Home Theater Network

Home Theater Network
Launched	September 1, 1978
Closed	January 31, 1987
Owned by	Group W Satellite Communications
Picture format	480i (SDTV)
Country	United States
Language	English
Broadcast area	Nationwide
Replaced by	Travel Channel

Home Theater Network (HTN) was an American premium cable television network that was owned by Group W Satellite Communications. Targeted at a family audience, the channel focused primarily on theatrically released motion pictures, along with travel interstitials that aired between select films.

Home Theater Network launched on September 1, 1978. The service operated initially for four hours a day, and later expanded its schedule to 12 hours a day; HTN was notable for airing non-exclusive G and PG-rated films (prior to 1984, when the PG-13 rating was first introduced by the Motion Picture Association of America). The channel boasted a policy of not running R-rated feature films (predating the launch of family-oriented multiplex services by HBO, Showtime, Starz and Encore that also omitted R-rated films from their schedules), and marketed itself as a lower-priced alternative to HBO, Cinemax, Showtime (which Group W later owned in part, making HTN a de facto sister network to Showtime from 1982, when it acquired TelePrompTer Corporation, to 1983) and The Movie Channel.

Prior to The Disney Channel's April 1983 launch, Walt Disney Pictures licensed select live-action films to many premium cable networks (including HBO, Showtime and Spotlight); as a result, HTN featured Disney fare such as Freaky Friday, Snowball Express, Pete's Dragon, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The North Avenue Irregulars. Other films that HTN featured included Xanadu and The Private Eyes. In addition, the channel showcased travel-related programming as filler between films, billing these segments as "The Travel Channel".

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