Court TV is set to return to television via Katz Networks, which is part of The E.W. Scripps Company, in May 2019. The new 24/7 version will be available for cable, satellite, over-the-air and over-the-top carriage.
The original Court TV signed off in 2008. Before then, it ran for more than 20 years and gained mainstream attention for providing gavel-to-gavel coverage of the O.J. Simpson, the Menendez brothers, and Casey Anthony murder trials.
“Court TV was a Top-20 cable network and at the height of its popularity when the network was taken off the air in 2008,” said Jonathan Katz, president and CEO of Katz Networks. “Today, while consumer interest in the real-life drama of true-crime programming is at an all-time high, there is no dedicated daily court coverage on television. We expect the new Court TV to fill that void on cable, satellite, over-the-air and over-the-top.”
Katz has acquired Court TV’s intellectual property, including the trademark, website and complete, original 100,000-hour Court TV library from Turner Broadcasting, per the company’s Monday morning media release. Original Court TV anchor Vinnie Politan (pictured above, middle) will serve as lead anchor. Former Court TV and CNN producers John Alleva (left) and Scott Tufts (right) will join as vice presidents and managing editors.
The new Court TV has secured over-the-air distribution agreements with Tribune, Scripps and Univision. That will allow Court TV to reach more than 50 percent of U.S. television households at launch, Katz said, with concurrent cable carriage of 25 percent of U.S. cable homes.
E.W. Scripps is not to be confused with Scripps Networks Interactive, which was purchased by Discovery recently for nearly $15 billion.
Below are some more details on Court TV’s initial distribution. Find out if the channel is coming to your neck of the woods here:
- Tribune Broadcasting will carry Court TV in 22 markets, including New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Philadelphia; Dallas-Fort Worth; Houston; Miami-Fort Lauderdale; Denver; St. Louis; Seattle-Tacoma, Washington; and Sacramento, California.
- Eight Scripps markets will carry Court TV, including Tampa, Florida; Detroit; Cleveland; Cincinnati; Las Vegas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Tucson, Arizona.
- Entravision Communications’ 10 Court TV markets include Boston; Orlando, Florida; and Wichita, Kansas.
- Univision Communications will carry the network in San Antonio; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Bakersfield, California.
- Citadel Communications will air Court TV in Providence, Rhode Island.
“Scripps and Katz look forward to reestablishing Court TV’s important legacy of providing Americans with transparency into the U.S. courts system and fulfilling our company mission of journalism and public service,” said Brian Lawlor, president of local media for Scripps. “We believe today’s TV audiences will be drawn to the network, leading to the same strong revenue growth and return on investment the other Katz networks have delivered.”