Recent from talks
Roar (TV network)
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Roar (TV network)
Roar (formerly TBD.) is an American digital multicast television network owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group. From its launch in 2017, the channel focused on millennials with short-form viral video content and reality programming, but eventually shifted towards traditional hour/half hour minute-long sketch comedy and other comedic-focused programming underserved in the digital subchannel space. With the acquisition of repeats of Saturday Night Live in the fall of 2024, the network rebranded to Roar on April 28, 2025, to complete its transition towards comedic content.
The development of TBD is traced to a visit by Sinclair Broadcast Group management to the Santa Monica, California, headquarters of the Tennis Channel in January 2016, as it began to close on acquiring the network. While touring Tennis Channel's main control room, company executives spotted a monitor carrying the foreign feed of The QYOU, a Dublin-based digital media company and online video service headed by co-founders Curt Marvis and Scott Ehrlich, which curates various online video content aggregated from various producers for European audiences. Seeing the QYOU feed sparked a conversation among the executives about developing a similar service for television viewers in the United States, which Sinclair proceeded to bring to concept.
The company formally announced the planned launch of TBD on December 7, 2016. The network was the third of four digital broadcast networks that Sinclair developed and launched during the 2010s: it previously launched the sports-focused American Sports Network in August 2014 (which rebranded to Stadium in 2017, then The Nest in 2024), and science fiction-focused network Comet in October 2015, and around the time of the TBD announcement, it also disclosed plans to launch action-adventure network Charge!, a joint venture with Comet partner MGM Television that launched on February 28, 2017. To assemble programming and help provide creative support for TBD, Sinclair retained the services of The QYOU, marking the first venture into advertiser-supported broadcast television for the company, which already operates a pay television service in Europe; The QYOU had expressed interest on developing a similar subscription television service in the U.S. or ad-supported networks modeled after TBD in other countries.
In its press release announcing TBD's launch, Sinclair expressed that the network would be "reinvigorating traditional television for today's millennial audience", a demographic cohort that tends to enjoy video content via online sources other than traditional broadcast or cable television, although some within the demographic do supplement online content with over-the-air television. The network's more contemporary programming (digital-first series and videos) and younger-skewing target audience made TBD unique in comparison to many other digital multicast networks that feature classic television programs and movies aimed toward older audiences or niche audiences based on gender, ethnicity or genre interest. As part of that reach to millennials, TBD took a "screen agnostic" approach to delivery, appearing not only on broadcast television, but through an online platform and eventually through apps for smartphones, tablets and smart TV devices (the network's website provides a live stream of its programming, exempting advertising and interstitial segments aired during breaks within and between programs).
The "TBD" name came in a sort of roundabout way for Sinclair: early in the network's conception, Scott Shapiro, Sinclair's vice president of corporate development, referred to it by the abbreviation for "to be determined". Realizing that Sinclair's 2014 acquisition of Allbritton Communications included ownership of the TBD.com domain name (which was used for Allbritton's former Washington, D.C.-area news site and also briefly for its associated regional cable news channel NewsChannel 8), the network described the TBD name and TBD.com domain as, according to Sinclair's press release announcing its launch, "TBD's entertainment promise is always 'To Be Determined'." TBD began broadcasting as a soft launch on February 13, 2017, on the subchannels of two Sinclair stations: Fox affiliate WLUK-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin and CBS affiliate WTVH in Syracuse, New York (the latter of which is operated by Sinclair through a local marketing agreement with WTVH owner Granite Broadcasting).
On October 16, 2018, Sinclair signed an agreement with Jukin Media to assume operational responsibilities for TBD, effective immediately. The agreement also resulted in content supplied by Jukin being expanded on TBD's programming lineup. Jukin Media would later be acquired by Trusted Media Brands in 2021, a parent company of Reader's Digest.
By the start of 2024, the channel gradually shifted its programming towards comedy-based reality programming, acquiring programs such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Punk'd, and Key & Peele, augmenting a schedule which already had some comedic programming carried before the shift such as World's Dumbest... and FailFactory from Jukin's FailArmy. In the fall of 2024, TBD added repeats of Saturday Night Live to their schedule (carrying hour-long versions which were originally designed for the cable market), becoming the first broadcast subchannel network to carry the series as a regular offering, with the remainder of Jukin's content eventually being reduced to commercial breaks.
On March 3, 2025, Sinclair announced the network would rebrand from TBD to Roar (as in the term "roaring laughter") effective April 28, embracing its direction to comedic-focused shows.
Hub AI
Roar (TV network) AI simulator
(@Roar (TV network)_simulator)
Roar (TV network)
Roar (formerly TBD.) is an American digital multicast television network owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group. From its launch in 2017, the channel focused on millennials with short-form viral video content and reality programming, but eventually shifted towards traditional hour/half hour minute-long sketch comedy and other comedic-focused programming underserved in the digital subchannel space. With the acquisition of repeats of Saturday Night Live in the fall of 2024, the network rebranded to Roar on April 28, 2025, to complete its transition towards comedic content.
The development of TBD is traced to a visit by Sinclair Broadcast Group management to the Santa Monica, California, headquarters of the Tennis Channel in January 2016, as it began to close on acquiring the network. While touring Tennis Channel's main control room, company executives spotted a monitor carrying the foreign feed of The QYOU, a Dublin-based digital media company and online video service headed by co-founders Curt Marvis and Scott Ehrlich, which curates various online video content aggregated from various producers for European audiences. Seeing the QYOU feed sparked a conversation among the executives about developing a similar service for television viewers in the United States, which Sinclair proceeded to bring to concept.
The company formally announced the planned launch of TBD on December 7, 2016. The network was the third of four digital broadcast networks that Sinclair developed and launched during the 2010s: it previously launched the sports-focused American Sports Network in August 2014 (which rebranded to Stadium in 2017, then The Nest in 2024), and science fiction-focused network Comet in October 2015, and around the time of the TBD announcement, it also disclosed plans to launch action-adventure network Charge!, a joint venture with Comet partner MGM Television that launched on February 28, 2017. To assemble programming and help provide creative support for TBD, Sinclair retained the services of The QYOU, marking the first venture into advertiser-supported broadcast television for the company, which already operates a pay television service in Europe; The QYOU had expressed interest on developing a similar subscription television service in the U.S. or ad-supported networks modeled after TBD in other countries.
In its press release announcing TBD's launch, Sinclair expressed that the network would be "reinvigorating traditional television for today's millennial audience", a demographic cohort that tends to enjoy video content via online sources other than traditional broadcast or cable television, although some within the demographic do supplement online content with over-the-air television. The network's more contemporary programming (digital-first series and videos) and younger-skewing target audience made TBD unique in comparison to many other digital multicast networks that feature classic television programs and movies aimed toward older audiences or niche audiences based on gender, ethnicity or genre interest. As part of that reach to millennials, TBD took a "screen agnostic" approach to delivery, appearing not only on broadcast television, but through an online platform and eventually through apps for smartphones, tablets and smart TV devices (the network's website provides a live stream of its programming, exempting advertising and interstitial segments aired during breaks within and between programs).
The "TBD" name came in a sort of roundabout way for Sinclair: early in the network's conception, Scott Shapiro, Sinclair's vice president of corporate development, referred to it by the abbreviation for "to be determined". Realizing that Sinclair's 2014 acquisition of Allbritton Communications included ownership of the TBD.com domain name (which was used for Allbritton's former Washington, D.C.-area news site and also briefly for its associated regional cable news channel NewsChannel 8), the network described the TBD name and TBD.com domain as, according to Sinclair's press release announcing its launch, "TBD's entertainment promise is always 'To Be Determined'." TBD began broadcasting as a soft launch on February 13, 2017, on the subchannels of two Sinclair stations: Fox affiliate WLUK-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin and CBS affiliate WTVH in Syracuse, New York (the latter of which is operated by Sinclair through a local marketing agreement with WTVH owner Granite Broadcasting).
On October 16, 2018, Sinclair signed an agreement with Jukin Media to assume operational responsibilities for TBD, effective immediately. The agreement also resulted in content supplied by Jukin being expanded on TBD's programming lineup. Jukin Media would later be acquired by Trusted Media Brands in 2021, a parent company of Reader's Digest.
By the start of 2024, the channel gradually shifted its programming towards comedy-based reality programming, acquiring programs such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Punk'd, and Key & Peele, augmenting a schedule which already had some comedic programming carried before the shift such as World's Dumbest... and FailFactory from Jukin's FailArmy. In the fall of 2024, TBD added repeats of Saturday Night Live to their schedule (carrying hour-long versions which were originally designed for the cable market), becoming the first broadcast subchannel network to carry the series as a regular offering, with the remainder of Jukin's content eventually being reduced to commercial breaks.
On March 3, 2025, Sinclair announced the network would rebrand from TBD to Roar (as in the term "roaring laughter") effective April 28, embracing its direction to comedic-focused shows.