TBD (TV network)
Ownership | |
---|---|
Owner | Sinclair Broadcast Group (operated by Jukin Media) |
Parent | Sinclair Television Group |
Key people |
|
History | |
Founded | December 7, 2016 |
Launched | February 13, 2017 |
Links | |
Webcast | Watch live |
Website | www |
TBD (also referred to unofficially as TBD TV; branded on-air as TBD.) is an American
Background
The development of TBD is traced to a visit by Sinclair Broadcast Group management to the Santa Monica, California headquarters of the Tennis Channel in early 2016 (Sinclair purchased the cable network in January of that year). While touring Tennis Channel's main control room, company executives spotted a monitor carrying the foreign feed of The QYOU, a Dublin-based digital media company and online video service headed by co-founders Curt Marvis and Scott Ehrlich, which curates various online video content aggregated from various producers for European audiences. Seeing the QYOU feed sparked a conversation among the executives about developing a similar service for television viewers in the United States, which Sinclair proceeded to bring to concept.[5]
History
The company formally announced the planned launch of TBD on December 7, 2016.
In its
The "TBD" name came in a sort of roundabout way for Sinclair: early in the network's conception, Scott Shapiro, Sinclair's vice president of corporate development, referred to it by the
On October 16, 2018, Sinclair signed an agreement with Jukin Media to assume operational responsibilities for TBD, effective immediately. The agreement will also result in content supplied by Jukin being expanded on TBD's programming lineup.[14] Jukin Media would later go on to be acquired by Trusted Media Brands in 2021, a parent company of Reader's Digest.
Programming
TBD's schedule features various web-originated films, scripted and unscripted series, showcase programming, and featurettes – featuring a wide range of topical and themed categories including but not limited to science, fashion, lifestyle, travel, music, comedy, gaming,
From the network's launch, through its partnership with The QYOU, TBD carried daily "preview" blocks of the service's daypart-based video compilation programs, which regularly aired four times per day each weekday, including during the overnight and morning hours seven days a week and during the afternoon and early evening on weekdays (and initially, Saturdays until September 2017). (TBD did not carry sample blocks of The QYOU's weekend programming, opting instead to air rebroadcasts selected from the weekday QYOU blocks that the network aired over the prior week in the morning and late night on Saturdays and Sundays.) In September 2017, TBD began scaling back the daily QYOU blocks carried within its schedule, ceding certain weekday prime time and weekend mid-afternoon time slots to the network's other entertainment programs.[3][7][15] As a result of an agreement reached between QYOU Media and Sinclair Digital Group to terminate their content agreement for TBD, the network ceased carrying all QYOU programming on September 17, 2018. (The time periods occupied by the QYOU sampler blocks were replaced with additional airings of existing short-form-content-focused compilation programs in TBD's inventory, with feature films replacing QYOU Prime's former weekday early evening slot.)[16]
Sinclair is also negotiating agreements with other web content producers, distributors and application developers to provide programming for the network. Another possible content avenue for TBD may come via resources from the news-producing stations among Sinclair's stable of 172 owned-or-operated television stations and their websites, which would bring the various local lifestyle and various features that they produce to a national audience through TBD, as well as through its digital news service Circa News.[5]
The network currently holds exclusive responsibility for advertising sales, setting aside three to six minutes per hour of advertising inventory within its program breaks; advertising on TBD at present consists mainly of
On May 7, 2018, TBD began carrying KidsClick, a multiplatform children's programming endeavor launched the previous year featuring long-form and short-form animated content from various production studios. The move resulted in TBD transitioning into being the block's national subchannel carrier, which had been asserted by Tribune Media-owned This TV since the three-hour morning cartoon block debuted in July 2017. (TBD became the exclusive network carrier of KidsClick on July 1, 2018, as a result of This TV discontinuing carriage of the block, one month before the collapse of the proposed merger between Tribune and Sinclair.)[17] The block was discontinued less than ten months later on March 31, 2019.
Affiliates
As of March 7, 2017[update], TBD has current and pending affiliation agreements with 55 television stations in 45 media markets (all of which are owned or operated by Sinclair) across 25 states and the District of Columbia. The network has a combined national reach of 22.44% of all households in the United States (or 70,129,858 Americans with at least one television set).[1]
Along with WLUK and WTVH, Sinclair's "soft rollout" of TBD during the week of February 13, 2017,
Sinclair's launch of TBD – as well as Comet and Charge! before and after it – is part of the company's aim toward "expanding our business with new digital multicast networks that leverage our broadcast spectrum and household reach", as expressed by the company's President and CEO, Christopher Ripley, in the press release announcing TBD's launch.[7] The "soft rollout" on Sinclair stations during the first half of 2017 is also intended to work out any technical and transmission issues. Once those issues are worked out and TBD begins to gain footing, Sinclair will begin offering the network to individual stations and station groups in markets where Sinclair does not have a broadcast presence.[5]
Some of Sinclair's stations (as well as others not owned by Sinclair or its partner groups that are affiliated with the
As of January 2021, TBD is the primary affiliation on three stations (all controlled by Sinclair):
References
- ^ a b c "Stations for Network - TBD". RabbitEars. Retrieved February 13, 2017.
- Tronc). Retrieved December 28, 2016.
On Friday the company said Chief Operating Officer David Amy, who has served in that role and as executive vice president since 2014, will become vice chairman and oversee human resources, corporate marketing and the networks group.
- ^ a b Mark K. Miller (December 7, 2016). "Sinclair To Launch Internet-Based Diginet TBD". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
- ^ Cynthia Littleton (December 9, 2016). "Sinclair Broadcast Group Adds to Content Portfolio with TBD Channel Launch". Variety. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
- ^ a b c d Simon Applebaum (February 2, 2017). "Sinclair Plays a Web TV Hunch With TBD". MediaVillage.com.
- ^ John Eggerton (December 7, 2016). "Sinclair Launching TBD Multicast Net". Multichannel News. NewBay Media. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f "Online Video Goes Primetime as Sinclair Prepares to Launch New TV Network 'TBD'" (Press release). Sinclair Broadcast Group. December 7, 2016 – via TVWeek.
- ^ "ASN launches 24/7 broadcast network on Monday". American Sports Network (Press release). Sinclair Broadcast Group. Archived from the original on January 30, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
- ^ "The QYou in deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group to launch new channel". Digital TV Europe. December 7, 2016.
- ^ a b Lorraine Mirabella (December 8, 2016). "Sinclair launches first-of-kind TV network featuring digital content". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore Sun Media Group (Tronc).
- ^ Wayne Friedman (December 7, 2016). "Sinclair Kicks Off TBD, New Digital Multicast TV Network". MediaPost. MediaPost Publications.
- ^ a b Geoff Herbert (February 15, 2017). "Syracuse gets first look at new TV network 'for people who love the internet'". The Post-Standard. Syracuse Media Group. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
- ^ Luke Bouma (February 19, 2017). "Meet TBD TV The Newest OTA/Online TV Station". Cord Cutters News. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
- ^ Mark K. Miller (October 17, 2018). "Jukin Media Operating Sinclair's TBD Network". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media.
- ^ David Lieberman (December 7, 2016). "Sinclair To Launch TBD, A Multicast Channel For Short-Form Programming". Deadline Hollywood.
- ^ "QYOU Media Provides Corporate Update and Management Update Call". QYOU Media Inc. (Press release). September 13, 2018. Retrieved October 2, 2018 – via CNW.
- ^ @KidsClickTV (July 5, 2018). "We were sad too, but the good news is we are still on TV on TBD. You can check their market list to see where we are in your area: http://tbd.com/watch-on-tv . You can always watch on our app or site as well: https://kidsclick.com" (Tweet). Retrieved July 19, 2018 – via Twitter.
- ^ "TBD is rolling out this week!". TBD. Sinclair Broadcast Group. February 13, 2017 – via Twitter.
- ^ Lorraine Mirabella (March 8, 2017). "Sinclair Broadcast rolls out TBD network targeting millennials". The Baltimore Sun. Baltimore Sun Media Group (Tronc). Retrieved March 9, 2017.
- ^ "New WUTV sub-channel coming aimed at millenials". The Buffalo News. BH Media. January 10, 2017.
- ^ "TBD-TV is coming to Channel 23.4". WUCW. February 1, 2017.
- ^ Deborah McAdams (July 17, 2014). "Sinclair Launches Sports Network". TV Technology. Archived from the original on July 21, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
- ^ "TitanTV - 3 Day Schedule View for WRLH-DT2". TitanTV. Retrieved March 13, 2017.