Satellite News Channel on the air; most local cable systems replaced SNC with either CNN or, more commonly, CNN Headline News. For a brief time after SNC shut down, its theme music was used by fellow-Connecticut cable network ESPN. In 1996, ABC revealed plans to launch a 24-hour news channel, however discontinued them after Fox News Channel and MSNBC were announced. In 2004, ABC News returned to the 24-hour news market with ABC News Now. The channel began as a digital subchannel but was later moved to cable. However that channel like SNC received little cable and satellite carriage, only being available on
History of CNN (1980–2003) Checkout Channel, a customized channel made available to grocery stores which shut down in 1993. 1996 saw the debuts of two specialty news channels: CNNSI, a sports news channel created in partnership with co-owned magazine "Sports Illustrated", and CNNfn, a business news channel created as a competitor to CNBC (CNNSI shut down in 2002, while CNNfn shut down in December 2004; CNN continues to maintain a partnership with "Sports Illustrated" through CNNSI.com). CNN launched its website, CNN.com (initially an experiment known as "CNN Interactive"), on August 30, 1995, which grew to become one of the most popular news websites in