Headquarters United Kingdom | Founded 1991 | |
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AMC Networks International UK (EMEA) (formerly AMC Networks International Zone (EMEA), Chello Zone, Zone Vision and Zone Media) is a London, England-based television company, founded in 1991 by Chris Wronski and owned by AMC Networks International.
Contents
History
The company was originally founded to distribute television programmes in Eastern Europe, but now operates in 138 countries. They operate channels under 7 brands, albeit with some limited to specific countries, and provide 22 sound tracks across these.
Its English speaking-targeted channels show mainly US and Canadian imports as well as older BBC and ITV produced content; whereas its Central European stations show large quantities of recent British television. Original sound tracks are provided on most shows which are dubbed.
On 14 September 2009, it was revealed that the international arm of CBS, CBS Studios International, struck a joint venture deal with Chellomedia to launch six CBS-branded channels in the UK during 2009. The new channels would replace Zone Romantica, Zone Thriller, Zone Horror and Zone Reality, plus timeshift services Zone Horror +1 and Zone Reality +1. On 1 October 2009, it was announced that CBS Reality, CBS Reality +1, CBS Drama and CBS Action would launch on 16 November 2009 replacing Zone Reality, Zone Reality +1, Zone Romantica and Zone Thriller.
On 5 April 2010, Zone Horror was rebranded as Horror Channel, following the rebrand of the portfolio's other three channels in November 2009. On-air the channel name appears as Horror. The rebrand was produced by Chello Zone's in-house creative services team.
On 1 August 2012 Chellomedia revealed that the European versions of the Chello Zone channels would be rebranded into CBS Reality, CBS Drama and CBS Action as well.
On 28 October 2013, AMC Networks announced it would acquire Chellomedia (apart from its Benelux division) from Liberty Global, for around $1.04 billion. This acquisition was completed 11 February 2014.
On 8 July 2014, AMC Networks renamed Chello Zone as AMC Networks International Zone (EMEA).