Good morning and Happy Thursday POU! Today’s channel that will be highlighted is Bounce TV..
Bounce TV is an American digital multicast television network owned by Katz Broadcasting, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. Promoted as “the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created to target African Americans”, the channel features a mix of original and acquired programming geared toward African Americans between 29 and 50 years of age. The network is affiliated with broadcast television stations in several markets through digital sub-channels; it is also available on the digital tiers of select cable providers at the discretion of local affiliates.
The network was founded on April 5, 2011. The founding group and initial ownership team included Martin Luther King III; former mayor of Atlanta, Georgia and Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young and his son Andrew “Bo” Young III; and Rob Hardy and Will Packer, co-founders of Rainforest Films, a top African-American production company. Spearheading the network’s creations were former Turner Broadcasting executives Jonathan Katz and Ryan Glover with the pair having previously worked together with Tyler Perry to produce several high-order African-American sitcoms for TBS. Currently, Glover is president of Bounce TV and Katz is Chief Operating Officer. The “Bounce TV” name was chosen as a branding avenue to signify that the network is “going somewhere with energy”.
The network formally launched on September 26, 2011, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with the 1978 musical film The Wiz as its inaugural broadcast followed by A Raisin in the Sun with Do the Right Thing in prime-time. The movie in prime-time on the second day was Spike Lee’s School Daze. This would be followed two days later with its first sports broadcast, CIAA football.
The network added its first acquired sitcoms in January 2015, when it acquired the rights to four series.[6] On Friday, January 29, 2016, Bounce broadcast the 24th Annual Trumpet Awards, which honored history-making individuals. The network started producing its first prime-time news magazine, Ed Gordon, in late June 2016 for a Tuesday, September 13, 2016 premiere.
On October 2, 2017, E. W. Scripps purchased Bounce TV along with Katz Broadcasting’s three other networks. A list of 2019 Nielsen ratings published by Variety showed that Bounce averaged 275,000 viewers in prime time, down 1% from the 2018 average.
Bounce TV features programming geared toward an African American audience that skews older than the demographic that its cable competitor BET primarily targets (adults between the ages of 25 and 54, compared to BET’s target demographic of youths and adults ages 12 to 34). Bounce TV’s programming primarily features a mix of acquired series and feature films. The network added its first acquired sitcoms in January 2015, when it acquired the rights to four series through deals with Warner Bros. Television Distribution, Carsey–Warner Distribution, CBS Television Distribution/Big Ticket Television (Judge Joe Brown), 20th Television (The Parent ‘Hood, Roc, A Different World, and The Hughleys) and Trifecta Entertainment & Media (Judge Faith). They immediately removed the 1990s CBS series Cosby from Bounce’s schedule on July 7, 2015, after Bill Cosby’s past admissions about his sexual assault allegations were publicized.
Unlike most digital multicast services (particularly with the January 2015 shutdown of Live Well Network, which mainly carried first-run content), Bounce TV also carries original programming. The network added originally produced inspirational and music programming, documentaries, and specials to its lineup in 2012 beginning with the broadcast television premiere of the documentary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Historical Perspective on January 16, 2012, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Bounce TV’s first original weekly series debuted on June 18, 2012, with the series premieres of the sitcom Family Time and the stand-up comedy series Uptown Comic.
In addition, shortly before its launch, Bounce TV agreed with the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (a league that includes several historically black colleges and universities) to acquire the television rights to broadcast its football and basketball games; Urban Sports Entertainment Group produced the telecasts. The first sports broadcast on Bounce TV aired on September 28, 2011, a college football game between Bowie State University and Virginia Union University. Bounce’s HBCU-centered sports programming expanded in 2013 to include games from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Sports programming on the network ceased prior to the 2014 season (with Aspire acquiring the rights to some HBCU football telecasts).
On May 7, 2015, Bounce TV announced that they would air live boxing events from Premier Boxing Champions under the title PBC: The Next Round.
On March 6, 2016, the debut of the prime-time soap Saints & Sinners took in 1.3 million viewers, making it Bounce TV’s most-watched program to date.