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FitTV was an American
pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...
channel, owned by
Discovery Communications Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual and lifestyle television brands, such as the namesake Discovery Chan ...
. The channel focused on fitness and exercise-related programming. FitTV offered programming with such fitness celebrities as
Cathe Friedrich Cathe Friedrich, born July 20, 1964, is an American ACE certified group fitness instructor, personal trainer and entrepreneur from Glassboro, New Jersey. Since releasing her first fitness video in 1989, Friedrich has released over 190 fitness vide ...
, Sharon Mann, Gilad Janklowicz,
Marilu Henner Mary Lucy Denise Henner is an American actress. She began her career appearing in the original production of the musical '' Grease'' in 1971, before making her screen debut in the 1977 comedy-drama film '' Between the Lines''. In 1977, Henner wa ...
, Tamilee Webb and others. On February 1, 2011, it merged with
Discovery Health Channel Discovery Health Channel was an American subscription television channel. Launched in July 1998, it was owned by Discovery Communications as a spin-off of Discovery Channel, focusing on health and wellness-oriented programming. In the beginni ...
to become Discovery Fit & Health, now known as
Discovery Life Discovery Life is an American cable television network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched on February 1, 2011 as Discovery Fit & Health, it was the result of the merger of Discovery Health Channel and FitTV (following the former's replace ...
.


History


Establishment

International Family Entertainment (IFE) introduced a continuous preview of the ''Cable Health Club'' on August 20, 1993. Beginning August 31 of that year, the channel would be available in a half-hour continuous programming format to cable system operators for free. In October, the channel moved to 24-hour programming.
Jake Steinfeld Jake Steinfeld (born February 21, 1958) is an American actor, fitness personality, entrepreneur, and producer. He develops businesses through the "Body by Jake" brand. Early life Born in the Sea Gate neighborhood of Brooklyn, Steinfeld was rais ...
, who had starred on the network's ''Big Brother Jake'', hosted its first program and was a constant presence on the channel in its early years. The original formatting of an hour on Cable Health Club included a 20-minute aerobic conditioning workout at the top of the hour featuring Tamilee Webb; a segment on healthy living; a Body by Jake workout starting at the bottom of the hour; and "Fitness Plus", a home shopping segment for fitness items and equipment. In 1994, Cable Health Club received new sponsors and minority partners, Reebok International (its first charter advertiser) and Liberty Media. By this time, the channel was received in one million homes and carried for two hours a day on the Family Channel. By November 1994, the Club was sharing a channel with
Prime Sports Northwest ROOT SPORTS Northwest (stylized as ROOT SPORTS Northwest) is an American regional sports network owned as a 60/40 joint venture between the Seattle Mariners and Warner Bros. Discovery respectively, the latter of which operates it through its spo ...
on Seattle cable. In January 1997, Cox Communications paired the service with
Home Team Sports NBC Sports Washington is an American regional sports network owned by Ted Leonsis's Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, the channel broadcasts regio ...
between the hours of 5:30–11 a.m. The service took out full-page ads in ''The Virginian-Pilot'' newspaper through May 4, requesting viewers to call a toll free number to register support for the channel to be 24 hours with responses forwarded to Cox. By April 1997, the Cable Health Club was renamed Fit TV. In June 1997, IFE was acquired by a joint venture of
Fox Entertainment Group Fox Entertainment Group was an American entertainment company specialised in filmed entertainment owned by 21st Century Fox. Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the group's assets were folded into various Disney units. The ...
and
Saban Entertainment Saban Entertainment, Inc. (along with Saban International; currently operating under the legal name is BVS Entertainment, Inc.) was a worldwide-served independent American-Israeli television production company formed in 1980 by Haim Saban and ...
; the companies were primarily targeting its sister network The Family Channel.


America's Health Network

America's Health Network was in separate operation from FitTV from March 1996 until 1999. The channel was based in
Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...
and had an $11 million production center with soundstage built at
Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...
in late 1995. The executives at the channel were Joe Maddox (a former
Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...
executive) and Webster "Web" Golinkin, who had spent two and a half yearsHinman, Catherine
Network Set to Make House Calls
''Orlando Sentinel'', March 24, 1996
planning, raising $75 million in capital, and building the channel. The majority owner was the
Providence Journal ''The Providence Journal'', colloquially known as the ''ProJo'', is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, Rhode Island, and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island. The newspaper was first published in 1829. The newspape ...
Company. The channel also had a five-year agreement with Mayo Clinic and IVI Publishing, its electronic publisher, to provide medical information and illustrative graphics. Mayo and IVI were also minority owners of the channel, and other investors included venture capital firm Medical Innovation Partners, Inc. 15 minutes an hour on AHN was devoted to shopping. The "Health Mall" carried upscale, harder-to-find items for a healthy living. AHN had a deal with Clearwater, Florida-based Home Shopping Network to provide orders and shipping infrastructure. For cable operators, carriage deals included a small percentage of advertising and shopping revenue. With an initial cable audience of 200,000 subscribers, America's Health Network had reached 700,000 subscribers by May 1996 and 6 million by the time of the sale of its first majority owners. However, cable carriage was a long struggle for AHN and other cable outlets that launched in this time frame (''Electronic Media'', now
TV Week ''TV Week'' is a weekly Australian magazine that provides television program listings information and highlights, as well as television-related news. Content ranges from previews for upcoming storylines of popular television programs, particu ...
magazine, described the environment many cable networks launched in 1996 faced as a "jungle").
Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
, the primary cable provider in Orlando, did not carry AHN, and so many people in the channel's own hometown were unable to see its programs.


Providence Journal acquisition

In 1997, Providence Journal was bought by the A.H. Belo Corporation. It was Belo's first venture into cable television; according to Golinkin, Belo did not desire to gain any market share in cable. 161 of the channel's 200 employees were laid off, and they ceased producing live programs. The 39 employees that remained (including the entire management team) were a skeleton crew to keep the channel running. A sale of most of the Belo stake to Columbia/HCA Health Care Corp. for $50 million was soon proposed. Columbia wanted to put AHN in its nearly 500 hospitals and surgery centers, plus many more outpatient clinics. However, during this time period, federal investigations over its billing practices; government raids; charges of Columbia officials with conspiracy and fraud; and changes in management at Columbia/HCA "turned
he company He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
upside down", according to a senior official. This turmoil spurred reviews of company strategies and the cancellation of some transactions, including the sale of the AHN stake. New York real estate tycoon
Howard Milstein Howard Philip Milstein (born May 15, 1951) is an American businessman. Milstein is chairman, president and chief executive officer of New York Private Bank & Trust and its operating bank, Emigrant Bank. Emigrant is the country's 9th largest priv ...
offered a bridge loan, which was accepted. Belo's stake eventually was brought back by AHN. An investment group of former Columbia/HCA officials, including Richard Scott and David Vandewater, took control of the network in late 1997, and live series resumed. During this time, another minority investor in the channel was Access Health, a referral service.


1998–99: New milestones

On June 16, 1998, AHN presented the first human birth carried live over the Internet, from Orlando's
Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children is a 158-bed pediatric hospital in Orlando, Florida, United States. Arnold Palmer Hospital is part of Orlando Health Orlando Health is a private, not-for-profit network of community and specialty ...
. The birth brought AHN major national and worldwide media attention and was even the focus of an editorial cartoon two days later in ''
USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
''. By this time, it reached 8 million cable homes, comparable to the
CNN/SI CNN/Sports Illustrated (CNN/SI) was a 24-hour sports news network. It was created by Time Warner, merging together its CNN and ''Sports Illustrated'' brands and related resources. It was launched on December 12, 1996. Other news networks like ...
cable network (which would fold in 2002) and the Game Show Network. By June 1999, Scott and Vandewater had reduced their stake in America's Health.


Shows in the AHN era

*''Ask the Doctor'' was a program where medical professionals took viewer calls in two-hour time blocks. At launch, AHN had hired 16 doctors, seven of them from the Orlando area. Shows filmed during Universal Studios theme park hours had studio audiences. By the time AHN ceased producing live series in 1997, it had filmed approximately 7,000 hours of studio shows.


Merger and acquisition

On September 12, 1999, Fox Cable Networks Group bought FitTV and merged it with America's Health Network, which Fox Cable already owned in a joint venture with Scott and Vandewater. The resulting network was named The Health Network. In December, Fox Cable sold 50% of the channel to
WebMD WebMD is an American corporation known primarily as an online publisher of news and information pertaining to human health and well-being. The site includes information pertaining to drugs. It is one of the top healthcare websites. It was fou ...
. By the start of the year 2000, The Health Network reached 17.5 million homes. At the start of 2000, the station began new headquarters in Los Angeles, and about half of its Orlando workforce was laid off, leaving 40 people out of work. The station also ran supplementary offices in New York and Nashville. At the time, The Health Network stated it was moving more of its production to New York and Los Angeles so it could feature more celebrities on its lineup. In the fall of 2000, it very nearly relaunched as WebMD Television, with new programs and the removal of the AHN studio program library from its schedule; that plan was put on hold, and Fox received the 50% of the channel it had sold back from WebMD, which had lost $2 billion in 2000. On September 1, 2001, Discovery Communications bought The Health Network for $255 million in cash and equity. On January 1, 2004, Discovery reinstated the "FitTV" name, as Discovery recently owned its own health channel, Discovery Health. In March 2006, New York-based
Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...
dropped the channel from its systems, resulting in the loss of some three million subscribers (down to 35 million). In January 2011, the channel's carriage remained significantly lower than most cable networks, only holding a reach of 50 million homes.


Back to "Health"

On January 1, 2011, Discovery Communications used the Discovery Health channel space to launch Oprah Winfrey Network. FitTV's programming was merged with the programming of its former sister station. Fitness-oriented programs moved to the mornings, and much of Discovery Health's content, including the former Discovery Health National Body Challenge, took up the remaining airtime. On January 17, 2011, Discovery Communications announced that FitTV would be rebranded as Discovery Fit & Health on February 1, reflecting the addition of former Discovery Health programs to its lineup.


Former programs

* ''Total Body Sculpt with Gilad'' * ''Shimmy'' * ''Gilad's Bodies in Motion'' * '' Namaste Yoga'' * ''Power Hour'' * ''In Shape with Sharon Mann'' * ''Cathe Friedrich'' * ''All Star Workouts'' * ''Marilu Henner's Shape Up Your Life'' * ''Art of the Athlete'' * ''Blaine's Low Carb Kitchen'' * ''FitNation'' * ''Housecalls'' * ''Ultimate Goals'' * ''Diet Doctor'' * ''The Gym'' * ''No Opportunity Wasted'' * ''Reunion Story'' * ''Lyon in the Kitchen'' * ''Get Fresh with Sara Snow'' * ''Cardio Blast'' * ''Caribbean Workout''


References

{{Discovery Communications Television channels and networks about health Warner Bros. Discovery networks English-language television stations in the United States Television channels and stations established in 1993 Television channels and stations established in 1996 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2011 Former News Corporation subsidiaries