Spotlight (cable TV)
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Spotlight was a 24-hour premium movie channel launched in 1979, with the only non-movie programming being monthly previews of films airing on the channel. In 1980, Spotlight expanded its programming schedule to 24 hours a day, seven days per week. (Cinemax was 24/7 from the day it signed on, Showtime and The Movie Channel went to a 24-hour schedule earlier and HBO went to a 24-hour schedule a year later.)
Spotlight featured Robert Goulet as their initial spokesperson. He hosted the rollout of the channel. Spotlight initially featured a flip-flop movie schedule. They would show a movie at 7:00 PM and then one around 9:00 PM and then the next night, they would show the same in a "flip-flop" schedule, with the late movie from the other night shown first.
Spotlight also featured a big band type theme and when the credits would go into the "O" of Spotlight, it would feature a sort of whistling sound. Their tag line was "Spotlight, shining bright, day and night, we light up the stars for you!"
A few factors led to the channel's original demise in 1984. The channel aired many of the same films as Showtime (although Spotlight, Showtime and HBO shared the same films usually featuring the same duplication in the same month with each other) and it was assumed that Spotlight was a sister network to Showtime before The Movie Channel was sold with Showtime to Viacom in 1985. Spotlight was owned by Times-Mirror's "Dimension Cable Television" unit and was available primarily on its own cable systems. When Spotlight went dark, Times Mirror replaced it on most systems with Showtime, which was mostly unavailable on their systems prior to Spotlight's demise.
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