The Country Network (TCN), a country music video television network located on Music Row in Nashville, TN, announced that it has begun broadcasting in 10 major markets. The inaugural telecasts occurred within eight weeks of TCN signing its first major affiliation agreement – that is with Sinclair Broadcast Group.
TCN is being carried on digital multicast channels of 10 Sinclair full-power stations. Pursuant to Sinclair’s retransmission agreements, TCN expects to have these channels carried by the majority of the cable systems in the respective DMAs within 90 days.
The ten markets are:
Market Call Letters Channel
Minneapolis WUCW 23.3
St. Louis KDNL 30.3
Pittsburgh WPGH 53.2
Raleigh WLFL 22.2
Baltimore WBFF 45.3
Nashville WNAB 58.2
Milwaukee WCGV 24.2
San Antonio KABB 29.2
Birmingham WTTO 21.2
Greensboro WXLV 45.2
TCN and Sinclair signed a deal in August to place TCN in 28 Sinclair markets representing 17% of US television households this fall. TCN expects to begin broadcasting in the remaining 18 markets over the next several weeks. In addition, the start-up network says it is expected that Sinclair will add TCN to an additional six markets in the first quarter of 2011. TCN is also in advanced negotiations with several other broadcast groups and expects to announce affiliations for additional markets shortly.
“I am very excited to begin broadcasting and bring country music to the millions of fans in these communities,” said Warren Hansen, founder and CEO of TCN. “It is a credit to our team and Sinclair’s engineering department that we were able to get on the air so quickly. They are great partners and we are fortunate to have them as our launch group.”
Del Parks, Vice President of Engineering and Operations for Sinclair, said, “We’re pleased to be a part of TCN’s initial launch and that both parties were able make this happen so quickly. We are excited to use our digital tier to bring what we believe is a refreshing country music video channel that our viewers will want to tune in to watch.”
CobbCorp, Cobb, LeClair & Graves Partners (CLG), and Clocktower Partners are advising TCN.
