Company Profile
Free TV Networks
Company Overview
Free TV Networks (FTN), founded and led by Jonathan Katz, a digital broadcast network entrepreneur and pioneer, is partnering with global content leaders Warner Bros. Discovery and Lionsgate and broadcast powerhouse Gray Television in national ad-supported over-the-air and streaming channels that are free-to-consumers. Featuring world-class programming from Warner Bros. Discovery and Lionsgate, the first channels will be focused on the demand for both African American programming and Westerns.
Launched New Year’s Day as a “diginet” (digital broadcast network), Free TV Networks’ flagship brand THE365 (positioned as “Black, All Day, Every Day”), serving African American viewers with blockbuster movies and hit series including Warner Bros.’ I Am Legend, Purple Rain and Queen Sugar along with Academy Award winners Crash and Monster’s Ball, Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion, and the satirical comedy/drama Dear White People from Lionsgate. FTN’s second over-the-air network, OUTLAW (“The Western Channel”), also premiered Jan.1, 2024, serves male demographics with iconic and legendary tales of the Old West, including Warner Bros. movies Unforgiven, Chisum, Pale Rider and Wyatt Earp.
The over-the-air networks launched with distribution in 80% of the U.S., anchored by Free TV Networks partner Gray Television. Additional distribution for the networks is across RNN Media Group and HC2 Broadcasting’s footprint of over-the-air stations. In addition, Free TV Networks will launch several ad-supported FAST (free ad supported streaming television) networks in the coming months driven by acquired content, including streaming versions of THE365 and OUTLAW.
Free TV Networks will capitalize on the resurgence of over-the-air viewing, the rise of diginets, and the rapid growth in ad-supported streaming channels. Today, nearly 1 in 3 U.S. households – about 35 million homes – have a digital antenna, with the market projected to surpass 50 million U.S. households by 2027.
Serving as advisors to support management’s strategic growth initiatives, Free TV Networks founders and Board Directors include human rights activist and philanthropist, Martin Luther King III, and Alan Haymon, a legendary businessman in entertainment, who has been a dominant force in music, television, and boxing.
Katz is best known as the founder of the Katz Networks, a pioneering digital over-the-air networks company whose portfolio included broadcast networks Bounce (African American), Escape (true-crime), Grit (westerns), Laff (comedy) and Court TV, along with corresponding free ad-supported streaming services. The Katz Networks were acquired by the E.W. Scripps Company in 2017, and then combined with Ion Media in 2021, at which point Katz became the Chief Operating Officer and Head of Entertainment for the Scripps Networks, a new national television business, where he led both the ION broadcast network and the Katz Networks’ portfolio.