Examining Championship Wrestling From Hollywood's Wide Television Distribution Platforms

On January 26th, Championship Wrestling from Hollywood reached a big milestone: 400 episodes. To reach a significant number of episodes over eight years is an accomplishment in itself but it did not happen in a vacuum- such as only online or in one or two television markets.

Quietly, CWFH has built a powerful distribution network, one that is very competitive with Ring of Honor's distribution under its parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting. David Marquez and the CWFH team has done so fairly quietly as the program is not often mentioned among wrestling's most ardent fans. Syndicated programming doesn't feel as 'sexy', since at least the days of the WWE moving away from a syndication strategy for supplemental programming. Syndication hasn't been a focus of the business since Monday Night Raw.

CWFH has full distribution in America's 2nd largest television market, Los Angeles, with potentially 5M homes and nearly 5% of U.S. markets. The program is moving to a later hour, 1am on Saturday nights, after Eyewitness News. The company has listed the move as a positive in press releases due to the popularity of lead-in programming.

The company has some presence in America's top market, New York, via WVVH-TV in the Hamptons. While a tiny station far outside New York's hub, the network is carried on Verizon Fios, one of the metropolitan areas largest cable providers. The programming is carried via YouToo America.

New England Sports Network (NESN) provides the company with coverage in the #9 market, Boston, MA and the station includes 6 states with 4M subscribers). Additionally there is clearance for CWFH in Detroit, the 14th largest market, with 1.7M homes and 1.6% of U.S. homes. Other stand-alone markets include Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gulfport, Mississippi and Spokane Washington.

Most other distribution is 'gravy', on 'blink and you'll miss them' digital tier or low power A stations such as The Action Channel and TUFF TV. However, this does allow the company to reach wide into a variety of markets.

Follow Lavie Margolin on Twitter @Laviemarg

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