TV & VIDEO - March 27, 1989

The Z Channel, the 14-year-old local cable service long cherished by film buffs for its eclectic mix of movies old and new, is about to be converted into an all-sports outlet. John Mohr, the top executive of SportsChannel America, which purchased Z Channel for a reported $10 million earlier this year and officially took over its operations last week, told Z staffers Friday that the conversion to a full-time sports channel could be completed as early as this June. Under the new format, Z executives said, movies would have no place. In an effort to beef up its subscription base, which had stagnated for years at fewer than 100,000, the Z Channel began airing Dodgers, Angels and Clippers games mixed in with its movie menu last year. The service’s name will likely be changed to SportsChannel this summer, and its new lineup will include professional and college sports of all sorts and quite possibly business and news programming from CNBC, NBC’s new cable service.