List of international Turner Classic Movies channels

Logo used from 2013 to 2021

In May 2009, host Robert Osborne and Charles Tabesh, senior vice president for programming, accepted Turner Classic Movies's Institutional Peabody Award "for a continuing, powerful commitment to a central concept—the place of film in social and cultural experience".[1]

Turner Classic Movies debuted on April 14, 1994, at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, with Ted Turner launching the channel at a ceremony in New York City's Times Square district.[2][3] The date and time were chosen for their historical significance as "the exact centennial anniversary of the first public movie showing in New York City". The first movie broadcast on TCM was the 1939 film Gone with the Wind, the same film that served as the debut broadcast of its sister channel TNT six years earlier on October 3, 1988.[4] At the time of its launch, Turner Classic Movies was available to approximately one million cable television subscribers.[5]

The network originally served as a competitor to AMC, which at the time was known as "American Movie Classics" and maintained a virtually identical format to Turner Classic Movies, as both networks largely focused on films released prior to 1970 and aired them in an uncut, uncolorized, and commercial-free format.

In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner which, besides placing Turner Classic Movies and Warner Bros. Entertainment under the same corporate umbrella, also gave Turner Classic Movies access to Warner Bros.' library of films released after 1950 (which itself includes other acquired entities such as the Lorimar, Saul Zaentz and National General Pictures libraries); incidentally, Turner Classic Movies had already been running select Warner Bros. film titles through a licensing agreement with the studio that was signed prior to the launch of the channel.[6]

In the early 2000s, AMC abandoned its commercial-free format, which led to Turner Classic Movies being the only movie-oriented basic cable channel to devote its programming entirely to classic films without commercial interruption or content editing. By 2002, AMC had broadened its film content to feature colorized and more recent films.

Launched in 2006, Turner Classic Movies maintains its own comprehensive database of actors, actresses, and film crew (listing more than 1.25 million people, with 15,000 written biographies),[7] and motion picture titles (more than 130,000 titles), not limited to the film libraries that Turner Classic Movies owns, and it includes links by which a user can request that Turner Classic Movies schedule any title for viewing.[8][9][10][11] TCM Movie Database has lost some functionality.[12] The portal page is now unavailable, yet database entries are still available and function.[11][13][14][15] Richard B. Steiner was the creator, architect, and supervisor of TCM Movie Database.[16][17] By 2013, the Watch TCM app for iOS, Android, and Blackberry had some TCM Movie Database information.[18][19][20] Leonard Maltin's reviews appear in the TCM Movie Database.[21]

On March 4, 2019, Time Warner's new owner AT&T (who renamed the company WarnerMedia) announced a planned reorganization to effectively dissolve the Turner Broadcasting System division, which involved Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies, and digital media company Otter Media being transferred directly under Warner Bros. Entertainment. Aside from Otter, which was transferred to WarnerMedia Entertainment on May 31, 2019, to oversee development of HBO Max, the newly transferred properties came under a newly formed division, Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics.[22][23][24][25]

On September 1, 2021, Turner Classic Movies introduced a new logo and slogan, "Where Then Meets Now", in the network's first major rebranding since its launch. The rebranding was intended to give Turner Classic Movies a more modern and energetic presentation while continuing to emphasize its commitment to showcasing classic cinema; new branding elements include Technicolor-inspired color schemes, and a new stylized "C" in its wordmark, which resembles a camera lens and symbolizes themes of "curation", "context", "culture" and "connection".[26][27]

On June 20, 2023, multiple TCM executives (including executive vice president Pola Changnon, who had been with Turner for over 25 years) were released by the channel's current owner, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), as part of layoffs affecting its U.S. Networks division.[28] The network was to be moved under the oversight of Cartoon Network head Michael Ouweleen, and it was reported that there were plans for more synergies and cross-promotion of TCM with the rest of the networks group.[29] The layoffs led to concerns over the future of the channel, with filmmakers Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Paul Thomas Anderson holding a meeting with WBD CEO David Zaslav to discuss them. They later issued a joint statement, explaining that the channel has been a "precious resource of cinema, open 24 hours a day seven days a week", and had "always been a profitable endeavor".[30][31]

On June 23, 2023, WBD appointed Warner Bros. Pictures' CEOs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy as heads of the network, reporting to head of U.S. Networks Kathleen Finch.[32] The pair stated that "We have each spent time talking to Zaslav, separately and together, and it's clear that TCM and classic cinema are very important to him. Our primary aim is to ensure that TCM's programming is untouched and protected."[30] On June 28, it was announced that Scorsese, Spielberg, and Anderson would actively collaborate with De Luca and Abdy on the network's direction; a spokesperson stated that "TCM is not immune to the very real pressure on the entire linear ecosystem, but we have taken steps to ensure that we stay true to the mission of the network — bringing more titles to the air, driving content investment, and preserving and protecting the culture of cinema."[32]