Network 23 - Broadcasting from 20 minutes into the future
Network 23 is the organization that employs Edison Carter, an investigative video reporter who heads up the What I Want to Know Show. Along with his colleagues Theora Jones, Blank Reg, Bryce Lynch and Bryce's creation Max Headroom, they strive to make their dystopic future a safer and saner place to live.
The network was first introduced to contemporary viewers in the original Max Headroom Movie, a 1-hour feature produced for British television in the 1980s. It starred Matt Frewer as Edison/Max, Amanda Pays as Theora Jones and W. Morgan Sheppard as Blank Reg.
Network 23's largest advertising client is the Japanese conglomerate known as the Zik-Zak Corporation, for whom they created the lethal form of advertising called blipverts. Zik-Zak markets everything from automobiles to vending machine hamburgers (as Max says, "Why do Zik-Zak burgers come wrapped in plastic? Some of it rubs off on the burger...and doubles its nutritional value!") They're always on the lookout for a Good Thing, whether it be Raking, Organlegging, or even politics for profit.
Known to retaliate in the minute-to-minute ratings war that consumes the world through such vicious thrusts as early-evening porno, gore-on-demand and the devious blipvertisements which pack 30 seconds of ads into 3 seconds, preventing channel surfing, Network 23 currently lives atop the television network heap. One must be careful in dealing with them, however, for they're always looking for ways to squash their competitors.