Scripps Networks, LLC, formerly known as Katz Broadcasting, is an American specialized digital multicasting network

media company A media conglomerate, media company, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, video games, amusement parks, or ...

and a division of the

E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglom ...

. The company owns (as of 2024) eight broadcast

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

s, nine FAST streaming networks and a

streaming service Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

that each carry programming with specified formats targeted at individual demographics. Originally, Katz sold the network to affiliated TV stations via ad split, but by October 2015, had moved to carriage fees in exchange for the network getting the ad inventory due to greater inventory with stations adding a third or fourth subchannel.^:1 Their networks used direct response advertising as a meter of viewers before switching to Nielsen rating C-3.^:3

History

Katz Broadcasting, LLC was founded on February 3, 2014, by

Jonathan Katz Jonathan Paul Katz (born December 1, 1946) is an American actor and comedian best known for his starring role in the animated sitcom ''Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist'' as Dr. Katz. He is also known for voicing Erik Robbins in the UPN/Adult Sw ...

, who was

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

Bounce TV Bounce TV is an American digital terrestrial television, digital broadcast television network owned by Scripps Networks, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. It launched on September 26, 2011, and was promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multic ...

and formerly worked at the

Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (later WarnerMedia) on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its asse ...

(TBS) in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. The company was announced concurrently with the announced launches of its first two networks, Ion Mystery / Escape and Grit TV, which were both launched that April with

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...

and

UniMás UniMás (, stylized as ''UNIMÁS'', and originally known as TeleFutura from its launch on January 14, 2002, to January 6, 2013) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. ...

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...

s run by

Univision Communications TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American mass media, media company headquartered in Miami and Mexico City that owns American Spanish language broadcast network Univision and free-to-air channels in Mex ...

as its charter station group. Besides Jonathan Katz, some of the initial investors included some Bounce investors notably

Gray Television Gray Media, Inc., doing business as Gray Television, is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 statio ...

and Al Haymon (born 1955). At some point,

also becomes an owner purchasing 5% of the company. Katz and Bounce Media share staff from the former company's launch, including

(who is president and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Katz Broadcasting, while continuing as

) and Jeffrey Wolf (Katz's chief distribution officer and Bounce's

executive vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

of network distribution). Katz and Bounce continued to share executive staff with the hiring announcement of Jim Weiss, (a former executive at the sports marketing agency CSE) as the former's then senior vice president of corporate communications in August. On January 18, 2015, Katz Broadcasting announced the launch of its third specialty network and O.T.A. subchannel of, Laff, a comedy-focused network that was tapped for an April 15 debut with

ABC Owned Television Stations ABC Owned Television Stations is a sub-division of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Company that oversees the owned-and-operated stations of the American Broadcastin ...

and Scripps serving as its core charter affiliate stations groups. On March 24, 2015, Katz signed a multi-network agreement with the

Meredith Corporation Meredith Corporation was an American media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, that owned newspapers, magazines, television stations, and websites. Its publications had a readership of more than 120 million and paid circulation of more than ...

that would add all three Katz-owned networks to the Meredith-owned stations in five cities / media markets, boosting Laff's national coverage up to that time to 50%, Ion Mystery / Escape's to 58%, and Grit's to 78% of all U.S. television markets. Escape and Grit switched from direct response advertising as a meter of viewers to Nielsen rating C-3 late 2015 with Laff expected to follow suit.^:3 On June 15, 2016, Katz Broadcasting signed a multi-network agreement with Nexstar Broadcasting / Media Group and operated affiliated TV station companies that would bring all three Katz-owned networks (as well as Bounce TV) to stations owned and/or operated by Nexstar in 54 markets, jumping national coverage of both Escape and Laff to 85% and Grit's coverage to 93%. On August 1, 2017, Scripps announced the purchase of Katz and its three networks plus Bounce which Katz operates, for $292 million, acquiring the other 95% of the company. Katz will remain based out of

as an autonomous division of E. W. Scripps. The purchase was completed on October 2, 2017. In December 2018,

Turner Broadcasting Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. was an American television and media conglomerate founded by Ted Turner in 1965. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it merged with Time Warner (later WarnerMedia) on October 10, 1996. As of April 2022, all of its ass ...

(founded 1965 in

by media titan

Ted Turner Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He founded the CNN, Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, ...

(born 1938) sold the rights to the brand and programming library of defunct cable network

Court TV Court TV is an American digital broadcast network and former pay-television channel. It was originally launched in 1991 with a focus on crime-themed programs such as true crime documentary series, legal analysis talk shows, and live news cover ...

(which had been relaunched as

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable Television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts reruns of Television comedy, comedy, Reality television, docusoaps and reality shows, with a rec ...

a decade earlier in 2008) to Katz, who then re-launched it as an over-the-air digital network the following year in May 2019. On September 30, 2019, Katz Broadcasting rebranded Escape as Court TV Mystery to make it a Court TV brand extension. Following Scripps' acquisition of

Ion Media Ion Media, LLC (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) is a subsidiary of the E.W. Scripps Company that operates the linear broadcast networks Ion Television, Ion Mystery, and Ion Plus. Prior to its acquis ...

in 2021, the Katz-owned networks were moved over to the subchannels of

Ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

-owned stations beginning February 27, 2021. On March 2, 2021, Scripps announced that it would launch two new complementary multicast networks,

Defy TV Defy (also known by its original name Defy TV) is an American digital multicast television network owned by Free TV Networks in partnership with A&E Networks, airing primarily reality shows from the latter company, having launched on July 1, ...

and TrueReal, in the aftermath of Scripps' acquisition of Ion Media and additional television transmitters across the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The channels are part of Scripps's strategy to increase penetration among cord cutters that do not have traditional pay TV packages. Both services launched on July 1 with 92 percent national coverage, mostly on Ion transmitters but also on subchannels of some Scripps local TV stations and by agreement with other station groups. On April 6, 2021, Scripps announced that it would expand Newsy into a free over-the-air network, as well as being available on streaming platforms, starting October 1. The network would be available over-the-air on Scripps-owned

Ion Television Ion Television (referred to on-air as simply Ion) is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August ...

stations, along with some traditional Scripps stations without an Ion sister station and the former Ion-owned stations transferred to Inyo Broadcast Holdings, along with offering the network to other station groups. It also announced plans to relocate Newsy's national headquarters to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. In advance of the move exclusively to over-the-air distribution, Scripps began to notify traditional cable and satellite providers, along with Internet television providers, at the end of March that it would end distribution of Newsy via those means effectively on June 30, 2021. The Newsy over-the-air network launched on October 1, 2021. On February 24, 2022, the Court TV Mystery network was rebranded as

Ion Mystery Ion Mystery (formerly Escape and Court TV Mystery, stylized as ESCAPE and MYSTERY; formerly branded on-air as Mystery) is an American free-to-air television network owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. It focu ...

, with the "Ion" brand now more established regarding

procedural drama A procedural or procedural drama is a cross-genre type of literature, film, or television program which places emphasis on technical detail. A documentary film may also be written in a procedural style to heighten narrative. A popular subgenre is t ...

s in general, including Ion Mystery's overall programming, whereas

is more associated with its news division. On March 10, 2023, Scripps announced that TrueReal would shut down on March 27 of that month, merging its programming with that of Defy TV. After its closure, Scripps will lease the open spectrum on its owned and operated stations to

Jewelry Television Jewelry Television is an American television network specializing in the sale of jewelry. On-air and online, the network is mainly branded by its jtv initials in small caps, lower-case letters. It has an estimated reach of more than 80 million ...

. On June 17, 2024, Scripps quietly posted a promotional video to the social media presences of Ion Plus and

that the latter would be wound down at the end of June as its programming moves to another unrelated network, Dare, launching on July 1, with Ion Plus returning to over-the-air availability on Defy TV's channel spaces. The A&E programming on Defy would move to an unrelated network named Dare, owned by Free TV Networks. Free TV Networks purchased Defy TV's branding from Scripps Networks and launched Dare under the new name Defy on July 1.

Major assets

Television networks

* Bounce Media, LLC **

– a broadcast network which specializes in Black-focused programming ** Bounce XL – its streaming counterpart ** Brown Sugar – an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service featuring 1970s Black cinema and TV series * Court TV Media, LLC **

– a broadcast network specializing in legal news and live trial coverage ** Court TV Legendary Trials – its streaming counterpart carrying archived coverage of past trials and true crime programming * Grit Media, LLC ** Grit – a broadcast network mainly airing

Western film The Western is a film genre defined by the American Film Institute as films which are "set in the American West that mbodythe spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier." Generally set in the American frontier between the Calif ...

s and series ** GritXtra – its streaming counterpart * Laff Media, LLC ** Laff – a broadcast network specializing in

sitcoms A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent setting, such as a home ...

** Laff More – its streaming counterpart *

Scripps News Scripps News is a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) streaming news channel, and a former American digital subchannel network headquartered in Atlanta, GA Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state ...

(Scripps Media, LLC; formerly Newsy) – a streaming and general news network which augments news coverage nationally for Scripps stations *

, LLC **

– a general entertainment broadcast network **

(Escape Media, LLC; formerly Escape/Court TV Mystery) – a counterpart broadcast network mainly carrying procedural crime dramas and true crime programming **

Ion Plus Ion Plus is an American broadcast television network and FAST television channel owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network originally launched in 2007 as Ion Life, maintaining a format featuring lifesty ...

– a broadcast and streaming counterpart of Ion Television. Originally, the broadcast component of Ion Plus closed on 2021 after the Scripps acquisition but later relaunched on July 1, 2024.

Former networks

Ion Media

Qubo Qubo ( ; stylized as qubo) was an American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often mentioned as the "Qubo channel" (available as a digital ...

– A digital broadcast network which carried children's programming. Folded on February 28, 2021 after the Scripps acquisition. * Ion Shop – A digital broadcast network which carried paid programming. Folded on February 28, 2021 after the Scripps acquisition.

Scripps Networks

* TrueReal – a digital broadcast O.T.A. network which carried reality programming targeted to women from the A&E Networks library. Folded on March 27, 2023. *

(Defy TV Media, LLC) – an O.T.A. broadcast network / subchannel for local stations carrying reality programming from the

A&E Networks A&E Television Networks, LLC, doing business as A+E Global Media (formerly A+E Networks) is an American multinational broadcasting company owned and operated as a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company th ...

library. Folded on July 1, 2024. Programming moved to Defy, owned by Free TV Networks. *

- a digital O.T.A. broadcast all-news network and subchannel on several local stations, (formerly called Newsy, 2008-2022). Two years later at the end of September 2024, Scripps announced it would close its O.T.A. subchannel of news and commentary programming on November 15, 2024, laying off large numbers of staff, and moved to online / internet streaming on the following day of November 16th.

References

External links

* {{North American DTV Companies based in Atlanta Mass media companies established in 2014 American companies established in 2014 Television broadcasting companies of the United States Mass media companies of the United States 2014 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) E. W. Scripps Company 2017 mergers and acquisitions