Grit is an American

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network features classic Westerns, both

TV series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

and

films A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of Visual arts, visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are gen ...

. The network is available in many

media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television station, television and radio broadcasting, ra ...

s via the

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

s of

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

s and on the

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Businesses *Digital bank, a form of financial institution *Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) or Digital, a computer company *Digital Research (DR or DRI), a software ...

tiers of select

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

providers through a local affiliate of the network. Originally, Katz sold the network to affiliated TV stations via ad split, but by October 2015 had moved to paying carriage fees in exchange for distributing the network's ad inventory.¹ Grit used direct response advertising as a meter of viewers before switching to Nielsen rating C-3.³ It is available on

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

DirecTV Stream DirecTV Stream (formerly DirecTV Now and AT&T TV) is a premium streaming television, streaming Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel television service offered in the United States by DirecTV. The brand offers pay television ...

Sling TV Sling TV is an American streaming television service operated by Sling TV LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dish Network. Unveiled on January 5, 2015, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor aim ...

U-verse TV U-verse TV is an internet protocol television (IPTV) service operated by DirecTV. Launched on June 26, 2006, U-verse was originally a triple play package that included broadband Internet (now AT&T Internet or AT&T Fiber), IP telephone (now AT ...

, and

Frndly TV Frndly TV is an American streaming television service that offers live TV, on demand video and cloud-based DVR for over 40 live television networks. Frndly TV has a channel lineup with a focus on family-friendly programming, and includes U.S. n ...

History

Grit was announced by Katz Broadcasting along with a sister network Escape on April 3, 2014, with a formal launch scheduled for that summer with initial affiliates announced at this time being

Univision Communications TelevisaUnivision (formerly known as Univision Communications) is a Mexican-American mass media, media company headquartered in Miami and Mexico City that owns American Spanish language broadcast network Univision and free-to-air channels in Mex ...

owned stations. On August 11, 2014, Katz announced that the two networks would launch simultaneously on August 18, 2014. Grit launched at noon

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...

on that date, with the 1952 film ''

High Noon ''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western (genre), Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in Real time (media), real time, centers ...

'' as the network's inaugural broadcast, leading off a week-long festival of

John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne, was an American actor. Nicknamed "Duke", he became a Pop icon, popular icon through his starring roles in films which were produced during Hollywood' ...

films. Katz estimated, based on direct response advertising business by September 2015, the network had over 250,000 prime time viewer and available in 91 million homes and 81% of the country. At that time, Grit along with its sister network, Escape, were signing up for national ratings from Nielsen. Previously handling the network's direct response advertising, Marathon Ventures would continue after the change over with advertising and sponsorship sales. Following Scripps's acquisition of

Ion Media Ion Media, LLC (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) is a subsidiary of the E.W. Scripps Company that operates the linear broadcast networks Ion Television, Ion Mystery, and Ion Plus. Prior to its acquis ...

on January 7, 2021, a previous agreement for the network to air on the subchannels of

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an network af ...

s, was nullified. The network then moved to the stations of Ion Media and Inyo Broadcast Holdings (which acquired stations Scripps could not) as a subchannel, doing so by March 1, 2021 replacing the Ion Plus, Shop Ion and

Qubo Qubo ( ; stylized as qubo) was an American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often mentioned as the "Qubo channel" (available as a digital ...

channels.

Programming

Grit's program schedule features Westerns such as ''

Death Valley Days ''Death Valley Days'' is an American Western (genre), Western anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was ...

'', ''Laramie'', ''

The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp ''The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp'' is the first Western television series written for adults.The Lone Ranger'', ''

Zorro Zorro ( or , Spanish for "fox") is a fictional character created in 1919 by American Pulp magazine, pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed as a dashin ...

'' and '' Tales of Wells Fargo'', along with various Western films. Katz Broadcasting president and CEO Jonathan Katz based the demographic-targeted concept of Escape and Grit after Bounce TV, a network Katz co-founded with Martin Luther King III and Andrew Young in 2011 that is targeted at

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

audiences. Katz stated Grit and Escape are "the country’s first ever male-centric and female-centric broadcast networks," featuring different programming from other classic television multicast networks that Katz referred to as "generic brands with generic names, created by studios to serve the studios."

Movies

Grit's program schedule features an extensive library of films through multi-year program licensing agreements with several major

film studio A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; how ...

s: Warner Bros. Pictures,

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

Sony Pictures Entertainment Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...

, Shout! Factory, and

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is an American film distributor within the Disney Entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company. It handles theatrical and occasional digital distribution, marketing, and promotion for films produced and ...

(including 20th Century Fox titles).

Grit Xtra

Grit also operates Grit Xtra, an Internet FAST streaming service that carries older Western movies and TV series.

Affiliates

As of June 2016, Grit has current or pending affiliation agreements with television stations covering approximately 78% of the United States. When the network was first announced, Grit entered into an affiliation agreement with

, which launched the network in 24 markets served by a station owned by the group or operated through

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...

s with

Entravision Communications Entravision Communications Corporation is an American media company based in Santa Monica, California. Entravision primarily caters to the Spanish language in the United States, Spanish-speaking Hispanic and Latino Americans, Hispanic community ...

– giving Grit affiliates in 12 of the 20 largest U.S. television markets (including markets such as

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, and

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

). The network immediately sought carriage on the digital subchannels of television stations owned by other broadcasting companies, on June 17, 2014, Katz signed group deals to carry Grit on stations owned and/or operated by

Raycom Media Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom ...

in 26 markets (Raycom was merged into

Gray Television Gray Media, Inc., doing business as Gray Television, is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 statio ...

at the start of 2019). On July 17, 2014, Katz announced affiliation deals with the

Cox Media Group CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company p ...

to carry Grit on WFTV in Orlando and

KMYT-TV KMYT-TV (channel 41) is a television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by Imagicomm Communications alongside Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox affiliate KOKI-TV (channel 23). The two stations share ...

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

, as well as Press Communications-owned KJWP in the Philadelphia market, and

Citadel Communications Citadel Communications Ltd. was an American private broadcasting company. It was based in Bronxville, New York and most recently owned 1 low-power television station on which it operated a regional 24-hour cable news channel. The company wa ...

-owned stations in Providence (

WLNE-TV WLNE-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for the Providence, Rhode Island, area. The station is owned by Standard Media, and maintains studios in the Orms ...

) and Lincoln ( KLKN). It also expanded its affiliation deal with

to add stations in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, and Phoenix to the network's originally announced Univision-owned charter affiliates. On October 9, 2014, the

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair, Inc., doing business as Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb o ...

announced that it would carry the network on stations it owns and/or operates in 47 markets. The deal lasted for three years, and Sinclair dropped the network on their stations from February 2017 until the start of 2018 in preference for their co-owned network with

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

(and Grit's most direct competitor), Charge!. On November 16, 2015, Katz announced an affiliation deal with Media General adding the network to five more markets. On June 15, 2016, Katz announced more affiliation deals with Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Cordillera Communications's KATC-TV. Following Scripps's acquisition of

in January 2021, Scripps moved many of its subchannels, including Grit, to Ion-owned stations.

List of affiliates

References

External links

*
Grit Xtra
{{EWS CORP Television networks in the United States Men's interest channels Television channels and stations established in 2014 Classic television networks Nostalgia television in the United States 2014 establishments in the United States Grit (TV network) E. W. Scripps Company