1989, USA debuted USA 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 commercials and between films that were hosted by comedian Gilbert Gottfried and model/actress Rhonda 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 as USA Updates, were broadcast early on, from 1989 until 2000. These segments were first produced out of KYW-TV in Philadelphia, as the station had already produced a number of syndicated news services and Steve Bell, the former newsreader on Good Morning America, was employed as a primary anchor at the station. By 1993, production of USA Updates had been taken over by the All News Channel ; 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 program First Business at 6:30am weekday mornings for a time. The ANC-produced updates continued through 2000 ; 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 from Disney's Touchstone 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 as Dead Poets Society, Good Morning, Vietnam, and Three Men and a Baby.
The tradition of game show reruns continued into the 1990s with the $25,000 and $100,000 Pyramids, the early 1990s revivals of The Joker's Wild and Tic-Tac-Dough, and other well-known shows such as Scrabble, Sale of the Century, Talk About, and Caesars Challenge. Additionally, two more original game shows were added in June 1994; these were Free 4 All and Quicksilver. 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, focusing on science fiction series and films.
In January 1993, the channel began showing WWF 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.
USA Networks ownership (1994–2002)
In 1994, Paramount Pictures parent Paramount Communications was sold to the original iteration of Viacom; the following year, MCA was acquired by Seagram. In April 1996, Viacom, which also owned MTV Networks, launched a new classic television network called TV Land. MCA subsequently sued Viacom for breach of contract, claiming that it had violated the non-compete clause in its joint venture agreement with MCA. A judge presiding over the case sided with MCA, and Viacom subsequently sold its stake in USA and the Sci-Fi Channel to Seagram for $1.7 billion. In turn, Seagram sold a controlling interest in the networks to Barry 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 – in February 1998, which led to the creation of USA Networks, Inc.; the company also merged the cable channels with Diller's existing television properties including the Home Shopping Network and its broadcasting unit Silver King Broadcasting.In July 1995, USA began simulcasting the business news channel Bloomberg Information TV Monday thru Saturday from 5:00 to 7:00 a.m. Eastern; in 2004, the Bloomberg simulcast moved to E!, where it ran until 2007. Bloomberg purchased the airtime from USA. In October 1995, the network dropped the entire game show block; it was replaced with a block called USA Live, which carried reruns of Love Connection and The People's Court, with live hosted wraparound segments between shows; that block was dropped by 1997.
On June 17, 1996, the network unveiled a new on-air appearance, which included the introduction of a new logo, 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.
In September 1996, USA replaced the USA Cartoon Express with the action-oriented children's block, USA Action Extreme Team; the channel discontinued its animation block outright in September 1998, 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 to 100 episodes ; however, for a time, the block also included the 1989–1994 episodes of the Bob Saget run of America's Funniest Home Videos. "USAM" was discontinued in 2002; by that point, the only sitcoms airing on USA were daytime and late night reruns of Martin and overnight airings of Living Single, Cheers and Wings, 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., owner of cable television channels Trio and Newsworld International. One major shock happened when USA lost the broadcasting rights of the WWF to Viacom in June 2000; Raw was moved to TNN in September of that year.