My Network TV Launches Sept. 5
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| Peter Chernin, president of News Corp (above), said the WB-UPN consolidation presented a "unique and wonderful opportunity" to provide programming to stations left without an affiliate. |
NEW YORK – News Corp. has announced that on September 5, it will launch My Network TV, a new broadcast company that will provide prime-time programming for stations left without a network affiliation by the recent merger of the UPN and the WB networks.
Time Warner and CBS’ consolidation of the WB and UPN to form the fledgling CW Network left about 10 stations previously partnered with UPN but owned by News Corp.’s Fox Television Stations group without a network, and therefore in need of programming.
My Network will launch on 10 Fox-owned stations, covering about 24 percent of the U.S. market. News Corp. will seek to add more stations with a goal of covering 90 percent of the country.
At a Wednesday press conference, News Corp. president Peter Chernin explained the venture by saying, “From our perspective it created a unique and wonderful opportunity.”
The new My Network TV, which will consist of shows produced both in house and by outside producers, will be overseen by Fox stations chairman Roger Ailes, who guided the successful growth of the Fox News Channel.
The network will broadcast approximately 12 hours of original prime-time programming Monday through Saturday. New shows were put into development in anticipation of the split from the UPN network. The maiden roster will include several series set to air in a “strip” model in which they will run five nights a week rather than the industry’s once-a-week norm.
The new scripted shows include a pair of prime-time soap operas in the vein of Spanish-language telenovelas—Desire, about two brothers vying for the same woman as they elude pursuit by organized crime, and Secrets, a drama set in the fashion industry.
Reality shows include the model search series Catwalk and America’s Brainiest, based on a British hit that seeks out the smartest person in the United States.
Jack Abernethy, chief executive of Fox television stations, said he expects the network to be profitable at the time it launches.