
WHY THIS MATTERS: Diginet purveyors have created multimillion-dollar businesses by converting extra spectrum and at least initially library programming into free over-the-air networks.
Updated: Monday, Nov. 19, 9:15 am PT
As the audience for diginets grows, so do their programming offerings.
And diginets' audiences are growing, make no mistake. While the nets also known as multicast networks got their start due to the availability of spectrum and extra channels when high-definition television came online, they have grown their businesses due to the unexpected rise of so-called cord-cutters and cord-nevers.
Instead of subscribing to expensive cable packages, cord-cutters, or people who abandon their cable subscription, and cord-nevers, or those who've never subscribed to cable in the first place, figure out other ways to watch television. One way that is growing in popularity is pairing inexpensive over-the-air antennas with over-the-top streaming subscriptions.
For example, a user could put an antenna on his house and then subscribe to advertising-supported Hulu for $7.99 per month, thereby creating a virtual cable package composed of over-the-air linear broadcasters, including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW, as well as multicast networks, such as MeTV, This TV, Antenna TV, Cozi TV and many more.
The share of U.S. households that acquire their TV signals via over-the-air antenna increased to 20% or about 24 million homes from 16% from early 2015 through the end of 2017, according to Parks Associates data from March.
If you put yourself in the shoes of someone who can't afford or chooses not to subscribe to cable or satellite, an entertainment option with a free price point becomes popular, Katz Networks president and CEO Jonathan Katz said. It's a pairing that has organically happened as consumers have combined these two platforms into their own bundle.
In August 2017, The E.W. Scripps Co. acquired the 95% of Katz it didn't already own, including four multicast networks, Bounce, Escape, Grit and Laff, and subscription streaming service Brown Sugar, for $302 million. With the additional cash infusion, Katz has been able to accelerate its programming acquisitions.
"Scandal"
For example, in November, Bounce acquired all seven seasons of Shonda Rhimes' Scandal from Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, which it began airing in primetime on Monday, Nov. 12.
Katz also has acquired Disney's According to Jim, to premiere on comedy-focused network Laff in 2019, joining Home Improvement, 3rd Rock From the Sun, That '70s Show, The Drew Carey Show, Night Court, Spin City and more.
On Jan. 1, 2019, female-focused Escape is adding the first 12 seasons of Law & Order and every episode of Boston Legal to a programming lineup that also includes Without a Trace.
And Western network Grit will add Warner Bros.' movie library of Westerns to its schedule.
Bounce also is the first diginet to expand into original scripted series and movies, Katz said.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, it will premiere holiday movie Stone Cold Christmas, a modern and female-driven take on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. On Monday, Jan. 7, it will premiere half-hour series Last Call, starring Empire's Charles Malik Whitfield as an ex-NFL player who opens a comedy club. Last Call joins a slate of original series that includes Saints & Sinners, Family Time and In the Cut.
Netting Nostalgia Viewers
While the Katz networks are growing quickly, the highest-rated and best-distributed diginet continues to be Weigel Broadcasting's MeTV, which airs nostalgia programming such as Charlie's Angels, Big Valley, Bonanza and The Beverly Hillbillies. In the coming months, MeTV will launch its first original program, which it is producing in-house.
Besides MeTV, Weigel offers diginets Heroes & Icons, Movies and Decades. MeTV was one of the first diginets to launch and continues to offer nostalgia fare, along with competitors such as This TV, Antenna TV and Cozi TV.
In September, Weigel launched Start TV in partnership with the CBS-owned stations. The network airs scripted crime dramas that target women, such as The Closer, The Division, Early Edition, Family Law, Joan of Arcadia, Medium, Profiler, Touched by an Angel and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
Start TV already has done well enough that it will be nationally rated by Nielsen come December. In January, it will add five shows to the schedule, including The Good Wife and Crossing Jordan.
We continue to schedule dramas with women in leading and significant roles, Weigel vice chairman Neal Sabin said. That's one of the reasons we think the network has resonated so well with women. The network was correctly positioned at the right time.
Another network that got its start largely as a nostalgia net, NBCUniversal's Cozi TV, is starting to program more recent series. On Jan. 1, it will launch sitcom The Office.
It's a bold, innovative show that has proven to be rewatchable and has such a fan following, Cozi TV senior VP Meredith McGinn said.
"Little House on the Prairie"
Cozi airs classic sitcoms in primetime blocks, having found that viewers stick around for them. During the day, it airs dramas such as Murder, She Wrote and Little House on the Prairie. The diginet is available in more than 90 million homes and in 82% of the U.S.
The flip side of the Cozi coin is Spanish-language diginet TeleXitos, which launched in December 2014 and offers classic English-language series and movies dubbed in Spanish. So, U.S. Hispanics who enjoyed shows such as Miami Vice and Law & Order when they were growing up in their home countries can enjoy those shows again in their native language and with their families. TeleXitos just debuted Buffy the Vampire Slayer, also dubbed in Spanish.
The beauty of thi
Most recent headlines
19/02/2019
Introducing its innovative optical products and solutions to the global broadcas...
19/02/2019
Masstech, the future-led technology company that provides the media and entertai...
19/02/2019
Insight TV, the world's leading 4K UHD HDR broadcaster and producer of native UHD content, has signed a distribution deal with major telecoms operator, T-Mo...
19/02/2019
Go everywhere and see everything exactly how you want it with the Atomos Shinobi...
19/02/2019
PlayBox Neo announces the completion of a large broadcast playout system for Nil...
19/02/2019
--
Los Angeles-based AR studio ARwall welcomes established digital artist Joy Lea as their inaugural Lead Environment Artist. She brings realism to her sci-f...
19/02/2019
19 February, 2019 - 08:03
Writing scripts isnt easy. But the good news is that many of the challenges are technical and technical skills can be learnt. All ...
19/02/2019
More than 88 per cent of European operators said they plan to offer new multi-screen pay-TV
Jenny Priestley 4 hours ago
More than 88 per cent of European...
19/02/2019
Facility has acquired two Leader LV7600 rasterising SDI/IP test instruments for its 4K/UHD and HDR capable grading and finishing areas
Jenny Priestley 3 hou...
19/02/2019
Hans Nipshagen will be responsible for EMEA channel strategy
Dan Meier 4 hours ago
Hans Nipshagen will be responsible for EMEA channel strategy
target=...
19/02/2019
Aims to finalise deal before summer
Dan Meier 3 hours ago
Aims to finalise deal before summer
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedi...
19/02/2019
New company based in Basingstoke
Jenny Priestley 3 hours ago
New company based in Basingstoke
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedi...
19/02/2019
Last year we used data from Inscape, the TV data company with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 10 million smart TVs and devices, to examine viewer...
19/02/2019
WRAL-TV's Justin Arner (left) & Shan Zhong with their newly won hardware at the 33rd MidSouth Regional Emmy Awards at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Na...
19/02/2019
Tokyo, February 6, 2019 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, Hitachi ) announced on Oct...
18/02/2019
View Newsletter...
18/02/2019
ZAYAN Anjur Perlawanan Futsal Hijabista Pertama di Malaysia
Date Released:18 Feb 2019
Share
Tweet
ZAYAN, destinasi gaya hidup Muslim moden, telah mengaju...
18/02/2019
The double BAFTA nominated and Broadcast Award winning UKTV Original series Taskmaster returns to Dave and welcomes a new group of candidates placing themselves...
18/02/2019
Festival Box and Route66 Standard take centre stage
German fibre network associates, Optocore and BroaMan, combined their resources to great effect at the rece...
18/02/2019
At NAB 2019 (Stand SL7606), media and entertainment industry software company VS...
18/02/2019
Posted: Monday, February 18, 2019
--...
18/02/2019
A group of hijackers who were on the police's radar met a gruesome end on Monday afternoon, after their bid to escape the authorities was brought to a fatal...
18/02/2019
Okay, so we know that the legislation regarding dagga is a little up in the air...
18/02/2019
Tonight on Generations The Legacy: Tshidi isn't about to let her own flesh and blood pull a fast one on her. Lesedi offers up her time and energy only to be...
18/02/2019
On tonight's episode: Lehasa has numerous rude surprises in store for Lelo. The learners perform their poems in front of the teachers and are all too keen f...
18/02/2019
In today's episode of Uzalo: The church is facing financial troubles but they are not about to give up. Sibonelo feels he should honour the promise he made ...
18/02/2019
Broadpeak Business Grows in the APAC Region, Kenth Andersson Appointed Director ...
18/02/2019
In Their Own Words Premieres February 18, 2019
This article is sourced from/originally appeared in Realscreen:
National Geographic readies In Their Own ...
18/02/2019
Global creator, distributor and producer Endemol Shine Group today announces tha...
18/02/2019
Best practice in digital transformation shared at regional workshop in Georgia...
18/02/2019
Published: Mon 18 Feb 2019
Marty Adelstein's Tomorrow Studios travels to In...
18/02/2019
Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS) employees across the country this week are celebrating National Engineers Week (EWeek) by participating in more than 80 events foc...
18/02/2019
The German company filed for insolvency in December
Dan Meier 3 hours ago
The German company filed for insolvency in December
target=_blank title=Share...
18/02/2019
Until March 29th, upgrade any prior release for one low price and you get:...
18/02/2019
Hirschers amazing race secured an Austrian triple posted: 18/02/2019
Marcel Hirscher
Marcel Hirscher was not about to have anyone take the slalom gold fr...
18/02/2019
re 2019 Inspired the World to Ski posted: 18/02/2019
Closing ceremony in re
The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships re 2019 concluded Sunday, 17 Februar...
18/02/2019
ProAudio Technology on growth track under new management posted: 18/02/2019
Dipl.-Ing. [graduate engineer] Udo Hoellstern, Managing Director ProAudio Techno...
18/02/2019
Atomos Shinobi - the new super bright, super light 5 1920x1080 HDMI monitor tha...
18/02/2019
TURNER APAC PARTNERS WITH TV ASAHI ON SUPER SHIRO SERIES Monday, February 18, 2019
Country: Asia Pacific, Brand: Turner Corporate
TOKYO/HONG KONG (Febru...
18/02/2019
play
SHARE VIDEO
Andrew Upshorn of Maverick AV Solutions and Patrick Murray of Catch Technologies talk with Paul Milligan - editor of InAVate EMEA magazine - ...
18/02/2019
play
SHARE VIDEO
Paul Milligan speaks to Don Shaver of the SDVoE Alliance to discover how AV over IP technology can replace the matrix switch....
18/02/2019
L-R: Nick Clark of TFG and James Gibson of Ortana
Event hire, staging & conferencing provider Torpedo Factory Group has acquired a 24% stake in Ortana Media Gr...
18/02/2019
Media player manufacturer BrightSign has announced a partnership with audience intelligence company AdMobilize.
BrightSign Series 3 and 4 XT, XD and HD expand...
18/02/2019
AV distributor ScanSource is expanding its footprint in the UK, opening a new distribution centre in Southampton and a new office in Winnersh Triangle, Berkshir...
18/02/2019
TIG (Technological Innovations Group) has appointed Steven Dullaert as sales director. Dullaert is responsible for directing sales strategy in EMEA, and identif...
18/02/2019
Panasonic Business has opened the doors to its new Customer Experience Centre in Bracknell, UK, showcasing its range of B2B products.
Situated at the new UK h...
18/02/2019
ISE 2019 was the largest ever ISE show, with a total attendance figure of 81,268. This was a rise of just 345 people on last years figure of 80,923. Despite tha...
18/02/2019
Mobile oberators around the world are begining to run tests of 5G networks. One such pilot is being run for the Odeon cinema chain, which has begun using 5G in ...
18/02/2019
ITV could partner with BBC and Channel 4 to create a British Netflix'
Dan Meier 3 hours ago
ITV could partner with BBC and Channel 4 to create a Br...