Columbia Broadcast Television

The Columbia Broadcast Television (often shortened to Columbia) is a television network that is entirely owned and operated by Sony Pictures Television.

History
Columbia Pictures announced in the week of November 18, 1984 issue of Variety that they would launch a brand new TV channel called "Columbia Broadcast Television" in the summer of 1985. Some readers were excited, while others were not. The channel itself would air old and new Columbia movies and TV shows. To most of us, it had potential.

The network would eventually launch on June 1, 1986. The channel became very successful due to the shows that it aired. It had hit shows like "The Dukes of Hazzard," "Wiseguy," "The Equalizer" and "St. Elsewhere," as well as some not so successful shows. "Wiseguy" proved to be a strong show for Columbia, making the network's best rating ever in the spring of 1986. The shows that were shown during the timeframe between 1990-1995 did not do well. This is due to the changing audience of viewers at the time. The 1990s were a time of movies like "A Few Good Men," "Saving Private Ryan," "The Mask," and "Gladiator." Many of these movies were very violent. Many of the viewers became tired of all of the violence and began to cut back on how much violence they showed in movies. The TV shows that were on during this timeframe were not very good. It's a shame that a channel with such talented shows like The Equalizer, Dukes of Hazzard and Wiseguy could not attract the same audience that had made Columbia a success during the 1980s. There were talks about Columbia becoming a pay-cable channel. A pay-cable channel would cost hundreds of dollars a month and would not be affordable to many families. Columbia had a very successful time in its run, but it seems like it should have been replaced by a network that is more family oriented.

The network was going to be rebranded as the Columbia-Tristar Television Network in 1994, but it was scrapped. Columbia had a better run with this network, but still had to cut back on the shows that they had on the channel. It's hard to believe that an extremely successful channel with all of the success that Columbia had in the 1980s would eventually have its network just gone. It has been speculated that Columbia is thinking of returning with a major overhaul, but no timetable has been given yet.

It was later reported in the book "Viacom and the Third Reich" by Jim Babb, that in the summer of 1994, Viacom's parent company (now MTV Networks) was planning to buy up the Columbia network. It would be later rejected and eventually scrapped due to ownership issues with Sony Pictures. Columbia still holds strong in many areas of television.

Programs
Main article: List of programs broadcast by Columbia

Programming consists of dramas, comedies, reality shows, and reruns of feature films. The network primarily airs programming from Columbia Pictures Television, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Television International, Columbia TriStar Domestic Television, and Sony Pictures Television International.