| Legend | |
| Owner: | AMC Networks International Paramount Networks UK & Australia |
| Parent: | CBS AMC Networks UK Channels Partnership |
| Picture Format: | 576i SDTV |
| Area: | United Kingdom Ireland |
| Former Names: | The Horror Channel (2004–2006) Zone Horror (2006–2010) Horror Channel (2010–2022) |
| Timeshift Service: | Horror Channel +1 (2010–2022) |
| Sister Channels: | True Crime True Crime Xtra Legend Xtra |
| Website: | www.legend-tv.co.uk |
| Terr Serv 1: | Freeview |
| Terr Chan 1: | Channel 41 |
| Online Serv 1: | Virgin TV Anywhere |
| Online Chan 1: | Watch live (UK only) |
| Online Serv 2: | FilmOn |
| Online Chan 2: | Watch live |
Legend,[1] [2] formerly Zone Horror[3] and Horror Channel,[4] is a British free-to-air television channel specialising in sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, action and cult series. It is broadcast in the UK and Ireland. The channel is known for its horror movies during the evenings and early hours with its schedule featuring in the Films section of the Radio Times rather than with the General Entertainment channels.[5]
Horror Channel was available as a free-to-air service on Astra 2F and, since Friday the 13th of March 2015, on Freeview channel 70. The launch on the Freeview platform increased its viewership by some 300%.[6]
The Horror Channel was created by Tony Hazell, who had worked for the God Channel. The Horror Channel went into administration on 21 September 2004.[7] [8] The original management team formed a second company (Amore TV Ltd.) and purchased the channel on 22 September 2004, writing off the £200,000 investment made in the channel by venture capital firm, Northern Enterprise.
Zone Vision Networks Ltd. agreed to acquire the Horror Channel for an undisclosed sum on 17 June 2005.[9] In June 2006, the Horror Channel was renamed "Zone Horror" after Zone Vision Networks was renamed AMC Networks International UK. It became a part of the AMC Networks International UK content division of Liberty Global in 2005.[10]
Zone Horror +1 was launched on Sky on 1 July 2008, replacing Zone Reality Extra.
On 30 October 2006, Zonemedia launched Zone Horror in the Netherlands.[11] On 1 July 2009, the channel was dropped from cable in the Netherlands.[12]
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 CBS Reality, and timeshift services Zone Horror +1 and Zone Reality +1.[13] [14]
On 5 April 2010, Zone Horror was renamed "Horror Channel", following the renaming of the portfolio's other three channels in November 2009.[15] On-air the channel name appears as Horror. The rebrand was produced by Chello Zone's in-house creative services team.
As of May 2014 the channel's pre-show idents incorporated a prominent CBS eye even though CBS does not appear in the channel's name.
Zone Fantasy got rebranded as Horror Channel in Italy on 6 September 2011.[16] Horror Channel closed in Italy on 1 July 2015.[17]
On 21 August 2012, a pre-watershed simulcast of Horror Channel began broadcasting in Sky's Entertainment genre on channel 198,[18] followed by three hours of Psychic Today after 9.00 pm. This version of the channel was replaced by Reality TV, a simulcast of CBS Reality with a Psychic Today block, on 20 May 2013.
On 9 March 2015, Horror Channel appeared on Freeview channel 70 as a placeholder channel, and on 13 March 2015 Horror Channel started broadcasting fully and is the third of the CBS family to move to Freeview in under a year. On 25 May 2022, Horror moved to a higher position on the Freeview guide, by way of switching positions with sibling CBS Justice.[19]
On 30 June 2022 the Horror Channel revised, with the core of the schedule, including series, running on the new channel Legend, which replaced CBS Justice as an entertainment channel. Horror's feature film content was transmitted on a part-time channel, Horror Xtra, broadcasting from 5pm nightly, and set to take Horror's current slot in the Film section of the Sky guide. The change forms part of a larger reshuffle of AMCNI's UK channels taking place on that day.[20]
See main article: List of films broadcast by Horror Channel. Since its inception in 2004, The Horror Channel had screened a wide array of, not only horror classics, but horror-themed, supernatural, slasher, cult, and b movies, mixed with genres of sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, thriller and drama. Early acquired films for the network included Carnival of Souls (1962), Night of the Living Dead (1968), The City of the Dead (1960), Vampyr (1932), The Ghoul (1933), The Killer Shrews (1959), Lady of Burlesque (1943), Pumpkinhead (1988), Bloody Birthday (1981), Creepshow 2 (1987), Brain Damage (1988), Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988), Frogs (1972), Slugs (1988), Body Count (1988), Flowers in the Attic (1987), Turkey Shoot (1982), Demon Wind (1990), and Troll 2 (1990). The channel was also notable for its showing of European Cinema in its early years; this included The Devil's Nightmare (1971), Nude for Satan (1974), Black Magic Rites (1973), The Sinful Nuns of Saint Valentine (1974), The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance (1975), and Cold Eyes of Fear (1971), as well as a collection of films from French director Jean Rollin; theses consisted of The Rape of the Vampire (1968), The Nude Vampire (1970), Requiem for a Vampire (1971), The Iron Rose (1973), The Demoniacs (1974), The Grapes of Death (1978), Fascination (1979), and The Living Dead Girl (1982), which were initially shown as part of "The Jean Rollin Season", while two more of his films, Killing Car (1993) and The Two Orphan Vampires (1997), screened at a later time. A number of Troma films broadcast on the channel, such as, Mother's Day (1980), Terror Firmer (1999), plus films from their The Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke 'Em High franchises. Other broadcasts from film franchises included (1988) and (1989), the Hellraiser trilogy, and the Leprechaun franchise.
When the channel was renamed in 2006 as Zone Horror, most of the older films eventually became phased out and were replaced with more recent, low-budget and independent films which are less known, such as, Drive-Thru, Choker, Berserker: Hell's Warrior and Blood Ranch, while classic films were shown only on a sporadic basis.
Rebranded as simply Horror Channel in 2010, a number of classic horror films began to premiere on the channel, some of which included The Evil Dead, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Happy Birthday to Me and The Incredible Melting Man. Many films were screened as part of horror seasons, with 2011's highlights including "Horror Horreur" for September, "Hammer Horror" for October and "Season of the Banned" for November. Notable inclusions consisted of the films of European directors Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento, and, screenings of recently released films by home entertainment company Arrow Films, which includes Savage Streets and Street Trash. Following this, Horror Channel has premiered many popular films; Pan's Labyrinth, Halloween II, , Rabid, Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Peeping Tom, Blue Steel, Wolf Creek and Jeepers Creepers,
On 30 June 2022, Horror was rebranded as Legend[21] [22] to reflect its schedule of sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, action and cult series. On Freeview, the channel simply rebranded on channel 41, whilst on other platforms it took over the slot vacated by CBS Justice, which AMC/CBS closed.[23]
The following is a list of television and miniseries which were previously broadcast on Horror.
Note: See List of films broadcast by Horror Channel for all films, including television films.
Legend Xtra (styled as LEGEND XTRA, formerly known as HorrorXtra) is a British free-to-air television channel which shows B movies, cult television programmes and horror films. HorrorXtra launched as a spin-off channel to Legend on 1 July 2022, but kept the original Horror nomenclature used before Legend's rebrand. It was broadcast from 5pm onwards[24] and was available in the Movies section on the Sky EPG,[25] where it could be found on channels 317 and 318 (with the latter being the +1 timeshifted service), on channel 192 on Virgin Media and Freesat 138,[26] though at launch the channel was not being broadcast on Freeview, with the parent company having a placeholder channel broadcasting RealityXtra 2 for a couple of hours each night instead. On 26 April 2023,[27] [28] RealityXtra 2 was replaced by HorrorXtra on Freeview, with the channel starting a daytime schedule which included programmes such as Knight Rider[29] and Mutant X,[30] alongside late night genre films such as The Final Wish[31] and Nicolas Cage's The Humanity Bureau.[32]
On 22 November 2023, HorrorXtra rebranded as Legend Xtra to be more in-line with the Legend brand, with the broadcast hours extended in 2024 to include a full days schedule. As of June 2024,[33] [34] Legend Xtra[35] is broadcasting series such as Farscape, The Twilight Zone[36] and [37] The Six Million Dollar Man[38] with mini-series such as Frank Herbert's Children of Dune[39] also turning up in the schedule. The channel has also extended its range of films from focusing mainly on horror films to broadcasting movies from a number of different genres. These include action films such as Sniper: Special Ops,[40] thrillers[41] [42] like Paradise Cove,[43] classic films such as the 1959 Hammer film The Mummy with Christopher Lee,[44] [45] 1966's Island of Terror with Peter Cushing[46] and the 1959 Vincent Price[47] film House on Haunted Hill, erotic films like The Loft,[48] westerns like Forsaken[49] and the Kenny Rogers starring Wild Horses,[50] in addition to horror and sci-fi disaster movies like Ti West's satanic haunted house slasher The House of the Devil,[51] [52] and other similar films which made up the bulk of The Horror Channel's and HorrorXtra's output.