Time Life Television was a division of Time Life Films and was the television production and distribution arm of
Time Inc. With
CBS, they led a partnership to export their shows overseas.
Broadcasting
Time Life also owned several radio and TV stations in the United States beginning in the 1950s through to 1983.
By 1970, Time decided to sell its broadcasting operations and to concentrate in cable development.
Time-Life's television stations were sold to
McGraw-Hill
McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes referen ...
in early 1972 following
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...
approval. Those stations included the following:
*
KLZ-TV in
Denver
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...
,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
from 1954 to 1972.
*
WFBM-TV
WRTV (channel 6) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on Meridian Street north of downtown Indianapolis, and its transmit ...
in
Indianapolis,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
from 1957 to 1972.
*
WOOD-TV
WOOD-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for West Michigan. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Battle Creek–licensed ABC affiliate WOTV (channel 41 ...
in
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
from 1957 to 1983 when it was sold to
LIN Broadcasting.
*
KERO-TV
KERO-TV (channel 23) is a television station in Bakersfield, California, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. The station's studios are located on 21st Street in Downtown Bakersfield, and its transmitte ...
in
Bakersfield
Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley (California), Central Valley r ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
from 1964 to 1972.
*
KOGO-TV in
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...
from 1962 to 1972.
(Except for WOOD-TV, the
E. W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...
owns the former Time-Life television stations today, following a 2011 deal enabling Scripps to acquire McGraw-Hill's television operations. WOOD-TV is owned today by
Nexstar Media Group
Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 tele ...
.)
Except for KERO-TV, each of these television stations also had AM and FM radio operations; when most of its television stations were sold to McGraw-Hill in 1972, FCC regulations at the time required Time-Life to sell its radio stations to different parties. (KERO's then-owners sold off its radio station in 1955, years before Time-Life acquired KERO-TV.)
Time Life joined Sterling Manhattan Cable, owned by
Charles Dolan
Charles Francis Dolan (born October 16, 1926) is an American billionaire businessman, best known as founder of Cablevision and HBO. Today, Dolan controls Madison Square Garden Sports, MSG Networks, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Madison ...
and launched
Home Box Office
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television, premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office busi ...
in November 1972, which eventually became the largest premium television service in the United States. (Due to an early financial loss, Dolan eventually sold his stake of HBO to Time Inc.
Time merged with
Warner Communications, Inc.
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
in 1989 to form
Time Warner
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
, but the Time-Life Television assets were sold to
Columbia Pictures Television
Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. (abbreviated as CPT) was launched on May 6, 1974, by Columbia Pictures as an American television production and distribution studio. It is the second name of the Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gem ...
in 1981,
["New York Times]
Time's Film Unit Sold to Columbia
nytimes.com, Retrieved on August 14, 2013 while HBO currently holds of its library.
International operations
Time Life was also a financial backer for commercial TV broadcasting outside the United States, mostly in Middle and South America. With a joint venture between CBS and
Goar Mestre
Goar Mestre Espinosa (born December 25, 1912 – March 23, 1994) was a Cuban-born Argentine businessman, remembered as one of the pioneers of the audiovisual industry in Latin America. He owned several broadcasters, led by CMQ."El Rey de la TV: ...
they backed in Argentina, PROVENTEL in Venezuela (now
VTV) and
Panamericana Televisión
Panamericana Televisión (sometimes shortened to Panamericana and formerly known as PANTEL) is a Peruvian television network, which was founded on July 21, 1957 and had later begun its official broadcast on October 16, 1959.
History Early years
...
in Peru. In Brazil, they backed
Rede Globo
TV Globo (, "Globe TV", or simply Globo), formerly known as Rede Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Grupo Globo. The TV statio ...
, owned by the
Marinho family {{Commons category, Marinho family
Brazilian mass media owners
Grupo Globo
Television company families
Brazilian newspaper publishing families
Magazine publishing families
Brazilian business families ...
.
Time Life's investments in the United States, Middle and South America in the 1950s and 1960s were largely unsuccessful, due to the stations' owners unhappy with their agreements. The only exception was
TV Globo
TV Globo (, "Globe TV", or simply Globo), formerly known as Rede Globo, is a Brazilian free-to-air television network, launched by media proprietor Roberto Marinho on 26 April 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Grupo Globo. The TV stati ...
in Brazil, owned by the Marinho family, which was financially backed by Time Life until 1970.
Television Syndication and Co-production
Time Life Television was most notable as the U.S. distributor of television programming produced by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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, including ''
Doctor Who'' and ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus
''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became know ...
''. Time-Life's deal with the BBC expired on April 30, 1981. The U.S. rights to ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' would be transferred to Devillier Donegan Enterprises (in a deal that followed the
Monty Python
Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over fo ...
troupe gaining ownership of the series months before), while the rest of BBC's output would be spun off to Lionheart Television, a distributor that would later be absorbed by
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadca ...
.
Non-BBC-related programming distributed or produced by Time Life Television, including most of the
Talent Associates
Talent Associates, Ltd. (also known as Talent Associates-Paramount, Ltd. and Talent Associates-Norton Simon, Inc.), was a production company headed by David Susskind, later joined by Daniel Melnick, Leonard Stern and Ron Gilbert.
Origins
In the ...
library, would later be transferred to HBO; these programs today would be owned by HBO Entertainment and
Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of liv ...
, both units of Warner Bros. Discovery.
In 1973, Time-Life Television co-produced ''
The Ascent of Man
''The Ascent of Man'' is a 13-part British documentary television series produced by the BBC and Time-Life Films first broadcast in 1973. It was written and presented by British mathematician and historian of science Jacob Bronowski, who a ...
'' with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
. In 1980, this collaboration was repeated with ''
The Shock of the New''. Later in the 1980s, the two co-produced a number of Shakespeare productions.
References
{{Authority control
1968 establishments in New York City
1981 disestablishments in New York (state)
Television production companies of the United States
Television syndication distributors
Defunct broadcasting companies of the United States
Defunct mass media companies of the United States
E. W. Scripps Company
Columbia Pictures
BBC Worldwide
HBO