Diginets

The new app offers on-demand programming from the Quest diginet’s catalog of factual entertainment, science, history and engineering programs, as well as adventure-reality series.

Nexstar Media and SportsGrid Inc., this morning unveiled SportsGrid Network, a diginet devoted to sports wagering and fantasy sports. SportsGrid Network will debut Sept. 1. Nexstar will distribute it in nine of its markets where it has space on subchannels: San Francisco, Washington, Tampa, Portland, Nashville, Norfolk, Grand Rapids, Knoxville and Des Moines.

The programming vet comes on board after nine years at Discovery Inc., most recently as SVP of factual programming for Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Science Channel.

Jonathan Katz, who launched Bounce TV, rebooted Court TV and sold his digital over-the-air startup to E.W. Scripps for $302 million in 2017, has resigned from Scripps to start a new company.

The sitcom starring John Lithgow, Jane Curtin, Kristen Johnston, French Stewart and Joseph Gordon-Levitt joins the multicast network with a Season 1 marathon on July 18.

The two newest Scripps Networks unveil their schedules with Defy targeting men 25-54 and TrueReal focusing on women 25-54. Both will be available to 92% of the United States.

As viewers watch more streaming video content and cancel their cable/satellite subscriptions, broadcast station owners have been doubling down on free ad supported over-the-air television by launching free over-the-air digital multicast networks. Among the station groups on the diginets bandwagon are Scripps, Sinclair, Tegna, Nexstar, CBS and NBCU.

While many in the TV business are investing billions in subscription streaming services, big broadcasters are focusing on free over-the-air digital channels. Sinclair Broadcast Group has been investing in its digital channels — Comet TV, Charge and TBD — and is seeing a healthy increase in advertising revenue since getting ratings from Nielsen and upgrading their programming. In June, for example, Charge is adding CSI: Miami to its schedule. “What we’ve tried to do with these networks is level up the programming to make them general-market worthy,” Scott Ehrlich, Sinclair SVP, growth networks and content, said.

The new multicast network will air classic TV hits from the 1980s and 1990s designed to attract Gen X viewers, much like its Antenna TV does for baby boomers with its 1960s and ’70s programming.

Beginning Oct. 1, Newsy will be available over the air in at least 80% of U.S. television homes — and in all major markets — carried primarily by Scripps-owned Ion stations and select Scripps stations plus those of other station groups.

The diginet is now carried on eight ABC-owned station subchannels in major markets Including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The new channel, available in 43 of the top 50 markets, features home, food and lifestyle programs plus dramatic reality shows.

TVNewsCheck‘s Michael Depp talks with Brian Weiss, president and GM of Tegna’s multicast networks, about diginets’ younger skewing audience, and with Evan Moore, VP of commerce partnerships at NBCUniversal, about the growing phenomenon of shoppable TV.

Lisa Knutson, president of E.W. Scripps’ national networks, says the company is targeting cord-cutting viewers who are pairing a handful of paid streaming subscriptions with free over-the-air options and “assembling their own TV packages.” Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

The E.W. Scripps Co., which acquired Ion Media in part for the broadcast spectrum controlled by Ion, said it plans to take its digital multicast networks over-the-top to cash in on the streaming gold rush. “We don’t really see it as being an either-or sort of proposition for consumers,” said Scripps CEO Adam Symson during an investor day presentation to analysts Wednesday.

The Doozy and Defy TV multicast reality networks will launch on July 1. Doozy targets women 25-54 and Defy TV aims for men 25-54.

The new multicast channel will premiere this spring and initially include hundreds of hours of home, food and reality content, much of it featuring exciting reveals — or twists — at the end of each show.

Scripps will continue to operate the Ion Television network on its 48 Ion stations’ primary channels but will cease operations of the Ion multicast networks Ion Plus, Qubo and Shop Ion, effective Feb. 28.

The two diginets reach more than 81 million U.S. Households via over-the-air, cable and online.

Ranging from local digital voter guides and precinct-by-precinct coverage to in-depth national coverage, Scripps TV stations and national media businesses are producing coverage that breaks down the voting process as it unfolds and encourages voters to be actively engaged in the democratic process.

Hubbard Broadcasting has sued Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram, accusing the social media giants of trademark infringement and unfair competition that could lead to “irreparable harm” unless the court stops them. The suit claims that Instagram’s new video file-sharing service, Reels, infringes on and dilutes the trademark of Hubbard’s long-established REELZ digital cable and satellite TV network, which reaches more than 50 million U.S. homes.

Larger multicast networks are retaining their viewers while newer players have successfully rolled out distribution.