This TV


This TV was an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally formed in 2008, as a joint venture between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Weigel Broadcasting, the network carried various unscripted series from Entertainment Studios' library. The network originally had a large programming emphasis on films, primarily sourced from the library of former owner MGM, but all films were removed from the schedule in 2024. Classic television series and children's programming had also aired on the network previously. The network quietly closed and merged into TheGrio on May 31, 2024, with the website eventually shutting down on July 13.
The network was available in many media markets via broadcast television stations, primarily on their digital subchannels, and on select cable television providers through carriage of a local affiliate. This TV's programming and business operations were headquartered in Century City, California with the rest of Entertainment Studio's operations; MGM provided advertising sales for the network through 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 fall. 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. ET on November 1, 2008, with the 1986 Spike Lee-directed 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, Canada-based Cookie Jar Group provided children's programming for This TV's daily morning schedule until November 2013.
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, acquired Weigel's co-ownership and assumed 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.
On October 28, 2020, Byron Allen's Allen Media Group announced that it would be buying This TV and Light TV from MGM. After the transition, This TV launched a permanent high-definition master feed, allowing its affiliates to carry the network in a widescreen format for the first time.
Throughout 2024, This TV was removed from many of its affiliates, with coverage sharply declining from 73.6% of the U.S. population in January to 1.42% by July. This included affiliates from ABC Owned Television Stations, who gave the network coverage in major cities, and network owner Allen Media Group. Although an exact date is unconfirmed, This TV shut down on May 31, 2024; its website was blanked and on July 13, it was completely shut down.

Programming

Before This TV's closure, the network's programming schedule relied primarily on the programs of Entertainment Studios, having previously relied on the library of films owned by previous network co-owner MGM and subsidiary United Artists. The use of on-air presenters had once been considered for This TV's movie broadcasts. However, the network did display a digital on-screen graphic during its programs, and affiliates were inclined to include regional descriptors reflecting the station's primary broadcast area or the station's own logo underneath the network bug. The network added three hours of paid programming time in 2021, expanded to six hours by 2024.
Films broadcast on the network featured commercial interruption, and breaks during its programming primarily consist of direct response television advertising, generic national advertising, and public service announcements. The network's first continuity announcer was Milwaukee radio personality Robb Edwards, who was replaced later in the Weigel era by Jim Cummings; Andy Geller, the primary promo voice of ABC in the 2000s, started announcing the network when Tribune assumed partial ownership of This TV.
In January 2022, the network underwent a format change: episodes of The Rat Patrol were removed, movies began airing starting in the late afternoon, and the morning and early to mid-afternoon timeslots were filled with E/I programming. Four months later, the E/I programming block was shortened and movies began airing at noon precisely.
In January 2024, MGM films were removed from the network as MGM declined to renew its contract agreement with the network after its acquisition by Amazon, and started airing library content from the AMG library, mainly weather-related reality series from The Weather Channel, including Storm Of Suspicion and Weather Gone Viral until its shut down in May 2024.

Films

This TV's daily schedule originally consisted largely of feature films, which aired 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 did not concentrate on films from any specific era, meaning any film from the Great Depression to contemporary times, and films made for either television, home video/DVD or theatrical release would be featured.
The network's film telecasts were usually "television" cuts meant for broadcast syndication which feature content edits, dubbing or muting of profanities and some time edits by removing several scenes to fit within a two-hour timeslot with commercials. Before the transition to an HD master feed, many of the syndicated versions of the network's films were older cuts unoptimized for HD presentation, shown in a pan and scan format more suitable for older fullscreen television sets, along with abrupt cuts for commercials that are ill-suited to a digital television network, rather than a traditional television station.
Films featured on This TV consisted of releases from previous network co-parent Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and its subsidiaries United Artists and The Samuel Goldwyn Company, as well as films produced by defunct studios whose libraries were purchased by MGM, including Orion Pictures, The Cannon Group, Inc., American International Pictures, and The Mirisch Company. In addition, the pre-1996 library of films held by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment were also featured on the network, alongside various Miramax films depending on which owner holds the rights to a film. Under Weigel co-ownership, This TV aired The Pink Panther short cartoons to interstitial program surplus airtime when a film concludes more than five minutes before the end of the film's allotted timeslot.

Film blocks

This TV also commonly featured 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 would air varying genres of films separated by daypart. The network also broadcast 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 allowed viewers which had This TV'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 several times during the same day or week.

Classic television series

In addition to its film content, the network also carried 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 was called "TV Night on This," a weekend-only prime time and late night television lineup 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; in September 2016, the lineup consisted of Westerns on Saturdays and police procedurals on Sundays. By 2021, most MGM-owned library television series were eliminated from the lineup.
Most of the network's series programming aired 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 '' were moved from the network to new sister network Antenna TV.