Buzzr is an American digital broadcasttelevision network owned by Fremantle North America, a unit of the Fremantle subsidiary of RTL Group. The network serves as an outlet for the extensive library of classic game shows owned by Fremantle.[2][3][4] Buzzr marks Fremantle's entry into North American television broadcasting;[5] parent company RTL currently operates numerous TV channels in Europe.
Buzzr's digital subchannel is seen in 62 U.S. television markets, cable television and is available as a channel on streaming services Pluto TV, Stirr, Amazon Freevee (formerly IMDB TV), and Sling TV. The network is also available nationwide on free-to-air C-band satellite via Galaxy 19 in the DVB-S2 format.
The brand is named after the game show buzzer, which contestants use on certain game shows to signal their readiness to give an answer.
History
The Buzzr brand was first used by Fremantle for a YouTube channel created and produced by its digital content studio Tiny Riot, which debuted in late 2014. The Buzzr YouTube channel features classic clips, and short-form adaptations of its game show properties (such as Family Feud and Password), with internet celebrities as contestants, primarily aimed towards millennials.[3][6][7]
On January 20, 2015, FremantleMedia (as it was known then) announced that it would launch Buzzr, a digital multicast network that would serve as an extension of the brand; the network, with the Fox Television Stations as its charter station group. Buzzr features classic game shows from the company's programming library.[8][9][10]Thom Beers, former CEO of FremantleMedia North America, stated his interest in launching a network centered on its game show content after he joined the company in 2012, calling such a project a "top priority" for Fremantle as a way to help monetize the value of its library. The company intended to focus Buzzr toward older adults, with Beers citing that the "old-format game shows are really, really hard [for the younger viewership that the Buzzr YouTube channel targets] to watch."[3]
The Buzzr television network debuted on June 1, 2015, with the launch preceded by a preview reel outlining its initial programming that aired in an eight-hour continuous loop, starting at 12:00p.m. Eastern Time Zone. The network formally launched that evening at 8:00p.m. Eastern Time with the 1963 pilot episode of Let's Make a Deal as the first show to be broadcast.[5][11][12][13]
In 2016, to celebrate the upcoming 75th year of the genre,[14] the network created a story arc of the game show with new episodes of favorable classics, along with additional promotions and special marathons all year long. Additionally, that fall, FremantleMedia began leasing select episodes of Card Sharks with Bill Rafferty and Family Feud with Louie Anderson for weekend airings on their affiliates' main channels, though this practice ended after a single season.
In October 2016, FremantleMedia and Canadian video game company Ludia teamed up to create a slot machine app based on Buzzr's programming. The name of the app is called the "Buzzr Casino"[15] based on their former prime-time programming block.
On March 27, 2017, Buzzr began airing paid and religious programming from 6:00a.m. to 8:00a.m. on weekdays, and from 6:00a.m. to 10:00a.m. on weekends. On January 1, 2018, paid and religious programming was also added to the 5:00a.m. hour for both weekdays and weekends. However, Buzzr went back to airing game shows in the 5:00a.m. hour on June 26, 2018.
In June 2018, Buzzr launched a live stream hosted on their website, which mirrors the network broadcast.[16]
On November 15, 2021, Buzzr began airing and promoting The Newlywed Game for over the air and cable broadcast only; this was possibly due to licensing issues with Sony Pictures Television, the owners of The Newlywed Game and the rest of the Chuck Barris library, that prohibited Buzzr from streaming it. The online stream instead broadcast Family Feud with Richard Dawson in its place.[17][18][19] This arrangement continued until January 9, 2022, when The Newlywed Game was finally made available for all Buzzr viewers over the air, cable, and streaming.
On January 24, 2022, Mark Deetjen, executive producer of global channels at Fremantle and the general manager of Buzzr, died at the age of 50.[20]
As of 2018, almost all of Buzzr's lineup consists of game shows that originally had aired between 1973 and 1993 (Match Game, Password, Family Feud and Supermarket Sweep, in particular, air multiple episodes each day), with select blocks of 1950s and 1960s panel shows also being featured. Celebrity Name Game and Temptation are the only recent game shows the network has aired. More obscure programs occasionally air as special program blocks, including the anthology series Lost and Found, featuring rare episodes, unsold pilots, and forgotten shows. On October 20, 2017, Buzzr debuted its first original program Game Changers. This documentary reviewed the history of the game show genre and featured interviews with game show personalities such as Alex Trebek, Wink Martindale and Drew Carey.[26]
Buzzr airs a half hour of educational children's programming (cut from three hours shortly after the FCC eliminated rules requiring digital subchannels to carry such programs in late 2019), leading out of its weekend morning infomercial blocks to minimize interruption; Chicken Soup for the Soul's Hidden Heroes (which originally aired on CBS' Dream Team and The CW's One Magnificent Morning blocks) and Marty Stouffer's Wild America air one episode each week. The channel carries two hours of infomercials each morning, a block that includes the televangelism series Through the Bible with Les Feldick (some of the online simulcasts of Buzzr do not carry the infomercials or Through the Bible due to restrictions on paid programming on those platforms). Other than these, the only non-game show related programming on Buzzr thus far was between September 14, 2017, and October 6, 2017, when episodes of Richard Simmons Dream Maker briefly appeared on the schedule, and a marathon of The Great Christmas Light Fight in November 2018 and on November 28, 2019.
Streaming
In 2017, Buzzr began streaming its programming to Amazon Prime Video and Twitch; the Prime Video offering provides video on demand, while Twitch offered a linear feed separate from the over-the-air telecast. The Twitch stream would be discontinued on April 22, 2019.[27][28][29][30] Buzzr also provided some game show programming to Nosey, a site offering video-on-demand of daytime television in the United States reruns. The local Buzzr affiliate sub-channel is carried in some areas on the streaming services LocalBTV, Locast and iGoCast (the streaming platform of KCKS-LD) as well.
In 2018, as part of their third birthday celebration, Buzzr[31] launched a livestream of the over-the-air telecast on their website. Later that year, Buzzr was added to Pluto TV.[32][33][34]
In 2019, Stirr, a free over-the-top service launched by Sinclair Broadcast Group, included Buzzr among its offerings.[35] In a preliminary assessment released July 2019, Stirr stated that Buzzr was the most-watched national channel on the service and the second-most-watched overall (second only to the combined viewership of its Stirr City local channels).[36]
On March 18, 2020, Sling TV added Buzzr to their service and made available to all its subscribers.[37]
Dedicated series streaming channels
On December 1, 2020, Buzzr launched a spin-off channel, The Price Is Right: The Barker Era, a 24/7 channel on Pluto TV that exclusively carries episodes of The Price Is Right from Bob Barker's hosting tenure. The episodes started with Season 11 in 1982, the first year where animal-based products (such as fur coats) were no longer offered on the show at Barker's request.[38] In a statement on Buzzr's FAQ page, the company stated that this was the only way to distribute the reruns because of an exclusivity agreement with CBS (since renegotiated) that prohibited any network or outlet not owned by CBS or parent company Paramount (of which Pluto TV is a subsidiary) from airing episodes of The Price Is Right from 1972 onward, meaning Buzzr could not carry the show over-the-air at the time.[39] However, Bill Cullen-era episodes of Price were exempt from this limitation, as those episodes originally aired on NBC/ABC, and thus were allowed to air on Buzzr. As of January 2023, episodes airing on The Price Is Right: The Barker Era range from September 13, 1982 (season 11) through October 11, 1985 (season 14, the last episode before Johnny Olson's death).[citation needed] On February 8, 2022, The Price Is Right: The Barker Era was added to The Roku Channel; on the same day, a dedicated spin-off channel devoted to Supermarket Sweep was launched on the same platform.[40] On November 27, 2023, three months after Barker's death, 60 episodes from the first season (1972–73) of The Price Is Right, which hasn't been shown on TV in two decades, were added to the channel's rotation, with the episodes curated from those in which no fur coats were offered as prizes, or whose videotape prints are deemed satisfactory enough to air.[41]
A second Pluto spin-off channel featuring Wayne Brady's era of Let's Make a Deal was launched in July 2022, with episodes from the Monty Hall era continuing to air on Buzzr.[42]
To tie in with Buzzr's 8th anniversary as well as National Game Show Day, Buzzr launched two new spin-off channels on Pluto TV on June 1, 2023, with one dedicated to episodes of The Price Is Right from Drew Carey's era, beginning with Season 38 and another, entitled Family Feud Classic, showcasing episodes of Family Feud from the Richard Dawson and Ray Combs era.[43]
Streaming channels devoted to the current versions of To Tell the Truth and Press Your Luck were distributed via the online platforms of ABC, which carries the first-run episodes.[45] These were eliminated with the closure of ABC's mobile and smart-television apps in September 2023.[46]
Affiliates
As of February 2016[update], Buzzr has current subchannel affiliation agreements with television stations in 53 media markets encompassing 26 states and the District of Columbia, covering over 60% of media markets in the United States.[47]
Debmar-Mercury (which serves as the distribution partner for the current syndicated run of the Fremantle-produced Family Feud) was hired by Fremantle to handle responsibility for the recruitment of affiliates through agreements with other broadcasting companies.[2][4][23][49] The network hopes to expand its charter affiliate footprint to reach markets covering 50 million U.S. households with at least one television set.[3]
In September 2016, Yes TV, a small Canadian television system with stations in Ontario and Alberta, began airing a Buzzr-branded block programming of classic game shows called "Buzzr After Hours" overnight Tuesday to Saturday from 1 to 3:30a.m. (formerly 1-4 a.m.) local time.[50] When the block first aired, the schedule were episodes of To Tell the Truth, What's My Line? and I've Got a Secret followed by two episodes of either Card Sharks on Tuesday and Saturday, Double Dare on Wednesday, Beat the Clock on Thursday or Sale of the Century on Thursday nights. In April 2017, the block was reduced by a half hour following a schedule of two episodes of Match Game (78), episodes of Super Password and Tattletales followed by an episode of either Card Sharks, Double Dare, Beat the Clock or Sale of the Century. The third and last schedule adopted in October 2017 was Match Game (75), Super Password, Tattletales, Blockbusters (later replaced by Body Language) and Press Your Luck. Yes TV discontinued the block in September 2018.
In May 2017, Dish Network began carrying Buzzr on channel 245.
GameTV – A Canadian general entertainment channel that primarily airs game shows and competition-related programming.
Challenge (TV channel) – A British channel that airs game shows and entertainment programming.
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1 2 joint venture with Amperwelle Studio München Programmanbietergesellschaft, Axel Springer AG, Burda, Studio Gong, m.b.t. Mediengesellschaft der bayerischen Tageszeitungen für Kabelkommunikation, Medienpool and Radio Bavaria Rundfunkprogrammgesellschaft.
↑ joint venture with Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack, Studio Gong Niedersachsen and Brune-Rieck-Beteiligungs.
↑ joint venture with Axel Springer, Heinrich Bauer Verlag, Lühmanndruck Harburger Zeitungsgesellschaft and Morgenpost Verlag.
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