WGN America | |
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Logo used since January 20, 2014
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Launched | November 1978 |
Network |
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Owned by | |
Picture format | |
Slogan | Break Free |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Broadcast area | Nationwide |
Headquarters |
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Formerly called |
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Sister channel(s) | |
Website | www |
Availability
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Satellite | |
DirecTV (U.S.) | 307 (HD/SD) |
Dish Network | 239 (HD/SD) |
Cable | |
Verizon FiOS |
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Wave Broadband | 17 |
IPTV | |
AT&T U-verse |
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WGN America is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by Tribune Broadcasting. The channel (short for World's Greatest Newspaper) is one of several flagship properties owned by Chicago, Illinois-based corporate parent Tribune Media, which also owns the channel's former parent television station during its existence as a superstation, WGN-TV (channel 9), regional cable news channel Chicagoland Television (CLTV) and radio station WGN (720 AM).
As of July 2015, WGN America is available in approximately 72.987 million pay television households (62.7% of households with at least one television set) in the United States.
WGN America carries a variety of programs consisting mainly of recent and classic off-network sitcoms, drama series and feature films, along with first-run original television series produced exclusively for the channel. Despite retaining the "WGN" name that it borrowed from its former parent station, since December 15, 2014, it no longer carries any local, syndicated or sports programming that airs in the Chicago market on WGN-TV. Conversely, WGN-TV does not carry WGN America's original series, outside of any special presentations of a program's series premiere (such as with the July 2014 premiere of Manhattan, which aired on WGN-TV and several other Tribune-owned stations on the night of its debut on WGN America).
Until December 31, 2015, WGN America broadcast on an Eastern Time schedule (with programs shown at earlier or later times depending on the location). As such, promos for WGN America programs referenced airtimes for both the Eastern and Pacific time zones (for example, America's Funniest Home Videos is promoted as airing at "6 p.m. East/3 p.m. West", a scheduling reference format used in promotions beginning in 2008, instead of referring to both zones as "Eastern" and "Pacific"). WGN America launched a Pacific Time Zone feed on January 1, 2016, an addition made as part of Tribune Broadcasting's renewal of the channel's carriage agreement with AT&T on October 26, 2015, which expanded its distribution by five million additional subscribers through the two pay television providers that carried the East Coast feed initially, AT&T U-verse and DirecTV.