 | |
| Type | Digital broadcasttelevision network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Broadcast area | United States |
| Headquarters | Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Programming | |
| Picture format | 1080i master feed (cable and satellite distribution), reduced to480iSDTV for most over-the-air affiliates |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Allen Media Group |
| History | |
| Launched | December 22, 2016; 8 years ago (2016-12-22) |
| Founder | |
| Replaced | Black News Channel (after network purchase and merger into TheGrio TV) This TV (after shutdown and merger into TheGrio TV) |
| Closed | January 1, 2025; 10 months ago (2025-01-01) (OTA only) |
| Former names | Light TV (2016–2021) |
| Links | |
| Website | thegrio thegriotv |
TheGrio is a brand name owned by American media companyAllen Media Group for atelevision network and awebsite aimed atAfrican Americans.[1]
TheGrio is to "focus on news and events that have a unique interest and pronounced impact within the national African Americans audience,"[2] offering what co-founder and Executive Editor David Wilson feels is "underrepresented in existing national news outlets".
The website's name is derived from the wordgriot, the term for aWest Africanoral historian and storyteller.[3]
The website originally launched in June 2009 as a division ofNBC News.[4][5] It was founded by the team who created thedocumentary filmMeeting David Wilson. It became a division ofMSNBC in 2013. In 2014, it was sold to its founders.[6] In June 2016,Byron Allen'sEntertainment Studios acquired the site.[7]
The TV channel was founded asLight TV in 2016 byreality television producerMark Burnett and his wife, actressRoma Downey, as an inspirational network as part of his chairmanship ofMGM Television, which operated the network. It was sold to Entertainment Studios in late 2020, and relaunched asTheGrio TV in January 2021, with a Black-specific programming focus.
After Entertainment Studios purchased the assets of the bankruptBlack News Channel in late July 2022, that network was merged into TheGrio TV on August 1, including the former's existing cable, satellite andadvertiser supported on-demand streaming carriage. Allen claimed to want to add more news and commentary to TheGrio TV's schedule.[8] However, the promised content was never really delivered on its own, and consisted mainly of already existing interviews from other AEG shows and archived BNC content. By the 2024 presidential election, news programming had been reduced to the contractual minimum within the BNC contract.
Light TV andThis TV were both sold by MGM TV in October 2020 to the Allen Media Group division ofEntertainment Studios.[9] On December 3, 2020, it was announced that the network would be relaunched asTheGrio.TV on January 15, 2021, carrying lifestyle and entertainment programming of interest to theBlack American community as an extension of the website.[10]
That same day, Light TV's satellite transponder space was taken over by Entertainment Studios, which stopped carrying programming in the interim and instead transmitted atest pattern promoting the launch of TheGrio (later a looping launch promo), while MGM continued to carry a stream of Light TV through the network's website.Fox Television Stations confirmed its stations would be a part of TheGrio's charter launch group, and much of its affiliate body transferred over through the month-long dark period, though some stations departed for other networks.[11] The network officially relaunched as TheGrio on January 15, 2021, that year'sMartin Luther King Jr. Day, and that same day MGM handed over the domain of Light TV to Entertainment Studios, ending the stream of Light TV.
On January 1, 2025, at 5 amEST, TheGrio's digital subchannel distribution ended. The channel remains available on cable providers and FAST channel providers, with the cable version currently carrying a loop of Black sitcoms from the 1970s to the 1990s distributed bySony Pictures Television, with the FAST channel version on services such as Allen's Local Now carrying past AEG content. Five FTS-owned stations replaced it with what is nowRoar several weeks later.[12]
From 2016 until 2021, TheGrio TV (as Light TV) featured several series and movies meant to fit the network's family-oriented approach, including content from the MGM film and TV library or acquired through outside sources.[13][14]Infomercials were added to the Light TV lineup in 2019, occupying all of the overnight hours and into the early morning.
The then-newover-the-top (OTT) faith-based channel was under development as early as September 2014 when MGM purchased 55% of One Three Media and LightWorkers Media, owned by Hearst Entertainment,Mark Burnett andRoma Downey, and consolidated them into United Artists Media Group.[15] With MGM purchasing Hearst and Burnett and Downey's shares in UAMG, the channel was still a planned streaming service. However, Hearst and Burnett and Downey retained their stakes in the channel.[16]
MGM announced the formation of Light TV on December 15, 2015, with a launch planned for December on thirteen major market stations owned byFox Television Stations.[17] The network launched on January 20, 2016[18] with two stations, and the rest of the group's stations.
The network was intended to carry new and original content from LightWorkers as part of Burnett's chairmanship of MGM's television division, but never ended up carrying any new content, only featuring rerun and library content already seen on MGM'sThis TV (a film-oriented network) andMGM HD, along with low-cost barter programming such asHeartland, which was already in wide syndication across multiple channels, and other generic inspirational or family-friendly content. By 2019, the network addedpaid programming which made up its late night and early morning schedule, reducing its programming commitment further.[19]
Below is a current list of programming broadcast on TheGrio:[20]
Light TV
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