Comet (TV network)

Comet is an American digital broadcast television network that is owned by the Sinclair Television Group subsidiary of the Sinclair Broadcast Group and operated by the MGM Television division of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The network focuses on science fiction with some supernatural, horror, adventure and fantasy series and films, sourced mainly from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film and television library.

On June 29, 2015, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the Sinclair Broadcast Group's broadcasting and programming subsidiary Sinclair Television Group, Inc. announced the expected 4th quarter launch of a then-unnamed science fiction network. Sinclair chief operating officer David Amy, in announcing the partnership, noted that MGM "has an extensive collection of science fiction films and television movies that appeal to a vast audience who will now be able to access that content through broadcast television". Sinclair tapped its television stations in many of the 79 markets where the company owned and/or operated a broadcasting property at the time of the announcement to serve as the network's initial charter affiliates. On August 5, 2015, in its financial report for the second fiscal quarter, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that the new network would be named Comet.

The network formally launched on October 31, 2015, with Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot. The 1984 sci-fi/action film The Terminator and the 1979 sci-fi-themed James Bond film Moonraker were its premiere night programming.

Comet draws from the extensive library of films and television programming owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and subsidiary United Artists, carrying more than 1,500 hours worth of sci-fi programming from the studio. In the summer of 2016, the network also acquired the rights to full two-hour repeat episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (a show which by coincidence launched on KTMA-TV in Minneapolis, which is now Sinclair-owned WUCW, which carries Comet as a digital subaffiliate), which are carried in a Sunday night double-run (albeit expanded to 2¼ hours to accommodate additional advertising), along with older films in the Godzilla franchise. Movies from other distributors, including Warner Bros., have also aired on Comet.