Fiktiv USA - Pop TV

Pop, commonly referred to as Pop TV (formerly known as TV Guide Network), is an American pay television channel owned by ViacomCBS under its domestic networks division. It is a general entertainment channel, focusing primarily on programs pertaining to popular culture.

The network was originally launched in 1981 as a barker channel service providing a display of localized channel and program listings for cable television providers. Later on, the service, branded Prevue Channel or Prevue Guide and later as Prevue, began to broadcast interstitial segments alongside the on-screen guide, which included entertainment, news, and promotions for upcoming programs. After Prevue's parent company, United Video Satellite Group, acquired the entertainment magazine TV Guide in 1998 (UVSG would in turn, be acquired by Gemstar the following year), the service was relaunched as TV Guide Channel (later TV Guide Network), which now featured full-length programs dealing with the entertainment industry, including news magazines and reality shows, along with red carpet coverage from major award shows.

Following the acquisition of TV Guide Network by Lionsgate in 2009, its programming began to shift towards a general entertainment format with reruns of dramas and sitcoms. In 2013, CBS Corporation acquired of a 50% stake in the network, and the network was renamed TVGN. In 2015, the network was rebranded as Pop. In 2019, CBS acquired Lionsgate's 50% stake in the network and merged with Viacom.

Pop is available to 67.348 million households in America as of September 2018.

In keeping with both the original concept and the present-day refocusing of the channel, Pop allows cable providers to offer the channel in one of two optional formats: one version of Pop's programming feed allows the inclusion of a scrolling grid that is shown at the bottom third of the screen, listing all channels available on that particular television provider coupled with the titles of the television programs and films those channels are currently showing. Appearing in the top three-quarters of the screen is the network's programming, currently consisting of a mix of original scripted and reality series, acquired and internationally co-produced series and reruns of shows sourced from the CBS Television Distribution library. For the gridded version, the majority of the network's audience consists of channel surfers looking to see what's on, and what's coming on next, on their respective cable and satellite providers' channel lineups.

Although its bottom-screen program listings grid continues to be the major feature of the channel, Pop has attempted to reposition itself as a destination channel for television news and information, through its original series and specials. This is because internet-based TV listings sites, mobile applications and the on-screen interactive program guides (IPGs) built directly into most of today's cable and satellite set top terminals, as well as into digital video recorders like TiVo, have mostly eliminated the need for a dedicated TV listings channel by providing the same information in a speedier manner, and often in much more detail and with greater flexibility.

A gridless version of the channel, which displays all of the channel's programming full-screen, is offered to cable and satellite operators providing only digital television service and whose digital set top receivers already include integrated IPGs; though some digital cable providers use the scrolling grid version even if they use IPGs integrated within set top boxes. Optionally, some providers that offer both analog and digital television services may carry Pop's full-screen feed through the provider's digital service, while the program grid is shown on a local origination channel for analog customers.

Most systems that use the gridded version of Pop's programming carry the channel on a basic service (available at minimum on a "limited basic" programming tier – alongside local broadcast stations and public, educational and government access channels), though in some markets, the channel is only available from within the digital tiers of certain cable providers. As its programming is considered non-critical, many cable providers also use Pop's channel space as a default Emergency Alert System conduit for transmitting warning information applicable to their local service areas, or as channel space for an alternate or overflow feed of a regional sports network for sports right conflicts, though as dedicated HD channels have launched for the RSNs and new Pop carriage agreements preclude EAS or RSN overflow use, this use has been negated.

The type of show categories are highlighted by colors on the screen:
General programming: Gray
Children's shows: Light blue
Sports programming: Green
Movies: Red on regular channels, purple on pay-per-view channels

During the weeks prior to the Emmys, shows that have been nominated are also highlighted in gold. The same gold highlighting can be seen during the lead-up to the Oscars, except only for movies that have won in the past. Titles for other special shows, like those that are a part of Discovery Channel's Shark Week, have a bubbly water graphical scheme. During the lead-up to Halloween, horror movie titles feature spiderwebs in their schemes, and holiday movie titles listed during December are blue and snow-covered. Similar important shows and/or premieres also have other special graphical schemes added to their grid cells.