The company was founded in 1988 as Litton Syndications by Dave Morgan in Baltimore.[4] Its first syndicated productions were a series of one-off, sports-related specials.[1] The programs were bought from other companies.[4]
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.[1] In 1993, the company was moved to Charleston, South Carolina, while maintaining a production base in Burbank, California.[4] Litton has maintained a long-time business relationship with Columbus Zoo and Aquarium director emeritus Jack Hanna and his family with three more later series throughout the 2000s and 2010s, only ending actively in 2021 with Hanna's retirement after a diagnosis of Alzheimer's; HMPG will continue to distribute his shows indefinitely.
In 2005, the company changed its name from Litton Syndications to Litton Entertainment. 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.[5] 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 showStreet Court.[1]
Litton Entertainment logo used from 2014 to 2022. The Hearst Television logo was added in 2017.
In May 2011, following the announcement of plans to discontinue the ABC KidsSaturday morning block, Litton reached a deal with ABC's affiliate board to syndicate a block of live-action, E/I (educational and informative) compliant programming, known as Litton's Weekend Adventure. The block premiered on September 3, 2011.[7][8]
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 succeeded CBS' previous block, Cookie Jar TV.[9]Recipe Rehab was one preexisting program Litton moved over from its ABC block.[10]
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 its first-ever scripted production, The Inspectors, also being its first series produced there.[4] LE's first film produced in that studio was the independent film The Ivy League Farmer, which began filming in September. Additionally, Litton planned to build its own studio complex with multiple stages somewhere in the state. Production of most of Litton's productions should move there also.[11]
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 drawn largely from reruns of programming from its other network blocks, which launched on October 1, 2016.[13] On February 24, 2016, Litton and NBC announced The More You Know, which launched on October 8, 2016, succeeding NBC Kids.[14]
Acquisition by Hearst and rebranding as HMPG (2017–present)
On January 6, 2017, Hearst Television, a division of Hearst Communications and 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.[15][16] 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.[17] In the 2017-18 season, NBC's The More You Know block also began to be carried on NBC's classic television subchannel network, Cozi TV. On January 6, 2018, Telemundo's block, MiTelemundo, was relaunched to carry programs from NBC's The More You Know block, in Spanish. The block, however, kept its original name.[18][19]
On September 7, 2021, after fully acquiring Litton's balance that year, Hearst Television announced that the former would be moved under a new unified banner for the latter's outside productions, including Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien.[3] The combined unit was officially renamed Hearst Media Production Group on January 28, 2022.[20]
On March 3, 2022, HMPG made an agreement with Toonz Media Group in which the former will co-produce animated productions with the latter, including Paddypaws, Sunnyside Billy, Kingdom of None and Aliens in My Backpack, and distribute them in the United States.[21]
Former divisions
Litton formerly had three operating divisions:[22]
Litton News Source provides stations with reports and features from Consumer Reports magazine, Consumer Reports TV and Consumer Alert News Network (Hearst itself had previously partnered with Consumer Reports in the 90s and 2000s for national wire stories).[1] Previous programming included Brighter Living With Jill Cordes, BusinessWeek Reports From Wall Street, Standard & Poor's Customized Reports, Consumer Reports[1] "Good Housekeeping Reports" and seasonal specials, "Solutions With Jill", "BusinessWeek Custom Wall Street Reports", "S&P Custom Market Indices"[22]
Go Time is a syndicated E/I-compliant block of six 30-minute programs formerly aired as part of Hearst Media's network-provided blocks, which is cleared throughout 80% of the United States.[23]Sony Pictures Television sells advertising for the block in lieu of Hearst.[23]
1 Owned by Montclair Communications and operated by Hearst under an LMA. 2 Carries the network in a secondary status.
Related Research Articles
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The headquarters of NBC is in New York City at the Comcast Building. NBC also notably has offices in Chicago, Illinois at the NBC Tower within the area known as the Near North Side.
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division of the Walt Disney Company. ABC is headquartered on Riverside Drive in Burbank, California, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Team Disney – Roy E. Disney Animation Building. The network maintains secondary offices at 77 West 66th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, which houses its broadcast center and the headquarters of its news division, ABC News.
ABC Kids was an American Saturday morning children's programming block that aired on ABC from September 13, 1997 to August 27, 2011. It featured a mixture of animated and live-action series from Walt Disney Television Animation and Disney Channel, aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 14. This was the only time that Disney Channel content aired on over-the-air television in the United States, but first being Nickelodeon on CBS two years earlier.
Hearst Television, Inc. is a broadcasting company in the United States owned by Hearst Communications, made up of a group of television and radio stations, and Hearst Media Production Group, a distributor of programming in broadcast syndication.
Disney–ABC Domestic Television is the in-home sales and content distribution firm of Disney Entertainment, which is a division of The Walt Disney Company. Content distribution responsibilities include domestic television syndication, domestic pay TV, Internet and cable video-on-demand (VOD), and pay-per-view outlets.
KHBS and KHOG-TV are television stations licensed respectively to Fort Smith and Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States, serving as the ABC and CW Plus affiliates for the Arkansas River Valley and Northwest Arkansas. Owned by Hearst Television and jointly branded as "40/29", the two stations maintain studios on Ajax Avenue in Rogers. KHBS' transmitter is located on Cavanal Hill in northwestern Le Flore County, Oklahoma, while KHOG-TV's transmitter is based near Ed Edwards Road in rural northeastern Washington County, Arkansas, just southeast of the Fayetteville city limits.
Telemundo is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast. It provides content nationally with programming syndicated worldwide to more than 100 countries in over 35 languages.
Children's programming has played a part in NBC's programming since its initial roots in television. This article outlines the history of children's television programming on NBC including the various blocks and notable programs that have aired throughout the television network's history on weekends.
In regard to children's television programming, CBS has aired mostly animated series, such as the original versions of Scooby-Doo, Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, Garfield and Friends and the 1987 incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This article outlines the history of children's television programming on CBS including the various blocks and notable programs that have aired throughout the television network's history.
The broadcast of educational children's programming by terrestrial television stations in the United States is mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under regulations colloquially referred to as the Children's Television Act (CTA), the E/I rules, or the Kid Vid rules. Since 1997, all full-power and Class A low-power broadcast television stations have been required to broadcast at least three hours per-week of programs that are specifically designed to meet the educational and informative (E/I) needs of children aged 16 and younger. There are also regulations on advertising in broadcast and cable television programming targeting children 12 and younger.
Weekend Adventure is an American syndicated programming block that is produced by Hearst Media Production Group, and airs weekend mornings on the owned-and-operated stations and affiliates of ABC. The block features live-action documentary and lifestyle series aimed at a family audience that meet educational programming requirements defined by the Children's Television Act. Announced on May 24, 2011, Litton's Weekend Adventure premiered on September 3, 2011, replacing the ABC Kids block.
NBC Kids was an American Saturday morning children's television programming block that aired on NBC from July 7, 2012 to September 25, 2016. Telemundo also aired a version of the block under the "MiTelemundo" title, which featured a separate lineup of Spanish-dubbed programs until December 31, 2017. NBC Kids, which replaced the Qubo block, was programmed by the other Sprout preschool cable network, as they were both targeted at children ages 2 to 6.
Vortexx was an American Saturday morning children's television programming block that aired on The CW from August 25, 2012 to September 27, 2014. Programmed by Saban Brands, it replaced Toonzai, a block that was programmed by 4Kids Entertainment until its bankruptcy. The Vortexx block primarily featured animated programs, although it also featured several live-action series, including the Lost Galaxy installment of the Power Rangers franchise, and the WWE wrestling series Saturday Morning Slam.
CBS WKND is an American children's programming block programmed by Hearst Media Production Group which airs Saturday mornings on CBS under a time-lease agreement.
One Magnificent Morning (OMM) is an American programming block that is programmed by Hearst Media Production Group and distributed by CBS Media Ventures, and debuted on October 4, 2014, as a replacement for the animation block Vortexx. It airs on Saturday mornings on the owned-and-operated stations and affiliates of The CW, the block features live-action documentary and lifestyle series aimed at teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18, the same style of programming that Litton provides for competing blocks seen on ABC, CBS, and NBC. All of the programs in the three-hour block are designed to meet federally mandated educational programming guidelines.
The More You Know (TMYK) is an American programming block that is programmed by Hearst Media Production Group, and debuted on October 8, 2016, as a replacement for the animation block NBC Kids. It airs on weekend mornings on NBC and Telemundo, and is replayed Sunday mornings on sister network Cozi TV. The block's programs are also available through all of NBC's video on demand venues, including the network's site/app, Peacock, and cable/satellite services.
The 2019–20 daytime network television schedule for the five major English-language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers the weekday and weekend daytime hours from September 2019 to August 2020. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series; no new series or series canceled after the 2018–19 season are included at present, as the daytime schedules of the four major networks that offer morning and/or afternoon programming is expected to remain consistent with the prior television season.
Children's programming has played a part in Telemundo's programming since its initial roots in television. This article outlines the history of children's television programming on Telemundo including the various blocks and notable programs that have aired throughout the television network's history.
The 2020–21 daytime network television schedule for the five major English-language commercial broadcast networks in the United States covers the weekday and weekend daytime hours from September 2020 to August 2021. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series; no new series, but only one series is canceled after the 2019–20 season are included at present, as the daytime schedules of the four major networks that offer morning and/or afternoon programming is expected to remain consistent with the prior television season.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
