Conversely, WGN America abandoned its expensive sports packages in 2014 as part of its drift from a Chicago-centric superstation into a nationally oriented general entertainment channel;[2] WGN America eventually started a gradual transition away from entertainment programming, structured as such due to contractual commitments to existing syndicated programming, to adopt a cable news format as NewsNation in March 2021.
Sci-Fi Channel changed its name to Syfy for both trademark reasons[4] and to allow a stretching of the network's definition of appropriate programming to include content such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit reruns and ECW professional wrestling.
This process ended in October 2009 when the remaining courtroom analysis programs transitioned to CNN.com's legal news section and occasional court coverage from CNN Center on the mainline channel.
Other examples include the drifting of The Learning Channel, which has officially renamed itself under the three-letter orphan initialism "TLC" since its transition to primarily reality television series, and that of most of the MTV Networks.
While Nickelodeon has largely remained a children's-oriented channel throughout its history, its late-night Nick at Nite programming block (which for Nielsen ratings purposes is a separate channel from Nickelodeon) has drifted greatly from airing classic television (first from the Golden Age of Television, later expanding to shows from the 1960s and 1970s), to more recent shows still airing in local syndication, to its current focus on adolescent and young adult audiences similar to that of ABC Family (now Freeform).
For a time, Nicktoons' schedule has begun to feature live-action sitcoms on a cyclical basis, depending on the current output and success of Nickelodeon's animated series.
During the late 1960s, CBS had a reputation as a network with a disproportionate number of shows that targeted rural and older viewers, seen by advertisers as undesirable due to ingrained buying habits on the one hand and a greater perception of poverty on the other.
Beginning with the major success of American Idol in the early 2000s, Fox drifted away somewhat from this reputation; its dramas and sitcoms became more conventional, on the level of the historic Big Three television networks, and it put less emphasis on reality programs later that decade.
From the origins of the medium in the late 1950s, stations, who were then affiliated with National Educational Television, the precursor to the current PBS, served two specific audiences: first, they provided, on weekdays, instructional programming for children used in school classrooms, to supplement traditional curricula; second, they served adults (on evenings and weekends) by scheduling shows that were alternatives to the fare available on commercial broadcasting, such as theatrical plays, classical music concerts, literary dramas, and serious public affairs initiatives like investigative reporting and civil discussion of political matters, things that had been mostly abandoned by the commercial networks with the end of the Golden Age of Television in and around 1960.
Beginning with the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, the Federal government, along with those of most U.S. states, invested in production and distribution of such programming via NET/PBS and the construction of a large number of new stations.
Also, stations and program producers began to cultivate so-called "underwriting" (a modified form of advertising that did not interrupt shows in progress) from businesses, particularly large corporations who were then motivated by a sense of noblesse oblige to their communities and the country at large (in later years, these grants were targeted more toward certain genres, raising suspicions by critics that they constituted de facto commercial advertising).
With the aging (and eventual death) of audiences who were the most enthusiastic for more serious (and heretofore customary) fare, it was felt that younger viewers with more disposable income would be more interested in programs akin to those they were accustomed to on commercial television rather than formats such as classical dramas (a number of them imports from the British Broadcasting Corporation) and documentaries on sometimes arcane subjects.
[16] Despite the stated aims to appeal to a non-elderly audience, PBS could not keep up, it seemed to many, with rapid developments in cable television, which began offering alternatives to viewers that were generally more sensationalistic and visually compelling than the staid, restrained traditions of the public medium.
That competition, in turn, began to influence programmers to even further diminish or outright remove any shows considered "stuffy" or slow-paced, which eliminated several long-running staples of the network (e.g., Firing Line [original version], Wall Street Week).
Some PBS stations, in fact, took advantage of the changes to directly provide educational programs to schools without using airtime at all, something that accelerated with the emergence of video on demand via the internet in the 2000s.
To supplement beloved historic programs such as Sesame Street and Reading Rainbow, the network and leading stations developed several animated series with an educational and/or ethical emphasis.
[24][25] Nonetheless, under the ABC Family brand, the channel drifted from its strictly family-friendly format under Disney ownership; the channel gradually dropped series aimed at children from its schedule and incorporated programs aimed at young adults featuring profanity, some violence, and some sexual content, alongside its family-oriented series and films, and now airs a standard disclaimer before each broadcast of The 700 Club in which The Walt Disney Company disowns any connection to the show.
AMC (originally an outlet for "American Movie Classics") drifted successfully into premium scripted dramas in the late 2000s, such as Mad Men, The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad.
[27] In the early-2010s, USA Network—which built a niche for lighthearted comedy-dramas through the 2000s—attempted to augment them with original sitcoms (such as Benched and Sirens) to build upon its acquisition of off-network reruns of Modern Family.
[32][33] A second incarnation of MTV Canada launched by CTVglobemedia in 2005 was also restricted in its airing of music content, but this time as the result of drift from its original format as TalkTV.
[34][35] Over time, many channels found ways to adjust their programming to more popular fare while technically remaining compliant with their licensed genres, such as the original Canadian version of Bravo!
With the fall of apartheid, SABC2 eventually transitioned to a mix of English and other languages, including Afrikaans, and more programming shifting over to other venues such as DStv, with KykNET the most prominent example.
These changes were targeted by mounting viewers' criticism where entertainment programs should be pre-empted for the news coverage, notably when the Philippines was hit by Typhoon Goni (Rolly)[40] which later re-branded as GTV in February 2021.