On March 28, Weigel Broadcasting, owner of MeTV (Memorable Entertainment Television), will launch its first unscripted network called Story Television Network, an over-the-air national broadcast channel focusing on history-based entertainment. Story TV will launch in almost half of the nation, via stations run by Weigel and with affiliate partners such as Hearst Television, Marquee Broadcasting, Maranatha Broadcasting, among others.
Story TV will have series that originally aired on networks like A&E and History Channel. Viewers will be able to watch “Biography,” “The Men Who Built America,” “World War II in HD,” “Modern Marvels,” “Mankind: The Story of All of Us,” and more. What is most unique about the network is that every day, it will center around a specific theme or genre. Examples include military, technology and innovation, world events, American history, modern achievement, unexplained phenomena, and biographical tributes.
Neal Sabin, vice chairman of Weigel Broadcasting said, “As we looked at the landscape, we looked at what genre works really well for advertisers and viewership that isn’t currently in the air right now… It’s history-oriented programming. But many of the networks that were in the traditional history business have broadened their appeal and the kind of program they run. We thought that this provided a niche for us to be more of a traditional history network.”
“There’s a lot of research as to how well advertisers and viewers respond to true history programming,” Sabin added. “And we plan on doing that with content that we’ve acquired from various distributors, including the A+E networks. Most of the programming that will be on the network has never been seen on broadcast television.”
Weigel Broadcasting Co. owns and operates national television networks, as well as local broadcast stations throughout the United States. Weigel owns “MeTV,” Memorable Entertainment Television, the “Movies!” Network in cooperation with the Fox Television Stations, the “DECADES” Network, the “H&I” Network and the “Start TV” Network in association with the CBS Television Stations.
Weigel’s local stations include CBS, ABC, The CW, MyNet, and Telemundo network affiliates. Weigel and its affiliate companies broadcast network and independent TV stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Denver, St. Louis, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Hartford, Milwaukee, Des Moines, South Bend, and Rockford.