Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is refreshing its reality comedy channel Tru TV with a new emphasis on live sports and related programming.
Starting March 11, WBD will launch a new nightly sports block on the channel under the TNT Sports branding, which will include live simulcasts and alternate play-by-play of National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Baseball (MLB) and other events airing on sister networks TNT and TBS.
The block will be fronted with a new show called “TNT Sports Update,” which will offer coverage of major professional sports. The half-hour show will air at 6 p.m. Eastern Time (3 p.m. Pacific Time) weekday evenings.
The decision to relaunch Tru TV as a sports-centric brand comes at a time when WBD is investing more in its linear live sports content. The company is currently in the middle of negotiating an extension of its telecast agreement with the NBA, which is likely to see the network continue to share coverage of pro basketball games with the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN and ABC.
“We are constantly striving to create and deliver the best sports content and experiences to sports fans wherever they are, and this is an exciting opportunity to expand the reach of our premium TNT Sports programming with greater consistency throughout the year,” Luis Silberwasser, the Chairman and CEO of TNT Sports, said in a statement. “By creating a prime-time block of sports programming on Tru TV, in addition to our existing premium live sports on TNT and TBS, we are now able to deliver a more comprehensive sports offering for our fans, while generating additional growth opportunities for our sports division and strategic business and league partners.”
The addition of more live sports and related programming could also help WBD generate more affiliate fee revenue from cable and satellite companies. Some estimates put Tru TV’s per-subscriber fee at just north of 30 cents, while other channels in the WBD portfolio that include live news and sports command a much higher fee from pay TV companies.
It also makes Tru TV a more-attractive destination for sports fans who might be willing to consider the company’s forthcoming streaming service being developed with Disney and Fox Corporation. The service, which has yet to be named, will include Tru TV, TBS and TNT along with Fox, ABC, ESPN, Fox Sports 1 and some college sports networks, with a potential price tag between $40 and $50 per month.
In addition to the forthcoming sports service, WBD will distribute Tru TV’s live sports and sports-related shows through the Bleach Report add-on via Max, which is currently free for most subscribers but will eventually cost $10 per month on top of Max’s base subscription price.
