TouchVision was an American

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and

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television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid- ...

that was owned by Think Televisual. The service provided

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coverage that was distributed to television,

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and tablet platforms. TouchVision's operations were based out of the headquarters of

Weigel Broadcasting Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 25 television s ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

History

TouchVision was co-founded by former radio consultant and

XM Satellite Radio XM Satellite Radio (XM) was one of the three satellite radio ( SDARS) and online radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Holdings. It provided pay-for-service radio, analogous to subscription cable television. Its se ...

executive

Lee Abrams Lee Abrams (born 1952) is an American media executive who has held a number of posts for large and influential companies, and is generally credited with developing the Album Oriented Rock format first heard at WQDR Raleigh and thereafter employ ...

(chief content officer), Steven A. Saslow (original

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

) and Brandon Davis (chief executive officer). The service launched in beta form on July 1, 2013, on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate

WDJT-TV WDJT-TV (channel 58) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with CBS. It has been owned by Weigel Broadcasting since its inception (and is the company's only CBS affiliate), and is sister to Racine-licensed ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

(owned by Weigel Broadcasting) over its fourth digital subchannel, replacing a time-purchased

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listings service that was programmed by local realtor Shorewest Realtors. The service officially launched on September 16, 2013. In early November of that year, WDJT sister station

WMEU-CD WMEU-CD (channel 48) is a low-power, Class A independent television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is owned by locally based Weigel Broadcasting alongside fellow Weigel flagship properties, CW affiliate WCIU-TV (channel 26) an ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

began carrying TouchVision on its second digital subchannel. TouchVision gained its first syndicated client outside of the Weigel properties in December 2014, when

WISH-TV WISH-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is locally owned by Circle City Broadcasting alongside Marion-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate WNDY-TV (channel 23) and low-power, ...

in Indianapolis,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

began carrying a half-hour broadcast of the service on weekday mornings (serving as both a lead-in for WISH's local morning newscast and, as a result of the then-pending loss of its CBS affiliation to

WTTV WTTV (channel 4), licensed to Bloomington, Indiana, United States, and WTTK (channel 29), licensed to Kokomo, Indiana, are television stations affiliated with CBS and serving the Indianapolis area. They are owned by Nexstar Media Group alongsi ...

, a replacement for the ''

CBS Morning News The ''CBS Morning News'' is an American early-morning news broadcast presented weekdays on the CBS television network. The program features late-breaking news stories, national weather forecasts and sports highlights. Since 2013, it has been anc ...

''); the TouchVision simulcast began airing on WISH when it became a CW affiliate on January 1, 2015. Weigel's

Heroes & Icons Heroes & Icons (H&I) is an American digital broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Usually carried on the digital subchannels of its affiliated television station in most markets, the network airs classic television series fr ...

network also carried the 6 a.m. Eastern hour of programming during its "beta test" period while the schedule was tweaked for its national launch. WDJT dropped TouchVision from its 58.4 subchannel on January 12, 2015, in advance of the soft launch of the classic television network

Decades A decade () is a period of ten years. Decades may describe any ten-year period, such as those of a person's life, or refer to specific groupings of calendar years. Usage Any period of ten years is a "decade". For example, the statement that "du ...

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

between Weigel and

CBS Television Stations CBS News and Stations (formerly CBS Television Stations) is a division of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global that owns and operates a group of American television stations. , Paramount owns 28 stations, broken down as follows ...

) that occurred three days later, though it remained available in the Milwaukee market via sister independent station

WMLW-TV WMLW-TV (channel 49) is an independent television station licensed to Racine, Wisconsin, United States, serving the Milwaukee area. It is owned by Weigel Broadcasting alongside CBS affiliate WDJT-TV (channel 58) and two low-power stations: T ...

, which carried an hour-long simulcast of the service on weekday mornings. TouchVision ended all on-air operations on January 14, 2016. Programming ceased at 11:59 PM CT on January 14, 2016. The network's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel was taken off-line voluntarily in mid-May 2016, with the rights to stories and segments reverting to the network's former contributors.

Format and distribution

TouchVision was aimed at a demographic of young adults dubbed by the service as the "Millennials Plus" generation (those between the ages of 18 and 35), who grew up using digital technology and have long adapted to

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

. TouchVision claimed a collective audience that approached about 1 million viewers each month.

Over the Air

TouchVision was broadcast 24 hours a day in a

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

format, presenting national and international news in a format similar to a

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...

, using pictures and video footage – mainly adapted from wire services – presented without any on-air anchors; it also provided other news content such as local weather and sports score cut-ins and original feature segments, including social commentary presented by Felonious Munk. A window was provided for a few minutes before the top of the hour, allowing the local station to insert a locally produced news capsule or weather update. The network also aired a half-hour "week in review" program intended to summarize the network's best segments of the week and introduce the network on the affiliate's main station. Weigel's newly launched network

began carrying an hour-long daily morning simulcast of TouchVision's programming service, and was televised on a semi-national basis from September 29, 2014, to January 14, 2016.

Online and Mobile

The service was available as a linear television channel, on its apps for

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s and tablet computers, and a dedicated website. Through a location setting based on zip code or browser location sharing, the network's feed was also available real-time and with limited DVR-style controls through the network's website and apps for the iOS App Store and

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depending upon proximity to an affiliate. All of the networks segment videos could also be viewed on its website, apps,

channel as well as on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

References

External links