Showtime Australia is a pay-TV movie service, available on the Foxtel, Optus and Austar networks in Australia and produced by the Premium Movie Partnership (PMP). As at December 2004, PMP is a joint venture in which Sony, Universal, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Liberty Media have equal shares. Not surprisingly, Showtime sources most of its movies from those studios.

Showtime started out in 1995 as part of the basic package on the now-defunct Galaxy network, showing first-run films. It later became available as part of the Austar and Foxtel services when they were launched. At the same time its sister channel, Encore, launched, showing older, 'classic' movies. Encore was renamed Showtime Greats in 2004.

Pay-TV networks offer Showtime as part of a three-channel tier that includes Showtime 2 (the same content as Showtime, but delayed two hours), and Showtime Greats.

It is unrelated to the American Showtime service, but pays a licence fee for the use of the name and trademark.

External Links

Showtime Australia official site