Sorry Cincinnati. You’ll have to toon in elsewhere.
WLWT-TV — one of the first affiliates for MeTV with Channel 5.2 — doesn’t plan to add the new MeTV Toons animation channel which launched nationwide this week.
“We are not picking this channel up. While we do have the capacity to add another channel on 5.3, MeTV Toons is not on the radar at this time,” says Branden Frantz, president and general manager of Hearst Television’s WLWT-TV.
MeTV Toons premiered Tuesday June 25 with reruns of Bugs Bunny and Friends, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Jetsons, Smurfs, Scooby Doo, Underdog, Wacky Racers, Popeye and Pals, Woody Woodpecker, Captain Planet, Tom and Jerry, Inspector Gadget, Beetlejuice, Atom Ant, and Casper the Friendly Ghost.
In Cincinnati, MeTV Toons is available on two streaming services, Frndly TV and Philo.
The new cartoon channel’s limited over-the-air carriage includes Dayton’s WHIO-TV (Channel 7.4) and Cleveland-Akron’s WOCV-TV (channel 35.3) in Ohio; Louisville’s WBNA-TV (Channel 21.7), Lexington’s WTVQ-TV (Channel 36.4), Bowling Green’s WNKY-TV (Channel 34.4) and Paducah’s WQWQ-TV (Channel 9.4) in Kentucky; and Evansville’s WEVV-TV (Channel 44.5). Indianapolis’ WUDZ-TV (Channel 28.7), and South Bend’s WCWW-TV (Channel 25.3). Viewers in these areas must rescan their TVs to get the new channel.
Here’s the full list of affiliates and steaming markets.
The MeTV Toons website also lists Frndly TV and Philo streaming for Columbus, Lima, Toledo, Youngstown and Zanesville, Ohio; Bowling Green, Lexington, Louisville and Paducah, Ky.; and Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lafayette, South Bend and Terre Haute, Ind.
MeTV Toons is a partnership between Weigel Broadcasting, owners of MeTV, and Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel’s library features 20th century shows from Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera, Universal Pictures and Fleischer Studios.
The weekend lineup includes Top Cat, Josie and the Pussycats, Jonny Quest, Speed Racer, Police Academy: The Animated Series, The Mask, Steven Spielberg Presents: Freakazoid and more Flintstones, Bugs Bunny, Yogi Bear, Underdog, Scooby Doo and Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Frndly TV provides more than 50 channels including A&E, Bounce, Catchy Comedy, Court TV, Family Movie Classics, Get, Hallmark, History, Ion, Laff, Lifetime, Me TV and Movies!
Philo offers most of those channels plus AMC, BBC America, BET, CMT, Cooking, Food Network, HGTV, Logo, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., TLC, TV Land, VH-1 and others.
