Buzzr

Type	Digital broadcast television network (classic game shows)
Country	United States
Programming
Language(s)	English
Picture format	1080i (HDTV) 480i (SDTV)
Ownership
Owner	RTL Group
Parent	Fremantle
Key people	Mark Deetjen (general manager)[1]
History
Founded	January 20, 2015 (2015-01-20)
Launched	June 1, 2015 (2015-06-01)
Founder	Thom Beers
Links
Webcast	Watch live
Website	www.buzzrtv.com
Availability
Terrestrial
See list of affiliates[2]
Streaming media
Service(s)	Distro TV, Freevee, Pluto TV, Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Sling TV, Stirr, Tubi, Xumo

Buzzr is an American digital broadcast television 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.^[3][4][5] Buzzr marks Fremantle's entry into North American television broadcasting;^[6] 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.^[4][7][8]

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.^[9][10][11] 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."^[4]

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 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time Zone. The network formally launched that evening at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time with the 1963 pilot episode of Let's Make a Deal as the first show to be broadcast.^{[6][12][13][14]}

In 2016, to celebrate the upcoming 75th year of the genre,^[15] 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"^[16] based on their former prime-time programming block.

On March 27, 2017, Buzzr began airing paid and religious programming from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. on weekdays, and from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on weekends. On January 1, 2018, paid and religious programming was also added to the 5:00 a.m. hour for both weekdays and weekends. However, Buzzr went back to airing game shows in the 5:00 a.m. hour on June 26, 2018.

In June 2018, Buzzr launched a live stream hosted on their website, which mirrors the network broadcast.^[17]

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.^[18][19][20] 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.^[21]

Programming

Fremantle's library of game shows spanned 154 series and an estimated 40,000 episodes overall at the time of its launch, from which Buzzr draws its programming.^[22] The network's regular lineup – with series produced from the 1950s to 2000 – includes such programs as To Tell the Truth, Password, Family Feud (encompassing episodes beginning with Richard Dawson as host and dating up to John O'Hurley's tenure), What's My Line?, I've Got a Secret, Beat the Clock, Card Sharks, Body Language, Match Game^[3][4][5] (including, beginning in 2019, the Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, which, up until then, had never been shown in reruns)^[23] and the original 1950s & 1960s version of The Price Is Right hosted by Bill Cullen.^[24] In addition to the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman programs mentioned above, Buzzr's library includes Al Howard Productions (Supermarket Sweep), Bill Carruthers (Press Your Luck), Reg Grundy (Sale of the Century) and Stefan Hatos-Monty Hall (Let's Make a Deal, and Split Second, which would get revived by main competitor Game Show Network in April 2023) back catalogs. It occasionally licenses games from other sources, including a syndication deal with Burt Sugarman to carry Whew! beginning in September 2021.^[25]

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 one 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 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]

Affiliates

As of February 2016, 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.^[45]

Fox Television Stations was announced as the network's initial affiliate group, airing Buzzr on 12 Fox owned-and-operated stations (including a satellite station of Orlando, Florida O&O WOFL, whose sister station WRBW serves as that market's affiliate) and five MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated stations. Buzzr has affiliates in all 10 of the largest and 15 of the 20 largest U.S. television markets (including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston-Manchester, New Hampshire and Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas), with an initial reach of 37% of U.S. television homes.^[3][9][24] In four of the network's launch markets (New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Phoenix, Arizona), Buzzr is affiliated with stations whose subchannels the network occupies were previously affiliated with Bounce TV; as a result of a March 2014 agreement with Univision Communications, Bounce TV moved its affiliations in those markets to Univision-owned stations in late May 2015, shortly before Buzzr launched.^[46]

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.^{[3][5][24][47]} The network hopes to expand its charter affiliate footprint to reach markets covering 50 million U.S. households with at least one television set.^[4]

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 3:30 a.m. (formerly 1-4 a.m.) local time.^[48] 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.

See also

• Game Show Network – An American cable network launched in 1994 and was the original licensor of the Goodson–Todman television library.
• Nickelodeon Games and Sports - Former American cable network launched in 1999 that primarily aired game shows from Nickelodeon.
• 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.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Buzzr.

• Official website
• Fremantle's description of Buzzr