Television owner/operator Sinclair Broadcast Group has found another source of programming designed to take advantage of multi-streaming enable by television’s digital transition — the source is The Country Network and the programming will consist of country music videos.
Sinclair operates in 35 markets, and will put TCN programming in 28 of them, reaching 17% of US TV households.
“Existing country music networks have all but abandoned the pure music video format,” said TCN founder Warren Hansen. “Although The Country Network’s agreement with Sinclair is our first with a major broadcast company, several additional agreements are in the works, and we expect to announce them shortly.”
“We are excited to help launch TCN,” added Sinclair EVP/CFO David Amy. “We believe their program offering aligns perfectly with our audience demographics and our local market footprint. Their genre of music and program format should have broad appeal to our local viewers. We are pleased to expand our digital tier by airing The Country Network.”
RBR-TVBR observation: For some time, what to put on digital side channels was a question in search of an answer. But with an increasing number of consumers reportedly anxious to pull the plug on high MVPD subscription fees, reliance on an increasingly full menu of off-air options supplemented by internet streaming may well fuel a renaissance in broadcast content keyed to digital channel splitting.
In other words, if the demand is there, broadcasters will be happy to provide the supply.
