American Country Network, a New Music-Focused Channel, Sets 2024 Launch

[Taylor Swift]

Leading the new initiative are music executives Noah Gordon and Tommy Snyder.

 

 

Courtesy Photo

 

 

 

 

AA new Nashville-based national country music television network is slated to launch in early 2024, Billboard can exclusively reveal.

Former The Country Network CEO Tommy Snyder and 8 Track Entertainment president Noah Gordon are spearheading the new initiative, named American Country Network (ACN). Snyder will serve as CEO and Gordon as chief creative director.

The network’s programming will include country music and country lifestyle-themed content including movies, lifestyle shows and documentaries, as well as country music videos from both established artists and newcomers. The network also aims to have branded music charts to track the popularity of the music videos airing on the network.
“We want to play great music and engage fans who love country music—and that includes genres such as Americana, folk and bluegrass,” Gordon tells Billboard.

In addition to over-the-air broadcast, the privately-funded American Country Network will launch a streaming platform in Q1 2024 to include ROKU, Sling TV, LG TV, STIRR, Freebie TV, Amazon TV, Apple TV, IOS and Android.

The American Country Network is set to soon open a studio in the Nashville area, providing a central hub for programming creation.

“It will broadcast in about 40 major markets and you can consume it in many ways—iPad, cell phone, smart TV, video on demand,” Gordon says. “We also think there is value in licensing some content and potentially kind of refurbishing it—some content that on its own wouldn’t be something people would consume, but if we wrap it with a best-of, or a best-moments that fits together.”

Also leading the company’s launch are chief information officer Keith Chester, who has nearly three decades of entertainment industry experience, including managing and producing artists, actors and television personalities. Jeff Goodwin, a marketing industry exec with four decades of experience, will serve as American Country Network’s marketing director.

In addition to his previous role as CEO of The Country Network, Snyder previously worked alongside late Country Music Hall of Fame member Charlie Daniels, and wrote songs recorded by country music artists as well as for movies and television. Producer-engineer Gordon has produced music including Dan Tyminski’s God Fearin’ Heathen album. He currently helms 8 Track Entertainment, an Alabama-based company that comprises a sports and entertainment management division, a music production and publishing entity, a television/film division and a record label, which is distributed by Warner Bros./ADA.

Snyder and Gordon have known each other for nearly three decades, and are co-writers on the Chad Brock song “’Til I Fell For You.”

The network will mark a reunion of sorts for Gordon, Snyder and Brock, bringing The Chad Brock Show from its former home at The Country Network, to the American Country Network. The show will exclusively air on ACN, as one of the first originally-produced shows on the new network, and airing bi-weekly following its launch.

“Chad has been on the road as an artist for so many years and he’s been a radio DJ, too, so he’s got a great background for this,” Snyder said.

Also among the shows in the works are The Producer’s Chair, a segment based on a long-running show once held at Nashville’s Douglas Corner, that will highlight the producers and songwriters behind many top country hits. Gordon also noted children’s programming for Saturdays, while Sunday Revival with Marty Raybon is slated for Sundays, led by the group Shenandoah’s lead singer. They have hopes to launch an awards show that will air on the American Country Network at some point.
American Country Network will join a slate of country music and/or rural lifestyle-focused networks, including RFD-TV (which launched in 2000), the Paramount-owned CMT (which launched in 1995) and the Circle Media/Opry Entertainment Group-owned Circle Network, which launched in 2020.

Gordon says of their plans to differentiate American Country Network from competitors, “Circle Network has the Grand Ole Opry and a bunch of wonderful programming. My hope is that we can become a network that is a great—not alternative, but kind of a sister network. If you like what you see there, you are probably going to find some things you love on ACN. And nothing against reality shows or anything, but going back, especially if you were a fan of CMT when it first came out, we want to have another great option for promoting and exposing music videos—both current and older fan favorites. I’m hoping to have the best of both worlds in how we deliver music.”

Gordon adds, “We’re just going back and looking at across history of country music and saying, what are the things that really worked so well and that people loved so much? Let’s get a lot of that on our network.”