Weigel Broadcasting launches Story Television

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Weigel Broadcasting is launching another national network.

The newest addition to the company’s portfolio will be known as Story Television Network and feature historical-themed programming culled from the archives of The History Channel, A&E and other sources.

Repeats of shows including “Mankind: The Story of All of Us,” “Biography,” “The Men Who Built America,” “World War II in HD” and “Modern Marvels” will make up the schedule.

Weigel already operates MeTV, a network that airs reruns of classic TV series, the film-centric Movies!, Start TV featuring classic drama series and Decades, which focuses on sitcoms from the 1950s to early 1990s and H&I, short of Heroes & Icons, which airs a mix of police, western, science fiction, hero and action and adventure programming.

These networks are typically sold on a market exclusive basis to local stations who mostly air them on their digital subchannels, with additional distribution on local cable and satellite providers as available, though some stations do carry one of the networks as their primary feed.

Weigel makes money from selling advertising time on a national basis while stations are also given select commercial slots to air.

Much of the programming Weigel airs on these networks is relatively inexpensive to license given its subject matter or age, making it possible for the channels to be profitable even with limited viewership.

Similar networks and business models include Nexstar’s Antenna TV and Rewind and Katz Broadcasting’s Court TV, Bounce TV, Laff, Grit, TrueReal, Defy TV and Newsy.