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Byron Allen acquires diginets This TV & Light TV


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1 hour ago, Action Newsroom said:

Unless the two companies make a syndication or licensing deal, both networks' schedules are getting blown up and reworked. Most probably with those dime-a-dozen court and talk/magazine shows.  

I can imagine something similar to what happened to Movies! after Disney bought 20th Century Fox Studios while Movies! stayed with the Murdochs: they'll probably find some other partners, while keeping the format the same.

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1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

I don't understand why Weigel didn't buy back the network they launched 12 years ago.........

They really left it out in the cold when they launched MeTV, and MGM formed other partnerships with Sinclair for Comet and Charge! 

 

Essentially, Movies! was its replacement, and Weigel ended up ceding control of ThisTV to Tribune...and was it completely rid of Tribune by time the Nexstar merger closed?

 

Hopefully Allen Media can give the channel a second chance and at least try to secure more carriage.

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2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

They really left it out in the cold when they launched MeTV, and MGM formed other partnerships with Sinclair for Comet and Charge! 

 

Essentially, Movies! was its replacement, and Weigel ended up ceding control of ThisTV to Tribune...and was it completely rid of Tribune by time the Nexstar merger closed?

 

Hopefully Allen Media can give the channel a second chance and at least try to secure more carriage.

It's still a better fate that I thought would happen before November 2019; I'd figured it'd be shut down once Court TV took over the subchannel space on the former Tribune stations. Imagine my surprise when not only did This TV not go belly up, it actually managed to find space on some other channels in a few of those markets.

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I never understood why he didn't put more effort into his 'cable' channels? They are run on a shoestring and are the lowest rated cable channels in the US. They must make very little money. Now he is spending billions buying broadcast stations and The Weather Channel. In this article it mentions that he is going 'invest a substantial amount of capital into programming'. The licencing agreement will hardly stay with MGM?

You'd think series on The Weather Channel like Heavy Rescue: 401 and Highway Through Hell would also air on his so called 'cable' channels? Surely they would rate better than what's already on them (not that it would be too difficult anyway) He must have some kind of licencing agreement with some company for these shows that is still there?

 

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  • CircleSeven changed the title to Byron Allen acquires diginets This TV & Light TV

I thought that This TV was done after losing the Tribune/Nexstar TV stations when they went with Court TV last year. I wasn't ever a fan of This TV when it was on WXMI/Fox17 .3 from 2010 to 2019 was it's .2 for one hot minute before Antenna TV that Tribune created at the end of 2010/early 2011. 

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  • 1 month later...

It appears that the Fox O&Os are dropping Light TV. 

 

WFLD 32.4 is showing a slate with the station's logo. It was airing Light TV yesterday (12/3). 

 

Buried in the annoucement in October was this tidbit:

Quote

The Light TV Network will be rebranded in March of 2021 as part of the agreement.

 

No telling what the name or format changes will be for Light come next spring.

 

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42 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

 

Buried in the annoucement in October was this tidbit:

 

No telling what the name or format changes will be for Light come next spring.

 

According to this Deadline article, Light TV will be rebranded on MLK Day weekend as The Grio.TV (based on the popular black-centric news website) with a transistion to African American-focused content spanning TV, film, lifestyle and news.

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39 minutes ago, Action Newsroom said:

According to this Deadline article, Light TV will be rebranded on MLK Day weekend as The Grio.TV (based on the popular black-centric news website) with a transistion to African American-focused content spanning TV, film, lifestyle and news.

 

I don't see that being nearly as profitable in many states outside of the south and midwest. We don't exactly have tons of black people in the West. We have more Hispanic and Latino people.

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3 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

I don't see that being nearly as profitable in many states outside of the south and midwest. We don't exactly have tons of black people in the West. We have more Hispanic and Latino people.

I dunno. It might not succeed where you live,  but that doesn't mean it won't work everywhere. (Plus, Bounce is still here too.)

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I guess Byron Allen didn't see much in Light's current format. Not that he wouldn't have a point, mind you. Outside of Fox, Light TV just hasn't caught on among station owners not owned by the Bible brigade. Besides, with Burnett and Downey gone, I doubt it has anyone championing for the old ways to stay intact.

 

At any rate, I'm not familiar with TheGrio, being non-Black, so I really can't say anything about it.

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34 minutes ago, Adam MadMan said:

I guess Byron Allen didn't see much in Light's current format. Not that he wouldn't have a point, mind you. Outside of Fox, Light TV just hasn't caught on among station owners not owned by the Bible brigade. Besides, with Burnett and Downey gone, I doubt it has anyone championing for the old ways to stay intact.

Well, I did predict just that...

On 10/28/2020 at 7:09 PM, Action Newsroom said:

Unless the two companies make a syndication or licensing deal, both networks' schedules are getting blown up and reworked. Most probably with those dime-a-dozen court and talk/magazine shows.  

...and boy howdy I'm right.

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Unless I am incorrectly remembering, wasn't The Grio started up by NBC way back when?

 

THIS was an early diginet that never really found an identity. I assume its main appeal was to channel-flippers who might stumble onto a halfway decent movie.

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2 hours ago, Adam MadMan said:

I guess Byron Allen didn't see much in Light's current format. Not that he wouldn't have a point, mind you. Outside of Fox, Light TV just hasn't caught on among station owners not owned by the Bible brigade. Besides, with Burnett and Downey gone, I doubt it has anyone championing for the old ways to stay intact.

THR had an article about how Mark and Roma have torpedoed MGM under their management a couple weeks ago. Light TV was apparently the OTA spoke of a Christian streaming service that hasn't gotten past a website splash screen, and a series that's been ashcanned. So Byron likely will save both networks under his management, even if it's just going to be another pipe for his programming. It says something that KCPQ and WITI are still on their previous subchannel deals under Tribune and never bothered with Light TV at all (crossing my fingers that WITI gives an upgrade to Buzzr eventually).

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2 hours ago, KS-IL-IA said:

Unless I am incorrectly remembering, wasn't The Grio started up by NBC way back when?

 

THIS was an early diginet that never really found an identity. I assume its main appeal was to channel-flippers who might stumble onto a halfway decent movie.

Yep. NBC used to own The Grio but sold it back to their founders and then the founders flipped it to Allen

 

Gonna be interesting to see what programming they'll put there

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4 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

THR had an article about how Mark and Roma have torpedoed MGM under their management a couple weeks ago. Light TV was apparently the OTA spoke of a Christian streaming service that hasn't gotten past a website splash screen, and a series that's been ashcanned. So Byron likely will save both networks under his management, even if it's just going to be another pipe for his programming. It says something that KCPQ and WITI are still on their previous subchannel deals under Tribune and never bothered with Light TV at all (crossing my fingers that WITI gives an upgrade to Buzzr eventually).

WOW.

 

I knew MGM was mauled by COVID like everyone else, but I had no idea that things were this dysfunctional. No wonder the sale happened.

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29 minutes ago, Adam MadMan said:

WOW.

 

I knew MGM was mauled by COVID like everyone else, but I had no idea that things were this dysfunctional. No wonder the sale happened.

In that case, when do you expect MGM to sell thier part of Sinclair's Comet and Charge to them?

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