Space Cadet
03-13-2007, 02:32 PM
Turner: Big makeover
set for Court TV
Remaking as a reality channel targeting young men
By Toni Fitzgerald
Mar 13, 2007
Less than a year after Turner Broadcasting took full ownership of Court TV, it’s making some huge changes.
The company said this morning that it will ditch the 16-year-old network’s name and rebrand it as a reality-focused channel aimed at young men. The changes were announced at a pre-upfront event this morning in New York.
The rebrand will not happen until January 2008, and Turner has not yet decided on a new name for Court TV. In explaining the logic of the change, it cited network research that found its audience was most interested in action-oriented real-life programming.
Court TV will discontinue the wall-to-wall coverage of trials of celebrities like Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson that came to define it, moving most of its trial coverage to the web and between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on television.
Instead, the network will focus on telling real-life stories, many of them crime related, such as an upcoming show about con men, another about police interrogation and a third about security experts.
Talk shows hosted by Star Jones Reynolds and Nancy Grace, legal experts better known for their personalities than their law background, will host weekday current event chat programs, cutting down on trial time.
This follows a shift in focus over the past few years in which Court TV had already de-emphasized trial coverage in favor of original programming in the evenings.
That rebrand was fairly successful. Media people agreed that the switch was needed, now that trial information is so readily available on the internet and on cable networks such as CNN and Fox News Channel.
“They’ve actually done pretty well since they started putting on some entertainment shows, that really worked well for them,” says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director for Horizon Media.
“[Time Warner] has been pretty successful. TBS and TNT have been repackaged in the last couple years, and maybe they think they can do the same thing with Court TV. There are a lot of potential opportunities programming-wise to tap into Time Warner’s library (of movies, etc.).”
Unlike other network revamps in recent years, such as TNN’s morph from general interest to male-oriented network Spike, this one was not prompted by ratings distress. In fact, it was partly prompted by the success of the network’s non-trial-focused primetime identity.
Court TV had its most-watched month in history in February, averaging a primetime audience of 1.17 million total viewers and 556,000 adults 25-54, both up a third over last year.
Fueling that growth were gritty reality series “Most Shocking” and “Suburban Secrets,” both crime related but not connected to any particular trial.
“I know they kind of shifted in recent years with entertainment-type legal shows, legal dramas, etc,” Adgate says. “I think that they think they can get more viewers, move it in a different direction the way Viacom did with Spike TV.”
Time Warner’s Turner took full control of Court TV last year, after years of partial ownership with Liberty Media.
After its rebrand, the new Court TV will fit in nicely with Turner’s other two cable entertainment networks. TBS is focused on comedy and TNT on drama. Adding a reality-focused network gives Turner a network focused on all three major programming genres.
Source: http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10752.asp
So, basically Court TV is going to become a reality-focused network on crime. And they aren't doing this because of declining ratings but, rather increasing ratings on their entertainment-type legal shows. So now, Turner has a reality network to go with their comedy network(TBS), drama network(TNT), and animated network(Cartoon Network).
set for Court TV
Remaking as a reality channel targeting young men
By Toni Fitzgerald
Mar 13, 2007
Less than a year after Turner Broadcasting took full ownership of Court TV, it’s making some huge changes.
The company said this morning that it will ditch the 16-year-old network’s name and rebrand it as a reality-focused channel aimed at young men. The changes were announced at a pre-upfront event this morning in New York.
The rebrand will not happen until January 2008, and Turner has not yet decided on a new name for Court TV. In explaining the logic of the change, it cited network research that found its audience was most interested in action-oriented real-life programming.
Court TV will discontinue the wall-to-wall coverage of trials of celebrities like Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson that came to define it, moving most of its trial coverage to the web and between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on television.
Instead, the network will focus on telling real-life stories, many of them crime related, such as an upcoming show about con men, another about police interrogation and a third about security experts.
Talk shows hosted by Star Jones Reynolds and Nancy Grace, legal experts better known for their personalities than their law background, will host weekday current event chat programs, cutting down on trial time.
This follows a shift in focus over the past few years in which Court TV had already de-emphasized trial coverage in favor of original programming in the evenings.
That rebrand was fairly successful. Media people agreed that the switch was needed, now that trial information is so readily available on the internet and on cable networks such as CNN and Fox News Channel.
“They’ve actually done pretty well since they started putting on some entertainment shows, that really worked well for them,” says Brad Adgate, senior vice president and corporate research director for Horizon Media.
“[Time Warner] has been pretty successful. TBS and TNT have been repackaged in the last couple years, and maybe they think they can do the same thing with Court TV. There are a lot of potential opportunities programming-wise to tap into Time Warner’s library (of movies, etc.).”
Unlike other network revamps in recent years, such as TNN’s morph from general interest to male-oriented network Spike, this one was not prompted by ratings distress. In fact, it was partly prompted by the success of the network’s non-trial-focused primetime identity.
Court TV had its most-watched month in history in February, averaging a primetime audience of 1.17 million total viewers and 556,000 adults 25-54, both up a third over last year.
Fueling that growth were gritty reality series “Most Shocking” and “Suburban Secrets,” both crime related but not connected to any particular trial.
“I know they kind of shifted in recent years with entertainment-type legal shows, legal dramas, etc,” Adgate says. “I think that they think they can get more viewers, move it in a different direction the way Viacom did with Spike TV.”
Time Warner’s Turner took full control of Court TV last year, after years of partial ownership with Liberty Media.
After its rebrand, the new Court TV will fit in nicely with Turner’s other two cable entertainment networks. TBS is focused on comedy and TNT on drama. Adding a reality-focused network gives Turner a network focused on all three major programming genres.
Source: http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_10752.asp
So, basically Court TV is going to become a reality-focused network on crime. And they aren't doing this because of declining ratings but, rather increasing ratings on their entertainment-type legal shows. So now, Turner has a reality network to go with their comedy network(TBS), drama network(TNT), and animated network(Cartoon Network).