Legend (television channel)
16:9 SDTV | |
Timeshift service | Horror Channel +1 (2010–2022) |
---|---|
Ownership | |
Owner | AMC Networks International Paramount Networks UK & Australia |
Parent | CBS AMC Networks UK Channels Partnership |
Sister channels | True Crime True Crime Xtra Legend Xtra |
History | |
Launched | 3 May 2004 |
Former names | The Horror Channel (2004–2006) Zone Horror (2006–2010) Horror Channel (2010–2022) |
Links | |
Website | www.legend-tv.co.uk |
Availability | |
Terrestrial | |
Freeview | Channel 41 |
Streaming media | |
Virgin TV Anywhere | Watch live (UK only) |
FilmOn | Watch live |
Legend[1][2] (formerly Horror Channel,[3] and Zone Horror[4]) is a British free-to-air television channel specialising in sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, action and cult series. It is broadcast in the UK and Ireland. The channel is known for its horror movies during the evenings and early hours with its schedule featuring in the Films section of the Radio Times rather than with the General Entertainment channels.[5]
History
Horror Channel was available as a free-to-air service on Astra 2F and, since Friday the 13th of March 2015, on Freeview channel 70. The launch on the Freeview platform increased its viewership by some 300%.[6]
Horror Channel
The Horror Channel was created by Tony Hazell, who had worked for the
The original management team formed a second company (Amore TV Ltd.) and purchased the channel on 22 September 2004, writing off the £200,000 investment made in the channel by venture capital firm, Northern Enterprise.Zone Horror +1 was launched on Sky on 1 July 2008, replacing Zone Reality Extra.
On 30 October 2006, Zonemedia launched Zone Horror in the Netherlands.[11] On 1 July 2009, the channel was dropped from cable in the Netherlands.[12]
On 14 September 2009, it was revealed that the international arm of
On 5 April 2010, Zone Horror was renamed "Horror Channel", following the renaming of the portfolio's other three channels in November 2009.[15] On-air the channel name appears as Horror. The rebrand was produced by Chello Zone's in-house creative services team.
As of May 2014 the channel's pre-show idents incorporated a prominent CBS eye even though CBS does not appear in the channel's name.
Zone Fantasy got rebranded as Horror Channel in Italy on 6 September 2011.[16] Horror Channel closed in Italy on 1 July 2015.[17]
On 21 August 2012, a pre-watershed simulcast of Horror Channel began broadcasting in Sky's Entertainment genre on channel 198,[18] followed by three hours of Psychic Today after 9.00 pm. This version of the channel was replaced by Reality TV, a simulcast of CBS Reality with a Psychic Today block, on 20 May 2013.
On 9 March 2015, Horror Channel appeared on Freeview channel 70 as a placeholder channel, and on 13 March 2015 Horror Channel started broadcasting fully and is the third of the CBS family to move to Freeview in under a year. On 25 May 2022, Horror moved to a higher position on the Freeview guide, by way of switching positions with sibling CBS Justice.[19]
On 30 June 2022 the Horror Channel revised, with the core of the schedule, including series, running on the new channel Legend, which replaced CBS Justice as an entertainment channel. Horror's feature film content was transmitted on a part-time channel, Horror Xtra, broadcasting from 5pm nightly, and set to take Horror's current slot in the Film section of the Sky guide. The change forms part of a larger reshuffle of AMCNI's UK channels taking place on that day.[20]
Horror Channel Films
Since its inception in 2004, The Horror Channel had screened a wide array of, not only horror classics, but horror-themed,
When the channel was renamed in 2006 as Zone Horror, most of the older films eventually became phased out and were replaced with more recent, low-budget and independent films which are less known, such as, Drive-Thru, Choker, Berserker: Hell's Warrior and Blood Ranch, while classic films were shown only on a sporadic basis.
Rebranded as simply Horror Channel in 2010, a number of classic horror films began to premiere on the channel, some of which included
Legend
On 30 June 2022, Horror was rebranded as Legend[21][22] to reflect its schedule of sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, action and cult series. On Freeview, the channel simply rebranded on channel 41, whilst on other platforms it took over the slot vacated by CBS Justice, which AMC/CBS closed.[23]
Horror Channel Programming
The following is a list of television and miniseries which were previously broadcast on Horror.
Note: See List of films broadcast by Horror Channel for all films, including television films.
Former
- Airwolf
- Andromeda
- Earth: Final Conflict
- Farscape
- Highlander: The Series
- Space: 1999
- Wonder Woman
- Sliders
- Star Trek: The Original Series
- Star Trek: Voyager
- Tales from the Darkside
- The Time Tunnel
- UFO
- Under the Dome
- The 4400 (first broadcast 20 February 2011)
- Angel (first broadcast 6 December 2010)
- BeastMaster
- Blood Ties
- Brimstone
- The Chronicle
- The Collector
- Dark Angel
- The Dead Zone
- Doctor Who (1963–1989)
- Firefly
- Freddy's Nightmares
- Friday the 13th: The Series
- Ghost Stories (first broadcast 2004)
- Hammer House of Horror (first broadcast 1 October 2011)
- Haunted
- The Incredible Hulk (first broadcast 1 September 2014)
- Jericho
- The Lost World
- Martial Law
- Millennium
- Mortal Kombat: Conquest
- Mutant X
- The Twilight Zone (1985–1989)
- Power Rangers
- The Ray Bradbury Theatre
- Special Unit 2
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Tales from the Crypt
- Tales of Mystery and Imagination
- The Invaders
- Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
- Twin Peaks
- Urban Gothic
- Vampire High (first broadcast 2004)
- The Visitor
- War of the Worlds
- Walker, Texas Ranger (first broadcast 17 October 2022)
- Witchblade
- Xena: Warrior Princess (first broadcast 25 April 2011)
Miniseries
- The Andromeda Strain
- Creature
- Firestarter: Rekindled
- From the Dead of Night
- Intruders
- Stephen King's Golden Years
- Stephen King's It
- Stephen King's The Langoliers
- Stephen King's Salem's Lot
- Stephen King's The Shining
- Stephen King's The Stand
- Stephen King's The Tommyknockers
- Valemont
Documentaries
Logos
Legend Xtra
Legend Xtra (styled as LEGEND XTRA, formerly known as HorrorXtra) is a British free-to-air television channel which shows horror films from 5pm onwards.[24] As of 1 July 2022, it is available in the Movies section on the Sky EPG,[25] where it can be found on channels 317 and 318 (with the latter being the +1 timeshifted service), on channel 192 on Virgin Media and Freesat 138,[26] however at launch the channel was not being broadcast on Freeview (until April 2023), with the parent company having a placeholder channel broadcasting RealityXtra 2 for a couple of hours each night instead. On 26 April 2023,[27][28] RealityXtra 2 was replaced by HorrorXtra on Freeview, with the channel starting a daytime schedule which will include programmes such as Knight Rider[29] and Mutant X,[30] alongside late night genre films such as The Final Wish[31] and Nicolas Cage's The Humanity Bureau.[32]
On 22 November 2023, HorrorXtra rebranded as Legend Xtra to be more in-line with the Legend brand.
References
- ^ "StackPath".
- ^ "Horror Channel Becomes LEGEND as July Schedule Unveiled". 30 June 2022.
- ^ "Freeview / Freesat Changes: CBS Channels Getting Big Revamp". 23 June 2022.
- ^ "Airwolf Season 3".
- ^ Radio Times, 25 June - 1 July 2022
- ^ "BARB". BARB. February 2015.
- ^ "A horror show for venture capitalists". The Journal. 30 November 2004.
- ^ "Stay Screaming". RMT. Archived from the original on 5 July 2009. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
- ^ "Zone Vision buys Horror Channel". C21Media. 17 June 2005.
- ^ "Zone develops new vision of itself". C21Media. 13 June 2006.
- ^ "Zonemedia Launches Horror Channel In The Netherlands". 4 Regional Film & Video. 30 October 2006.
- ^ https://service.upc.nl/index.php?CampaignID=48&PageID=1415&cid=257&aid=1055[permanent dead link]
- ^ "CBS FINALChello Zone partnership press release". Chello Zone. 14 September 2009. Archived from the original (DOC) on 24 July 2011.
- ^ "CBS to launch UK channels with Chellomedia". Broadcastnow. 14 September 2009.
- ^ "Zone Horror rebrands as Horror Channel". Broadband TV News. 31 March 2010.
- ^ MvdbMedia (6 September 2011). "Fantasy wordt Horror". DutchDreambox.nl. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- ^ "Come vedere Horror Channel" (in Italian). lettera43.it. 24 September 2015.
- ^ "Horror Channel Now Also On Sky 198 from 9am till 9pm!". Horror Channel. 20 August 2012.
- ^ Cordbusters, 2022-05-24
- ^ RXTVinfo, 2022-06-18
- ^ "StackPath".
- ^ "Horror Channel Becomes LEGEND as July Schedule Unveiled". 30 June 2022.
- ^ "Freeview channel switch-off completes". 30 June 2022.
- ^ "Freeview channel switch-off completes". 30 June 2022.
- ^ "Sky channel list (UK EPG)".
- ^ "HorrorXtra".
- ^ "New channels for Freeview viewers from 26th April > RXTV info". 24 April 2023.
- ^ "HorrorXtra".
- ^ "Knight Rider on HorrorXtra".
- ^ "Mutant X on HorrorXtra".
- ^ "On HorrorXtra".
- ^ "On HorrorXtra".