Warner Bros. Discovery creates a cable network TruTV a regular house for sportsadding a weekday sports block and moving the established franchise Impractical jokers has TBS this summer.
A mix of live sports, original sports programming and ancillary sports content will begin appearing on TruTV next Monday, March 11, under the banner “TNT Sports on TruTV.” The block will begin at 6 p.m. ET and continue late into the night.
The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, aka March Madness, begins the following week. WBD, which shares rights to March Madness with Paramount, often uses TruTV as a site for early tournament games.
The push toward daily sports programming comes as WBD, Fox and Disney have embarked on a joint sports-focused streaming venture. The JV, scheduled to launch this fall, will bring 14 linear network feeds to subscribers via the Internet. Besides the NCAA Tournament, TNT is known for its coverage of the NBA and TBS broadcasts Major League Baseball.
Impractical jokers, a flagship TruTV property since its premiere in 2011, will move to TBS with a batch of new episodes this summer. During the transition period, the series will continue to simulcast on truTV and TBS until early April. Series from the TruTV library, including past seasons of Impractical jokerswill air on TruTV before 6 p.m. each day.
“We constantly strive 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,” said Luis Silberwasser, President and CEO of TNT Sports. “By creating a block of primetime sports programming on truTV, in addition to our existing live premium sports on TNT and TBS, we are now able to provide a more comprehensive sports offering to our fans, while generating revenue. additional growth opportunities for our sports division and strategic business and league partners.
Upcoming programming will include select alternate presentations of live TNT Sports games; simulcasts of games broadcast on TNT or TBS; a new 30-minute news and highlights show, TNT Sports Update, airing nightly at 6 p.m.; betting show The Line, broadcast weeknights at 6:30 p.m.; The NBA-centric Handles show airs late at night; and one House of highlights show produced each week exclusively on TruTV. (Beacher Report, a digital subsidiary of WBD, is known for its House of highlights vertical.)
The new sports block will also feature films and documentaries, including The Inside Story, which takes a look at TNT's Inside the NBA studio show; episodes in season The hammam vodcast featuring Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley, and special editions of Shaqtin a fool, among other originally produced shows; and an upcoming schedule of MotoGP races.