Court TV

Overview

Court TV

type	Digital over-the-air television network
country	United States
area	Nationwide via OTA digital television
founded	December 14, 1990
founder	Steven Brill
headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
picture format	HDTV 1080i (downconverted to 480i or 720p on some affiliates and transmitted in either 16:9 widescreen or 4:3 letterbox)
owner	Scripps Networks, LLC (E. W. Scripps Company) (sale to Law & Crime pending)
parent	Court TV Media LLC
key people	John Alleva Scott Tufts (vice presidents and managing editors) Vinnie Politan (primetime anchor)
launch date	July 1, 1991 (cable network) May 8, 2019 (broadcast network)
closed date	December 31, 2007 (cable network)
replaced by	TruTV (cable network, United States) Court TV Canada (Canadian feed)
affiliates	List of affiliates
website	www.courttv.com
online serv 1	Service(s)
online chan 1	DirecTV Stream, Frndly TV, FuboTV, Google TV, Haystack News, LG Channels, Pluto TV, Samsung TV Plus, Sling Freestream, TCL TV+, The Roku Channel, Tubi, Video Watch Free+, Xumo Play, YouTube TV

Court TV is an American digital broadcast network and former pay-television channel. It was originally launched in 1991 with a focus on crime-themed programs such as true crime documentary series, legal analysis talk shows, and live news coverage of prominent criminal cases. In 2008, the original cable channel became TruTV.

The channel relaunched on May 8, 2019, as a digital broadcast television network owned by Scripps Networks, a subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. Court TV is also available via streaming and FAST such as YouTube TV and The Roku Channel, but its audio feed is also available on Sirius XM channel 793.

History

As a cable television channel

Cable television channel Courtroom Television Network, known as Court TV, was launched on July 1, 1991, at 6:00 am Eastern Time by founder Steven Brill and was available to three million subscribers.[1]

Former spin-offs

Canadian version

Court TV Canada, a Canadian version of the channel under its previous format, owned by CHUM Limited (and later acquired by CTVglobemedia which then sold its assets to Bell Canada under the Bell Media subsidiary), launched on September 7, 2001. Unlike its U.S. counterpart, it did not re-brand under the TruTV name and continued to operate as Court TV until August 30, 2010, when, as part of a wider licensing agreement with Discovery Communications and CTV, Court TV was rebranded to Investigation Discovery and then again in 2025 to Oxygen in partnership with NBCUniversal.

The U.S. version of Court TV had earlier been approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission as an eligible foreign channel in 1997, and indeed, had been carried by several Canadian service providers prior to the launch of the domestic service.[28]

Websites

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.[29]

Court TV purchased the website Crime Library, which provided detailed information about infamous crimes and how they were solved, in 2001. The website remained an actively updated property until 2014 and was taken offline in 2015.

Satellite radio audio simulcast

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. Scripps relaunched it over SiriusXM on May 15, 2020,[30] but again wound it down on April 21, 2022, after expanding the channel's AVOD video availability as duplicative.

Court TV Mystery

On September 30, 2019, the Escape network was rebranded as Court TV Mystery, serving as an extension to the Court TV brand.[31] The network was subsequently rebranded to Ion Mystery on February 24, 2022, with the "Ion" brand now more established regarding procedural dramas in general, including Ion Mystery's overall programming, whereas Court TV is more associated with its news division.[32]

Court TV

History

As a cable television channel

As a digital broadcast network

Affiliates

Programming

Other media

UK and Ireland

Former spin-offs

Canadian version

Websites

Satellite radio audio simulcast

Court TV Mystery

External links

References