Litton Entertainment (formerly Litton Syndication) is an American media and production company based in Charleston, South Carolina as an autonomous division of the Hearst Television subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation, with four additional offices in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Burbank, California. Many of Litton's programs comply with federally mandated educational and informational requirements.
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History
Early history
The company was founded in 1988 by Dave Morgan in Baltimore. Its first syndicated productions were a series of one-off, sports-related specials. The programs were bought from other companies.
In the 1990s, seeing a growing market for educational programs due to the enactment of the Children's Television Act, requiring television stations to air a weekly quota of educational programs, Litton began to syndicate Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures. In 1993, the company was moved to Charleston, South Carolina, while maintaining a production base in Burbank, California.
Adding to its outside syndication library that included Baywatch in May 2007, Litton purchased from Peace Arch Entertainment Group syndication rights to 85 movies in the Castle Hill library. The low budget films were bundled into 4 groups and was the company's first move into syndicating movies. By 2008, LE had syndicated rights to three off-MTV shows, Cribs, Pimp My Ride and Date My Mom, while adding that year, Storm Stories from The Weather Channel. In 2009-10, Litton offered the nontraditional court show Street Court.
In January 2011, Litton distributed the hip-hop newsmagazine Direct Access (hosted by Darian "Big Tigger" Morgan) from WDCW/Washington, D.C to fellow Tribune Broadcasting stations and Weigel Broadcasting's WCIU-TV/Chicago.
Involvement in network E/I blocks
In May 2011, following the announcement of plans to discontinue the ABC Kids Saturday morning block, Litton reached a deal with ABC's affiliate board to syndicate a block of live-action, E/I-compliant programming, known as Litton's Weekend Adventure. The block premiered on September 3, 2011.
On September 28, 2013, Litton introduced its second Saturday morning network television block, CBS Dream Team, for CBS; focusing on teenagers 13 to 16 years old, the block replaced CBS' previous block, Cookie Jar TV. Recipe Rehab was one preexisting program Litton moved over from its ABC block.
The company planned to double its productions by adding production facilities in South Carolina. Litton began renting and renovation a North Charleston studio used with "The Inspectors" being its first show produced there. LE's first movie production in that studio can be "Ivy League Farmer", with filming beginning in September. Additional, Litton planned to build its own studio complex with multiple stages somewhere in the state. Most of Litton's productions should move there too.
In 2014, Ocean Mysteries With Jeff Corwin won two Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for Outstanding Travel Program and Outstanding Directing in a Lifestyle/Culinary/Travel Program. On October 4, 2014, Litton introduced its third Saturday morning block, One Magnificent Morning, for The CW, replacing Saban Brands' Vortexx block.
For the 2016-17 season, Litton launched two additional E/I programming blocks. On April 27, 2015, Litton announced Go Time, a syndicated block of E/I programming made up of older programming from four Litton-related blocks. On February 24, 2016, Litton and NBC announced The More You Know, which launched on October 8, 2016, replacing NBC Kids. In the 2017-18 season, the block also began to be carried on NBC's classic television subchannel network, Cozi TV.
On January 6, 2017, Hearst Television (a former employer of company founder Dave Morgan) announced that it had acquired a majority stake in Litton for an undisclosed amount, a deal closed on February 1, 2017. On January 25, 2017, Litton and Tribune Media announced a deal for the 2017-18 season where they will provide E/I content for Tribune's Antenna TV network.
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Divisions
Litton has three operating divisions:
- Litton Worldwide Distribution
- Litton Media Sales
- Litton News Source provides stations with reports and features from Consumer Reports magazine, Consumer Reports TV and Consumer Alert News Network. Previous programming included Brighter Living With Jill Cordes, BusinessWeek Reports From Wall Street, Standard & Poor's Customized Reports, Consumer Reports "Good Housekeeping Reports" and seasonal specials, "Solutions With Jill", "BusinessWeek Custom Wall Street Reports", "S&P Custom Market Indices"
First run syndicated
Programming blocks
Go Time
Go Time is a three-hour offering of older Litton E/I content meant for the general syndication market, with advertising sold by Sony Pictures Television. Like most syndicated E/I offerings, it can air in various forms, including a half-hour every weekday and all at once during the weekend. Go Time launched in the fall of 2016 , with most major broacast groups carrying it, mainly on independent, CW and MyNetworkTV stations, including those of CBS, Sinclair, Gray, Cowles, Cox Media, Media General/Nexstar, Meredith, Scripps, Tribune and Weigel.
Go Time programming
- Hatched
- Expedition Wild
- Ocean Mysteries
- Brain Games Family Edition
- Dog Town USA
- Recipe Rehab
Stand alone programs
- Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures (1993-2008), half-hour nature show
- Animal Exploration with Jarod Miller (2007-2010), half-hour nature show
- NASCAR Angels, inspirational automotive rehabilitation reality show
- BusinessWeek TV, half-hour financial news, discontinued with purchase of magazine by Bloomberg L.P.
- Home Team, inspriational time-compressed home improvement project reality show
- Ask Rita, a comedy based talkshow strip hosted by comedian Rita Rudner
- Storm Stories, syndicated distribution of Weather Channel weather event series
Notes
External links
- Official website
- Watch Go Time.com - programming block website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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