MTM Network

Own work

MTM Network (also known as simply MTM) is an American broadcast television network that was founded in 1970 by Mary Tyler Moore as a division of her production conpanh, MTM Enterprises, and began operations on January 22, 1971. It became a subsidiary of International Family Entertainment in 1993 before Family was acquired by News Corporation in 1998, which made MTM the sister network to the Fox Broadcasting Company and eventually MyNetworkTV. In 2008, it was folded into Fox Television Stations.

Headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New York City, with additional offices at the Fox Broadcasting Center (Also in New York) and at the Fox Television Center in Los Angeles, MTM is available throughout America on over-the-air television stations in many markets and as a must-carry station on pay television.

Overview
MTM Network provides a complete 24-hour network schedule of news, sports, entertainment and children's programming through two feeds; one for the Eastern and Central Time Zones and the other for the Pacific Time Zone.

On October 9, 2006 at 6:00 a.m., the network switched to a 24-hour schedule, becoming one of the last major English-language broadcasters to transition to such a schedule. Most MTM owned-and-operated stations previously signed off the air during the early morning hours (typically from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m.). Instead of the infomercials aired by most other major networks, MTM uses the time to air repeats, including local news, primetime series, movies and other programming from the Fox library. Affiliates still have to option to sign off every night.

While historically there has been room for regional differences in the schedule, as there is today (see "Stations", below), for MTM O&Os, various funding crises at the parent TVS company resulted in most stations only broadcasting on weekdays an hour-long morning newscast, an hour-long noon newscast, a 120-minute early-evening newscast and a 90-minute late-evening newscast, along with a 60-minute early evening newscast on Saturday nights, and a 60-minute late evening newscast on Sunday nights, and usually no other local programming.

Newscasts
MTM's national morning newscast, MTM Morning News, airs weekday mornings from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. EST, Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. EST, and Sundays from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. EST. MTM also airs graveyard-slot news updates, MTM Overnight News, Sunday through Fridays from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. EST, and a national late news program, MTM Sunday News, Sundays from 11 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. EST.

In addition, MTM owned-and-operated stations and affiliates in most markets fill up to four standard timeslots (the 6 a.m. hour leading into MTM Morning News on weekdays in all time zones, the noon hour on weekdays in all time zones, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. EST/4 p.m. to 6 p.m. CST Monday through Saturdays, and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. (Sundays)/11:30 p.m. EST (weeknights)/9 p.m. to 10 p.m. (Sundays)/10:30 p.m. (weeknights) CST) with local newscasts. Until October 2006, MTM owned-and-operated stations aired 11 p.m. EST newscasts; that month, MTM cancelled all of these 11 p.m. EST newscasts and replaced them with other programming, but as of the 2012-13 television season, most MTM O&Os have resumed airing local newscasts at 11 p.m. EST. MTM owned-and-operated stations and affiliates in most markets also air a short local news update, at most, on late Saturday evenings, during the period in between the two movies of the MTM Night At The Movies Saturday primetime double feature. Weekly newsmagazine MTM Newsweek is also a MTM mainstay.

Movies
MTM airs feature-length movies, marketed as MTM Night At The Movies, at various time slots, including during primetime Sunday nights from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST; and most notably Saturday nights from 8 p.m. to midnight EST. These movie presentations have gone on to become one of the most popular shows on the network.

MTM Night At The Movies began airing on January 27, 1971, only five days after the network's launch. Initially airing only a single Saturday movie, the modern incarnation airs two movies on that night. The Saturday broadcast features various segments during commercial breaks and between movies.

Until the 1990s, there was only one movie televised each Saturday night. Beginning in 1988, the network began showing occasional double features when that night was selected in particular to host a big-ticket broadcast of a network television debut of a major blockbuster film. Beginning in the fall of 1995, weekly double-features became the norm.

Although Fox Broadcasting is the legal owner of the presentation under a time-brokerage agreement, other major studios have licensed their libraries for airing on the block.

MTM HD
In September 2004, MTM launched a high definition simulcast of its O&O stations. MTM HD is available nationally via satellite and on digital cable as well as for free over-the-air using a regular TV antenna and a digital tuner (included in most new television sets) on all MTM O&Os and most MTM affiliates, though many subchannel-only affiliates do not broadcast in HD over-the-air. All HD channels map to their analog positions via the North American PSIP virtual channeling standard.

On June 13, 2009, as part of the analog television shutoff and digital conversion, all MTM over-the-air HD broadcasts switched from the 1080i to 720p resolution format.

Stations
See also: List of MTM Network affiliates

23 MTM television stations in 20 states are owned and operated by MTM itself. MTM O&O stations operate as a mostly seamless national service with few deviations from the main network schedule, although there are some regional differences from time to time. For on-air identification, most MTM stations use the MTM (channel number) branding, for example, flagship WMTM New York brands as MTM 50. All MTTM O&O stations have a standard four-to-five-digit call letter naming convention, in that the letters "MT" are always included somewhere within the last four digits of the calls and some letters include an additional "M" after "MT".

The rest of the MTM stations are owned-and-operated by outside broadcast groups or local companies and can use either three-, four- or five-digit call letters. Such stations generally follow the MTM schedule, airing a minimum 40 hours per week of network programming. However, they may opt out of some MTM programming in order to air locally produced programs or syndicated series. In these cases, the MTM programming being displaced may be broadcast at a different time than the network, or may not be broadcast on the station at all. Most non-O&O affiliates generally opt out of MTM's afternoon schedule and Thursday prime time movie programming. Some of the non-O&O affiliates have begun adding MTM's overnight programming to their schedules since the network began broadcasting 24 hours a day.