Wikipedia

History of TBS (American TV channel)

The American cable channel TBS originated as the superstation feed of what is now WPCH-TV (channel 17), a UHF television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Known as WTCG when uplinked to satellite in 1976 (and renamed WTBS in 1979), the feed was converted to a basic cable channel in 1998, with the local Atlanta station being spun off in 2007.

Prehistory as an Atlanta UHF station

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The former WJRJ/WTCG/WTBS lattice tower (center) with One Atlantic Center in the background, c. 1988

WJRJ-TV signed on at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, September 1, 1967.[1] Owned by Atlanta businessman Jack M. Rice,[2] the station's studios were located at 1018 West Peachtree Street N.E., the former home of WAGA-TV.[3] A 1,049-foot-tall (320 m) steel lattice tower was erected next to the studios;[4] the construction of which encountered several delays that caused WJRJ's sign-on date to be delayed twice.[5][6][7] It was the first ultra high frequency (UHF) station in the market since WQXI-TV (channel 36) was taken dark in 1955.[8] In addition to a schedule of reruns and feature films,[9] WJRJ-TV carried network programming rejected by WAGA-TV (CBS), WAII-TV/WQXI-TV (ABC) and WSB-TV (NBC);[5] this ranged from the NBC Tuesday Night at the Movies, the ABC Evening News,[10] and National Hockey League telecasts from CBS.[11] WJRJ also aired a local weekly country and western music show, J.R. Jamboree.[12][13]

The station lost $305,000 during its first six months of operation.[14] To secure additional funds, Rice issued an initial public offering of 130,000 shares of stock, 35 percent of Rice Broadcasting's outstanding stock, at $4.75 per share.[15][16] The losses continued despite this, and by August 1969, WJRJ-TV lost a combined $800,000.[17] During the spring of 1969,[17] WJRJ-TV utilized billboards operated by Robert E. "Ted" Turner III, who was aggressively expanding his late father's advertising business throughout the southern United States[18][19] and purchased a radio station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, using empty billboards to promote it.[20] WJRJ's billboard usage caught Turner's attention,[21] who theorized that he could use his billboards to promote the station and thus generate profits.[22] Despite grave financial warnings from his advisors,[23] Turner announced on March 3, 1969, a preliminary agreement to merge his Turner Communications Corporation into Rice Communications.[24] While Rice was purchasing Turner, it was structured as a $2.5 million deal in stock,[25][26] where Turner shareholders held 77 percent ownership of the new company, renamed Turner Communications Group.[27] Ted Turner himself held a 48.2 percent stake in company stock while Jack Rice had 6.8 percent interest.[28] The merger closed on January 26, 1970.[27]

Under Turner management, the station began a total programming overhaul, dubbed "17 Changes on 17".[29] The station added rock music showcase The Now Explosion in June 1970, picking it up from WATL,[30] a UHF competitor that signed on during the Rice-Turner merger.[31] Initially a weekend program, The Now Explosion expanded to weeknights within a month.[32] The station's sign-on was moved to a daily 7 a.m. time, allowing for a morning block of cartoons.[30] On July 27, 1970, the station was renamed WTCG, formally standing for "Turner Communications Group"[33] but with a hidden second meaning of "Watch This Channel Grow".[34] The station also began to call itself "Super 17" but as tongue-in-cheek, as financial losses continued despite the multiple changes.[35] Turner lost $900,000 during his first year of owning channel 17.[36] WATL suspended operations on March 31, 1971, due to low advertising revenue;[37] believing this to be a great victory for WTCG, Turner hosted a two-hour special thanking viewers, with a band playing live music and featuring impromptu interviews with station staff.[38][39] Georgia Championship Wrestling moved from WQXI-TV to WTCG on December 25, 1971, airing on Saturday evenings.[40] By 1973, WTCG turned a profit for the first time.[41]

In 1972, Turner was approached by Andy Goldman, marketing director for TelePrompTer's cable systems in Alabama, about distributing WTCG to their 200,000 subscribers. The station had added telecasts of the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks,[42] and Goldman saw WTCG as "a product worth someone putting up $4.95 for".[43] This occurred as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) implemented a rules package for the cable industry, allowing as many as two out-of-market stations to be imported by systems in the top 100 markets.[44] WTCG was not compensated for the carriage on cable but did benefit from direct response advertising, and was soon distributed to systems in Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida via microwave relay.[45] By June 1976, WTCG was carried by 95 cable systems in six Southeastern states, reaching an estimated 440,000 households.[46]

Uplinking WTCG to satellite

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Goldman, promoted to TelePrompTer's vice president of marketing, again approached Turner in 1975, this time to inform him of premium cable service Home Box Office (HBO)'s plans to transmit nationwide using communications satellites, elevating it from a regional channel.[47][48] Concurrently, the FCC repealed "leapfrogging rules" limiting cable systems to select distant signals based on closeness to the system; the FCC's Cable Television Bureau argued superstations were unlikely to form due to a lack of evidence television stations economically benefited from being on cable.[49] Distant signals were also allowed to be imported by cable systems during the overnight hours as a timeshare.[50] Turner learned through research that WTCG could be uplinked via their transmitter to satellite and made available to cable and C-band satellite services across the country, providing cable operators desiring additional channels with his programming,[51][52] all while being a cost-effective alternative from microwave and telephone landlines.[53]

Ted [Turner] walked in here one day in 1976 and said, "Have you got an earth station?" I said, "Sure Ted, we'll work up some proposals...." And he said, "I want one right now -- tomorrow." And I said, "Tomorrow?" But the next day, we got a check.

— Sidney Topol, Scientific Atlanta president, 1979[54]

HBO was uplinked to satellite for the first time to carry the "Thrilla in Manila" boxing match on October 1, 1975.[55] The following month, at the 1975 Western Cable Show in Anaheim, California, Turner announced WTCG was looking at a satellite uplink of their own.[56] After signing a deal with RCA American Communications for transponder space, Turner established Southern Satellite Systems (SSS) as a common carrier uplink provider to serve as WTCG's redistributor.[57] Turner raised enough capital to support SSS through loans by First Chicago Bank, Chase Bank and Chemical Bank, and pension funds like TIAA.[51] To bypass FCC rules requiring a common carrier need to be a middleman between WTCG and cable providers, Turner sold SSS in March 1976 to former Western Union vice president of marketing Edward L. Taylor for $1.[58] After the deal closed, Turner and SSS signed an agreement to uplink WTCG to Satcom 1, while SSS leased a Series 8000 Satellite Earth Terminal from Scientific Atlanta.[59]

While announcing the SSS distribution deal, Turner suggested WTCG could potentially become the impetus for a fourth television network,[60] an idea he continued to hold into the early 1980s.[61] Turner testified before the House Subcommittee on Communication in June 1976, and advocated for cable systems to be able to import additional signals to benefit the consumer, and saw WTCG as a safe, family-friendly alternative that leaned on classic movies and sports.[62] The Copyright Act of 1976, passed by Congress in October 1976, contained a section granting cable systems a compulsory license allowing them to retransmit stations across the country regardless of consent,[63] with the U.S. Copyright Office establishing the Copyright Royalty Tribunal (CRT) to administer royalty fees.[64][65]

I don't think anybody understood what it meant at the time. It was one of those TV technical things. It was an unproven technology, and there was no guarantee he would ever make money from it. I mean, what the hell made him think 100 million people wanted to watch this little UHF station [when] no one was watching it in Atlanta?

— Joe Wheeler, WTCG field engineer, later Turner senior vice president of production[66]

WTCG first used a satellite uplink on October 27, 1976, to feed an Atlanta Hawks–Los Angeles Lakers game back to the station.[41][67] The FCC approved SSS's request to serve as a common carrier for WTCG on December 17, 1976,[68] and praised the proposal as "an innovative combination of new technology and established practices".[69] At 1 p.m. ET (12 p.m. CT), WTCG was uplinked and transmitted to cable systems in Grand Island, Nebraska, Newport News, Virginia, Troy, Alabama, and Newton, Kansas.[70] WTCG's first national broadcast was the 1948 Dana Andrews–Cesar Romero film Deep Waters, which started 30 minutes earlier on channel 17.[66][71] SSS initially charged cable systems 10 cents per subscriber to transmit WTCG full-time and 2 cents per subscriber to carry it as an overnight, post-sign-off timeshare,[41][70] which WTCG itself did not earn any profit from.[72] Turner spent about $6 million of WTCG's $14 million in annual gross revenue at the time on satellite transmission.[66]

Instantly, WTCG went from being a small independent television station that regularly placed near the bottom of the ratings among Atlanta's television stations well into the 1970s and was available only in Georgia and neighboring states to a major coast-to-coast operation, pioneering the distribution of broadcast television stations via satellite transmission to pay television subscribers nationwide. Ted Turner's innovation set a precedent for today's basic cable television and signaled the start of the revolution of basic cable programming in the United States. Soon after, an increasing number of cable television providers throughout the United States sought to carry WTCG on their systems. Within three years of WTCG achieving national status, the signals of fellow independent stations WOR-TV in New York City and WGN-TV in Chicago were also uplinked to satellite for distribution as national superstations; eventually, other independents such as KTVT in Dallas, KTVU in San Francisco and KTLA in Los Angeles were uplinked to satellite as well, primarily being carried on a regional basis.

The expansion of WTCG into a superstation would serve as the linchpin for what would later be renamed the Turner Broadcasting System to eventually launch or acquire other cable-originated channels in subsequent years, including CNN in 1980,[73] CNN2 in 1982,[74] TNT in 1988,[75] Cartoon Network in 1992,[76] Turner Classic Movies in 1994[77] and TruTV (folded into Turner as Court TV in 2006).[78]

Turner and station management treated WTCG as an "active" superstation, directly asserting national promotional responsibilities, investing in programming, and charging advertising rates at the national and local levels. This resulted in the station paying for syndicated programming at (albeit reasonably cheaper) rates comparable to other national networks, rather than merely receiving royalty payments from cable systems for programs to which it held the copyright as "passive" superstations—like WGN and WWOR, which opted to take a neutral position on their national distribution and left national promotional duties to the satellite carriers that retransmitted their signals—did. (Unlike WTCG, most other superstations had their signals redistributed without their owner's express permission under a provision in Section 111 of the Copyright Act of 1976, which allowed local cable systems to "retransmit copyrighted programming from any over-the-air stations across the country to their subscribers under a compulsory license").

WTCG initially was identified as "Channel 17" or "Super 17" both locally in Atlanta and on cable providers outside of that area; by 1979, the station identified primarily by its call letters locally and nationally. Over time, as WTCG was also beginning to gain traction in the Atlanta market, the station also began to gain traction nationally as more cable systems added the WTCG signal to their lineups; by 1978, WTCG was carried on cable providers in all 50 U.S. states, reaching over 2.3 million subscribers, a total that would substantially double each year into the next decade.[79] Because it utilized a broadcast television station as the origination point for its programming, throughout its existence as a superstation, all programs on WTCG/WTBS—which transmitted exactly the same schedule nationally as that seen on the local Atlanta broadcast feed—were broadcast on an Eastern Time schedule (with programs shown at earlier or, for those viewing in the Atlantic Time Zone in far eastern Canada and the Maritimes, later times depending on the location), resulting in programs being shown simultaneously in all six continental U.S. and all five Canadian time zones as they did in the Atlanta area on channel 17. (Promos for WTCG/WTBS programs referenced airtimes for both the Eastern and Central Time Zones until 1987, and the Eastern and Pacific time zones thereafter until 1992 and occasionally beforehand for certain scheduled live sports and event telecasts).

Initial change to WTBS

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Late 70s/early 80s logo

In May 1979, Turner made a $25,000 donation to a group associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to fund the construction of a new transmitter, in exchange for acquiring the WTBS call letters that had been assigned to the university's Cambridge-based student radio station for use on the channel 17 license; Turner also agreed to donate an additional $25,000 to the group if the FCC agreed to assign the WTBS calls to Turner Communications. (MIT subsequently changed the radio station's calls to WMBR.) On August 27, 1979, the Atlanta parent station changed its call letters to WTBS (for "Turner Broadcasting System", the name its parent company adopted in accordance with the callsign change).[80][81][82][83]

Concurrently, Turner began branding the station as "SuperStation WTBS"—the prefix word was re-rendered in mixed case in October 1980, with both "S"s capitalized—with occasional references within the logo to the channel 17 frequency in Atlanta. (Accordingly, many cable providers throughout the country even carried it on channel 17 during some part of its existence as a superstation.) However, the national feed continued to occasionally use the same on-air branding as the Atlanta area signal (which was referred to on-air at the time as "WTBS Channel 17") until October 1980. By 1981, the Atlanta station would be branded as "SuperStation 17", on the national feed available outside of the Atlanta area, though, references to the station's over-the-air channel number were completely removed—outside of minor technical issues where local ads and promos aired erroneously on the national feed.

The on-air look of the station by this time was heavily reliant on then state-of-the-art Quantel Paintbox graphics, with slick animation created by a team of in-house graphic designers, led by creative services director John Christopher Burns. He and others would develop this look further in the years that followed, eventually forming the design firm Television by Design to provide services to other television stations around the country (including WXIA-TV, rival independent WGNX [channel 46, now independent station WANF] and PBS member station WPBA [channel 30, now WABE-TV] within the Atlanta market). Burns would eventually leave TVbD to start his own namesake broadcast graphics firm, but continued to be employed by Turner Broadcasting for other projects, including the 1989 revamp of Headline News and the 1991 redesign of WTBS itself (handled by Burns' brother James).[84][85][86] John Young, an Atlanta-area radio DJ at WZGC, became the voice of SuperStation WTBS during this time and would go on to provide promotional voiceover services for other local and national clients as a direct result of his work for the channel.[87] Other voiceovers were handled by Turner employees, most notably music director Bill "Troll" Tullis, who generally voiced station IDs and other miscellaneous work with a distinctive monotone; he would become the voice heard during Headline News' half-hourly network IDs by the mid-1980s.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, WTBS continued to acquire second-hand programming such as made-for-TV Popeye cartoons, The Brady Bunch, The Munsters, and other programs. The station acquired reruns of All in the Family and Sanford and Son in 1979, as well as Little House on the Prairie and CHiPs in 1981. Other older shows would eventually be removed from the schedule. WTCG also mixed more movie releases from the 1950s through the 1970s into its schedule. By July 1979, WTCG/WTBS was available to 1,000 cable systems throughout the United States, with a total of 4.8 million cable subscribers receiving the signal.[88] In 1981, Turner decided to split the WTBS satellite feed from its terrestrial signal; under this structure, all of the shows seen on WTBS continued to air nationally over its superstation feed (in a move that preceded fellow superstations WGN-TV and WWOR-TV doing the same thing, though only after the FCC's re-implementation of the Syndication Exclusivity Rights rule in 1990). Although, separate national advertising or per inquiry ads replaced the local commercials intended for broadcast in the Atlanta area—which became exclusively carried by channel 17 locally—on the superstation feed.

Former TBS logo used from September 7, 1987, to September 5, 1994, the logo was accompanied by the "SuperStation" subtitle until that moniker was initially dropped from the channel on September 10, 1990.

The 1980s also saw WTBS begin to venture into original programming, in 1980, the station premiered Tush, a late night sketch comedy and variety series hosted and developed by comedian Bill Tush (who had hosted newsbriefs and, occasionally, movie presentations for WTBS, in addition to serving as a staff announcer), with Jan Hooks (who would later gain fame during her stint as a cast member on Saturday Night Live) among its repertory cast.[66] Starcade, a game show that ran from 1982 to 1983 (with a further run in syndication via Turner Program Services until 1984), featured contestants competing to win their very own arcade cabinet by playing various games. Other programming efforts included The Catlins (a Dynasty-style prime time soap opera which ran for two seasons from 1983 to 1985, and was the only Procter & Gamble serial to be produced for cable television), and sitcoms Down to Earth, Rocky Road, and Safe at Home (all three of which were produced by Arthur Annecharico’s The Arthur Company, and formed a block of first-run comedy series aimed at a family audience).[89][90][91][92] In addition, from 1986 through 1989, TBS also produced more than 70 original episodes of The New Leave It To Beaver, which it picked up after that series was canceled by The Disney Channel in 1985. (TBS's addition of The New Leave It To Beaver to its lineup also coincided with the original Leave it to Beaver airing in reruns on the channel, as Ted Turner felt that the former would make a good programming fit with the latter.)[93]

On September 7, 1987, the "W" from the "WTBS" callsign was dropped from the superstation's on-air branding—changing its name to SuperStation TBS—in order to emphasize the channel's national programming prominence, with the WTBS Atlanta signal continuing to use the separate "SuperStation 17" branding; this coincided with a major promotional campaign positioning the channel as "Great American Television".[94] By 1987, SuperStation WTBS was available to 41.6 million households with a cable or satellite subscription nationwide; this total jumped to 49 million cable homes by the summer of 1988.

On May 18, 1988, the FCC reinstated syndication exclusivity restrictions through the passage of a new version of the Syndication Exclusivity Rights Rule. This version granted cable systems and satellite carrier firms the ability to secure an agreement to air a claimed syndicated program with the claimant local rightsholder or a syndication distributor, effectively allowing for superstations to acquire national cable rights for syndicated programs (either directly or through their satellite carrier).[95][96][97][98] In preparation for the new rules taking effect on January 1, 1990, Turner Broadcasting began to fill the WTBS schedule with additional programming—primarily, off-network syndicated comedy and drama series (such as The Jeffersons and Good Times) as well as acquired film packages (consisting of both theatrical features and made-for-television films) and original programs (such as Jacques Cousteau specials, and National Audubon Society and National Geographic programs)—for which it would hold exclusive cable rights in order to make the national feed "100% blackout-free." Combined with the utilization of indemnification provisions designed to protect against monetary damages if a superstation has "a reasonable basis for concluding that[...] programing deletion is not required," this ensured that the TBS national feed would be absolved from potential blackouts necessitated by any local syndication exclusivity claims and, therefore, prevent defections by cable affiliates that indicated it would remove any distant signals rather than shoulder the expense of blacking out or substituting non-compliant programs.[99]

On September 28, 1989, the channel's name was changed to TBS SuperStation to reflect the strong national standing of the channel. On September 10, 1990, the word "Superstation" was removed from the cable channel's on-air branding and promotions, rebranding it as simply "TBS", which had been used verbally in on-air promotions since the beginning of that year. By 1992, TBS was available in 58 million households with cable and satellite television service, accounting for more than half of all homes in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands—and carried by 14,815 cable systems throughout the country.[66]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists library

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During the 1980s, WTBS focused heavily on movies—running two films during the day, and a largely movie-exclusive schedule during the nighttime hours after 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time (with exceptions made for scheduled sporting events, specials, original programs and, in the case of Sunday nights, off-network syndicated series and paid programming). At other times, mainly during the daytime hours each weekday and on weekend mornings, WTBS continued to run mostly classic sitcoms and vintage cartoons. In 1986, when Ted Turner purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists (MGM/UA), which he would sell back to previous owner Kirk Kerkorian that October due to debt incurred by the Turner Broadcasting System from its purchase of the film studio,[100] WTBS gained the rights to the entire MGM/UA film library (including certain acquisitions by MGM). It gave WTBS the rights to air many theatrical cartoon shorts such as Tom and Jerry, as well as shows like Gilligan's Island and CHiPs.

Along with Tom and Jerry, WTBS began to run The Little Rascals, Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons released prior to August 1948, theatrical Popeye cartoon shorts, and Three Stooges shorts under the banner The TBS Tom & Jerry Funhouse running for either one hour or 90 minutes during the morning hours and for an hour (later, half-hour) in the afternoon from 1986 to 1995. In the late 1980s, WTBS decreased the number of movies broadcast during the day slightly and began to add sitcoms from the 1970s (such as Happy Days, The Jeffersons, Good Times, and One Day at a Time) to the evening lineup; Little House on the Prairie aired during the late mornings continuously from 1986 to 2003.[101][102]

Other programming

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Music videos also aired during its late night lineup on weekends from June 1983 to May 1992 as part of the program Night Tracks, which aired in the form of two three-hour-long blocks (later reduced to two two-hour blocks in August 1989, and then to two 90-minute blocks in the spring of 1990), barring pre-emptions from sporting events that ran over their scheduled end-time. (The success of Night Tracks served as the basis for Turner to develop Cable Music Channel, an attempt at a competitor to MTV that operated for five weeks from October 26 to November 30, 1984, and was one of the shortest-lived channels in American cable television history.) Beginning in 1991, a handful of shows (mostly movies) that were shown nationally were pre-empted in the Atlanta market in order to broadcast FCC-mandated news, public affairs, and children's programming; this continued until the split of the TBS national feed from the Atlanta station in October 2007.

In addition to offering conventional television programming over the main video-audio feed viewable to all multichannel television subscribers receiving the channel, Southern Satellite Systems transmitted two teletext services over the TBS superstation feed's vertical blanking interval (VBI) that required a special decoder to receive the provided information services over the feed. SSS began transmitting the United Press International (UPI) teletext news service over the national feed's VBI signal in 1979. 1981 saw the VBI signal begin to carry the Keyfax service out of Chicago. In 1985, SSS repurposed the VBI signal to transmit the Electra teletext service, Electra was transmitted over the VBI until the service was shut down in 1993 due to a lack of funding and interest. (The other partners in the venture, Zenith Electronics and Taft Broadcasting [formerly known as Taft Television & Radio Company during its earlier existence as both an electronics manufacturer and broadcaster] had respectively stopped manufacturing TV sets with teletext capability and had undergone several corporate buyouts).[103][104]

In the early 1990s, shows such as The Flintstones, The Brady Bunch, Scooby-Doo, The Jetsons, Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts, Gilligan's Island, and others remained on the schedule as other older shows such as The Three Stoogesand Little Rascals shorts and Leave it to Beaver were dropped from the channel to make way for more sitcoms from the 1980s such as Three's Company, Who's the Boss?, Growing Pains, Family Ties, Mama's Family, and Saved by the Bell. Original animated programs such as Captain Planet and the Planeteers, 2 Stupid Dogs, and SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron were also added as part of the "Sunday Morning In Front of the TV" block. Following Turner's acquisition by Time Warner, among the programming changes instituted after the merger was the addition of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons that were released after August 1, 1948, which began airing on TBS as well as sister channel Cartoon Network in April 1997.

Time Warner purchase; becoming a basic cable channel

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Time Warner reached an agreement to buy Turner Broadcasting System for $7.5 billion on September 22, 1995.[105][106][107] Turner said of the merger, "I'm tired of being small. I want to be big", while Time Warner CEO Gerald M. Levin called it a "dream deal".[108] When the deal closed in October 1996, Turner held a 10 percent interest in Time Warner, oversaw all cable channel holdings and was named to the company's board of directors.[109][110] It was at the time the largest media company in the world.[111][112][113]

TBS, which heretofore continued to operate as the superstation feed of WTBS, was relaunched as a basic cable channel on January 1, 1998.[114] This switch coincided with Time Warner acquiring SSS from Liberty Media for $213 million, giving Time Warner full control over the uplinking of TBS.[115][116] Converting TBS to a basic cable channel required approval from MLB, ESPN and Fox Sports to retain the station's Braves contract, as the station no longer needed to pay superstation royalties.[117][118] Fox's agreement came alongside a court settlement where Time Warner Cable agreed to carry Fox News on their cable systems.[119] TBS agreed to carry 95 Braves games in 1998, down from 125 games in 1997.[120] Turner sought to retain as many games as possible, but according to Porter Bibb, "practicality won out over his heart".[118] As a contingency in the event no agreement was reached, Time Warner acquired the rights to multiple feature films for both TBS and TNT.[121] The conversion also required renegotiations from cable providers, as TBS projected to collect $100 million in five year through subscriber fees, which Time Warner planned to use to pay down debt.[118][122]

The change of TBS from a SuperStation to a basic cable network is not as dramatic as the destruction of the Omni or Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium. But it is yet another marker of a city, a company and a man that keep transforming, gaining much, maybe losing a little as well.

— Phil Kloer, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution[118]

TBS started to refocus their programming in 1999 in favor of made-for-tv movies, reality show Ripley's Believe It or Not! and short-lived comedy series The Chimp Channel, while documentaries and National Geographic specials were shifted over to CNN.[123] Professional wresting was dropped from TBS when WCW Saturday Night was cancelled in August 2000 and WCW Thunder (which debuted in 1998) in March 2001, the latter resulting in the promotion's closure and sale to WWF.[124][125] All remaining non-sitcom programs, in particular Little House on the Prairie, were dropped in September 2003; by June 2004, the channel rebranded as "TBS: Very Funny", with an all-comedy focus intended to complement TNT, which was reoriented to scripted drama shows and feature films.[126][127]

The changes coincided with Turner's withdrawal from the company and station he founded. Time Warner's 2001 purchase by American Online closed right as the dot-com bubble burst,[128] causing Turner to lose up to $7 billion in stock value.[129] Turner resigned as vice chairman of AOL Time Warner in 2003 and from Time Warner's board by 2006.[130][131][132] The Braves were then sold to Liberty Media in May 2007 through a cash-and-stock deal.[133][134]

Split from the Atlanta signal

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In 2006, TBS acquired rights to a national MLB package of postseason games beginning in 2007 and 26 Sunday games in 2008; Braves telecasts would be moved from TBS to a regional platform.[135][136] While TBS committed to running 70 Braves games in 2007, the channel was earning more revenue with popular reruns of Seinfeld and Friends.[137] Turner Broadcasting announced in late June 2007 that WTBS would relaunch as WPCH-TV "Peachtree TV", programming specifically to an Atlanta audience and inheriting the Braves games. The split also resulted in TBS being available to Atlanta-area cable subscribers.[138] Due to how the CRTC licensed WTBS to be uplinked, the license was reauthorized to uplink WPCH and not TBS,[139] and the MLB on TBS was made available in Canada via Sportsnet.[140] The Meredith Corporation, owner of CBS affiliate WGCL-TV, took over WPCH's operations in January 2011 by local marketing agreement, coinciding with Braves games moving from Turner Sports to Fox Sports South.[141]

TBS ventured into airing late-night talk shows with Lopez Tonight (2009–2011),[142][143] Conan (2010–2021)[144] and The Pete Holmes Show (2013–2014)[145], each with varying degrees of success. In 2011, TBS, TNT and TruTV obtained a portion of the television rights to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship alongside existing rights holder CBS.[146] During the first quarter of 2012, TBS's viewership in the 18-49 adult demographic beat all other basic cable channels despite TBS not airing any original programming in prime time or having any show among the 50 highest-rated cable programs.[147] During the 2015 Turner Upfront, TBS president Kevin Reilly announced the channel would have an expanded development slate focused on live-action comedies, animated series, late-night talk shows and "big unscripted ideas with attitude".[148] One of the first greenlit shows from this effort was Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, created as a compliment to Conan but boasting a diverse writing staff.[149][150]

AT&T announced their purchase of Time Warner on October 22, 2016, for $108.7 billion, including debt.[151][152] Following shareholder approval,[153] WPCH-TV was sold outright to the Meredith Corporation on February 20, 2017, for $70 million;[154][155][156] this sale prompted FCC chair Ajit Pai to defer a review of the merger by the agency.[157] The U.S. Justice Department sued AT&T and Time Warner to block the deal over antitrust concerns,[158] but was already approved by regulatory authorities in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and the European Commission.[159][160][161][162] District of Columbia U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon dismissed the DOJ's lawsuit on June 12, 2018;[163] two days later, Time Warner was renamed WarnerMedia. The Turner Broadcasting System name was retired on March 4, 2019, as part of a reorganization of WarnerMedia's broadcast assets.[164] TBS was reassigned to the WarnerMedia Entertainment division alongside TBS, TNT, TruTV and HBO.[165][166]

Discovery, Inc. merged with Warner Media on April 8, 2022, to form Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD),[167] creating a series of executive changes at TBS, TNT and TruTV.[168][169][170] WBD promptly suspended development on any future scripted programs over TBS and TNT; by then, only three original series still remained on TBS: American Dad!, Chad and Miracle Workers.[171] Full Frontal was also cancelled[172] while American Dad! continued to air new episodes over TBS until 2025, when the show was reacquired by Fox.[173][174]

After a protracted bidding war, Netflix announced a $72 billion purchase of WBD on December 5, 2025; the deal was to exclude the linear networks (including TBS) and Discovery+, which were to have been spun off into a separate company.[175] Said spin-off company attracted a $25 billion bid from Starz Entertainment,[176] which previously made a bid to acquire A+E Global Media.[177] Three days later, Paramount Skydance, which was formed by a merger in August 2025, attempted a $108.4 billion hostile takeover for the entirety of WBD.[178] While initially rejected, Paramount Skydance's bid was accepted on February 26, 2026, after Netflix withdrew their bid.[179]

References

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  1. ↑ "New UHFer Yens Elite Audience". Variety. Vol. 243, no. 6. June 29, 1966. pp. 28, 36. ProQuest 1014840900.
  2. ↑ Jones, Paul (July 15, 1965). "Backers Seek Okay for 5th TV Station". The Atlanta Constitution. p. 30. Retrieved May 1, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "New Quarters Occupied by WAGA-TV". The Atlanta Journal. May 29, 1966. p. 70. Retrieved May 7, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ "1,049 Feet Above Atlanta: WJRJ Tower Going Up, Skyline Won't Be the Same". The Atlanta Journal. July 27, 1967. p. 10–D. Retrieved May 7, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 Gray, Dick (June 19, 1966). "New TV Station to Program for Adults Here". The Atlanta Journal. p. 11–D. Retrieved May 7, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "The TV Mail Bag". The Atlanta Journal. November 5, 1966. p. 3–G. Retrieved May 8, 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
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Bibliography

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