Court TV
Court TV is a digital broadcast network and former American cable television channel. It was originally launched in 1991 with a focus on crime-themed programs such as true crime documentary series, legal dramas, and coverage of prominent criminal cases. In 2008, the original cable channel became TruTV. The channel relaunched on May 8, 2019 as a digital broadcast television network that is owned by Katz Broadcasting, a subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company.
Court TV is also available via streaming services, YouTube TV.
History
Cable channel
Cable television channel Courtroom Television Network, known as Court TV, was launched, on July 1, 1991 at 6:00 am Eastern Time, by founder Steven Brill, and was available to three million subscribers. Its original anchors were Vinnie Politan, Fred Graham, Cynthia McFadden, and Terry Moran. The network was born out of two competing projects to launch cable channels with live courtroom proceedings, the American Trial Network from Time Warner and American Lawyer Media, and In Court from Cablevision and NBC. Both projects were present at the National Cable Television Association, in June 1990. Rather than trying to establish two competing networks, the projects were combined on December 14, 1990. Liberty Media would join the venture in 1991. The network's first logo consisted of a rectangle with the word "COURT", and the letters "TV" below, with a line underneath. The network's second logo ran from 1999 to 2005. The network's third and final logo ran from 2005 to 2007.The channel originally consisted of live courtroom trials that were interspersed with anchors and reporters. It was led by law writer Steven Brill, who later left the network in 1997. The network came into its own during the Menendez brothers' first trial in 1994, and the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995. In 1998, NBC sold its share of the network to Time Warner. That same year, Court TV began running several original and acquired programs in prime time, such as , Cops, and Forensic Files.
Recognizing the growth of its prime time programming, Court TV announced in 2005 that it would split its programming into two brands. Daytime trial coverage was branded as Court TV News, while other dayparts were branded under the tagline Seriously Entertaining; this programming would feature new reality television series focusing on crime-oriented topics. In January 2006, the network launched a male-targeted programming block known as "RED", an abbreviation of "Real. Exciting. Dramatic."
Time Warner bought full control of Court TV in 2006 and began running it as part of the company's Turner Broadcasting System division. The buyout of Court TV marked Time Warner's first television network acquisition, rather than a sale, since the acquisition of Turner in 1996. On July 11, 2007, it was announced that Court TV would be relaunched as truTV on January 1, 2008. The new brand was intended to accompany a larger shift towards action-oriented reality series which did not necessarily involve crime or law enforcement. The change was made on January 1, 2008.
Reruns of Court TV series have since aired on HLN, and have also been syndicated to the over-the-air digital network Justice Network. With changes to HLN's programming strategy and the growing popularity of the genre, the network began to produce and premiere more original true crime programs in 2017.
Broadcast television network
On December 10, 2018, Katz Broadcasting announced that they would relaunch Court TV as an over-the-air network following the acquisition of the intellectual property rights to the Court TV name and the pre-2008 Court TV original programming library from Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Bros. Entertainment. Scripps announced affiliation deals with Tribune Media and Univision Communications at that date, in addition to existing Scripps-owned stations. Further deals with Meredith Corporation, Nexstar Media Group, Tegna, and Quincy Media were announced on May 2, 2019. The channel is also available nationally on Pluto TV.The relaunched Court TV features live court coverage with original Court TV anchor Vinnie Politan as lead anchor, Court TV and CNN producers John Alleva and Scott Tufts as vice presidents and managing editors. The network began broadcasting on May 8, 2019. The first live courtroom coverage was the Covington, Georgia trial of parents who, after reporting their newborn baby missing in 2017, were later charged with murder. In subsequent months, the channel launched its coverage of the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault trial and the disappearance of Tylee Ryan and J. J. Vallow. In May 2020, the network was picked up for carriage on YouTube TV.
Affiliates
Programming
Court TV currently shows gavel to gavel live trial coverage during the day. Yodit Tewolde anchors trial coverage from 9 AM to Noon, Julie Grant anchors from Noon to 3 PM, and Seema Iyer anchors from 3 to 6 PM, all times EDT.Vinnie Politan anchors Closing Arguments with Vinnie Politan weeknights from 6 to 9 PM ET.
Court TV's original programming traditionally consisted of reality legal programming and legal dramas, such as legal-based news shows, legal-based talk shows, live homicide trial coverage, court shows, police force shows, and other criminal justice programming. The channel also carried a week-daily news block, In Session, which provided live coverage of trials, legal news and details of highly publicized crimes Monday through Fridays from 9 to 11 a.m. ET. Its coverage included analysis from anchors and guests to help viewers understand legal proceedings. In Session also ran a blog, Sidebar, where the In Session team posted updated legal news and analysis.
Spin-offs
Court TV Mystery
On September 30, 2019, Escape network was rebranded as Court TV Mystery, serving as an extension to the Court TV brand.Satellite radio channel
Court TV relaunched its satellite radio channel on May 15, 2020 on SiriusXM.Former spin-offs
Canadian version
, a Canadian version of the channel under its previous format, owned by CHUM Limited, launched on September 7, 2001. Unlike its U.S. counterpart, it did not re-brand under the TruTV name and continued to operate as Court TV until August 30, 2010, when, as part of a wider licensing agreement with Discovery Communications and CTV, Court TV was replaced by Investigation Discovery.The U.S. version of Court TV had earlier been approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as an eligible foreign channel in 1997, and indeed, had been carried by several Canadian service providers prior to the launch of the domestic service.
Websites
In 2001, Court TV purchased The Smoking Gun, a website that focuses on legal items such as mug shots and other public documents pertaining to famous individuals and cases. The site remained a property of the company through the rebranding to TruTV, but was sold back to its founder in 2014.Court TV purchased the website Crime Library, which provided detailed information about infamous crimes and how they were solved, in 2001. The website remained an actively updated property until 2014 and was taken offline in 2015.