GetTV

History

Sony Pictures Entertainment announced the formation of GetTV on April 22, 2013; with an initial main focus on pre-1980s classic films, Sony scheduled the network's formal launch for that fall. On its website, the network had originally announced that it would launch in October 2013; the premiere date was later pushed back to February 3, 2014. GetTV launched at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time on that date, initially debuting on the subchannels of twelve Univision and fourteen UniMás stations owned and/or managed by Univision Communications; the inaugural program shown on the network was the 1957 comedy film Operation Mad Ball.

On May 2, 2016, GetTV switched its programming format from a largely exclusive focus on classic movies to a general entertainment network featuring a mix of classic television series and feature films (with its film focus shifting more towards movies released after 1960, outside of its core Saturday western block). With the addition of series to its weekday daytime schedule, the network separated these programs into three daily blocks, consisting of sitcoms during the early morning, Westerns during the mid- and late-morning, and action and crime drama series during the afternoon and prime access dayparts (programs of the latter genre were also incorporated into the network's early morning schedule, preceding the comedy block, in September 2016).

Programming

Due its ownership by Sony Pictures Entertainment, GetTV's program schedule relies in part on a portion of the extensive library of films and television series currently owned by network sister companies Sony Pictures Television and Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, which comprises more than 3,500 films and 2,000 television series. Sony Pictures already maintains programming distribution agreements with Antenna TV (owned by Tribune Broadcasting) and Movies! (a joint venture between Weigel Broadcasting and Fox Television Stations), which allows those networks to carry films from the Sony library, in addition to a distribution deal with Antenna TV to broadcast television series to which Sony's television unit holds rights (mainly those produced by the various predecessors that existed prior to the company's 2002 consolidation of Columbia Pictures Television and TriStar Television).

Classic television series

In the fall of 2015, GetTV began to break from its all-movie format (outside of required children's programming content) to incorporate classic television series to its schedule, including series that have either not been syndicated in the past or have merely not been seen on broadcast television in decades.

Then on September 28, 2015, GetTV announced that it had reached respective agreements with World Nation Live Entertainment and Reelin' In the Years Productions to acquire the rights to The Judy Garland Show (which had not aired on television since it originally aired on CBS from 1963 to 1964) and a selection of about 50 episodes of The Merv Griffin Show, which would serve as the cornerstones of a new Monday night block of variety and talk programming (running from 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with same-night replay after the initial airing). The block, which debuted on October 12, also features musical variety specials and episodes from classic variety series (helmed by performers such as Andy Williams, Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, Dionne Warwick and Jim Nabors) acquired through agreements with Legacy Entertainment and Paul Brownstein Productions.

List of programs

Affiliates

As of May 2016, GetTV has current or pending affiliation agreements with 92 television stations in 87 media markets encompassing 35 states (including stations in 47 of the 50, and all of the 25 largest Nielsen markets), covering approximately 73.24% of the United States. The network is offered to prospective affiliates through leasing arrangements, in which the network pays a monthly license fee to its stations for subchannel carriage, and handles all responsibility in selling advertising inventory – instead of the typical method for multicast services by securing affiliation deals through barter deals, with a network's affiliates sharing the duty of selling ads (as such, advertisements carried by most GetTV affiliates strictly are those broadcast by the network, with no locally provided content outside of federally mandated hourly station identifications).

When the network was first announced, GetTV entered into a channel lease agreement with Univision Communications, which launched the network in 24 markets served by a station owned by the group or operated through local marketing agreements with Entravision Communications – giving GetTV affiliates in 17 of the 20 largest U.S. television markets (including markets such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas–Fort Worth and Miami). The network immediately sought carriage on the digital subchannels of television stations owned by other broadcasting companies; on April 1, 2014, the Cox Media Group became the first station group outside of the core Univision-owned outlets to sign select stations to carry GetTV on their digital subchannels; Cox-owned KIRO-TV in Seattle, WAXN-TV in Charlotte and KMYT-TV in Tulsa began carrying the network on that date, with WTEV-TV (now WJAX-TV) in Jacksonville following suit that summer.

Most notably, on June 23, 2014, the network reached a channel lease agreement with the Sinclair Broadcast Group; the deal gave GetTV affiliations with stations that Sinclair owns or operates from Deerfield Media and Cunningham Broadcasting (including several that formerly carried TheCoolTV and The Tube on a digital subchannel that had been silent immediately prior to joining the network) in 33 markets, increasing GetTV's reach to 70% of U.S. television households. 29 Sinclair stations added the network on July 1, with the others beginning to carry GetTV by the end of September 2014. Several stations involved in the Sinclair agreement have opted to preempt certain GetTV programs to run to carry sports events from the company's American Sports Network syndication service in place of the network's national schedule during prime time (with some even switching to ASN event programming while a film is in progress) to accommodate regular programming on the main channel.

On February 1, 2016, Sony announced that it had reached a distribution agreement with Media General (which had announced days prior that it would merge with the Nexstar Broadcasting Group) for the network to be carried on stations owned and/or operated by the group in 20 markets (including San Francisco, Portland, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids and Harrisburg). WISH-TV in Indianapolis, WOTV in Grand Rapids and WHTM-TV in Harrisburg began carrying GetTV on new or existing subchannels on that date, with additional Media General stations adding the network throughout the first quarter of 2016.

Separate from the network's broadcast affiliation agreements, on December 17, 2015, Sony Pictures Television announced that the satellite provider would begin carrying GetTV nationally on channel 373, available at minimum to subscribers of its "America's Top 120" programming tier. As a result of the deal, in which the network was added as part of a renewed carriage agreement with Dish Network for sister networks Sony Movie Channel and Cine Sony Television, GetTV became the first digital multicast network to be carried by Dish, which (as with other satellite and IPTV providers) has typically refrained from seeking agreements to carry subchannels programmed by individual local television stations.