“TBD” Network launches on Sinclair stations

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To Be Determined? Sinclair Media, one of the nation’s largest operators of over-the-air television stations, has launched a new network for their viewers across the country. It’s called “TBD,” which is old-school business slang for “to be determined,” and it lets you know that this is a station focused on the future, not on the past. Or so they say.

The station, which may or may not be available as a subchannel on some of their local stations (they don’t say) is also available streaming live at http://tbd.com/ in standard definition.

The content seems to be a mix of movies from the last 15 years, shows aggregating YouTube videos, and some original game show and talk content. It actually seems like it could be pretty appealing if you have nothing to do on a lazy afternoon. It does seem pretty millennial-focused, but of course everything today seems that way, doesn’t it?

If you’re curious about getting TBD on your TV, you’ll need an antenna, which you can get from Solid Signal. You’ll also need to be in a market where there’s a station owned by Sinclair. There’s a pretty good list maintained by Wikipedia here. If your city is on that list, you’ll probably need to rescan for channels in order to see the new one.

Rescanning is a little different on every TV but usually starts by pressing the {MENU} button on the TV’s remote and looking for a submenu that says Channel Setup, OTA setup, Antenna Setup, or something like that. Look for an option that says something like “Scan for Channels.” The process usually takes 5-10 minutes and you’ll get the latest information from all the broadcasters so you can know that you’ll get every channel available.

If you are still using an AM21 antenna adapter to get local channels on your DIRECTV guide, you can scan for channels by going to Menu, Settings&Help, Settings, Sat&Antenna, Repeat Off-Air Setup. However, DIRECTV uses its own databases for scanning for channels so a new channel may or may not appear. Just like on the TV the process takes about 5-10 minutes.

Personally I’m not sure this channel is for me (which is ok since there are no Sinclair-owned stations in my local market) but for the folks in 80 cities and towns across this country, I think you should definitely check it out and see what’s out there. You may find that it’s exactly what you’re looking for.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.