Premiere Television Network

The Premiere Television Network, often shorted to Premiere, was a Hopelandian television network owned by Hopelandian Public Television. During its short lifespan of over one year on air, it was carried on four Type B public television stations: two in Albany (one of which, the network's backbone, was sold halfway through the network's existence), one in New Cardiff and one in Palmerston. Outside of these cities, HPT operated Premiere National on cable and satellite.
The network carried a mix of top quality, highbrow entertainment, including documentaries, arthouse movies and international soccer, as well as programming in Spanish, Twi and other foreign languages. Numerous misunderstandings and related uncertainties led to the shutdowm of the network.
==History==
Premiere came to be almost by default. The Hopelandian government started examining the public broadcasting sector. Initially there were plans to end local autonomy on all Type B public stations, a loose collection of educational television stations based on the Sierran PBS. The name for the supposed network was HPT 2, the existing HPT would tebrand to HPT 1.
Eventually the plan did not materialize. Soon afterwards, HPT set up a solution: one of its two Type B stations in Albany, either HWAE-TV (channel 21) or HWUF-TV (channel 31), would be used to test the waters of the new network, which was going to be "refined". In April 1994, the network, which had no name, was given the Premiere brand and had selected HWUF to broadcast its signal.
With HWUF carrying ethnic programming throughout the day, it was a solid choice. Sadly, shortly after the deal was signed, the government decided to sell channel 31 to private enterprises, a move which infuriated the rising network from the onset. Nonetheless, Premiere would have to transmit its services over two outlets in Albany, HWAE and HWUF. The ethnic programming would be seen on HWUF and the primetime and sports programming on HWAE. The network in itself was based on Northulia's SBS, who specialized in television programs from all over the world at the time Premiere was being set up.
The network was given eighteen hours a day of operation. The network signed off at midnight on its OTA affiliates. During the morning and afternoon hours, Premiere screened content from all over the world - mostly obtained through deals with ethnic providers like the Fusasankei Corporation, the Nikkyo Broadcasting System, the Daehanian Broadcasting System, the Television Corporation of Lenapore, the Northulian National Broadcaster and more. Most of the programming was in foreign languages.
The network formally signed on its operations on December 1, 1995. On launch day, there was a "Viewer's Guide to Premiere" and primetime featured the network television debut of the Great Scorrian movie Weapons. Premiere's launch was well-acclaimed by television critics and the intellectual scene. However the problem was in its terrestrial carriage in Albany. The HWUF license was being sold off and plans to move all ethnic programming to HWAE proved to be unfruitful. It was announced in early 1996 that HWUF was going to be sold to the Business News Network and would start operations under private ownership on July 1, and that after the switch to channel 31's new format, all Premiere programming would move exclusively to channel 21. New Cardiff and Palmerston had the luxury of occupying their Type B stations citing neighboring stations encroaching their coverage area into their respective cities.
At midnight on June 30th, HWUF signed off for the last time though not using the Premiere branding. This affected Premiere as a whole. As already mentioned, HWAE became the exclusive broadcaster of Premiere to Albany, but the future of the network was at risk. Most of its foreign partners had left the network within days of the change.
Premiere broadcast the 1996 Summer Olympics that were pooled by the country's largest broadcasters. HPT decided to use Premiere as a secondary carrier of events, including events that didn't feature any top athletes or Hopelandian athletes competing. The problem lied in the network's limited terrestrial coverage, but HPT offered a solution for stations outside of these markets: all Type B stations outside of Premiere's terrestrial coverage areas would use the Premiere coverage of the Olympics by pre-empting their schedules accordingly with the events shown on Premiere. Even this solution was considered to be a loss-making decision for the network, as once the Olympics had finished, HPT noticed that Premiere was becoming an "uninteresting channel to run, let alone watch", and that launching it on channel 31's license in Albany was a bad idea, considering the fact that the station was sold (and had switched formats at the time Premiere announced a possible closure).
==Branding==
The network was branded as Premiere on the national feed. Individual local stations added the channel number to add up to the television network aesthetic Premiere had. The channel's slogan was "Where the Quality Always Shows", a reference to the "quality shows" the network broadcast.
==Programming==
Premiere broadcast programming that was predominantly in English, yet it also broadcast programs in other languages, including Spanish, Korean, Japanese and Tagalog, often with English subtitles. Programming from foreign partners was blocktimed and the obtainer is listed.
===News===
*HPT News repeats
*HPT Newsworld
*MBC News (Michillian Broadcasting Corporation)
*TV Patrol (ABS-CBN)
===Knowledge===
*Beyond 2000 (often HPT repeats)
*Waka Huia (Television New Michillies)
===Entertainment===
*Under One Roof (Television Corporation of Lenapore)
===Animation===
*Dragon Ball (Fusasankei Communications)
===Sports===
*Iterian Serie A
*1996 Summer Olympics
*Hindustani Cricket League
==Influence==
Premiere did have an influence despite having an intense year on air. In 1996, workers of the Hopelandian branch of the International Channel (whose Sierran channel shut down in 2008), now known as the Sondrianation Network, cited Premiere as the reason why International Channel got a sudden increase in viewership figures, even though, at the time Premiere existed, very few people were aware of the channel's existence. When Premiere shut down in the end of the year, the Sierran company that owned International Channel decided to separate its Hopelandian branch as Channel I and most of the deals that used to be on Premiere had moved to Channel I. Channel I would subsequently make ties with existing ethnic OTA television stations in the country by relaying the content, even in cities where Premiere lacked terrestrial coverage.
Under One Roof eventually moved to HPT and became the network's most-popular show for a while. A promo for the series on the network in early 1997 took a jab at the shutdown of Premiere.