This week, four decades ago, the Satellite News Channel premiered. It was a joint venture between ABC and Westinghouse Broadcasting to counter CNN. It only lasted 16 months, June 21, 1982 to October 27, 1983. Unlike longer-form CNN, launched June 1, 1980, SNC was designed like a television version of 1010 WINS. The news was presented in 20 minute blocks, with the top stories covered three times each hour. "You Give Us 18 Minutes, We'll Give You The World." (WINS's slogan is 22 minutes.)
It hired a large staff, using studios in Stamford, Connecticut (to avoid union regulations in a city like NYC), and had a small number of cable systems carrying the service. I didn't have it on my home cable system. But I saw it frequently on a friend's cable system. It was well-done and professional. SNC had signed up local TV stations, such as WNYW NYC, KDKA-TV Pittsburgh and KOMO-TV Seattle, to do local news inserts in most regions of the country.
But CNN was too strong. It had a two year head start on SNC. And in those days most cable systems didn't have that many available slots to put new channels. Some systems had as few as 12 channels and most had only 20 or 30. If you've got all your local channels, plus a few superstations, and HBO, that doesn't leave much room for a SECOND news channel. To combat SNC on cable systems with more capacity, Ted Turner launched CNN2. That was news in 30 minute cycles, later called CNN Headline News. SNC folded not long after, but was a good effort.
It hired a large staff, using studios in Stamford, Connecticut (to avoid union regulations in a city like NYC), and had a small number of cable systems carrying the service. I didn't have it on my home cable system. But I saw it frequently on a friend's cable system. It was well-done and professional. SNC had signed up local TV stations, such as WNYW NYC, KDKA-TV Pittsburgh and KOMO-TV Seattle, to do local news inserts in most regions of the country.
But CNN was too strong. It had a two year head start on SNC. And in those days most cable systems didn't have that many available slots to put new channels. Some systems had as few as 12 channels and most had only 20 or 30. If you've got all your local channels, plus a few superstations, and HBO, that doesn't leave much room for a SECOND news channel. To combat SNC on cable systems with more capacity, Ted Turner launched CNN2. That was news in 30 minute cycles, later called CNN Headline News. SNC folded not long after, but was a good effort.
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