Laff (TV network)

Laff

Type	Digital multicast television network
Country	United States
Availability	Nationwide via OTA digital television (covering 50% of the U.S.)[1]
Founded	January 18, 2015 (2015-01-18) by Jonathan Katz
Slogan	You know you want to.
Owner	Laff Media, LLC
Parent	Katz Broadcasting, LLC
Key people	Jonathan Katz (president/CEO/founder, Katz Broadcasting)
Launch date	April 15, 2015 (2015-04-15)
Picture format	480i (SDTV)[2]
Affiliates	laff.com

Laff is an American digital multicast television network that is owned by Katz Broadcasting under the subsidiary Laff Media, LLC. The network specializes in comedy programming, featuring a mix of feature films and archived sitcoms, and is targeted at adults between the ages of 18 and 49 years old.

The network, which transmits in 480i standard definition, 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 media company owned by Jonathan Katz, co-founder and chief operating officer of Bounce TV, which had launched the gender-targeted multicast networks Escape and Grit) announced the pending launch of Laff on January 18, 2015, with a formal launch scheduled for April 15, intending to coincide with the Internal Revenue Service's deadline for Americans to file their tax returns, for the matter being that, as Broadcasting & Cable writer Jon Lafayette noted in a report on Laff's launch, "people will need something to make them smile."^[3]

Katz announced that stations owned by ABC Owned Television Stations – the owned-and-operated station group of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) – and the E. W. Scripps Company would serve as the network's initial charter affiliates.^[4][5] Laff launched at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time on April 15, with the 2008 romantic comedy film My Mom's New Boyfriend as its inaugural program.

Programming

Laff's comedy-centered programming will consist of a mix of theatrically released feature films, as well as off-network sitcoms from the 1980s to the 2000s.^[6] The network will also provide additional humorous content via the network's website and mobile app.^[7] Katz Broadcasting indicated that Laff would set itself apart from its multicast competitors by carrying more contemporary programming content, in contrast to the reruns of series from the 1980s and earlier commonly found on other over-the-air networks which rely on acquired content (such as Me-TV, Antenna TV and the upcoming Decades).^[4]

Movies

Laff's daily schedule includes feature films, which air on Sundays from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.; Monday through Fridays from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m., 12:00 to 4:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. and 3:00 to 5:00 a.m.; Saturdays from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. and 1:00 to 7:00 p.m.; and weekends from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time (sometimes starting earlier or ending later depending on the length of the films), with the film roster incorporating releases focusing on varying comedic subgenres from the 1980s to the 2000s.

Laff's program schedule will rely primarily on an extensive array of comedic films (totaling approximately 250 titles) from the libraries of three film studios by virtue of multi-year program licensing agreements announced one month before the network's launch on March 17, 2015: Walt Disney Studios (including films from Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures, and distributed through Disney–ABC Domestic Television), Miramax (distributed through Trifecta Entertainment and Media) and Sony Pictures Entertainment (including releases from Columbia Pictures and Tri-Star Pictures, and distributed through Sony Pictures Television).^[8][9][10]

Television series

In addition to films, much of Laff's programming lineup will consist of reruns of situation comedies originally aired between the 1980s and the early 2000s. On February 13, 2015, Laff acquired the syndication rights to five sitcoms – The Drew Carey Show, Night Court (which was not included in the launch schedule), Ellen, Empty Nest and Grace Under Fire – through respective deals with Warner Bros. Television, Disney-ABC Domestic Television and Carsey-Werner Distribution for its initial schedule.^[11] Spin City (acquired through Paramount Worldwide Television Licensing & Distribution) was later added as part of the network's initial lineup.^[12] Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza was also included on the launch schedule.

Affiliates

As of April 2015, Laff has current or pending affiliation agreements with television stations in 33 media markets encompassing 21 states (including stations in 15 of the 50 largest Nielsen markets), covering 50% of the United States.^[13] The network is offered to prospective affiliates through subchannel leasing arrangements, in which the network handles all responsibility in selling advertising inventory.^[5] Affiliates have the option of transmitting the network in the 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio, depending on the bandwidth needed to deliver high definition content over the station's main channel and whether it carries any other subchannels in HD.

ABC Owned Television Stations initially planned to launch Laff on all eight ABC owned-and-operated stations; the network will replace standard-definition simulcasts of the Live Well Network on the third digital subchannel of each of the stations, with Live Well remaining on their second subchannels in high-definition (ABC parent The Walt Disney Company had originally announced in June 2014 that it would shut down Live Well, before reversing course in January 2015 and announcing that the network would remain on ABC's O&Os). The network also signed an affiliation agreement with the E. W. Scripps Company, which would carry the network at launch in 13 markets served by a station owned by the group (Scripps' agreement currently does not include stations that the company acquired from Journal Communications in April 2015).^[4][5] The two initial deals gave Laff affiliate clearances in 35% of all U.S. markets, and 13 of the 30 largest television markets (including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Detroit and Houston).

The network immediately sought carriage on the digital subchannels of television stations owned by other broadcasting companies. On March 13, 2015, Katz Broadcasting announced an affiliation deal with the Cox Media Group to carry Laff on seven of its stations (including WSB-TV in Atlanta and WFXT in Boston), expanding its initial reach to 47% of the country;^[14] the following week on March 20, as part of a multi-network affiliation agreement with Katz, the Meredith Corporation announced that it would carry the network on its stations in Portland, Oregon (KPTV) and Hartford (WFSB).^[1][15] Later that month, WSNN-LD in Sarasota signed on as a charter affiliate through a deal with its owner LDB Media.

List of affiliates

See also

• Escape – sister digital broadcast network owned by Katz Broadcasting, featuring true-crime and mystery programs aimed at women.
• Grit – sister digital broadcast network owned by Katz Broadcasting, featuring action and western programs aimed at men.

References

External links

• Official website