USA
Network originally launched on September 8, 1971 as the Madison Square
Garden Network (not to be confused with the New York City regional sports
network of the same name). The channel became one of the first national cable
television channels in the late 1970s, when it chose to use satellite delivery
as opposed to microwave relay to cable systems. Initially, the network ran a
mix of college and less well-known professional sports similar to ESPN. The
channel began its broadcast day after 5 p.m. ET on weekdays and 12 p.m. ET on
weekends.
The first logo of USA Network, used
from 1979 to 1996.
On
January 3, 1979, the channel changed its name to USA Network after the
ownership structure was reorganized under a joint operating agreement by cable
provider UA-Columbia Cablevision and the then-MCA Inc./Universal
City Studios. That fall, USA began signing on at 12 p.m. ET on weekdays and
began to run some talk shows and a children's program called Calliope.
Sports programming began airing at 5 p.m. ET weekdays, and all day on weekends.
In the fall of 1981, USA began its daily programming at 6 a.m. ET, with talk
shows and children's programs until 12 p.m., sports from 12 p.m. onward during
weekends and until 3 p.m. weekdays, talk shows from 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays, and
sports again after 6 p.m. ET.
