This TV


This TV is an American free-to-air television network that is owned by ThisTV, LLC, a division of the MGM Domestic Television Distribution subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The network maintains a large programming emphasis on films, but also airs other limited general entertainment content in the form of classic television series and children's programming.
The network – which broadcasts 24 hours a day in 480i standard definition – is available in many media markets via broadcast television stations, primarily on their digital subchannels, and on select cable providers through carriage of a local affiliate. This TV's programming and business operations are headquartered at 303 East Wacker Drive in Chicago; MGM handles advertising sales for the network through its offices in New York City.

History

Film and television studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Chicago, Illinois-based television station owner Weigel Broadcasting announced the formation of This TV on July 28, 2008, with a launch planned for that autumn. The "This TV" name was chosen as a branding and marketing avenue for the network and its stations, with slogans such as "This is the Place for Movies", "It Doesn't Get Any Better than This", "This is What You're Watching", "Stay Here for This" and "This is the Channel!" proposed for use in on-air promotions.
This TV formally launched at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on November 1, 2008, with the 1986 Spike Lee film She's Gotta Have It as the network's first program. However, some initial affiliates may have "soft launched" the network one day earlier – on October 31, 2008 – to carry some Halloween-themed programming that was provided by the network. At launch, in addition to featuring content sourced largely from the MGM film and television library, Cookie Jar Entertainment provided children's programming for This TV's daily morning schedule.
Under Weigel Broadcasting part-ownership, the network's operations were overseen by Neal Sabin, who in his role as Weigel's executive vice president oversaw the national launch of MeTV, a classic television network similar in format to This TV though with an almost exclusive focus on comedic and dramatic series. Jim Marketti, president/CEO of Marketti Creative Group, was hired in August 2008 as This TV's creative director, focusing on the network's marketing and promotion.
On May 13, 2013, Weigel Broadcasting announced that it would be leaving the This TV partnership in order to focus on Movies!, a similar film-oriented multicast network that Weigel launched in partnership with Fox Television Stations in January 2013. Tribune Broadcasting, owners of the classic television multicast network Antenna TV, took over daily operations of This TV on November 1, 2013; concurrently, the network moved its affiliation in Chicago from the fifth digital subchannel of Weigel flagship station WCIU-TV to a newly created third subchannel of Tribune's television flagship WGN-TV. On May 2, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its KidsClick children's programming block that would air on This TV starting on July 1, 2017. KidsClick left This TV on July 1, 2018.

Programming

This TV's program schedule relies primarily on the library of films and television programming currently owned by MGM and subsidiary United Artists. No originally produced programming appears on the network, although the use of on-air presenters had once been considered for This TV's movie broadcasts; the network is also devoid of infomercial programming. However, the network does display an on-screen logo bug during its programs, and affiliates are inclined to include regional descriptors reflecting the station's primary broadcast area or the station's own logo underneath the network bug.
The network did not utilize a split-screen credit sequence to promote upcoming programs during the closing credits until Tribune took over operations. Films broadcast on the network do feature commercial interruption, and breaks during its programming primarily consist of direct-response advertisements for products featured in infomercials and, particularly during This TV's children's programming, public service announcements. The network's first continuity announcer was Milwaukee radio personality and Miller Park PA system announcer Robb Edwards, who was replaced later in the Weigel era by Jim Cummings; Andy Geller, the primary promo voice of ABC through the 2000s, took over when Tribune assumed partial ownership of This TV.

Movies

This TV's daily schedule consists largely of feature films, which air on Monday through Saturdays from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m., and Sundays from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m., 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. and 2:00 to 4:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The film roster does not concentrate on films from any specific era, meaning any film from the Depression era to contemporary times, and films made for either television, home video/DVD or theatrical release can be featured.
The network's film telecasts usually, by far, are "television" cuts meant for broadcast syndication which feature content edits, dubbing or muting of profanities and some time edits by removing superfluous plotting or adult scenes toned down to fit within a two-hour timeslot with commercials. The use of the "television" cut means that most of the network's films are also presented in a pan and scan format suitable for television sets; however since Tribune became part-owner of the network in November 2013, This TV has carried syndication cuts of a limited number of titles – mainly those originally released after 2000 – that are downconverted to a letterboxed format to fit the network's native aspect ratio, as is also done with the KidsClick block.
Films featured on This TV consist of releases from network co-parent Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and its subsidiaries United Artists and The Samuel Goldwyn Company, as well as films produced by now-defunct film studios Orion Pictures, Cannon Group, American International Pictures, and the Mirisch Company ; in addition, the pre-1996 library of films previously held by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment are also featured on the network. This also shows films from Miramax as well. Under Weigel co-ownership, This TV aired Pink Panther cartoon shorts to pad out surplus airtime when a film concludes more than five minutes prior to the end of the film's allotted timeslot.

Film blocks

This TV also commonly features themed movie presentations, with the entire day's schedule consisting of films from a particular genre once a week throughout the month. On certain days, the network may air differing genres of films separated by daypart. The network also broadcasts a featured movie in primetime at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday through Friday nights.
Until October 31, 2013, the weeknight prime movie presentations were typically replayed later in the evening, which allows viewers which have This's primetime pre-empted by a secondary network to watch those films. From the network's launch until October 26, 2013, This TV ran a family film block preceding the network's Saturday morning "Cookie Jar Toons" lineup called "This Family Friendly"; under Tribune part-ownership, this block was discontinued, with a wider variety of films filling the block's former Saturday morning slot; however, family-oriented films remain part of the network's schedule, only airing on certain days in random timeslots and depending in part on the titles selected for that month's film slate. During 2014, the network shared select older film titles with sister network Antenna TV, with some films airing on both networks at different times during the same day or week.

Classic television series

In addition to its film content, the network also carries a modest amount of vintage comedy and drama series from the 1950s to the 1990s, airing in the early morning most days of the week and on weekend evenings. Its core bIock of classic programming is "TV Night on This," a weekend-only prime time and late-night lineup – comprising multi-episode blocks of two series each night – which launched on January 10, 2016 as an extension of an existing Sunday evening rerun block that maintained a more generalized format dating back to the network's launch; as of 2016, the lineup consists of Westerns on Saturdays and police procedurals on Sundays.
Most of the network's series programming airs during the early morning hours during pre-determined breaks within the network's movie schedule. After Tribune Broadcasting assumed operations of This TV, three series formerly seen on the network – The Patty Duke Show, Mister Ed and Green Acres – were moved from the network to new sister network Antenna TV.

Children's programming

Under Weigel's co-ownership, This TV featured a daily morning block of children's programs that was handled by Toronto-based Cookie Jar Entertainment, then by WildBrain when it purchased Cookie Jar in 2012. It also featured a Weigel-produced program originally produced for its Chicago flagship WCIU-TV, Green Screen Adventures. The block's core children's programming was branded under the banner name "This is for Kids", while a separate lineup of Cookie Jar-produced shows that met the Federal Communications Commission's educational content requirements was branded under the name "Cookie Jar Toons". Children's programs featured in the blocks included library content from CJE entities DiC Entertainment and Cinar Films, as well as recent originally produced content by Cookie Jar. The block competed with other Saturday-morning cartoon blocks, including 4Kids TV on Fox, ABC Kids on ABC, AniMeTV on MeTV, and the Toonzai and Vortexx blocks on The CW. However, 4Kids TV was replaced by Weekend Marketplace, a paid programming block, in 2008, while AniMeTV and Toonzai were discontinued because of bankruptcy/acquisition. ABC replaced ABC Kids with the E/I-compliant Litton's Weekend Adventure in 2011.
Cookie Jar Toons/This is for Kids had its program breaks filled with a mix of regular commercials, PSA's, and promotions for shows on the block. Prominent advertisers for the block included the Ad Council, McDonald's, General Mills, Chuck E. Cheese's, Gerber Life, K12, Juicy Drop Pop, Hasbro, Skechers, and Gamefly.
Once Tribune assumed part-ownership of This TV, the network relegated its children's program solely to Sunday mornings, coinciding with discontinuance of the network's agreement with Cookie Jar/DHX ; the former Cookie Jar Toons/This is for Kids block was replaced with a three-hour weekly block of E/I-compliant programs originally distributed for syndication by Bellum Entertainment Group; these were joined by select series from Steve Rotfeld Productions in March 2016.
On May 3, 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it would launch KidsClick, a multiplatform children's programming endeavor featuring long-form and short-form animated content from various production studios. Sinclair named This TV as the national carrier of the venture's three-hour morning cartoon block, which debuted on July 1 – coinciding with the launch of a syndicated version that would initially be carried on Sinclair-operated stations in certain markets. On July 1, 2018, This TV discontinued carriage of KidsClick, which was transferred full-time to Sinclair-owned online content-focused network TBD. KidsClick would later be discontinued on March 31, 2019.

Affiliates

In addition to its carriage on Weigel-owned stations in Chicago, Milwaukee and South Bend, Indiana at the network's launch, This TV reached affiliation agreements with several television station groups – including Hearst Television, the Sinclair Broadcast Group, Post-Newsweek Stations, Fisher Communications, Raycom Media and Belo – to add the network on the subchannels of some of their stations in 2009. A May 2010 renewal of its affiliation agreement with Tribune Broadcasting expanded the network to additional stations owned by the company in markets such as Los Angeles, New York City, Miami and San Diego, helping increase This TV's market coverage to 85% of the U.S. and making it the largest subchannel network by population reach percentage. A number of NBC affiliates added This TV as a replacement for the now-defunct NBC Weather Plus service, which shut down in November 2008. Additionally, Equity Media Holdings selected This TV as a replacement for the Retro Television Network on some of its stations after the company terminated its relationship with RTN in January 2009 due to a payment dispute; the Equity-owned stations have since been sold, with several disaffiliating from This TV or ceasing operations completely.
Stations that carry This TV have the option to air select programming from the network on their main channels; affiliates also have the option to preempt select This TV programs, running alternate programming in place of certain shows from the network's national schedule, either via a secondary affiliation deal with another network such as The CW or MyNetworkTV, substitutions by locally produced programming, or in the most common case, moving network programming to the This subchannel to accommodate local sports or breaking news coverage on the main channel.
With Tribune Broadcasting taking over operational responsibilities for the network, This TV became one of the few television networks to move its flagship station; the network moved from WCIU to a digital subchannel of Tribune's Chicago flagship WGN-TV. In Milwaukee, Weigel continued to carry the network on WDJT following Tribune's December 2013 acquisition of the market's Fox affiliate, WITI ; on March 3, 2015, Weigel moved This to WDJT's sister independent station, WMLW-TV, on its DT3 subchannel; its former channel slot on WDJT was concurrently filled by the Weigel-owned network Heroes & Icons, effectively consolidating the group's main subchannel networks onto WDJT's digital signal while allowing Weigel to fulfill its existing contract for This TV; through the move, the network's cable coverage was affected in the channel exchange with some area cable providers having to sign new agreements to carry the network via WMLW-DT3. In South Bend, its status on WCWW did not change, partly because Tribune does not own a television station in that market, unlike in Chicago and Milwaukee. Weigel transferred This to WYTU-LD3 on January 8, 2018 due to a large-scale channel remapping involving the spectrum auction, finally discontinuing their run of This TV in Milwaukee on September 3, 2018 upon the launch of Start TV.
WITI and other stations owned by Local TV – which Tribune bought in July 2013 and finalized its purchase of that December – where the network has yet to transfer its affiliation will likely affiliate with the network at some point in the long-term ; in most markets where Tribune owns a former Local TV station, and the existing Tribune stations in four markets where the network is not carried, however, This TV has existing affiliation deals with stations owned by other station groups via national carriage deals; it is possible that Tribune may wait until these affiliation contracts lapse before moving the network to those affected stations, though because many of those deals are with national groups such as Hearst carrying the network in overlapping Tribune markets, they may be renewed without an immediate move to a Tribune station to maintain affiliate relations. The first Tribune station to affiliate with the network since its purchase of Local TV and assumption of the network's operations was KAUT-TV in Oklahoma City, which joined the network on December 24, 2014, after KSBI dropped its This-affiliated subchannel upon Griffin Communications taking over its operations earlier that month, citing low ratings.
In 2014, Tribune began to produce promotional advertisements for This TV that it distributes to its affiliates for broadcast on their main signals in high definition.
A number of former Tribune stations dropped This TV towards the end of October 2019 due to a new agreement with Katz Broadcasting to carry a reincarnated version of the court/true crime news network Court TV made before the close of the Nexstar deal. A few markets saw This TV move to a new station, though for the most part, the network has lost distribution in many major markets.