American digital multicast television network
Television channel
Laff
|
Type
| Digital multicast
television network
(
Comedy
)
|
---|
Country
| United States
|
---|
Affiliates
| see list
|
---|
Headquarters
| Atlanta, Georgia
|
---|
|
Picture format
| 480i
(
SDTV
)
16:9
widescreen
|
---|
|
Owner
| E. W. Scripps Company
|
---|
Parent
| Scripps Networks, LLC
|
---|
Key people
| - Jonathan Katz
- (president/
CEO
,
- Katz Broadcasting)
|
---|
|
Founded
| January 18, 2015
; 9 years ago
(
2015-01-18
)
|
---|
Launched
| April 15, 2015
; 9 years ago
(
2015-04-15
)
|
---|
Founder
| Jonathan Katz
|
---|
|
Website
| Laff.com
|
---|
|
|
|
Service(s)
| Frndly TV
,
Sling TV
|
---|
Laff More
| Amazon Freevee
,
LG Channels
Plex
,
Tablo
,
The CW
,
The Roku Channel
,
Xumo Play
|
---|
|
Laff
(legal name:
Laff Media,
LLC
) is an American
digital multicast
television network
headquartered in
Atlanta, Georgia
and is owned by the
Scripps Networks
subsidiary of the
E. W. Scripps Company
. The network specializes in
comedy
programming, featuring mainly
sitcoms
from the 1990s through the 2020s.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
Laff's launch was announced by
Katz Broadcasting
in January 2015 as having a scheduled launch date of
April 15, 2015
, coinciding with
Tax Day
in the
United States
; the explanation by Katz is that people needed "something to laugh to" on what they deemed one of the most stressful days of the year. The network launched at Noon that day; the first program was the film
My Mom's New Boyfriend
.
[2]
Katz announced that television stations owned by
ABC Owned Television Stations
and 13
E. W. Scripps Company
would serve as the network's charter affiliates; the former serving as a replacement for the standard definition feed of the
Live Well Network
, which with Laff's announcement also began to roll-back to only being carried by ABCOTS stations.
[3]
[4]
On March 13, 2015, Katz Broadcasting announced an affiliation deal with the
Cox Media Group
to carry Laff on the subchannels of seven of its stations expanding its initial reach to 47% of the country.
[5]
The following week on March 20, as part of a multi-network affiliation agreement with Katz, the
Meredith Corporation
announced that it would carry the network on two of its stations.
[6]
[7]
On February 13, 2015, Laff acquired the
syndication
rights to five sitcoms.
[8]
Laff followed that deal for film licensing with
Disney?ABC Domestic Television
,
Miramax
, and
Sony Pictures Television
by March 17.
[9]
Laff made a multi-year deal for five sitcoms with
Carsey-Werner Productions
in April 2016.
[10]
Roseanne
reruns were removed on May 29, 2018, after
Roseanne Barr
was fired from the show by ABC (which then continued on as
The Conners
); both decisions were based on
a Roseanne Barr tweet considered racist
.
[11]
A list of 2019
Nielsen
ratings published by
Variety
indicated that Laff averaged 223,000 viewers in prime time, down 5% from the 2018 average.
[12]
The network moved off
ABC Owned Television Stations
at the beginning of 2021, in favor of new carriage on Scripps's recently acquired
Ion Media
stations in place of the now-defunct
Qubo
,
Ion Plus
and Ion Shop networks.
[13]
In July 2023, the managing company of Laff announced an
over-the-top
streaming channel counterpart of Laff, called Laff More.
[14]
Programming
[
edit
]
Laff provides comedy programming to owned-and-operated and affiliated stations every day from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time, with paid programming filling the remaining vacated hours. Laff's schedule mainly consists of 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s
off-network
sitcoms.
[1]
[3]
On September 1, 2021,
Nexstar
launched a direct competitor to Laff,
Rewind TV
, and the latter network replaced Laff on Nexstar stations (or will in the upcoming months if not immediately possible due to contractual obligations).
Movies
[
edit
]
Laff carries three to four comedic films throughout its weekend schedule.
Current programming
[
edit
]
Former programming
[
edit
]
Affiliates
[
edit
]
As of 20 July 2022
[update]
, Laff has 425 current or pending affiliation agreements with television stations in 48 states, plus the
District of Columbia
, covering 91.3% of the United States.
[17]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Channick, Robert (January 19, 2015).
"Laff comedy network to launch on WLS-Ch.7 digital subchannel"
.
Chicago Tribune
.
Archived
from the original on January 27, 2015
. Retrieved
January 28,
2015
.
- ^
Lafayette, Jon (January 18, 2015).
"Exclusive: Comedy Multicast Net Launching on ABC, Scripps"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
.
Archived
from the original on January 21, 2015
. Retrieved
January 28,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
Littleton, Cynthia (January 18, 2015).
"ABC Sticks with Live Well Digital Channel, Adds Comedy Net"
.
Variety
.
Archived
from the original on January 22, 2015
. Retrieved
January 28,
2015
.
- ^
Pergament, Alan (January 20, 2015).
"Ch.7 to add comedy network called LAFF in mid-April on sub-channel"
.
Talkin' TV
. Buffalo News. Archived from
the original
on January 25, 2015
. Retrieved
January 28,
2015
.
- ^
Lafayette, Jon (March 13, 2015).
"Cox Gets Joke And Gives Viewers LAFF"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
.
Archived
from the original on March 15, 2015
. Retrieved
March 14,
2015
.
- ^
"Meredith To Add Three Katz Diginets"
.
TVNewsCheck
. March 20, 2015.
Archived
from the original on May 25, 2015
. Retrieved
November 24,
2020
.
- ^
Jon Lafayette (March 20, 2015).
"Meredith To Carry Grit, Escape, LAFF Networks"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
.
Archived
from the original on April 2, 2015
. Retrieved
April 14,
2015
.
- ^
"LAFF Comedy Diginet Lands Five Sitcoms"
.
TVNewsCheck
. February 13, 2015.
Archived
from the original on February 16, 2015
. Retrieved
February 16,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Jon Lafayette (March 17, 2015).
"LAFF Makes Rights Deals to Air 250 Movie Comedies"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
.
Archived
from the original on April 16, 2015
. Retrieved
April 14,
2015
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Lafayette, Jon (April 7, 2016).
"LAFF Grabs Top Sitcoms in Carsey-Werner Deal"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
. Archived from
the original
on September 7, 2018
. Retrieved
September 7,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Petski, Denise (29 May 2018).
"
'Roseanne' Dropped From Laff Schedule; "Disgusted" By Barr's Racist Comments"
.
Deadline
.
Archived
from the original on 22 June 2018
. Retrieved
June 22,
2018
.
- ^
Schneider, Michael (26 Dec 2019).
"Most-Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2019's Winners and Losers"
.
Variety
.
Archived
from the original on 6 January 2020
. Retrieved
March 6,
2020
.
- ^
Balderston, Michael (2021-01-14).
"Scripps Moving Multicast Networks onto Ion TV Stations"
.
TVTechnology
.
Archived
from the original on Jan 14, 2024.
- ^
Lafayette, Jon (2023-07-17).
"Scripps Launching Streaming Court TV and Laff Channels"
.
Broadcasting Cable
. Next TV.
Archived
from the original on 2023-08-27
. Retrieved
2023-08-27
.
- ^
Albiniak, Paige (March 1, 2019).
"Laff to Launch 'According to Jim' in Access"
.
Broadcasting & Cable
. Next TV.
Archived
from the original on 2019-04-18
. Retrieved
2019-04-18
.
- ^
Laff (March 7, 2018).
"Laff Lands Home Improvement in Multi-Year Licensing Agreement With The Disney/ABC Television Group, To Debut Hit Comedy This Fall"
.
PR Newswire
(Press release).
Archived
from the original on Nov 16, 2023.
- ^
"Stations for Network - Laff"
.
RabbitEars
.
Archived
from the original on November 29, 2022
. Retrieved
July 20,
2022
.
External links
[
edit
]
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- Now internet-only,
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|
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