 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | United States |
| Headquarters | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Picture format | 1080i HDTV (downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Rural Media Group, Inc. |
| Sister channels | The Cowboy Channel |
| History | |
| Launched | December 1, 2000 |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
| Availability | |
| Terrestrial | |
| Digital terrestrial television | 36.1 (Redwood Falls, Minnesota) 22.1 (Cortez, Colorado)[1] |
| Streaming media | |
| Service(s) | RFD-TV Now, Sling TV |
RFD-TV is an American pay television channel owned by Rural Media Group, Inc. The channel features programming devoted to rural issues, concerns and interests. The channel's name is a reference to Rural Free Delivery, the name for the United States Postal Service's system of delivering mail directly to rural patrons. Production and uplinking facilities for RFD-TV are located at 49 Music Square West, Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee. RFD-TV's sister radio channel is Rural Radio on Sirius XM.[2] RFD-TV formerly owned a theater in Branson, Missouri where some variety shows that air on RFD-TV were filmed, as well as the Imus Ranch in Ribera, New Mexico.[3][4]
RFD-TV is the flagship network for Rural Media Group. Launched in December 2000, RFD-TV is the nation's first 24-hour television network featuring programming focused on the agribusiness, equine and the rural lifestyle, along with traditional country music and entertainment.
As of 2017, RFD-TV operates on a full-service format. Mornings and the early part of daytime feature syndicated newsmagazines and a five-hour block of news, weather (forecasting services on the network are outsourced to The Weather Channel) and agricultural commodity market prices, in the basic format of an American cable news outlet. An additional newscast airs during the evening hours. The remainder of the daytime and evening schedule consists of horse-related magazines, coverage of rodeo and other Western sports, rural lifestyle programs, reruns of classic television programs with rural appeal, and music programs centered around country music, polka, and Southern gospel.
Infomercials, which were previously publicly banned from the network, appear during the overnight hours. The network also features brokered programming in the form of its call-in program Rural America Live, and brokered televangelism from Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah and John Hagee.
As of February 2015, RFD-TV is available to approximately 52 million pay television households (44.8% of households with television) in the United States.[5] It is currently carried by satellite providers Dish Network and DirecTV and their associated streaming services (Sling TV and DirecTV Stream, respectively), as well as through cable providers such as Mediacom, Charter Communications, Cox Communications and Armstrong.[6][7] In addition to its subscription coverage, RFD-TV is offered as an Internet television feed; the feed is currently paywalled and requires a paying subscription. In March 2020, RFD-TV launched a streaming app RFD-TV Now, making RFD-TV programming available on tablets, phones, and connected TVs.[8] It was added to Sling TV on April 4, 2017, as part of the "Heartland Extra" add-on service.[9] With an average of 136,000 viewers in 2016, RFD-TV has some of the highest viewership relative to availability compared to other "ultra-niche" networks with similar or wider distribution owned by major corporations.[10]
- ^ "Stations for Network - RFD-TV". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
- ^ "RURAL RADIO". www.rfdtv.com. August 2013.
- ^ Morgan, Richard (April 13, 2018). "Don Imus finally sells New Mexico ranch". New York Post. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
- ^ Wert, Jason (January 30, 2024). "Branson's RFD Theatre to be demolished". Branson Tri-Lakes News. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ "RFD-TV Rolls Out on HD on DIRECTV". www.rfdtv.com. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
- ^ RFD-TV Now Available to Cox Communications customers Retrieved March 21, 2010
- ^ "RFD-TV website: Find RFD-TV". Archived from the original on October 20, 2010.
- ^ "Rural Media Group launches RFD-TV Now". www.rfdtv.com. March 3, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
- ^ Sling TV Blog: Gather the family for outdoor entertainment, timeless movies and more with new Heartland Extra Retrieved April 5, 2017
- ^ Crupi, Anthony (February 27, 2017). "Small Change: Why Niche Cable Nets Are on Their Last Legs | Media - AdAge". Advertising Age. Retrieved February 27, 2017.