Final Case for Court TV

Cable Network to Be Renamed truTV Tuesday

By Anne Becker & B&C Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/31/2007 12:16:00 PM

After being in session since 1991, the final verdict will be reached for Court TV Monday night, as the cable network’s relaunch as truTV begins Tuesday.

The network will abandon Court TV’s logo and its primetime “Seriously Entertaining” tag line in favor of a new insignia -- the word “tru” in bold (“true” didn’t test as well) attached to an encircled “TV” and the tag line, “Not Reality. Actuality.”

TruTV will keep its live trial coverage during the day in a block newly named “In Session,” but it will drop its Nielsen Media Research ratings for that daypart. In primetime, it will bolster the genre that has fueled 18 months of year-to-year ratings growth: unscripted, adrenaline-packed, male-skewing joyrides such as Beach Patrol, Hot Pursuit and Speeders.

“There are risks associated with change, but there are risks associated with not changing -- the blade cuts both ways,” truTV executive vice president and general manager Marc Juris told B&C’s Anne Becker in October.

Juris and Turner Broadcasting System executives said the new positioning was a necessary change for a network whose programming has outgrown its name.

Turner Entertainment Networks president Steve Koonin was quoted by AP about the relaunch: “It's a big concern. Court TV is a very well-defined programming entity. Unfortunately, it's not as broad and doesn't offer the growth opportunities, we believe, as starting anew.”