 | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Europe |
| Network | Chello Zone/Chello Central Europe |
| Programming | |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Chellomedia Liberty Global |
| Sister channels | Zone Club Zone Europa Zone Fantasy Zone Horror Zone Reality Zone Thriller |
| History | |
| Launched | Central & Eastern Europe: 1 March 1998 UK & Ireland: 3 September 2007 |
| Closed | UK & Ireland: 16 November 2009 Hungary: 2 July 2012 Central & Eastern Europe: 3 December 2012 |
| Replaced by | Romania: Romantica (2007–2012) UK & Ireland: CBS Drama (2009) Hungary & Romania: Film Café (2012) Central & Eastern Europe: CBS Drama (2012) Poland: CBS Action (2012) Polsat Romans (2013) |
| Former names | Romantica (Until 2006) |
| Links | |
| Website | zoneromantica.tv romantica.tv UK |
Zone Romantica (formerly Romantica) was a European TV channel that launched in 1998. The channel broadcast a mixture of telenovelas, music and entertainment from all over the world, but mainly from Latin America. The channel was available 24 hours a day, to 20 territories across Europe and the Middle East. The channel reached 8 million subscribers.
The channel launched on Sky Digital in the UK and Ireland on 3 September 2007. It was broadcasting between 8 a.m. and 3 a.m. from the start.[1] It slot on the Sky EPG had been purchased from BEN TV.[2]
On 6 May 2008 it was one of the channels that were on the free-to-air platform Freesat platform from the start.[3]
On 14 September 2009, it was revealed that the international arm of CBS, CBS Studios International, struck a joint venture deal with Chellomedia to launch six CBS-branded channels in the UK during 2009. The new channels would replace Zone Romantica, Zone Thriller, Zone Horror and Zone Reality, plus timeshift services Zone Horror +1 and Zone Reality +1.[4][5] On 1 October 2009, it was announced that CBS Reality, CBS Reality +1, CBS Drama and CBS Action would launch on 16 November 2009 replacing Zone Reality, Zone Reality +1, Zone Romantica and Zone Thriller. On 5 April 2010, Zone Horror and Zone Horror +1 were rebranded as Horror Channel and Horror Channel +1, following the rebrand of the portfolio's other three channels in November 2009.[6]
On 2 July 2012, Hungarian version of Zone Romantica is replaced by Film Café.[7] On 1 August 2012 Chellomedia revealed that all European versions of the Zone Channels would be rebranded into CBS Channels.[8] CBS Action replaced Zone Romantica on 3 December 2012. On 1 September 2013 Zone Romantica Has Completely Closed Replacing Polsat Romans on Poland. On 3 December 2012 in Europe Zone Romantica has rebranded to CBS Drama.
- ^ "Zonemedia to launch Romantica channel". The Airwaves. 20 August 2007. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011.
- ^ "Zone brings US soaps to UK screens". Digital Spy. 20 August 2007.
- ^ "In full: Freesat channels at launch". Digital Spy. 6 May 2008.
- ^ "CBS FINALChello Zone partnership press release" (DOC). Chello Zone. 14 September 2009.
- ^ "CBS to launch UK channels with Chellomedia". Broadcastnow. 14 September 2009.
- ^ "Zone Horror rebrands as Horror Channel". Broadband TV News. 31 March 2010.
- ^ "Chello rebrands movie channels". Broadband TV News. 18 June 2012.
- ^ "CBS and Chellomedia take entertainment across EMEA". Broadband TV News. 1 August 2012.