Grit (TV network)

Grit

Type	Digital broadcast television network (Movies)
Country	United States
Availability	Nationwide via OTA digital television (covering 50% of the U.S.)[1]
Founded	April 3, 2014 (2014-04-03) by Jonathan Katz
Slogan	Television with Backbone
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Owner	Grit Media, LLC
Parent	Katz Broadcasting, LLC
Key people	Jonathan Katz (president/CEO, Katz Broadcasting) Bill Cox (SVP of programming, Grit)[2]
Launch date	August 18, 2014 (2014-08-18)[1]
Picture format	480i (SDTV)
Affiliates	List of Grit affiliates
Official website	grittv.com

Grit is an American digital multicast television network that is owned by Katz Broadcasting.^[3] The network primarily focuses on feature films, and is targeted at men between the ages of 25 and 54 years old; although the network mainly competes with digital multicast networks such as This TV, Movies! and GetTV, the network's gender-targeted format is similar to that of Tuff TV and cable channels such as Spike and Esquire Network.

The network is available in many media markets via the digital subchannels of broadcast television stations and on the digital tiers of select cable providers through a local affiliate of the network.

History

Katz Broadcasting (a newly formed media company owned by Jonathan Katz, co-founder and chief operating officer of the African American-targeted multicast network Bounce TV) announced the formation of Grit and sister network Escape on April 3, 2014, with a formal launch scheduled for that summer with initial affiliates announced at this time being Univision Communications owned stations.^[3] On August 11, 2014, Katz announced that the two networks would launch simultaneously on August 18. Grit launched at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on that date,^[4] with the 1952 film High Noon as the network's inaugural broadcast, leading off a week-long festival of John Wayne films.^[1]

Programming

Grit's program schedule relies primarily on theatrically released western and action films, as well as a limited amount of acquired television series distributed for first-run and off-network syndication. Katz Broadcasting president and CEO Jonathan Katz based the demographic-targeted concept of Escape and Grit after Bounce TV, a network Katz co-founded with Martin Luther King III and Andrew Young in 2011 that is targeted at African American audiences; Katz stated Escape and Grit are "the country’s first ever male-centric and female-centric broadcast networks," featuring different programming from other classic television multicast networks that Katz referred to as "generic brands with generic names, created by studios to serve the studios."^[5] Among digital subchannel networks though, only NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations's Cozi TV is directly owned by an entity with a film or television studio, while the remainder license programming from other providers, and although CBS's Decades has a connected studio in CBS Films (and will license programming from the CBS and Paramount libraries), it is unlikely CBS Films content will air on Decades for years to come.

Movies

Grit's program schedule relies primarily on an extensive library of films through multi-year program licensing agreements with several major film studios: Warner Bros. Pictures (distributed through Warner Bros. Television Distribution),^[6] Universal Pictures (through NBCUniversal Television Distribution),^[7] Paramount Pictures (through Trifecta Entertainment & Media)^[8] and Sony Pictures Entertainment.^[9]

Affiliates

As of March 2015, Grit has current or pending affiliation agreements with television stations covering approximately 78% of the United States.^[10]

When the network was first announced, Grit entered into an affiliation agreement with Univision Communications, which launched the network in 24 markets served by a station owned by the group or operated through local marketing agreements with Entravision Communications – giving Grit affiliates in 12 of the 20 largest U.S. television markets (including markets such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth). The network immediately sought carriage on the digital subchannels of television stations owned by other broadcasting companies;^[3] on June 17, 2014, Katz signed group deals to carry Grit on stations owned and/or operated by Raycom Media in 26 markets.^[11]

On July 17, 2014, Katz announced affiliation deals with the Cox Media Group to carry Grit on WFTV in Orlando and KMYT-TV in Tulsa; as well as KJWP in the Philadelphia market, and Citadel Communications-owned stations in Providence (WLNE-TV) and Lincoln (KLKN). It also expanded its affiliation deal with Univision Communications to add stations in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Phoenix to the network's originally announced Univision-owned charter affiliates.^[12][13]

On October 9, 2014, the Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it would carry the network on stations it owns and/or operates in 47 markets.^[14]

List of affiliates

 Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Dubuque-Iowa City  KFXA-TV //28.2// Sinclair Broadcast Group  

 Des Moines  KDSM-TV //17.3// Sinclair Broadcast Group

References

External links

• Official website