The Health Network
| FitTV | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Launched | 1993 |
| Closed | February 1, 2011 |
| Owned by | Discovery Communications, Inc. |
| Headquarters | Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States |
| Formerly called | Cable Health Club (1993–96) America's Health Network (1996–99) The Health Network (1999–2004) |
FitTV was an American digital cable and satellite channel, owned by Discovery Communications. The channel focused on fitness and exercise-related programming. FitTV offered programming with such fitness celebrities as Cathe Friedrich, Sharon Mann, Gilad Janklowicz, Marilu Henner, Tamilee Webb and others. On February 1, 2011, it merged with Discovery Health Channel to become Discovery Fit & Health, now known as Discovery Life.
International Family Entertainment debuted a continuous preview of the Cable Health Club on August 20, 1993. Beginning Aug. 31, the channel would be available in a half-hour continuous programming format to cable system operators for free. In October, the channel moved to 24-hour programming.Jake Steinfeld, who had starred on the network's Big Brother Jake, hosted its first program and was a constant presence on the channel in its early years.
The original formatting of an hour on Cable Health Club included a 20-minute aerobic conditioning workout at the top of the hour featuring Tamilee Webb; a segment on healthy living; a Body by Jake workout starting at the bottom of the hour; and "Fitness Plus", a home shopping segment for fitness items and equipment.
In 1994, Cable Health Club received new sponsors and minority partners, Reebok International (its first charter advertiser) and Liberty Media. By this time, the channel was received in one million homes and carried for two hours a day on the Family Channel. By November 1994, the Club was sharing a channel with Prime Sports Northwest on Seattle cable.
In January 1997, Cox Communications paired the service with Home Team Sports between the hours of 5:30–11 a.m. The service took out full-page ads in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper through May 4, requesting viewers to call a toll free number to register support for the channel to be 24 hours with responses forwarded to Cox.
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