Urban America Television
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| Urban America Television | |
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| Type | Broadcast television network |
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| Country | United States |
| Availability | National |
| Owner | Urban Television Network Corporation |
| Closure date | May 1, 2006 |
Urban America Television (UATV) was an over-the-air television broadcast network in the United States. According to the company's website, the network had 70 affiliate stations. The company had recently announced an agreement with Nielsen Media Research to measure viewership of its urban programming, but due to the inability to pay the Nielsen fees, this never materialized. UATV had a reach of 22 million households (Broadcast and cable) in the United States. It was a successor to the earlier American Independent Television network.
The company was the only minority-certified television network with the National Minority Supplier Development Council (Las Vegas).
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[edit] Programming
Urban America TV's programming was mainly geared toward the African American and general entertainment audience. The first two years programming was handled by the American Independent Network Programmer. After his departure, programming was handled by a series of hacks and personnel who had never worked in the Television industry and created many revenue and affiliate issues that UATV would never recover from. The network aired both original programs (syndicated, "Jon", "Animal Rescue", etc) and, during many hours of the day, movies. The network also produced some programming in-house as well.
[edit] May 1, 2006: UATV Ceases Operations
According to its latest filings with the SEC, Urban America Television "is experiencing liquidity needs", which severely hampered its ability to continue operations. In addition, "[d]ue to the lack of necessary capital resources, the Company is not able to pay for its satellite space and uplinking services," which stopped affiliates from airing UATV programming. Also, UATV "has laid-off its master control employees while it seek financing." [1]
In addition, a dispute between several of the participants over operational control in late 2003, hastened the removal of the primary personnel responsible for creating the sales revenue. UATV would not recover.
As a result of this, on May 1, 2006, Urban America Television suspended operations indefinitely, while it attempts to raise enough capital to continue operations. In the words of the company, "[i]f adequate funds are not available on acceptable terms our business future as a viable entity is in severe jeopardy."
In response to this action, many affiliates have been forced to find better, alternative sources of programming. Competing networks such as America One and 3ABN have benefited from the failure of UATV, and stations such as WUHQ-LP in Grand Rapids, Michigan have simply swapped affiliations. It is not currently known what stations, if any, will resume airing UATV programming when, or if, they are able to continue operations. Some stations, such as WONS-LP in Olean, NY, have become repeaters of other stations or dropped off the air entirely. Most stations found it easy to replace the UATV programming because the average station only carried four to eight hours per day (although there were a few that carried more and some repeater stations that carried the programming 24/7).
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