MGM To Distribute Weigel’s Me-TV Diginet

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. and Weigel Broadcasting Co. today announced plans for the national launch of Me-TV, a television network offering classic TV sitcoms, dramas and classic commercials and targeted for stations’ multicast channels.

MGM and Weigel have also worked together on the launch two years ago of THIStv, a national broadcast movie service that is distributed in more than 85% of the country and in 40 million cable households.

A local version of Me-TV (Memorable Entertainment Television) has been airing on Weigel Broadcasting’s WWME Chicago. WWME and WBME, the Weigel station in Milwaukee-Racine, Wis., have become the first affiliates of Me-TV, which boasts a lineup consisting of Cheers, M*A*S*H, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Bob Newhart Show.  Me-TV’s national distribution will be handled by MGM’s domestic television sales force.

“I believe Me-TV will be a perfect complement to THIStv,” said Jim Packer, co-President, MGM Worldwide Television.

“Me-TV is a terrific companion service to THIStv, or as an option for a station that did not have the opportunity to affiliate with THIStv,” added Norman H. Shapiro, president of Weigel. “In our markets, we have success airing and selling both Me-TV and THIStv as part of a cluster of viewer and advertiser options. And we are proud, particularly given the present difficult economic times, to be able to provide nationally, on a single channel, some of the best programming ever produced, free for everyone on over-the-air broadcast television.”

The new network is preparing a variety of promotions. To coincide with the new The Green Hornet 3D movie coming to theaters in mid-January, Me-TV is also rolling out the original Green Hornet TV series starring Van Williams as the Green Hornet and Bruce Lee as Kato. Me-TV will introduce Love, American Style on Valentine’s Day. Many more promotional opportunities are planned for the 2011 season.

Me-TV will also provide stations with two three-hour blocks of educational and informational programming per week, allowing them to air up to twice the mandated hours of children’s educational series.