WHY THIS MATTERS
Traditional broadcast revenue streams are drying up fast, but multicasting has promise.
Related: Whats In A Name? Lots, Says Katz
The story stemming from NATPE last month wasn't the latest celeb trying their hand at daytime TV, but a rapidly growing batch of upstart junior networks showing vintage TV series, black & white film classics and an endless litany of game shows. Call them subchannels or diginets, multicasts or dot-twos-the fledgling networks corralled a hefty portion of the Miami buzz in the wake of several launch announcements and the escalated presence of other channels with a few years' head start.
So many stations were behind on diginets, says Sean Compton, president of strategic programming and acquisitions at Tribune Media. They said there wasn't money to be made, or they thought it would compromise their primary signal.
That's not the case anymore. While Tribune's Antenna TV and This TV, as well as Weigel Broadcasting's Me-TV, NBC's Cozi TV and Katz Broadcasting's Bounce TV, have had a healthy head start in the race to sign up affiliates and nail down sticky programming, the arena is getting a whole lot more crowded. Sony Pictures Television's vintage films net getTV turned a year old last week, while Movies!, a venture between Weigel and Fox, turns 2 later this year. Decades, a classic TV network from Weigel and CBS Television Stations, has soft launched, with a proper debut due for Memorial Day. Weigel is also behind the crime channel Heroes & Icons, which will compete for affiliates and viewers with other rookies such as Katz net LAFF, MGM's The Works, FremantleMedia North America's game show net Buzzr and the crime-fighting channel Justice Network.
The diginets, once the baby of the television industry, are on their feet and walking. Now there's variety-comedy, game shows, dramas, says Michael Kokernak, president of the multicast consultancy Across Platforms. We finally see a range of content, and that's what the industry needed to do.
Pay to Play
According to Kokernak, 60 individual subchannels were launched on full power stations in the second quarter of 2014, climbing to 101 in the third quarter and skyrocketing to 155 in the fourth. The first quarter's launches continue the trend of a massive affiliate grab by the multicasts. Networks can go about that in different ways, essentially leasing time on a station's subchannel, similar to how networks paid affiliates compensation years ago; or lining up a more partner-minded revenue share with the broadcaster. Networks such as Antenna and Cozi can avoid the paid model because they are launched by station groups; others, such as getTV and Katz Broadcasting's Escape and Grit, pay for carriage.
The paid model, which might see a network shell out $5,000-$15,000 monthly to air on a major-market subchannel, may be more prevalent than network operators let on. Everyone wants it for free, but if it's a market they want, they will pay, says Kokernak.
Direct' Opposition
Another challenge in the multicast strategy is getting the satellite operators on board, which no diginet has made significant progress with. Cozi TV has figured out something of a work-around by putting its signal on FETV (Family Entertainment TV), which airs on Dish Network. It's frustrating, says Compton. We have over-the-air, our affiliates get cable, but for some reason we're not able to crack the code with [satellite operators].
DirecTV and Dish Network commented via email. We don't carry many of them because we have limited spot beam capacity, says a DirecTV spokesperson.
Adds Dish: We make value decisions based on a combination of customer interest and the cost of carrying the channels, including infrastructure costs and carriage rates.
According to a GfK Media & Entertainment study, 14.4% of TV households report over-the-air reception, meaning around 16.8 million homes in the U.S. The pending broadcast spectrum auction is another concern for diginet operators who may be lacking in terms of cable carriage. Some real estate is absolutely going away, says Superna Kalle, getTV general manager. But really, no one knows what's going on with the auction.
The landmark event is now slated for early 2016, but repeated delays make some wonder if that will go as planned. There's a chance it could be a bloodbath, but literally not one person knows how it's going to come out, says Mort Marcus, copresident of Debmar-Mercury, which is helping shop Buzzr. Such uncertainty, he added, would not impede Debmar's efforts to sell the game show net.
Riches In Niches
The multicast landscape is often compared to the cable world from decades ago, with narrowcast networks, dedicated to movies or sports or music, spawning left and right. Kokernak thinks there are more to come. Neal Sabin, Weigel vice chairman, believes some contraction will happen. Wait a couple of years and see what the fallout is, he says.
A thriving Me-TV in, say, market No. 50, with a sales staff trained and motivated to sell dot-two inventory, can do around a million dollars in yearly revenue, says Sabin, though other diginet watchers set the figure much lower. But clearly the more advanced multicasts-Me-TV and Bounce TV stand out in that they are Nielsen rated nationally-are on the radar screen of ad agencies. They are definitely in the mix of our consideration set, says Sam Armando, senior VP and director at SMGx. The audience and price structure is similar to cable.
With cable ratings showing erosion, Armando adds, The time may be right for the upstart nets to have their brands adopted by viewers.
Each multicast net brings its own value proposition to the table. Bounce TV targets African-Americans. Estrella TV and TeleXitos show Spanish-languag
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
Latino Film Institute Fellows Screen Their Short Films at the Egyptian Theatre
The Inclusion Fellowship and Spark Animation Grant uplifts 15 ...
29/05/2026
GLOOKAST LAUNCHES CINNAFILM TACHYON PLUGIN FOR MEDIA PRODUCER AND MEDIA SERVICES
This release first appeared here.
Visit our Tachyon product page or contact...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
WHY THIS MATTERS
