AMC Networks

AMC Networks Inc. is an American entertainment company headquartered in 11 Penn Plaza, New York, that owns the cable channels AMC, IFC, WE tv, and SundanceTV; the art house movie theater IFC Center in New York City, and the independent film company IFC Films.

The company was originally launched in 1980 and formerly known as Rainbow Media Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of Cablevision, but was spun off as a publicly traded company in July 2011.

History

When Rainbow was formed in 1980, it originally included Bravo and SportsChannel New York. As SportsChannel expanded by adding other regional networks, these also became part of Rainbow (see SportsChannel America). When SportsChannel was merged into Fox Sports Net, all of these networks except SportsChannel NY (then Fox Sports New York) were gradually sold off. Fox Sports New York was then transferred to the MSG Media and rebranded MSG+.

Rainbow originally started the Playboy Channel in 1982 as a joint-venture with Playboy; Cablevision would later sell its share back to Playboy.