Court TV Launches In The United Kingdom

The high-stakes, real-life dramas of the most gripping criminal trials in the U.S. now have an international audience as Court TV launches in the United Kingdom.

Court TV is now available on Sky Television ch. 179, with more distribution agreements expected to be announced.

Building on its popularity with U.S. audiences and advertisers, Court TV’s U.K. channel provides viewers access to, and expert analysis of, true-life courtroom dramas taking place in the U.S. today, from opening proceedings, gavel-to-gavel, all the way through to the verdict. Daytime trial coverage in the U.S. will air in primetime in the U.K. given the time difference. (View a promo of the Court TV here.)

Court TV’s on-air team of anchors, legal correspondents and veteran crime and justice journalists — all of whom are lawyers — offer daily insight and analysis, joined by America’s brightest attorneys, most experienced investigators and experts who provide legal views, opinion, discussion and debate. For U.K. audiences, Court TV also is planning content to explain the differences between the two country’s systems, including why cameras are allowed in courtrooms in the U.S. but not in the U.K.

“There’s been nothing like Court TV in the United Kingdom until now,” said Jonathan Katz, president and CEO of Katz Networks, part of The E.W. Scripps Co., which owns Court TV. “American crime dramas have long been a staple on television worldwide, including the U.K., while global consumer interest in the real-life drama of true-crime programming has skyrocketed, with American reality crime content as the most-watched. Court TV is the only network covering these cases and these events live, as they happen, from start to finish. We anticipate viewers in the U.K. will embrace having a front-row seat to American criminal justice.”

For nearly two decades through 2008, the original Court TV brought some of the country’s most notorious courtroom dramas into American living rooms. Continuing that legacy, Katz Networks and Scripps rebooted Court TV in May 2019 to provide transparency into the U.S. courts system, delivering dramatic events live as they unfold in America’s courtrooms.

Upcoming U.S. trials Court TV plans to cover and air both in the U.S. and the U.K. include:

• The Death of George Floyd — Four Minneapolis police officers will be tried in the death of George Floyd, which launched a national movement on race in America.
• The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery — Three white men are accused of murder in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was shot while jogging through a south Georgia neighborhood.
• The Case of The Doomsday Cult Mom — Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, are facing charges after authorities discovered the bodies of their two children in their backyard. Daybell, a former gravedigger, has authored numerous doomsday books and is rumored to have built a cult-type following.
• “The Jinx” Murder Trial — Robert Durst, a wealthy New York City real estate heir, faces first-degree murder charges in California as police allege he killed his longtime friend, Susan Berman. Authorities suspect Durst in the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Kathleen McCormack, and investigators believe that Durst, the subject of the HBO documentary The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, killed Berman because she knew what happened to McCormack.
• The R. Kelly Sex Abuse Case — Entertainer R. Kelly, currently in a federal prison in Chicago, faces numerous racketeering and sex trafficking charges involving five women, with legal problems ignited by the television show Surviving R. Kelly.

Court TV also features exclusive original programming, including documentaries and docuseries, centered on the true-life drama of crimes and cases that draw from the nearly 100,000 hours of footage in the original Court TV library.

The U.K. launch of Court TV coincides with the 25th anniversary of the O.J. Simpson murder trial verdict, which saw the former American football star and popular celebrity found not guilty of double murder on Oct. 3, 1995. On Oct. 3-4, Court TV will present a marathon of its 25-episode original docuseries OJ25, which looks back at the case, encapsulating the courtroom action in chronological order.

Court TV also airs the newest original Court TV series Judgment With Ashleigh Banfield, hosted by Banfield, an original Court TV alum and former CNN and MSNBC legal analyst. The weekly series, which debuted Sept. 13, takes viewers on a deep dive into the most provocative and talked-about trials and cases of all-time.