PTEN

Prime Time Entertainment Network
Founded	1993
Closed	1997
Company	Warner Bros. Domestic Television Chris-Craft
Notable Series	Babylon 5 Kung Fu: The Legend Continues

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The Prime Time Entertainment Network or PTEN was an American ad hoc television network/syndication service founded in 1993 through a joint venture between Warner Bros. Domestic Television and Chris-Craft, an independent group of television stations. The two companies formed the Prime Time Consortium initially to finance original programming and ultimately hoped to establish PTEN as the fifth major network. At its peak, PTEN had 177 affiliate stations and covered 93% of the country.

PTEN faced scheduling trouble due, in part, to the fact that nearly half of its initial affiliates were FOX stations and were forced to schedule PTEN programming around FOX's primetime schedule. Affiliates took issue with the disproportionate amount of advertising available to them, due to the syndicator taking up nine minutes per hour.

In 1995, Chris-Craft left the partnership in order to throw its weight behind the then fledgling UPN, leaving PTEN under the sole control of Warner Bros. until it also abandoned the service to found The WB. Between 1995 and 1997, PTEN acted as a syndicator for its remaining original programs, including the popular science fiction series Babylon 5. In 1997, the service officially folded and its surviving original programs, Babylon 5 and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, were purchased by TNT.

Original Programs

• Babylon 5 (1993–1997, sci-fi series)
• The History of Rock 'n' Roll (1994, 10-part documentary series)
• Island City (1994, sci-fi pilot/telefilm)
• Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993–1997, action series)
• Pointman (1994–1995, action series)
• Time Trax (1993–1994, sci-fi series)
• The Wild West (1993, 10-part documentary series)