Abrams Media Plans Expansion of Law&Crime Network

Law&Crime Network, Mediaite’s sister company focused on legal news and true crime, is planning a global expansion following blockbuster growth in 2020, Axios reported Thursday.

Founded by Dan Abrams in 2017, the network was profitable for the first time in 2020, bringing in more than $13 million revenue last year – a huge jump from less than $3 million in 2019, according to Axios. The increased revenue will jumpstart Law&Crime’s international expansion, Abrams said.

Expansion plans include talks with smart TV makers, including Samsung, to distribute content on digital TVs outside of the U.S. and Canada. The live network is already available in the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands, and there are plans to expand to other English-speaking countries in the near future.

“Law&Crime continues to extend outside of the U.S. with recent deals in the U.K., Hungary and South Africa where streamers have been really excited to have our network,” Abrams told Mediaite. “More broadly, our December 2020 month saw a record of more than 100 million cross-platform minutes viewed.”

With a live TV channel available in 25 million households, Law&Crime’s programming regularly features live court videos, high-profile criminal trials, celebrity crime dramas and legal analysis.

Trial coverage has been the biggest boost to the network so far. “We use every piece of the trial,” Abrams told Axios. “We own the IP. We cover trials live, and then we can then use the material for other productions. We sometimes end up getting licensing fees from others looking to build off of the material for documentaries.”

Law&Crime also has a nationally syndicated show, Law&Crime Daily, and last year acquired Caught in Providence, a hit viral show from the courtroom of Municipal Court Judge Frank Caprio in Providence, Rhode Island. The network will focus in adding more live programming in 2021, Axios reported.

Law&Crime also produces true crime content for other platforms, including A&E Networks (which provided an undisclosed funding round for Law&Crime when it launched), Lifetime, Vice, and Facebook, and sold the true-crime series Killer Cases to crime-focused cable channels in places like the U.K., Italy, Germany, Poland and parts of Africa.

The company is also bringing in five new true crime podcasts, according to Axios, and Abrams is also looking to grow the company’s digital presence and hire several more people. Law&Crime’s website gets about 6 million unique visitors each month.

Law&Crime, with 55 employees, is the biggest company within Abrams Media, which includes Mediaite, girl-geek culture website TheMarySue.com, and whiskey review website WhiskeyRaiders.com.