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Bravo (television network)
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Bravo is a cable television network owned by NBC Universal. It is currently seen in more than 80 million homes and was the first service dedicated to film, drama, and the performing arts when it launched by Cablevision as an advertisement-free network in December 1980. In the early 2000s it switched from covering performing arts, drama, and indie film to being focused on pop culture like reality shows, fashion shows, makeovers, celebrities, and so forth.
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Bravo is a cable television network owned by NBC Universal. It is currently seen in more than 80 million homes and was the first service dedicated to film, drama, and the performing arts when it launched by Cablevision as an advertisement-free network in December 1980. In the early 2000s it switched from covering performing arts, drama, and indie film to being focused on pop culture like reality shows, fashion shows, makeovers, celebrities, and so forth. Bravo's programming schedule includes feature films (primarily from the Universal catalogue). Bravo also airs reruns of series from parent network NBC, and produces original reality content, most popularly Project Runway, Inside the Actors Studio, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, Queer Eye, Top Chef, Step It Up and Dance and Flipping Out.
Ownership
Bravo TV was originally a service of Cablevision's Rainbow Media. Between 1999 and 2001, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had a 20% stake in the channel (in addition to fellow Rainbow networks AMC and WE tv). In 2001, a stake of Bravo was acquired by NBC; the company bought the entire channel for $1.25B in 2002. Parent company General Electric's merged NBC with Vivendi Universal Entertainment in May 2004, and Bravo's corporate offices are at NBC's Rockefeller Center in New York. Other cable networks owned by NBC Universal include CNBC, MSNBC, mun2, Sci-Fi Channel, ShopNBC, Telemundo, Sleuth TV, Chiller, Universal HD and USA Network, as well as some partial ownership of international cable channels such as CNBC World, CNBC Europe, and CNBC Asia.
Target audience
Bravo has strong recognition among the young and among gay viewers in the United States. A study released in May 2008 ranked Bravo as the most recognizable brand among gay consumers. Bravo's age demographic is people 18-54, according to the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau's cable television profiles.
Distribution
According to CableMediaSales.com, Bravo is currently available in more than 80 million homes.
Promotion
Bravo gives substantial advertising to both their original and off-network programming. Heavily promoted original content includes Inside the Actors Studio, Project Runway, Top Chef, and Celebrity Poker Showdown. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which Bravo now produces in-house, was once an example of the off-network shows aired by Bravo, such as The West Wing.
Programming
Bravo's "makeover" came in 2003 with reality series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which hit 3.5 million viewers.
Bravo utilizes block programming for both new shows and successful existing ones. Bravo has also had great success with programming franchises. These include their "100 Greatest..." TV and the film retrospectives, based upon the concept of AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies; Project Greenlight and Project Runway; Showbiz Moms & Dads and Showdog Moms & Dads; Party/Party and a handful of successful gay-themed dating and reality shows (i.e. Queer Eye, Project Runway, which contains several gay contestants, and Workout, which features a lesbian lead) a niche which had yet to be filled by the reality-heavy networks.
In 2004 and 2006, Bravo carried coverage of the Olympic Games during the overnights and mornings produced by NBC. In 2008, the network carried no coverage, as NBC Universal had acquired Oxygen, allowing Bravo to continue to carry their general programming schedule during NBC coverage of the Games.
Upcoming Series/Pilots
- The Fashion Show: produced by 3 Ball Productions, ("The Biggest Loser," "Beauty and the Geek") Bravo exec VP and general manager Frances Berwick calls the skein a "complement to our successful fashion series Tim Gunn's Guide to Style and The Rachel Zoe Project."
- Celebrity Sew-Off: features well-knowns cutting and hemming their own clothes in a design competition, is produced by Lake Paradise Entertainment; Holly Wofford ("Shear Genius," "Supernanny") and Viki Cacciatore ("Survivor") exec produce.
- Fashionality
- Polo: profiles the lives of top polo players. It's produced by Granada America.
- The Dubai Projects: showcases the lavish lifestyles found in one of the world's fastest-growing cities. World of Wonder has the production credit, with Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey serving as exec producers.
- Double Exposure: produced by Juma Entertainment, and exec produced by Bob Horowitz and Lewis Fenton; is a docu-style series that follows art and fashion photographers Markus Klinko and Indrani as they shoot their famous subjects.
Sources: ,
Originals
Bravo HD
Bravo HD is a 1080i high definition simulcast of Bravo. It launched on October 3, 2007, and DirecTV was the first provider to add it. It is also available on Dish Network, Verizon FiOs, and some Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Brighthouse Networks networks.
This is the second version of Bravo HD; the current Universal HD launched as Bravo HD+ in August 2003. Bravo HD+ had a completely different schedule than the regular Bravo and aired only HD programs. The current Bravo HD airs programs in both high definition and standard definition.
Canadian Bravo!
Bravo! (with the exclamation mark) is a Canadian English language cable television specialty channel owned by CTV Limited a division of CTVglobemedia. It uses the "Bravo" name under license from NBC Universal. However, aside from the name and the interview series Inside the Actors Studio, there has been essentially no connection between the two channels since 2001, when the American Bravo network (then under the ownership of Cablevision's Rainbow Media) changed its direction away from focusing on performing arts towards a general programming direction. Many of Bravo's original programming now airs in Canada on the Alliance Atlantis Communications slate of specialty channels, namely Slice, Food Network, and HGTV.
See also
External links
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