WGN America, which originally started as a superstation of the Nexstar-owned WGN-TV affiliate, is coming to AT&T TV NOW. The channel will debut at the end of October, which would be the first time the channel has been available on a Live TV Streaming Service.
The channel itself, was acquired by Nexstar Media Group, as part of their acquisition of Tribune, which also gave them a 31% stake in Food Network and Cooking Channel. While there has been talks that the company would spin-off the national channel, as of right now it will be run by the corporate parent.
While historically, WGN carried some sports programming from the Chicago market, over the last decade it has shifted to carrying mostly re-runs of popular shows like How I Met Your Mother, Elementary, Bones, and classics like MASH and Murder, She Wrote. The channel recently premiered an original series, from Duane Dog Chapman, of Dog The Bounty Hunter fame called Dog’s Most Wanted.
It’s a positive sign that Nexstar has already brought some of the assets that they purchased from Tribune to AT&T’s streaming services. Now, that the deal has been approved — there’s hope that Nexstar’s existing deals with Live TV Streaming Services can bring more of Tribune locals to customers. To date, Tribune has streamed their FOX affiliates across services, while Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV are the only services that carry their CBS affiliates. However, their ABC, NBC, The CW, and independent stations have yet to make it to any of the Live TV Streaming Services.