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This is a long one, so my apologies in advance. TLDR, Nexstar isn’t the future, local≠always better, and accessibility is paramount. I’ll have to disagree on quite a few of your points. First, Nexstar is not handling change in the industry well at all. They don’t have many other assets other than a mammoth amount of TV stations, which, in an industry that’s on the downswing, is like being the king of the coy pond. They’ve also put all their eggs in the proverbial basket of a floundering cable channel that has been hampered by distribution from the start. Also, it certainly doesn’t help that Nexstar actively restricts local streaming in order to “fulfill obligations to cable providers” or however they spin it. When you still live and die on retrans money, to the point where I can’t live stream a newscast, you aren’t handling change in the industry well. Also, where did you get the ratings info for the stations you cited? I find it rather surprising that KRON was able to beat KTVU. That said, if they did, I doubt it’s because KRON has more of a local brand; on the contrary, I would credit the amount of upheaval and turnover at KTVU more than anything innovative KRON has supposedly done. Also, no offense, but KUSI is a joke. Appealing to angry boomers is not a sustainable plan that anyone should follow. Granted, if WGN decided to call themselves “NewsNation Chicago,” people would notice. However, just because a station slaps on a local brand doesn’t mean they’re a better station, or one that has an advantage in the market. There are some stations that have enough legacy and clout to have a unique local brand, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. Most TV stations are bland, boring, and stuck in the 1990s in terms of branding, accessibility, content, and relevance. To get back to what this thread is about, what CBS has done is an effort to future-proof the company’s local newsrooms. Their stations are far more accessible than ever before; I can go on the CBS News app and see any CBS owned station’s local news, plus additional local content. It’s the best approach to accessibility that any station group has implemented so far. Compare that to your example, Nexstar, which does absolutely nothing on this front. That said, if some successful stations hold on to legacy brands either temporarily or permanently (like WBZ or KDKA, for example), I don’t think it matters as much as we think it does, especially since every station so far (except KCAL) visually emphasizes their presence on the CBS News app. Conversely, if most CBS stations drop their channel number, I don’t think it will either positively or negatively affect their ratings or viewer trust; there was neither outcry nor excessive curiosity among most viewers when KPIX and KCNC switched over. While *some* stations don’t need to drop legacy brands that are already working for them, they do need to reinvent themselves a bit, and prioritize accessibility in order for both older viewers and people in my age group to consider them relevant. So far, while the implementation hasn’t been perfect, CBS has done a decent job of that.

As others have said, nothing ground-breaking. Music is a bit too dramatic for me. Shame the new graphic elements couldn't be fully implemented. Kate seems out of it for some reason.

Watching News Central now and nothing new. The show open is okay. No new major GFX PKG change yet although there are a few new things sprinkled in through out the show.

Fixed for you. Meanwhile, I wouldn't be surprised if several netlets CW/FOX etc. keep the reruns of People's Court and Judge Mathis to fill midday airtime.

Initial impressions from just the first few minutes: I love the famous CNN signature being used in the theme. The use of the studio (the screens and RSS feeds) reminds me of the original The Situation Room.

A look at the logo (courtesy of The Other Site). I like this a lot. I wonder if the new studio will look similar to this (‘Studio 7’ circa 2010, designed by ClickSpring). Ideally, it would fit perfectly for what they’re going for with News Central.

D) Hire twice more meteorologists than they do now to help support a 24/7 full-time expansion of the network plus provide meteorologists in Orlando. E) Same as D but move the Florida-based part of the operation from Orlando to Tampa where you have a much stronger O&O and a much bigger weather team already there.

This constant debate is getting nowhere. The gaslighting and ad hominem attacks aren't constructive. Both "sides" here are making compelling points, but some are less rooted in the reality of the situation than others. Folks, we can sit here and scream about "market research" and "freedom to brand as they want" until we're all blue in the face, but that doesn't change the material facts being offered up at this point in time. Every station (with the exception of KCBS/KCAL, using a modified variant) has adopted the "CBS News [location]" co-brand, which is, in essence, the dominant brand in the graphics. Most, but not all of the stations, have also begun verbally using only the "CBS News [location]" brand, with the co-brand being regulated to nothing more than an image on the screen. If there was truly as much freedom being offered to the stations as some claim, I cannot imagine a world where every single station has adopted the same exact branding strategy with minimal to no variation. The rumored KYW co-brand is the first one that seems to have been designed for the branding scheme developed here, however even it is confined to the co-brand box. Either every station is on-board with the strategy CBS has developed (likely!) or there's now a real "CBS Mandate" that they stick to the one size fits all "cram your co-brand in this square" strategy. Otherwise, I'd suspect we'd be seeing stuff like this or this. "Brand equity" and "market research" is just a snapshot of consumer sentiment at one point in time. Many of these stations, with a few exceptions, are only visually co-branding. KTVT may still show the old CBS11 logo in their bug and certain graphics, but every single on-air mention, every promo, every reference to what the station is, calls it "CBS Texas". What's that mean for "brand equity"? It means that, over time, more and more people will connect "CBS Texas" to the station than the "CBS11" brand. This could happen six months from now, or maybe six years from now. Who knows! In the case of KTVT, the SVP of Brand Strategy and Development for the CBS O&O group is on record as saying "I think it was a no-brainer that while you’re trying to make a position around CBS New[s] Texas, that [the CBS11 logo] remained.” A very interesting choice of words, as "while you're trying to make a position around CBS New[s] Texas" seems to imply that the CBS11 logo will stick around as they build up the CBS News Texas brand, but not forever. Yes, older generations are going to refer to these stations however they damn well please until they ultimately depart this mortal plane. I still have family members that call WITI "TV6" despite the fact they haven't branded as such for almost thirty years. WITI smartly used the long-dormant "brand equity" for the TV6 brand on their Antenna TV channel, which appeals to those same people. This same demographic has also long aged out of the demographic these stations are largely trying to appeal to on their primary channel. All of this, all of it, is at the whim of a few managers at each station and a few people at corporate. The understanding is that the News Director at KCBS/KCAL fought for the "KCAL News" brand. What happens if he leaves? What if viewership and impressions decline? Whoever comes in next could easily blow up the whole branding strategy and decide to brand as "CBS News Los Angeles" in an attempt to change things up. To claim any of this is "permanent" is disregarding how this industry has worked for the past 40+ years. Nothing is permanent in this industry. There's been graphics packages that have lasted less than a year (some that have never even launched!), sets that get re-worked within months of debuting (look at what became of the very expensive WBBM Streetside Studio set...), brands like "Ei8ht is News" that lasted all of a handful of months. NewsNation launched with a bright "WGN America" plexiglass panel on the front of the desk. Surely, someone at Nexstar knew that the channel would be renamed "NewsNation" in the future, yet they paid for that WGN America panel anyways. @Myron Falwellis free to have his own opinion as to when this will happen, so is everyone else. I'm a bit more conservative with my guesses, I think it could take some stations years to move away from their co-brand, and I think a handful (KCAL, maybe WBZ) could keep their co-brands indefinitely (though the co-brand box is super awkward for a long-term brand.) Fighting about it isn't constructive. It doesn't have any effect on anybody's day-to-day life, unless you're in one of the aforementioned positions making these decisions. My opinion? Folks, we're not in 1995 anymore. The local broadcast TV industry has long resisted necessary changes, and we're now on the precipice of needing to do some once "unthinkable" things for it to remain viable. People who actually work in it were telling me 6 years ago that they expect it to utterly collapse by 2030, and that was before we had a global pandemic that showed these companies that you can have your reporters file packages out of their home and pipe in newscasts from the other side of the continent. Nothing lasts forever, and that includes retrans fees (which, I should add, largely became a "thing" when stations started seeing ad revenue fall off a cliff) and political ad dollars. At some point, the proverbial gravy train is going to come off the tracks. These station owners, large and small, are going to have to cut costs more than they already have, and that could come in the form of working with the networks to have more national news programming with local opt-outs (Similar to how the BBC handles regions, which the US morning shows kind of already do, and NBC News Daily does precisely) or the companies will just opt to do it themselves (Nexstar is in a position to do this with NewsNation, Scripps with Scripps News, etc. Why pay for a network news service when you already have your own?) The "CBS News [location]" strategy accounts for this while also giving each station a unique brand, which is more important in the digital age than ever before. There are a lot of "CBS 2"s out there, but only one "CBS New York"/"CBS Chicago"/"CBS Los Angeles". If the local media landscape looks the same in 2033 as it does now, some terrible mistakes were made.

Let's please dial back the desire to make everything feel like a personal attack and to become angry at someone's opinions or guesses that do not align with yours. Stay on track and have fun. Thank you.

My 2 cents: - There is a heritage in the primary local stations, often tied to channel number, call signs city and network(s). It’s up to the marketing and ownership to decide how they want to brand. - You can’t compare local NBC/ABC/CBS/Fox stations with MeTV or Bounce (or other diginets). The local stations often air local content (news/public affairs/infotainment), to help distiguish themselves from each other; the diginets are basically pre-programmed filler for the spectrum with ad opportunities (and yes, I’m aware some stations may opt out of a program or 2 for local content, but in general, they have no say on the programming). - The US market is different, in that it is still mostly affiliate-based. European countries started with a government-owned or managed model on a nation-wide basis, with private broadcasters starting relatively late. Canada was similar to the US, until consolidation resulted in basically each station is effectively owned by a network. (and I do wish that CTV would make an attempt to differentiate between CTV National News and CTV Local News… CBC and Global do it…) - As for local news titles, stations have changed newscast titles frequently and people seem to find them (such as changing from Channel 37 News to Eyewitness News to Newsactive 37 to WZZZ News to UPN 37 News to WB 37 News to 37 On Your Side News and back to Channel 37 News). - Some stations want to be linked to networks (NBC 4 News) and some don’t (e.g., Boston 25). It’s management’s call, not ours, and if CBS wants their O&O stations to use “CBS News New York” rather than CBS 2 or Eyewitness News, so be it.

Tell CBS - their actions in this rollout are leveraging legacy brand identification elements to help viewers in several markets. Reverting to WBZ.com for the on air to digital cue, going full on KCAL, plusing up the 4 in Miami, using the star 11 in Houston, whatever is going on with that vintage 3 in Philadelphia. Fact is within streaming it’s in many ways identical to the broadcast via cable experience with a live channel guide available. That familiar feature helped accelerate adoption.

The Flint, Albany GA, Macon GA cuts in news operations just means one thing - this will be the "new normal". I wouldn't be surprised that the eastern WA CBS stations are also in danger of losing their news operations. Either KIMA/KLEW shutting down and simulcasting KEPR news, or worse - going to The National Desk at all non-CBS/syndicated timeslots. The audience has gotten older, and the younger crowd isn't flocking to local TV news. Commercial breaks on KIMA are redundant, fewer local advertisers every year, national spots, and plenty of promos. That's not good for revenue. The advertising is all on local radio and/or online. News stories are the same ole', only the sports seem to be fresh (lots of HS sports here and we still have veteran sports director Alan Sillence). Motivate Your Monday and must-runs are killing what could be local story airtime.

I think interactions between the anchors will come with time. It’s a new format that everyone will have to get use to. I guess (hope) they get a chance to sit down off camera because standing for 3 hrs is a pain. Honestly, I’m glad there were no panels or political discussions. I know that’s their bread and butter, but viewers can get that elsewhere. I rather they focus on the news during these two 3 hr. blocks. I agree the show appeared too scripted, but that’s an easy fix. I’m interested in seeing how things will go when there’s breaking news (I.e… will they wheel in a desk and chairs for the anchors, etc…). Overall, not too bad.

Initial thoughts: interesting concept. The stand-ups, floor-to-ceiling graphics, and camera pans from one part of the studio to another reminded me of CNN’s election night coverage, which is probably not an accident. Creates a more active and fast-paced feeling. As others have said, no graphics overhaul yet. Lower thirds and bug are all the same. Some elements drawing from the new logo did appear sporadically. Some of the standing felt excessive, though. I almost felt bad for the anchors. I only watched the first 10 minutes but I didn’t see anyone sit down once. Even the panel discussion I saw involved everyone standing and chatting around a table. It was almost distracting. I suspect they will recalibrate some of this over time.

Don't know where to pose this question but I'll ask it here. With the concentration of local station ownership by just a few companies, what happens if a talent has a falling out at one station? Does it now blacklist them from all other stations in th group, or do individual station managers have the disgression if hiring someone ousted from another station? Overall, is this media oligapathy, so to speak, good for the local news industry?

I wish Gayle was 5 days a week. They could call it “Gayle King Live”, sounding similar to the last successful show they had in the 9pm slot (Larry King Live), as I presume it will be the same type of show.

Aside from KCAL they are all temporary idents and not reflective of anything long-term. KTVT and WFOR have entirely dumped their prior brands in favor of “CBS Texas” “CBS Miami” and those number logos are being flung into the sunset. Even WCBS has renamed themselves “CBS New York” despite their temporary retaining “CBS 2 News” and their newscasts visually blaring “CBS News New York” to anyone who can read. Those old logos are headed for the trash can. They are all temporary identifiers and will 100% be phased out in year or less outside of KCAL. And even then, KCAL dropped the 9 from their branding and KCBS dropped “CBS 2” altogether!! So much for channel numbers meaning anything in market #2… As for KYW, who the hell knows what is going on there. It might even change 20 times from the point that leaked Vimeo post began circulating. There is a good chance that that “3” — which is a total non sequiter and has nothing to do with any heritage or past logos or has any connection to the new “CBS Philadelphia” branding — is there as a visual crutch in promos and nothing else. It doesn’t fit anywhere else and never will.

Read the statement again, “local brand elements that could be enhanced to make identification with the new product easier. “ Local brand elements to help direct them to the new product. The new product is the CBS product. Some markets aren’t ready and CBS is using legacy elements help them be ready. Whenever that is one year or ten from now. Or maybe some never none of us or them knows. This is not about being special entitled Americans. It’s about the unique complex patchwork used to identified things here for decades in local news. That’s a function of legacy local level ownership and regulations that limited blanket ownership. And a dash of our spread out geography. Plus a sprinkle of retrans that delayed digital cash flow loss.

I genuinely don't buy that excuse for a second because there’s always people who confuse the affiliate as being the network. How many times have you seen an average viewer link a local Fox affiliate with the Fox News Channel? Or people get confused when a station changes network affiliations? Or the EPGs that don’t show the local logo for an affiliate but the network logo? Does the local branding really help and not become an impediment? WFXT de-branded to “Boston 25” because they explicitly wanted to remove any connection to Fox News as per what their audience believed and now we’re assuming that CBS, which wants to link CBS News to the O&Os, is giving up on doing that to WBZ? Come on. This whole “us ‘mericans are too good or not ready” for television branding conventions literally used in every other country on the planet comes off as a mere excuse not to even try. Who cares that diginets and the CW and Ion effectively rendered that excuse moot? People know MeTV is a thing and don’t need a “channel 69.13” brand slapped onto it.

wbz.com is a redirect and a cosmetic move and will remain that way for the long term; CBS has perpetual ownership of the domain name per the SEC brand licensing guidelines (iHeart has to use "wbznewsradio.iheart.com"). The servers still point to cbsnews.com/boston. Except the rebranding is ongoing anyway. They're already beginning the process of renaming it "CBS News Boston" and, contrary to a lot of people wishing to think otherwise, "opt-in mandate", "flexible standardization" and "unlimited freedom" do not exist.

I feel like that would be more of an iHeart problem if they choose to do that, so why would CBS care and kill off a brand that they've already had to resurrect because the CBS branding hurt them? People know the station as WBZ. Look what happened when NBC tried to launch a station or when WFXT rebranded and killed their news ratings. I can't see the WBZ brand, especially given its increased prominence, going anywhere.

ESPN has the major 4 sports leagues - NFL, NBA, MLB, & NHL, plus college sports. Is this the first time that one network has all of the major sports in recent years?

Wondering if the new studios for News Central will coincide with a new studio for This Morning. From a programmatic perspective I would think getting the new studio for the flagship morning show up and running should take priority over the daytime lineup. On the other hand, the temp studio CNNTM is using functionally works, whereas the studios from which Newsroom has aired lately are not well configured for a 3-host panel with stand ups, graphics, etc., so I get the need to revamp those. We’ll see.

I wouldn't be surprised if KYW goes sans box and fully embraces the CBS News Philadelphia brand. Them moving towards the brand even before launching the new graphics and music kinda hints at them going in that direction. I think the Eye-3 logo goes away altogether when they do launch the new look.

Has it been mentioned that they were getting new graphics? That would be a welcome change.

Because of false threats of active shooters at schools in the Pittsburgh area, KDKA is in breaking news mode, which means the logo box and the time/temperature/ticker are in red.

WTAE 1986 Promo "Action News is Everywhere" WMTW TV 8 News 1986/7 WHBQ Eyewitness News 1992 WIFR 23 Action News 1996

She hasn't worked with him in 7 years, but yes, they did work together when he launched CBS This Morning with her.

In Charlotte the leading news stations WBTV and WSOC no longer have a regular sports segment on their newscasts. On WSOC the sports anchor Phi Orban is a news anchor on the weekends and only covers the NFL Panthers and NBA Hornets as warranted, with no daily sports segment. Back in the day, these stations had strong sports anchors Jim Thacker, Paul Cameron, Delano Little and Harold Johnson. WCNC and WJZY now have the most sports coverage.

Yet they are giving Dick Wolf another multiyear renewal for One Chicago and SVU (L&O and Organized Crime are still to new to earn that). That causes an issue for NBC and its top producer. Unless all 3 big networks do it, I doubt one will go alone, especially after NBC being burnt before. With Paramount Global and Disney also belt tightening, it will be interesting to see if this actually happens.

The WBZ news at noon while showing a graphic promoting an upcoming interview with Robert Kraft that’s going to air during their 5pm news tonight was sporting the new o&o logo format. CBS News Boston with WBZ in a small box off to the left.

1980 behind the scenes special of action news at WSB

But then Pittsburgh peeps couldn't feel special about anything.

“From CBS News New York, this is CBS 2 News at 9” … god I felt sorry for Brian Lee having to read that sludge. And they didn’t rebrand away from “CBS 2 News” but the station is now “CBS New York”!?! How does THAT happen?? If I’m Wendy McMahon, I’m getting all the execs at WCBS-TV together and telling them, “You’re the flagship of the network. ACT like you’re the flagship!!” That file likely didn’t get cleared out of the master control automation in time. Not an uncommon occurrence after a rebrand.

And I remember the days when WBTV aired infomercials at 9 and 9:30 am in the mid 2000s. It seemed they could never find anything decent to replace Donahue at 9am until QC in the Mornng premiered. (Except I think Rachael Ray at one time). They would’ve been better off pulling a WFMY and delaying CBS This Morning/Early Today an hour (I mean this was the station that delayed The Price Is Right by a day for a decade to air Top O’ The Day at 11:30am) and extending their morning news until CBS finally cracked down on affiliates doing that. Of course they had room for Flip My Food and Fix it or Finish it.

Last week on Thursday 3/16, TWC quietly launched a new streaming show every weekday evening from 8pm-11pm ET. It's definitely available on all of their streaming apps (Roku, etc.), but it's unclear if it's also available on the streamtwc.com site or not, and I can't test it, because unlike the streaming apps, their website doesn't allow you to log in with your TV provider's credentials. You need a subscription to watch via the website. Anyway, the new streaming show is much more off-the-cuff and conversation-based than their TV product. One of the new personalities on the show is Heather Zons, who is one of their behind-the-camera meteorologists. She was given the opportunity to co-host this show on occasion. Last week, the Thursday/Friday shows featured her and Dr. Postel. This week, the Monday/Tuesday shows featured Carl Parker and Todd Borek. Curious to see who will host the rest of the week. It will be interesting to see what happens on Friday of this week when there's a big severe weather event in the forecast. Will they pre-empt the streaming-only show for standard live extended coverage on the linear channel, or will they direct all viewers to the streaming platform? By the way, the new show is so "experimental" right now that it doesn't even have a name. When they come back from break, they just say, "Welcome back to our new streaming show..."

And it's all over; Newsmax will be back on DirecTV tomorrow, with the agreement also specifying that the free network availability on everything from YouTube and every AVOD service up to barbecue grills and Yeti coolers being ended in the coming months.

And here we are when REPEATS of syndication are being kept on the air (Judge Judy) and prime time is reboots of old shows from the 80s and 90s. It makes the whole "season 9 was all a dream" that Dallas pulled off in the 80s with the death and return of Patrick Duffy that much more plausible these days.

SI, itself a dying presence, writes about the slow death of the local sports anchor. https://www.si.com/media/2023/03/21/death-of-the-local-sports-anchor-daily-cover

New round of layoffs coming to ESPN. Bob Iger did say last month that layoffs were coming to Disney; The article says that Stephen A. Smith, Scott Van Pelt, and Joe Buck/Troy Aikman are on the short list of those who are safe.

Bally is showing the pitch clock as an overlay on the diamond graphic. Not a bad spot.

When you say ratings are better than expected...how much better? For close 30 years the people of Detroit has been waiting. On another site the set was a topic of discussion. Have they talked about expanding the set. The topics have been how small it's etc. The station has the space because it inside WKBD studios from their time from then FOX/UPN. Just want to know what discussion have been had. Their newscast seems great and slow pacing. Less crime stories, so overall it does seem a well put together newscast. WWJ news certainly & hopefully nothing like WOIO or WGCL/WANF.

They shelved the idea several months ago. It does not mean they or another of the Big 3 networks look to do this again.

A reboot of classic game show I've Got a Secret is in the works for syndication and GSN.

Why didn't NBC want to air college basketball since they don't have as much sports programming as they used to with the loss of NHL? It is strange that they have had channels like USA, CNBC, and Bravo, but they were not willing to pay to air sports on these networks in the past, before peacock and streaming became popular.

Does this mean Dr. Phil is no longer in production with new shows? It seems odd that the show wouldn't even finish out the season with new shows through May. KDKA is wasting no time with a replacement.

The Jazz are not in their circulation area. The Rockies are, but with Altitude still blanked out from Comcast after several years... I don't think a team would want to enter that scenario.

Agree, and if MLB had a streaming app where I could watch all games of every team without region locks, I’d shell out the money for it. I’m sure a lot of other people would too. Same goes for NHL/NBA. The NFL essentially has that service already with Sunday Ticket; why can’t the other leagues have something like that?

DirecTV is suing Nexstar, along with Mission Broadcasting and White Knight Broadcasting, over the carriage dispute with the two sidecars that has been going on since last October, accusing the companies of price fixing and “engaging in an illegal conspiracy” to manipulate negotiations on retrans fee rates through Nexstar’s SSA/JSAs with the Mission and White Knight stations.

Watched some clips… The main 2 shot still lacks depth and looks awkward with the frame of the screen and the metal brackets. Weather board looks great with the warm limestone and peacock carving. A lot better than stark white Weather anchor desk side shot looks great too with the weather office in the background, nice depth to it The blue to orange sunset gradient is also refreshing - warm, friendly and not a color scheme you see a lot in broadcast news