Scripps Networks

History[edit]

Katz Broadcasting, LLC was formed on February 3, 2014, by Jonathan Katz, who was chief operating officer of Bounce TV and formerly worked at the Turner Broadcasting System.^[5] The company was announced concurrently with the announced launches of its first two networks, Escape and Grit, which were both launched that April with Univision and UniMás owned-and-operated stations run by Univision Communications as its charter station group.^[1] Besides Jonathan Katz, some of the initial investors included some Bounce investors notably Gray Television and Al Haymon.^[4] At some point, E. W. Scripps Company also becomes an owner purchasing 5% of the company.^[3]


Katz and Bounce Media share staff from the former company's launch, including Jonathan Katz (who is president and chief executive officer of Katz, while continuing as chief operating officer) and Jeffrey Wolf (Katz's chief distribution officer and Bounce's executive vice president of network distribution).^[1][2] Katz and Bounce continued to share executive staff with the hiring announcement of Jim Weiss (a former executive at sports marketing agency CSE) as the former's senior vice president of corporate communications in August.^[2]


On January 18, 2015, Katz Broadcasting announced the launch of its third specialty network, Laff, a comedy-focused network that was tapped for an April 15 debut with ABC Owned Television Stations and Scripps serving as its core charter affiliate groups.^[6] On March 24, 2015, Katz signed a multi-network agreement with the Meredith Corporation that would add all three Katz-owned networks to Meredith-owned stations in five markets, boosting Laff's national coverage to 50%, Escape's to 58%, and Grit's to 78% of all U.S. television markets.^[7] 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.^[4]:3


On June 15, 2016, Katz Broadcasting signed a multi-network agreement with Nexstar Broadcasting 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%.^[8]


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 Atlanta, Georgia as an autonomous division of Scripps.^[3] The purchase was completed on October 2, 2017.^[9]


In December 2018, Turner Broadcasting sold the rights to the brand and programming library of defunct cable network Court TV (which relaunched as TruTV in 2008) to Katz, who re-launched it as an over-the-air digital network in May 2019.^[10][11] On September 30, 2019, Katz Broadcasting rebranded Escape as Court TV Mystery to make it a Court TV brand extension.^[12]


Following Scripps' acquisition of Ion Media in 2021, the Katz-owned networks were moved over to the subchannels of Ion-owned stations beginning February 27, 2021.^[13]


On March 2, 2021, Scripps announced that it would launch two new complementary multicast networks, Defy TV and TrueReal, in the aftermath of Scripps' acquisition of Ion Media and television transmitters across the United States.^[14] The channels are part of Scripps's strategy to increase penetration among cord cutters that do not have traditional pay TV packages.^[15]


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.^[16]


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 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.^[17]


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.^[18][19] The Newsy over-the-air network launched on October 1, 2021.^[20]


On February 24, 2022, the Court TV Mystery network was rebranded as Ion Mystery, with the "Ion" brand now more established regarding procedural dramas in general, including Ion Mystery's overall programming, whereas Court TV is more associated with its news division.^[21]


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.^[22]