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The New Court TV


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After over a decade of recess and an official announcement last December, Court TV has returned to television on May 8 as an OTA digital broadcast bnetwork and OTT service owned by the E.W. Scripps Company's Katz Broadcasting.

 

The company's name, logo and library were purchased by by Katz from it's previous owner Turner Broadcasting 

 

The network will also live stream coverage,programming and it's library of coverage of past notable trials on its website Court TV.com

 

Time to deliberate.

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So here is a question that has popped up at various times in the life of Court-TV...

 

Will we ever consider televising a live execution?

Maybe a PPV event?

 

Fact...

A live PPV event of the execution  of Iraq ruler Saddam Hussein was actually pitched to quite a few "networks" back in 2005.  Crews and equipment were booked just in case the Iraqi courts allowed it.

 

Fact...

PBS affiliate KQED sued for the right to broadcast a California execution back in 1991.

https://www.newsweek.com/live-san-quentin-201286

 

It wasn't that long ago that a typical Sunday was spent going to church...and afterwards heading off to the town square for an afternoon of executions.

 

Do ya think the sales weasels would have any problem selling time for the events???

 

How 'bout a double header???

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A live execution may have been feasible in the days of cable, but with Court TV now an over-the-air network, live footage of someone being put to death would cause FCC fines that would make the money CBS stations lost on Justin Timberlake stripping Janet Jackson seem like small potatoes.

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Watching a bit of Court TV on KATC 3.4 in Lafayette; overall, not too bad (aside from a few technical glitches, but I guess you’re gonna have these kinds of things occur when a new channel or network launches)...

 

First up: a case from Georgia where two parents are on trial for the death of their 15-day old baby (as I am watching now, the parents are very emotional as the jury sees the autopsy photos of the baby)

 

I would like to see Court TV allow their stations to put a graphic on their screen with their respective call letters, subchannel and city, though; example is below:

 

KATC TV 3.4

Lafayette, LA

 

Overall, I give it an 8 out of 10...

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Why is their schedule not on their website, at least as far as I can tell? Seems rather basic. Also ... why are most of the Tribune stations waiting until November to go live with Court TV rather than carrying it from day one?

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5 minutes ago, Greggo said:

Why is their schedule not on their website, at least as far as I can tell? Seems rather basic. Also ... why are most of the Tribune stations waiting until November to go live with Court TV rather than carrying it from day one?

 

I'm guessing November 1 is the target date for the Tribune stations because that's when their contract with MGM is up regarding This TV (which it appears that Court TV will be displacing in the Tribune markets). Since This is a partnership with Tribune, they might be winding down that network. 

 

Decades was hit hard last year but didn't shut down. They also lost two TEGNA stations with the Court TV launch. I'm surprised Weigel hasn't just shut it down.

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I've been surprised that This TV is still on the air for some time now. It feels like something Tribune never got around to axing - plus I don't know if MGM is even really interested in it.

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38 minutes ago, channel2 said:

I've been surprised that This TV is still on the air for some time now. It feels like something Tribune never got around to axing - plus I don't know if MGM is even really interested in it.

 

MGM is more interested in their joint ventures with Sinclair (Comet, Charge!) and the EPIX pay network. This TV has been running on borrowed time for a few years now.

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1 hour ago, TVIntheDesert said:

Decades was hit hard last year but didn't shut down. They also lost two TEGNA stations with the Court TV launch. I'm surprised Weigel hasn't just shut it down.

With their CBS TVD deal across Me and Start, it probably doesn't cost all that much to run since all the outlay was made three years ago for Through the Decades and Bill Kurtis's services, and it's basically turnkey at this point and a helluva lot better than dealing with the overzealous contract demands Retro TV still somehow insists on having in 2019 to carry their Cancon/public domain product. Plus with their small station purchase spree, Weigel can justify to providers that their stations have a good selection of programming.

 

55 minutes ago, channel2 said:

I've been surprised that This TV is still on the air for some time now. It feels like something Tribune never got around to axing - plus I don't know if MGM is even really interested in it.

It's MyNetworkTV Syndrome; nobody actually likes the service, but it fills time and the DRTV revenue must be something to continue justify its existence.

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According to TitanTV, this is weekdays (I used KARE 11.2 Minneapolis which replaced it's long running weather subchannel of 14 years)...

 

9am-6pm - Court TV LIVE

6-9pm - Closing Arguments

9pm-12am - Closing Arguments (repeat)

12-9am - Court TV LIVE (repeat of 9am-6pm I think)

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19 minutes ago, Action Newsroom said:

Watching on the second day, and still enjoying the live coverage. Plus, as expected, no tech glitches after Day 1. And They got the right trial to kick it all off (damn).

 

Is the trial being covered today the same one from yesterday (w/the two parents from Georgia on trial for the death of their 15-day old baby)???

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10 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

With their CBS TVD deal across Me and Start, it probably doesn't cost all that much to run since all the outlay was made three years ago for Through the Decades and Bill Kurtis's services, and it's basically turnkey at this point and a helluva lot better than dealing with the overzealous contract demands Retro TV still somehow insists on having in 2019 to carry their Cancon/public domain product. Plus with their small station purchase spree, Weigel can justify to providers that their stations have a good selection of programming.

 

There's hundreds of LPTV stations and Weigel isn't bothering to put Decades on them. They can sell it as higher quality programming than the Luken networks. I asked one LPTV owner to add Decades, and he came back saying the Weigel people didn't want to affiliate on LPTVs.

 

10 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

It's MyNetworkTV Syndrome; nobody actually likes the service, but it fills time and the DRTV revenue must be something to continue justify its existence.

 

People liked This TV when Weigel ran it (they did some things creative with the questionable MGM library). But then when Tribune took over, it just became wasted space.

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13 hours ago, TVIntheDesert said:

 

I'm guessing November 1 is the target date for the Tribune stations because that's when their contract with MGM is up regarding This TV (which it appears that Court TV will be displacing in the Tribune markets). Since This is a partnership with Tribune, they might be winding down that network. 

 

Decades was hit hard last year but didn't shut down. They also lost two TEGNA stations with the Court TV launch. I'm surprised Weigel hasn't just shut it down.

Not really sure, FTR, KAUT is carrying the network on 43.4. In that case, KAUT or Tribune (on its behalf) could have cut a deal to terminate the subchannel lease for Escape to allow it to place Court TV on 43.3, since the leasing arrangements that Katz/Scripps maintains created a network duplication issue between two full-power stations (KSBI, which carries the network on subchannel 52.5, being the other).

 

2 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

According to TitanTV, this is weekdays (I used KARE 11.2 Minneapolis which replaced it's long running weather subchannel of 14 years)...

 

9am-6pm - Court TV LIVE

6-9pm - Closing Arguments

9pm-12am - Closing Arguments (repeat)

12-9am - Court TV LIVE (repeat of 9am-6pm I think)

Basically, Court TV is being run initially as a legal news channel. However, it would have made more sense to fill the 9:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. ET period with true crime series from the Court TV library that Katz/Scripps acquired from the former cable network version's owner, Turner/WarnerMedia, late last year. That's the basic reason why Court TV programs disappeared from Escape and Justice Network at the beginning of the year, after all, and possibly explains why Escape's original true crime programming disappeared as well, since it would seem that (unless they were cancelled outright) they would have been shifted to the new network.

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I checked a schedule on WCPO's website, and Court TV will be using Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern Time for the federally mandated E/I programming from a company called Storrs Media (which apparently sells its shows through the Telco Productions brand). Some of the shows don't really fit the Court TV brand, but honestly, I'm more surprised they didn't just sell the time to Litton like seemingly everyone else (all the other Katz networks run Litton shows, for instance).

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1 hour ago, MadMan400096 said:

I checked a schedule on WCPO's website, and Court TV will be using Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. Eastern Time for the federally mandated E/I programming from a company called Storrs Media (which apparently sells its shows through the Telco Productions brand). Some of the shows don't really fit the Court TV brand, but honestly, I'm more surprised they didn't just sell the time to Litton like seemingly everyone else (all the other Katz networks run Litton shows, for instance).

 

Telco Productions is the actual distributor. They are a "wholesaler" of low-budget E/I programs from different sources, including self-produced shows like "Animal Rescue" and "Missing." Storrs Media is a separate--but related--company that sells the PI/direct response time in Telco's shows. NewsNet gets their E/I programs from Telco, and so do a few other diginets.

 

Usually, Litton does some planning with whoever they sell their shows to. Telco (and similar company TVS, which is syndicating the upcoming Greta Van Susteren show for Gray) sells E/I shows to any network/station willing to run their PI/DR spots.

 

 

Speaking of advertisements, Court TV's charter advertisers are underwhelming (PI/DR for trial lawyers, Medicare plans, and resort rehab). And the ad breaks are frequent. How about running more trial and fewer commercials until they can get better sponsors?

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On 5/8/2019 at 10:45 AM, MadMan400096 said:

A live execution may have been feasible in the days of cable, but with Court TV now an over-the-air network, live footage of someone being put to death would cause FCC fines that would make the money CBS stations lost on Justin Timberlake stripping Janet Jackson seem like small potatoes.

 

Actually Court TV is the perfect venue since it deals with the criminal justice system, and of course we wouldn't want to exclude any viewers in the huge lesson in civics...so it goes OTA...for everyone to learn from.

 

Anyway...

The bigger issue is this....

image.png.8109bc59dfcae4eff4159112d7d6713c.png

 

We all know she is lurking out there.

 

Lock your doors.

 

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I didn't watch Court TV the first time not really into trials murders etc. I may watch that Closing Arguments show parts of the show anyways maybe some of the shows on crimes that they got from Turner I hope that they don't air Forensic Files as that is on everywhere HLN should just be renamed Forensic Files since that is all they air truth be told. Surprised when HLN aired Court Trials they didn't just rebrand it the new Court TV.

 

Never watched This TV all that much time to let it die as Tribune made it an afterthought once they bought a stake in the network it's just running clock now for that network.

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