The Puppy Channel - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Puppy Channel was a short-lived American cable television

Cable television

Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...

channel whose programming consisted entirely of video footage of puppies

Puppy

A puppy is a juvenile dog. Some puppies may weigh , while larger ones can weigh up to . All healthy puppies grow quickly after birth. A puppy's coat color may change as the puppy grows older, as is commonly seen in breeds such as the Yorkshire Terrier...

.

The network was created in 1997 by retired advertising executive Dan FitzSimons. FitzSimons and his daughter Molly stated in a featured segment on This American Life
This American Life
This American Life is a weekly hour-long radio program produced by WBEZ and hosted by Ira Glass. It is distributed by Public Radio International on PRI affiliate stations and is also available as a free weekly podcast. Primarily a journalistic non-fiction program, it has also featured essays,...

that he came up with the idea when he was watching the O.J. Simpson murder case during the daytime

Daytime television

Daytime television is the general term for television shows produced that are intended to air during the daytime hours on weekdays. This article is about American daytime television, for information about international daytime television see Daytime television....

and kept flipping through the channels during lulls in the trial only to see nothing was on but game show

Game show

A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...

s, soaps

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

, and rerun

Rerun

A rerun or repeat is a re-airing of an episode of a radio or television broadcast. The invention of the rerun is generally credited to Desi Arnaz. There are two types of reruns—those that occur during a hiatus, and those that occur when a program is syndicated. Reruns can also be, as the...

s. FitzSimons said he thought "Something else is necessary. There's a need for a parking place on television. If you don't want to watch something that is there, you could have the TV set on, and it'd be playing something that didn't bother you, and would hold the place until your favorite show or what you chose to watch." To fill this need, he conceived of a channel that would show "24 hours a day, 7 days a week, footage of puppies fooling around like puppies do, acting the natural comedians

Humour

Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement...

and cuties

Cuteness

Cuteness is the appeal commonly associated with neoteny.- Cuteness effects :Humans respond favorably to a neotenized appearance A neotenized appearance elicits sympathy from humans as well as protective urges...

that they are, with no people, no talk, accompanied only by relaxing instrumental

Instrumental

An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....

music."

According to Molly FitzSimons, 41% of people in focus group

Focus group

A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging...

surveys said they would prefer watching the channel to CNBC

CNBC

CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...

and 37% preferred it to TBS

Turner Broadcasting System

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. is the Time Warner subsidiary managing the collection of cable networks and properties started and acquired by Robert Edward "Ted" Turner starting in the mid-1970s. The company has its headquarters in the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. TBS, Inc...

.

At its peak in 1998, The Puppy Channel was seen on four local cable systems around the U.S., before FitzSimons decided to give up in 2001.

The one-hour pilot show that was seen on cable TV is now digitized in DVD form to demonstrate to the TV business the programming concept's interactivity and suitability as video on demand

Video on demand

Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...

(VOD). In 2001 after the dotcom bubble burst, the company's cable programming ended. Much of the original pilot show's video is currently viewable online at thepuppychannel.com, where people also are invited to upload video of their own pups.

See also