Court TV The
Courtroom Television Network, or
Court TV for short, was launched on July 1, 1991, at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time, and was available to three million subscribers. Its original anchors were
Jack Ford,
Fred Graham,
Cynthia McFadden, and
Gregg Jarrett. The network was born out of two competing projects to launch cable channels with live courtroom proceedings, the American Trial Network from
Time Warner and
American Lawyer Media (ALM), and In Court from
Cablevision and
GE. Both projects were present at the
National Cable Television Association in June 1990. Rather than trying to establish two competing networks, the projects were combined on December 14, 1990.
Liberty Media would join the venture in 1991. The channel originally consisted of live courtroom trials that are interspersed with anchors and reporters. It was led by law writer
Steven Brill, who later left the network in 1997. The network came into its own during the
Menéndez brothers' first trial in 1994, and the
O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1995. In 1997, Time Warner acquired ALM to gain ownership of its stake in Court TV; it subsequently sold its publications to a private equity fund in 1998. In 1998, GE sold its share of the network to Time Warner. That same year, Court TV began running several original and acquired programs in prime time, such as
Homicide: Life on the Street,
Cops, and
Forensic Files. In 2001, Court TV purchased
The Smoking Gun, a website that focuses on legal items such as
mug shots and other public documents pertaining to famous individuals and cases. The site remained a property of the company through the rebranding to TruTV, but was sold back to its founder in 2014. In the same year, Court TV also purchased the website
Crime Library, which provided detailed information about infamous crimes and how they were solved. The website remained an actively updated TruTV property until 2014 and was taken offline in 2015. On February 3, 2003, "Court TV Plus" debuted on
Sirius Satellite Radio, featuring audio from Court TV programs. Launched on Channel 134, it was moved in September 2005 and aired on Channel 110 until the channel ceased operations on January 1, 2008. Recognizing the growth of its primetime programming, Court TV announced in 2005 that it would split its programming into two brands. Daytime trial coverage was branded as
Court TV News, while other dayparts—promoted under the tagline "Seriously Entertaining"—focused on
reality shows dealing with crime-related topics. In January 2006, the network launched a male-targeted programming block known as "RED" ("Real. Exciting. Dramatic."). In May 2006, Time Warner acquired Liberty Media's stake in Court TV for $735 million, valuing the channel at $1.5 billion. The channel was integrated into Time Warner's
Turner Broadcasting unit; executives indicated that Court TV planned to maintain its existing format, and did not rule out creating synergies with
CNN for their legal coverage. In 2007, the channel premiered its first original scripted series, ''
'Til Death Do Us Part''—an
anthology of crime re-enactments hosted by filmmaker
John Waters.
TruTV On July 11, 2007, Time Warner announced that Court TV would be relaunched as TruTV on January 1, 2008. The new brand was intended to accompany a larger shift towards action-oriented reality series which did not necessarily involve crime or law enforcement, such as
Black Gold,
Hardcore Pawn,
Lizard Lick Towing,
Ocean Force, and the caught-on-camera series ''
World's Dumbest...''. TruTV promoted its new positioning under the slogan "Not Reality. Actuality."; network staff argued that the term "reality" had become associated with "unrealistic" programming, and that it wanted to emphasize that its new programs would feature "real" people. As part of the re-branding as TruTV, daytime trial coverage was cut back to 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET and branded as
In Session. In 2009, production of the program was shifted to the facilities of
HLN in Atlanta. On March 4, 2013,
In Session was cut to a two-hour, taped format. On September 30, 2013,
In Session was cancelled, and replaced by a block of library programming under the title
In Session Presents. In 2011, as part of a new partnership between
CBS Sports and
Turner Sports, TruTV began to broadcast
coverage of the
NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. In December 2018, Turner sold the rights to the Court TV brand and programming library to the
E. W. Scripps Company's
Katz Broadcasting unit, which relaunched it as an over-the-air digital network in May 2019, reviving the dormant brand after 11 years.
Shift to comedy Although noting that it had experienced "tremendous success" with individual programs, TruTV's new president and head of programming Chris Linn explained that the network's overall growth as a brand had been hindered due to its lingering association with Court TV and its tone of programming, and its reliance on "conflict-reliant, heavy, dramatic and maybe overly produced"
docuseries with derivative premises. In April 2014, the network announced that it would undergo a
brand repositioning for the 2014–15 television season aimed towards "funseekers", with a focus on comedy-oriented
docusoaps, semi-
scripted series, sketch comedies and reality competitions. Since the repositioning, TruTV has also parodied its temporary prominence during the NCAA tournament with various advertising campaigns, seeking to promote the channel and its programming to the expanded audience. A common theme of these campaigns, which have included the 2015
social media campaign "#HaveUFoundtrutv", and a "truTV Awareness Month" campaign in 2018, involved commenting upon viewers who were having trouble finding TruTV on their television provider's lineup, or were unaware of the channel entirely. Of the former, Puja Vohra, Senior vice president of marketing and digital, explained that the campaign was intended to portray the network's brand as being "fun" and "self-aware". In December 2016, truTV unveiled a new marketing campaign and slogan, "Funny Because It's tru". The campaign reinforced the network's focus on comedy by satirizing the "cliches" of
television promos. On March 4, 2019, AT&T announced a major reorganization of its broadcasting assets to effectively dissolve Turner Broadcasting. Its assets were dispersed across multiple units of WarnerMedia with TruTV along with TBS, TNT and HBO moving to newly formed WarnerMedia Entertainment.
Expansion of sports programming On March 11, 2024, TruTV soft launched a new evening and primetime block focused on
TNT Sports content. This will include alternate and simulcast broadcasts of sporting events carried by its sister networks, as well as new studio shows, and sports-related documentaries and films. The division's vice president Luis Silberwasser stated that the block would give TNT Sports a more "consistent" and "comprehensive" presence on its networks. As part of these changes, the channel's last original non-sports series,
Impractical Jokers, would also move permanently to TBS beginning that summer (after having recently simulcast new episodes with TruTV). After its soft launch, it was announced in July 2024 that the block would be given a more "pronounced" presence and branding beginning in October. Starting with the
2025 edition, the network is used for all-day rotating coverage and replays for tennis's
French Open. ==High definition==