Launched March 2009 (2009-03) Country United States Founded March 2009 | Picture format 480i (SDTV) Language English Parent organization Cool Music Network, LLC | |
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Owned by Cool Music Network, LLC Slogan Music Videos on TV - All Day, Everyday. Headquarters Lawrence, Kansas, United States Motto Music Videos on TV - All Day, Everyday. Profiles | ||
Thecooltv 2012 sizzle reel
TheCoolTV is an American digital broadcast television network that is owned by Cool Music Network, LLC of Lawrence, Kansas. Launched in March 2009, the network's current program schedule consists of an all-music video lineup; it also broadcasts the minimum three hours of children's programming for their affiliates intended to meet E/I requirements set by the Federal Communications Commission.
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In addition to the network, Cool Music Network also distributes recorded music and performances through digital cable and satellite channels, and post-concert CDs at music venues.
TheCoolTV is in the process of ceasing as a digital broadcast television network & converting to a online only streaming service.
Affiliates
Since the fall of 2011, the network's carriage has severely fallen from a peak of around 80 affiliates, to the point it can no longer be considered a television network under the bare minimum definition of the concept, where two different stations share programming. It only has one affiliate left in its hometown market of Wichita, KCTU-LD6, as of January 2017.
TheCoolTV's output consists of subchannels of digital broadcast television stations, the first of which was now-former affiliate WTMJ-TV, which added TheCoolTV to subchannel 4.3 on July 8, 2009. A large portion of its stations were owned and/or operated by Journal Communications, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and LIN TV The affiliate roster grew with help from an affiliation deal with three stations operated by McGraw-Hill. On April 5, 2011, The CoolTV signed an affiliate agreement with Newport Television for carriage on 10 of its 22 stations.
Stations affiliated with TheCoolTV have the nominal ability to cross-promote the network in association with a sister or affiliated radio station. However, the only affiliate that actually utilized this component was WTMJ-TV, which marketed TheCoolTV as a complement to its sister radio station, adult hits-formatted WLWK-FM (promoted as "TheCoolTV, hosted by 94-5 Lake FM"), with the other stations usually being part of ownership groups without any radio stations.
Decline
In September 2011, Journal announced that it would file a lawsuit against Cool Music Network for non-payment of broadcast services. Journal replaced The CoolTV with the Live Well Network in Milwaukee, and MeTV in Green Bay and Lansing on October 1, 2011.
On the afternoon of August 31, 2012, TheCoolTV was dropped from all 32 Sinclair Broadcast Group stations that carried the channel, with no replacement. No reason was given, other than a very brief message from Jim Wright, the Regional Engineering Manager for Sinclair, who said: "We are no longer carrying CoolTV on all Sinclair stations as of this afternoon."
The agreement with Newport Television to carry TheCoolTV was terminated upon Newport being purchased by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, which at the time carried few subchannels on its stations, and all former Newport stations had discontinued carrying TheCoolTV by April 2013. All agreements with McGraw-Hill were also terminated upon the E. W. Scripps Company's purchase of the McGraw-Hill stations in early 2012.
On March 1, 2013, two LIN stations in Albuquerque and Austin dropped the network. The remainder of LIN Media's stations dropped the network on July 15, 2013, with some replacing it with Bounce TV or local radar loops, or leaving them dark altogether.
Sometime in November 2012, TheCoolTV began airing free-to-air on the Galaxy 19 (97 West) satellite in the Ku band. However, this feed was discontinued without explanation. The network's webstream was hosted by JBTV until September 2016, when that company terminated the agreement due to non-payment.