Bounce TV is an American digital broadcasttelevision network owned by Scripps Networks, a subsidiary of E. W. Scripps Company. It launched on September 26, 2011, and was promoted as "the first 24/7 digital multicast broadcast network created to target African Americans". Bounce features a mix of original and acquired programming geared toward African Americans between 25 and 54 years of age.
The founding group and initial ownership team included Martin Luther King III; former mayor of Atlanta, Georgia and ambassador of the United States to the United NationsAndrew Young and his son Andrew "Bo" Young III; and Rob Hardy and Will Packer, co-founders of Rainforest Films, a top African-American production company.[2] Spearheading the network's creation were former Turner Broadcasting System executives Jonathan Katz and Ryan Glover with the pair having previously worked together with Tyler Perry to produce a number of high-order African-American sitcoms for TBS.[3] Currently, Glover is president of Bounce TV and Katz is Chief Operating Officer. The "Bounce TV" name was chosen as a branding avenue to signify that the network is "going somewhere with energy".[4]
In 2012, Bounce began airing original programming. Its first was the documentary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Historical Perspective on January 16, 2012, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.[6] On June 18, 2012, Bounce premiered the sitcom Family Time, and the stand-up comedy series Uptown Comic.[7]
Bounce would premiere several notable original programs and tent-pole event broadcasts in 2016. On Friday, January 29, the network broadcast the 24th Annual Trumpet Awards; which honored history-making individuals.[10] On March 6, 2016, Bounce debuted its original primetime soap, Saints & Sinners. The series premiere was watched in 1.3 million viewers, making it Bounce TV's most-watched program at the time.[11] The network's first primetime news magazine, Ed Gordon, was announced in late June 2016, and premiered on Tuesday, September 13.[12]
Scripps ownership
On October 2, 2017, E. W. Scripps Company purchased Bounce TV, along with Katz Broadcasting's three other networks.[13][14][15] A list of 2019 Nielsen Media Research ratings published by Variety indicated that Bounce averaged 275,000 viewers in prime time, down 1% from the 2018 average.[16]
Bounce and sister channel Grit TV were added to DirecTV on September 1, 2022.[17]
On April 23, 2024, it was reported that Scripps is looking to sell Bounce TV.[18]
Programming
Bounce TV features programming geared toward an African-American audience that skews older than the demographic of most cable networks (such as rival cable network BET); primarily adults between the ages of 25 and 54.[2] The network's main programming features a mix of scripted series reruns and feature film telecasts. Unlike most digital multicast services (particularly with the January 2015 shutdown of Localish, which mainly carried first-run content), Bounce also produces its own original programming. The network has produced inspirational and music programming, documentaries, scripted comedies and dramas, films, and specials.
On May 7, 2015, Bounce TV announced that they would be airing live boxing events from Premier Boxing Champions under the title: PBC: The Next Round.[20]
As of December 2014, Bounce TV has current or pending affiliation agreements with television stations in 43 media markets encompassing 22 states and the Washington, D.C., covering 73% of all households of at least one television set in the United States and 90% of African-American households.[8] The network encourages its affiliates to carry local news programming in place of regular programming on the Bounce-affiliated subchannel, as a way to attract additional viewers to that subchannel and serve the local market. Affiliates also broadcast local public affairs programs, political specials, and college football and basketball games played by predominantly black schools.[25] In Bounce TV's Home city Atlanta, ABC affiliate WSB-TV (channel 2), owned by Cox Media Group, is the Atlanta affiliate for Bounce TV.
Before its launch, Bounce TV actively sought affiliation agreements with various television station owners to make the network widely available throughout the United States. The network launched with clearance rate of, at minimum, 32% of overall American television households, in part due to affiliation agreements with stations owned by Nexstar Media Group, Gray Television, Lockwood Broadcast Group, and the E. W. Scripps Company.[26][27]
In November 2011, Bounce TV reached a groupwide affiliation deal with Fox Television Stations to carry the network on the subchannels of its MyNetworkTVowned-and-operated station in markets such as New York City (WWOR-TV) and Los Angeles (KCOP-TV).[28] The deal, which marked Fox Television Station's first multicasting arrangement, put Bounce TV over its earlier stated goal of reaching at least 50% of overall U.S. television households.[4][28]
In December 2012, the network signed a multi-station agreement with Spanish language broadcaster Univision Communications to carry its programming on seven of its Univision and UniMás owned-and-operated television stations (besides being the company's first multicasting agreement, it was also Univision Television Group's first affiliation deal involving an English language network).[29] As part of an extension of this agreement in March 2014, Bounce TV will move its affiliation in five markets where it had existing affiliation deals with Fox at the time of the deal (New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas, Orlando, Florida, and Phoenix, Arizona) to stations owned by Univision in 2015.[30] The Fox deal ended after the 2015 launch of game show channel Buzzr, with Bounce then moving in full to Univision stations after that point.
On June 15, 2016, Katz Broadcasting (whose president and CEO Jonathan Katz is COO of Bounce TV) signed an agreement with Nexstar Broadcasting Group that would bring Bounce TV to 15 new markets, as part of a massive rollout also involving Katz's three networks Escape, Laff, and Grit.[31] In 2019, Raycom merged with Gray Television, which will maintain their Bounce affiliations as-is.
Although Bounce TV prefers that its local affiliates carry the entire schedule,[32] some affiliates regularly pre-empt certain network programs in order to air morning and/or prime time newscasts produced by the station specifically for the subchannel or public affairs programs (such as with WBTV in Charlotte and WAVE-TV in Louisville); this has become particularly more common since September 2015, when other Gray Television-owned stations in markets where the group does not maintain a duopoly (as is the case with WBTV and WAVE-TV, which launched theirs earlier) gradually began launching prime time newscasts on their Bounce TV-affiliated subchannels. Some of the major network affiliates that carry Bounce TV full-time (such as WBTV, WAVE-TV and WAFF in Huntsville) use the affiliated subchannel as a buffer during network sports coverage, breaking news or severe weather coverage situations to carry regularly scheduled network and/or syndicated programming seen on its main channel.[32]
Following Scripps' acquisition of Ion Media on January 7, 2021, Scripps began to wind down the Univision deal, and Bounce TV was moved off those stations to Ion Media stations at the start of March, though it remains on a Univision station in markets where Scripps or Ion do not operate stations.[33]
Bounce Media operates Bounce TV and is owned by its founding group plus Raycom Media and Al Haymon. With share staff and some owners, Katz Broadcasting is an affiliate company.[22]1
Originally, Bounce Media sold the network to affiliated TV stations via ad split but by October 2015 had moved to a carriage fee in exchange for the network get the ad inventory due to greater inventory with stations adding a third or fourth subchannel.[22]1 Bounce used direct response advertising as a meter of viewers before switching to Nielsen rating C-3 a few years before 2015.[22]3
Bounce launched a companion SVOD service, Brown Sugar by November 17, 2016. Brown Sugar features '70s-era blaxploitation films. The service has access to start to a total of 111 films including Blacula, Cleopatra Jones, Foxy Brown, The Mack, Super Fly, and Shaft.[35]
On August 1, 2017, E. W. Scripps announced the purchase of Bounce and Katz Broadcasting, which operates Bounce and owns three networks, for $292 million, acquiring the other 95% of the company. Bounce will remain based out of Marietta, Georgia and retain Jonathan Katz as head.[34] The purchase was completed on October 2, 2017.[36]
Brown Sugar is a video on demand service owned by Bounce Media, LLC. A companion to the main Bounce network, Brown Sugar was launched on November 17, 2016.
BET – an American basic cable and satellite channel a part of the Paramount Media Networks, currently owned by Paramount Global, which launched in 1980 as the first television network devoted to programming targeting African-Americans
BET Her – spinoff network specifically targeting African-American women
TV One – an American digital cable and satellite channel owned by Urban One
Cleo TV – spinoff network specifically targeting African-American women
^ abcdJon Lafayette (December 16, 2014). "Bounce TV Acquires First Four Off-Net Series". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved December 27, 2014. Bounce TV is available in 73% of the U.S. and 90% of African American homes.
