Sinclair announces ‘The Nest’ diginet

Sinclair Broadcast Group will launch a new diginet that will replace the Stadium Sports Network on subchannels across the country.

Dubbed “The Nest” (doesn’t that sound “Cozi“?), the offering will be offered for free over the air, largely piggybacking off Sinclair station signals across the country using subchannels.

The network will offer “comfort food programming” covering the genres of home improvement, true-crime, factual reality series and celebrity family shows.

The network will start taking the place of the former Stadium channels Oct. 30, 2023.

For a logo, Sinclair is used a circle with a lowercase “N” in it next to the “est.” “The,” also in all lowercase, sits atop. The circle around the “N,” meanwhile, cuts into the “e” slightly and is obviously meant to convey the sense of the general shape of a bird’s nest as well as the concept of nesting in a tight, compact area.

Program titles include repeats of “Flipping Boston,” “Flipping San Diego,” “Sell This House,” “Cold Case Files,” “American Justice” and “Cold Case Files.” During primetime, programming will include “Growing Up Gotti,” “Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour,” “Steven Segal: Lawman,” “Ice Road Truckers,” “Dog the Bounty Hunter” and “Wahlburgers.”

Sinclair already operates the nationally-available networks Comet, Charge! and TBD (that’s the actual name). 

The Nest will be available in about half of U.S. over-the-air households, including major markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Boston, San Fransisco and Seattle. 

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It plans to add more affiliates in the coming months. 

Sinclair sold off its majority stake in Stadium earlier in 2023, with Chicago White Sox and Bulls owner taking over.

The network aired a variety of studio-based and pre-produced programming as well as carrying lower profile live sports. 

The sale of Stadium was separate from Sinclair’s sale of Bally Sports, the RSNs it bought from Disney that were previously known under the Fox Sports name when 21st Century Fox owned them, though those networks are also facing challenges.