Roar

About Roar

Roar is an American digital multicast television network owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group that airs comedy-focused programming. The network began life in 2017 as TBD, a channel aimed at millennials built around short-form viral video content from the web. Over the years it gradually shifted toward traditional half-hour and hour-long comedy series, and the acquisition of Saturday Night Live repeats in the fall of 2024 completed its transformation into a comedy destination. On April 28, 2025, Sinclair rebranded the channel as Roar, a name chosen to evoke roaring laughter, and the network now reaches close to 79 percent of American television households free over the air through digital subchannels.

History and Launch

Sinclair formally announced the planned launch of TBD on December 7, 2016. It was the third of four digital broadcast networks the company developed and launched during the 2010s, following the sports-focused American Sports Network in August 2014 and the science-fiction network Comet in October 2015, and arriving just ahead of the action-adventure network Charge!, which debuted in February 2017. The network began broadcasting with a soft launch on February 13, 2017, initially appearing on the subchannels of two Sinclair stations: Fox affiliate WLUK-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and CBS affiliate WTVH in Syracuse, New York. The rollout continued in three phases to work out technical and transmission issues, with 52 Sinclair-owned or operated stations becoming charter affiliates by early March 2017, most joining on February 28. From the start, Sinclair described TBD as an effort to reinvigorate traditional television for a millennial audience that consumed most of its video online.

The QYOU Origin Story

The idea for the network can be traced to a visit by Sinclair management to the Santa Monica, California headquarters of the Tennis Channel in January 2016, as the company was closing its acquisition of that network. While touring the Tennis Channel's main control room, executives noticed a monitor carrying the foreign feed of The QYOU, a Dublin-based digital media company that curates online video content aggregated from various producers for European audiences. The feed sparked a conversation about building a similar service for American television viewers, and Sinclair moved to bring the concept to life. To assemble programming and provide creative support, Sinclair retained The QYOU itself, marking the company's first venture into advertiser-supported broadcast television. The QYOU's daypart-based video compilation programs aired on the network several times each weekday until September 2018, when the companies terminated their content agreement.

The Meaning Behind the TBD Name

The TBD name arrived by an unusual route. Early in the network's conception, Scott Shapiro, Sinclair's vice president of corporate development, referred to the project by the abbreviation for "to be determined." Sinclair realized that its 2014 acquisition of Allbritton Communications had included ownership of the TBD.com domain name, which Allbritton had used for a Washington, D.C.-area news site and briefly for its regional cable news channel NewsChannel 8. The company decided to adopt TBD as the channel's official name, describing the brand's entertainment promise as always being "to be determined." The name captured the network's pitch of an unpredictable, constantly refreshing lineup drawn from the internet's video culture. It served the channel for more than eight years, through two logo designs, before the comedy rebrand of 2025.

Building the Millennial Network

In its early years, the channel's schedule was unlike anything else in the multicast space. Rather than classic television reruns aimed at older audiences, it carried web-originated films, scripted and unscripted series, showcase programs, and featurettes spanning science, fashion, lifestyle, travel, music, comedy, gaming, esports, and viral content. Sinclair signed deals with online content producers and distributors including Canvas Media Studios, Jukin Media, Filmhub, Legendary Entertainment's Nerdist Industries and Geek and Sundry, the Whistle Sports Network, and Zoomin.TV. Taking a screen-agnostic approach, the network appeared not only on broadcast subchannels but also through an online platform and apps for smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs, with a live stream on its website. The contemporary programming and younger-skewing audience made the channel a deliberate outlier among digital subchannel networks.

The Jukin Media Era

On October 16, 2018, Sinclair signed an agreement with Jukin Media to assume operational responsibilities for the network, effective immediately, expanding Jukin's content across the lineup. Jukin, a specialist in user-generated and viral video, became central to the channel's identity, supplying clip-driven shows including World's Dumbest and FailFactory from its FailArmy brand. Jukin Media was later acquired by Trusted Media Brands, the parent company of Reader's Digest, in 2021. During this period the channel also carried KidsClick, a multiplatform children's programming block featuring animated content, beginning May 7, 2018 and becoming its exclusive network carrier that July, until the block was discontinued on March 31, 2019. By the early 2020s, Jukin-supplied viral compilations formed the backbone of the schedule.

The Shift Toward Comedy

By the start of 2024, the channel began a gradual but decisive pivot toward comedy-based programming. It acquired established comedic series including Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Punk'd, and Key and Peele, joining existing comedic programming such as World's Dumbest and FailFactory. The move reflected a recognition that comedy was underserved in the digital subchannel space, which was crowded with classic dramas, westerns, and true-crime channels but had few dedicated outlets for humor. The transition accelerated in the fall of 2024, when the network added repeats of Saturday Night Live to its schedule, carrying hour-long versions originally produced for the cable market and becoming the first broadcast subchannel network to offer the series as a regular fixture. Jukin's remaining content was gradually reduced to interstitial material within commercial breaks.

The Rebrand to Roar

On March 3, 2025, Sinclair announced that the network would rebrand from TBD to Roar, with the change taking effect on April 28, 2025. The new name, playing on the phrase "roaring laughter," was chosen to complete the channel's transformation into a comedy-focused brand and to give it an identity distinct from the anything-goes connotations of the old TBD name. The rebrand coincided with a period of strong momentum: Sinclair reported that Roar's ratings were up 40 percent year over year among total viewers in the top 10 designated market areas, the largest gain among its four multicast networks. The announcement framed Roar as the comedy pillar of Sinclair's national networks portfolio, alongside the action of Charge!, the science fiction of Comet, and the reality programming of The Nest.

Ownership and the Sinclair Portfolio

Roar is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group and operated through its Sinclair Television Group subsidiary. Company leadership includes executive chairman David Amy and president and chief executive officer Christopher Ripley. Its sister channels are Charge!, Comet, The Nest, and the Tennis Channel. Sinclair has invested steadily in the portfolio's programming and distribution, reporting in mid-2025 that its multicast networks posted the highest year-over-year coverage growth among all Nielsen-rated broadcast networks. The channels are often discussed together as a group, with promotional events and anchor-series acquisitions coordinated across the portfolio. Roar benefits from that scale in advertising sales, where the network sells three to six minutes of advertising inventory per hour within its program breaks.

Distribution and Availability

As of April 28, 2025, Roar was carried on 126 television stations across the country, with a combined national reach of 78.82 percent of all American television households. The network is distributed primarily on the digital subchannels of local broadcast stations, and it also streams on the free platforms Stirr and Stremium. In December 2024, Sinclair signed a distribution agreement with Fox Television Stations to add the network to four Fox owned-and-operated stations, expanding its presence in major markets. Since January 2021, the network has even served as the primary affiliation on certain Sinclair-controlled stations, replacing traditional major-network affiliations that moved to sister stations, including WXBU serving the Harrisburg-Lancaster market in Pennsylvania, KENV-DT in Elko, Nevada, and WTTE in Columbus, Ohio.

Target Audience

Roar targets comedy fans who want free, easily accessible humor on broadcast television. The network's origins were in reaching millennials who watched video primarily online, and while the audience has broadened, the programming remains built around sketch comedy, prank shows, improv, and stand-up-adjacent formats that travel well across generations. The acquisition of Saturday Night Live gave the channel an anchor with unmatched name recognition in American comedy, while series such as Key and Peele and Whose Line Is It Anyway? supply the bingeable half-hour blocks that define the schedule. As a free over-the-air service, Roar appeals to cord-cutters and value-conscious viewers who want premium comedy franchises without a subscription.

How to Watch

Roar is available free over the air with an antenna on the digital subchannel of a participating local station; channel positions vary by market, so viewers should check their local listings and rescan their tuners periodically. The network also streams on the free platforms Stirr and Stremium, and its official website, watchroar.com, offers a live webcast of its programming along with the full schedule and show information. Apps for smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs extend the service to connected devices, continuing the screen-agnostic approach the channel has pursued since its launch as TBD.