Dabl (/ˈdæbəl/) is an American digital multicast television network owned by the CBS Media Ventures subsidiary of Paramount Global and operated by Weigel Broadcasting.
Launched in September 2019 with a female-targeted lifestyle format, Paramount transferred management duties to Weigel in December 2023. The network switched to airing Black sitcoms (sourced mainly from the Paramount library) from the mid-1990s through the early 2010s.
On June 17, 2019, CBS Television Distribution (now CBS Media Ventures) announced the launch of Dabl as a lifestyle-oriented digital subchannel network targeting a female audience. The network would be carried on CBS's owned-and-operated stations (which covered 39% of American television households), and, at the time of the announcement, had reached formal and subchannel-leasing affiliation agreements that would extend its reach over 70% nationwide. To add to CBS's library of daytime talk, court and informational programming, CBS acquired the rights to programs from Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse's content libraries to help round out Dabl's schedule. Prior to the network's launch, CBS had been slow to offer additional subchannels on its O&Os since the 2009 digital transition.[1]
The launch of Dabl followed CBS's rollouts of the ad-supported streaming channels CBS Sports HQ and ET Live (which were initially made available on co-owned, ad-supported service Pluto TV). Entertainment website Deadline noted that Dabl's launch came at a "boom time" for multicast networks, which could be operated by broadcasters at low cost utilizing library content with "sizeable ratings" from various distributors.[2]
Dabl launched on September 9, 2019 at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time,[3] with an expected national coverage rate of 80% as of August 27.[4] The network was the first CBS-owned property that had its operations built and operated using cloud computing and transmitted through CBS's media operations platform, which utilizes both automation and cloud-enabled technology.[3]
On December 29, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time, with little advanced promotion (outside of programming data provided to TV listings providers), Dabl was relaunched as an entertainment network aimed at African-American audiences, featuring an initial schedule of Paramount-distributed Black sitcoms from the 1990s and 2000s in repeating 12-hour blocks (episodes of each show are replayed from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. ET at airtimes matching their initial daytime broadcasts). Most of the programs (including four of the seven relaunch lineup shows, Girlfriends, One on One, Half & Half, Moesha and its spinoff The Parkers) originally aired on the now-defunct UPN, whose original niche included programming for Black audiences as rival broadcast networks began pulling back on developing series aimed at the demographic starting in the late 1990s.[5]
Concurrent with the relaunch, Paramount—which retains ownership and distribution rights to the network, along with supplying programming—transferred management responsibilities for Dabl to Weigel Broadcasting,[6] which had previously partnered with CBS for the classic television multicast network Decades (now Catchy Comedy), which they jointly owned from its launch in 2014 until Weigel became the network's sole owner in March 2023.[1][7] It also became exclusive to digital broadcast TV, with its free ad-supported streaming television distribution withdrawn in line with Weigel's near-exclusive distribution philosophy over broadcast television for their networks.
Source:[8]
Outside the CBS News and Stations (owned and operated), the network is offered to affiliates on a case-by-case basis, one of revenue-sharing, a license fee or leasing.[1] Dabl's partner stations include stations from the station groups of CBS News and Stations,[9] Bahakel Communications, Capitol Broadcasting Company, Graham Media Group, Meredith Corporation, News-Press & Gazette Company, Gray Television, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Nexstar Media Group and Univision Communications.[4] It was previously carried by the CBS app, Pluto TV and Paramount+ before its December 2023 relaunch.
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