The King of all Media has been dethroned — when it comes to pay-per-view television.
Howard TV, the premium pay channel that airs videos of Stern’s SiriusXM radio show and other Stern-related content, will end, the radio host and “America’s Got Talent” judge announced on his radio show on Monday.
“After almost eight years of programming the Howard TV On Demand service, iN Demand’s contract with Howard Stern Productions is expiring shortly,” iN Demand said in a statement. “We and Howard’s management team have decided jointly to sunset the service in its current iteration on Dec. 16, 2013.”
Though Stern said Howard TV would be expanding with new services to be announced at a later date, a producer at the channel told TheWrap that staff were informed in the beginning of September that the channel would almost certainly be shut down by the end of the year. Some, if not all, of Howard TV’s staff will then be out of a job.
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“We have had a wonderful partnership with Howard and his production team, and are very appreciative of the hundreds of thousands of fans who enjoyed Howard TV over the years,” iNDemand said. “We did our very best to provide them with a highly entertaining video channel that was authentic and true to Howard Stern’s satellite radio show, its staff and celebrity guests, with original programming plus thousands of hours of the most popular library content from his iconic radio show through the decades.”
Howard TV launched in 2006 at the same time as Stern moved his show from the terrestrial airwaves to satellite radio, and is available for a subscription fee on the Bright House, Comcast, Cox and Time Warner cable services.
Stern did not immediately respond to requests for comment.