Circle first launched back in 2020 in partnership with Gray Television and offered a 24/7 feed of country music and lifestyle. Now, though, Gray Television has announced that it will wind down operations as it prepares to shut down on December 31, 2023. This was announced during Gray Telivsion’s 3rd quarter earnings from early this week.
The good news for fans of the show is the content from Circle is not dead as Gray Television has confirmed to Country Aircheck that it will be moving to other sources. “The Circle brand isn’t going away. The linear TV network will wind down at the end of the year along with the joint venture. Programming like Opry Live and Coffee, Country & Cody will continue to be produced and made available digitally on FAST, streaming and other digital distribution platforms. We also expect Opry Live to air on network television, just not on a dedicated Circle network. Opry Live will also air on Sky Arts in the UK.”
Circle TV is currently available in over 100 markets around the United States on Gray Television owned stations and other partner networks. The stations will most likely replace the feed with one of the two new OTA TV stations Gray, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Lionsgate are launching in January.
No word yet on what this means for the free live streams of Circle through the Circle app and other sources. Circle has also, in the past made its content available through multiple platforms with a ton of 100% free content on the platform.
The Circle Now app is available on Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, LG, Android TV, Google Play, the Apple App Store, and Amazon Appstore.