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Meanwhile, I have a feeling Syfy may be going away in the next year. The channel's had a limited amount of new original shows for a while now, but it's currently down to just three shows, one of which has yet to premiere. Also, one recently-canceled show, Chucky, was simulcast on USA Network, while another show, Resident Alien, is moving to that channel altogether. Most of Syfy's schedule consists of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, thriller, and action movies. It could easily be merged into USA Network and its channel space sold off.

As I read in the Variety article, it would be very complicated. MSNBC and CNBC are part of NBC News and helps pay for news gathering (they are very profitable). USA is a vehicle for NBC Sports now that they shut down their own sports channel. Plus they play a big role with Peacock. Universo is tied in with Telemundo, and hosts sports including Spanish simulcasts of SNF and probably SNNBA. Could E!, Bravo, Oxygen and Universal Kids command enough interest in a spinoff? They are right to look at it as an option, but anyone thinking this is a done deal is way too premature.

From the perspective of an NEP weekday producer at the station that I know, they acknowledged that it was indeed a genuine mistake for the testing to air on live feed, and when the crew there saw it, they were very much like “oh sh*t,” and rushed it off. However, folks have expressed their internal disappointment and frustration with the situation, as TEGNA suits are pretty miffed someone could’ve made such an error, given the current political climate. Not at all the attention they want.

Comcast is considering spinning off their cable networks. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/comcast-exploring-spinoff-cable-networks-124654274.html I wonder why they would so this. I would keep the most successful networks or programs and close the ones that aren't. Or turn them into streaming categories & put it on peacock.

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/wheel-of-fortune-jeopardy-sony-sues-cbs-lawsuit-1236196675/

I watched the CNBC coverage they posted online when this was breaking, and there was no mention of MSNBC losing money. Comcast never said in their shareholder comments about MSNBC losing money. Are you sure you heard correctly? They talked about how cable networks are a drain on the company due to subscriber declines, but there was no mention of MSNBC being unprofitable or losing money. None of the media stories covering this, including outlets very hostile to MSNBC, have mentioned MSNBC losing money. It's only this discussion forum where MSNBC losing money is considered fact.

They're doing an VR/AR-style mockup of 30 Rock in 1A.

Allen lived in NYC for 2 years while attending Columbia University back in 2015-2017.

I'm months late seeing this comment but Lester???! I'll pick this up in the NBC Nightly News thread. Wolf is iconic. Hard to imagine CNN without him.

Undoubtedly, hiring transplants leads to reporters unfamiliar with the market. But that's just the nature of the business. Yes experience is beneficial, but denying someone a chance because they're young, or thinking someone would be less error prone because they're older is unfair. Devlin wasn't my favorite anchor in ATL, and I'd rather Dick Brennan as anchor, but I won't say Devlin's unqualified for NYC. This looks like an MMJ package shot on cell phone based on video angles. If so, it's unfortunate that one man banding has crept as high as Market #1. The incentives to become a tv journalist are shrinking. More responsibilities for declining pay and tighter deadlines. Anchoring is an escape from the hassles of field reporting but companies like Scripps are eliminating that position in some markets.

There have been rumblings that he's looking to retire. He's close to 80 and has been on CNN for over 35 yrs. (?). If it's true he won't appear in some capacity on Election Night, he will be missed.

Yes. He was hired as the main anchor to replace Maurice. And yes.. this is what happens when people are hired young and out of town because they check a box. Just sayin’.

Background feels busy.

And so now the Tegna suits have directed station IT to lock down and restrict access to the election systems. You'd think they would have a regular standard of appropriate access for various workgroups.

I think when the majority of groups started to use Stephen Arnold Music packages, which largely have the same "indie" orchestration, across similar markets, that should have been the tip off that distinct marketing wasn't their priority. Instead of investing in leveraging technology, marketing and journalistic prowess, these station groups are refusing to ensure outlet sustainability. They are cutting value to provide greater dividends to shareholders and increase executive payout, which is quickly collapsing the Local News ethos. If groups like Nexstar would reinvest their profit from election year ad rev back into their stations, the stations would be able to provide more robust coverage during election off-years, which would in turn increase impressions and drive more consistent ad revenue during those non-stunting election years. Instead, they've bought into the cyclical nature of the election-year ad revenue, which results in inconsistent employment, poor job satisfaction, and an overall increase in employee turnover. This further degrades viewership during election off-years. Keeping your talent happy and employed, and performing the duties outlined in 1 job description, will lead to more consistent ratings and build community trust. This is why local ownership is so crucial. They are in touch with their staff and with the community. If they know how to leverage their assets and revenues, they can build a robust brand that local viewers count on. This can't be true, simply looking at viewership analytics from a high rise on the other side of the county and you cannot assume that hiring someone to review the analytics at the local level will translate if the executives hire station management to agree with them than work independently to improve impressions.

Pretty much. Sort of a mix between the Graham package and GrayOne. All of the TV packages the groups are putting out are starting to look the same. Don't they want to stand out from their competition?

Isn't that where the concept of bureaus comes in? "Reporting now from our Fort Lauderdale bureau..."

MSNBC's plans for Election Night: On Nov. 5, MSNBC kicks off its Election Night coverage from the network’s home base in New York City. More than 25 anchors will take part in an array of reporting that spans cable, digital, and social media coverage. (All times Eastern.) Starting at 6 p.m., Rachel Maddow leads the network’s primetime election coverage with the assistance of Nicolle Wallace, Ari Melber, Joy Reid, Chris Hayes, Alex Wagner, Lawrence O’Donnell, Stephanie Ruhle, and Jen Psaki. As always, Steven Kornacki will be on Big Board duty for both NBC News and MSNBC. The national political correspondent will keep track of all the state-by-state results as they roll in. Serious Kornacki stans can also follow him via the Kornacki Cam, which streams on MSNBC.com, MSNBC on YouTube and Peacock, as well as social media platforms like TikTok and X, formerly Twitter. Look for Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, and Claire McCaskill to provide additional contributions throughout the night. Meanwhile, additional analysis will come from a group that includes Rick Hasen, Matt Sanderson, John Fortier, Edward Foley, Nate Persily, Franita Tolson, and Michael Morse. MSNBC is embedding five journalists apiece at the headquarters of both presidential campaigns. Peter Alexander, Yamiche Alcindor, Gabe Gutierrez, Natasha Korecki and Peter Nicholas will be with Vice President Kamala Harris, while Garrett Haake, Dasha Burns, Vaughn Hillyard, Matt Dixon and Henry Gomez are covering former President Donald Trump. Back at the White House, look for Monica Alba, Mike Memoli, and Aaron Gilchrist to be covering news out of Washington, D.C. Another 100 correspondents will be spread out across the nation in such states as Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Texas, Nevada, and Nebraska. Select MSNBC talent will also contribute analysis to MSNBC.com and the MSNBC app before, during and after Election Night.

CNN's Plans for Election night: CNN’s deep roster of anchors, correspondents, analysts, and commentators will be out in full force on Election Night. Look for coverage to span multiple platforms, including cable networks CNN and CNN International, as well as the CNN Max streaming service and CNN.com. The main event begins on Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. with the launch of Election Night in America. (All times Eastern.) Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper will be co-anchoring coverage from New York City and Washington, D.C. respectively. Joining the duo are Dana Bash, Erin Burnett, Audie Cornish, and Chris Wallace with additional commentary and analysis. Naturally, John King will once again be stationed at the Magic Wall, surveying the election results as numbers roll in from around the country. Meanwhile, Pamela Brown is holding down the fort at the Voting Desk, where she’ll share turnout information. The Battleground Desk will be manned by David Chalian, who will keep his eyes on the latest exit polling results. Look for Laura Cotes to provide legal insight during the course of the evening, and Boris Sanchez to examine the down-ballot races. Fresh off her ADWEEK Medaweek appearance, Abby Phillip will be stationed at the headquarters of Vice President Kamala Harris‘ campaign alongside Jeff Zeleny. Meanwhile, Kaitlan Collins will—appropriately enough—be on the ground covering events from the campaign HQ for former President Donald Trump alongside Kristen Holmes. Additionally, CNN is stationing dozens of anchors in various locations around the country. See the full breakdown below:Arizona: Kyung Lah and Ed Lavandera California: Veronica Miracle Florida: Randi Kaye Georgia: Victor Blackwell, Sara Murray, Isabel Rosales, and Nick Valencia Michigan: Kylie Atwood and Jim Sciutto Nevada: Jim Acosta and Stephanie Elam New Hampshire: Gary Tuchman New York City: Jason Carroll North Carolina: Brianna Keilar and Miguel Marquez Pennsylvania: Kate Bolduan, Danny Freeman, and Brian Todd Texas: Rosa Flores Virginia: René Marsh Wisconsin: Josh Campbell and Sara Sidner Turning to CNN’s other platforms, CNN International will air the U.S. network’s election coverage starting at midnight on Nov. 5. CNN en Español has its own special election night coverage starting at 5 p.m. led Juan Carlos López and a panel of contributors. In addition, Gus Valdes and Ione Molinares are covering the Harris and Trump campaigns, respectively, while Maria Santana, Gonzalo Alvarado, Ana Maria Mejía, and Rafael Romo will report in from Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Charlotte and Atlanta. Over on CNN.com, CNN’s Election Center will serve as the digital hub for election coverage and users of the CNN App can interact with their own version of King’s Magic Wall.

I've been there before as a journalist and in all fairness it is a lot to learn pronunciations of EVERY place as soon as you get the job. He probably wouldn't have known the pronunciation because he's never had to say the neighborhood name before plus most people simply call it The Village. Speaking of reporter mistakes, I've seen long time journalists at some of the stations call anywhere in Central Brooklyn "Flatbush". Yes, little details like this matter, but no one is perfect. Someone should point at the mistake to him, correct this and any more potential mispronunciations, then move on. The producers can also assist by putting pronouncers of tricky town names in the prompter.

Bumping this thread: WATE has now picked up this package as well.. There seems to be tweaks to the package, but it is definitely the WPIX package.. They are still in transition.. using the KOIN package bug and news ticker, but everything else is essentially the new package. Also switched to Ascend for music.

It's also embarrassing that they have a rotating door of anchors. Katie Couric Scott Pelly Jeff Glor Norah O'Donnell and now we got the latest of the bunch, good luck to them.

Writing on the wall for EAM, I suppose; they're realizing the overhead for a web presence is much less than that of a television station, and I assume the proceeds will only help the ministry. Gotta be a bit shocked they went to Nexstar when VCY America and TCT still in an acquiring mood; they could've easily $1-and-debt'ed the operation out to another godcaster, but they found a good commercial offer. And it also gives Nexstar a chance to see if moving around channel numbers to use WJW's 8 on UHF works, and just have everything hosted off the 55 transmitter, sacrificing VHF 8 to 3.0 lighthouse duty.

I don't mind it. I think the virtual weather studio is cool, and the virtual news set that's used on CBS 24/7 is even better. It sets their weather presentation apart from the other six stations in NYC. From questionable graphics choices (as shown in that debate pic) to questionable talent changes. Just a series of clueless missteps by CBS O&Os and WCBS itself. Who is their news director???

Copy. It feels weird, the distinct lack of publicity about this. It's almost as if CBS is embarrassed to be retooling its evening show yet again.

Who's going to be the first to show the fall schedule now even know I didn't live close to Cleveland I always liked what WBNX was going to show in syndication. Isn't Nexstar in The FCC doghouse with WPIX, WADL with Mission.

I got news for you: local Emmys have ZERO weight on someone's employment. The idea that someone wins a trophy because a producer in Kansas City thinks someone is a great anchor in a market like New York City is pretty wild in the first place.

Longtime WLOX anchor David Elliott is no longer at the station after supposedly expressing his political views on the site formerly known as Twitter https://www.sunherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article294546944.html And it is refreshing to see a newspaper not only still covering local television, but to be holding firm to the standard that anchors (and other journalists) should not express their political views, period.

So whatever "The Weather Channel LIVE" ends up being, would we expect it to be a very low-staff program, perhaps something that originates from The Lab like the old "Weather Center Live"?

Agreed, this is a huge improvement over the previous backdrop.

Noticed on GDNY late last week. It makes it look 1000% better. Hopefully we see similar backdrops make it to other shows

Not starting a new thread over it, but KUSA has adopted the new open first seen on WXIA.

Will we get Democracy Plaza back this year or will it be the same lackluster video wall backdrop in studio 1A?

And now the New York Post reported this just yesterday about Lester Holt supposedly retiring. This could all be speculation and sources say, but the grooming of Tom as a successor has been obvious. I just did not expect talk of Holt's retirement to be happening now. He's a very stable presence at the network. Overall I think Nightly News needs better graphics, a better studio, and they need to tweak how they edit their packages. I appreciate their visual aids and graphics but sometimes their transitions are head spinning, it's almost ADHD pacing. As for why NNN dropped to #2, I think it's the loss of Brian Williams. He had a very grand and narrative style of writing, which were exemplified in his anchor intros before packages. Lester Holt is more straight to the point.

Adding to that, something I learned... Metropolitan areas, and DMAs are not necessarily coextensive. So a metropolitan area can have a higher population than another metro, yet still have a lower DMA rank. Our example... The Miami Metro is bigger than the Tampa Metro, yet Tampa's DMA ranks higher than Miami's. Why? The Miami metropolitan area includes the population of Palm Beach County, but the Miami DMA does not. This is probably because the entire metropolitan area would be too massive for the stations to drive to get to stories.

Allen Devlin is anchoring the 8 p.m. on Halloween night. Right at the top, he pronounced where the big parade is taking place as "Green-Which Village." He's lucky that this newscast is on WLNY and no one is watching, but wow. This is why you don't take someone who is totally unfamiliar with New York and plop them on weeknights as an anchor.

That's meh.

Do you mean WKRN in Nashville? Here's the link below: As for the graphics, I would say that this is neither an upgrade nor a downgrade from what they previously had. I guess it would be just neutral because although the background is a bit cleaner, I feel like the transitions are sort of all over the place. That's just me. Video Credit: Studio 31 Media Archive via YouTube

WNEP is making news for a test of the election ticker that broadcast on-air over the weekend... And the station has issued a statement about it

I'd be curious to see if there are ANY physical assets other than the transmitter itself that may be transferred from Winston to Nexstar. The way I see it, when the sale closes, the old WBNX in Cuyahoga Falls closes down and the new WBNX launches from 5800 Dick Goddard Way in Cleveland and the WJW staffers are given another station to run. So all of the physical assets and archives of WBNX remain in the hands of Winston and are used solely for ministry purposes (basically what's left of Ernest Angley's Grace Cathedral). Even with the studio rule abolished, they don't even need a presence in Akron (or Cuyahoga Falls) anymore. Although, they may have a sales person or two out of WJW's bureau at the University of Akron (do they still even have that?) Maybe one day, the Angley complex in Cuyahoga Falls will get sold and they can do something useful with the land. It would be a great compliment to Portage Crossing, the successor to the derelict State Road Plaza that closed a decade ago. Even the majority of the WBNX/Angley complex was once a Shoppers' Fair discount store before Rex Humbard tried to build his empire there, complete with his concrete "erection" that still stands tall to this day....

Andrea Mitchell is calling it quits from her daily show on MSNBC after Inauguration Day. She will continue as chief Washington and foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News. https://deadline.com/2024/10/andrea-mitchell-ends-msnbc-daily-show-1236161

If this sale goes through, WBNX is about to be a sister station to WJW and a CW O&O. https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/nexstar-expands-presence-in-cleveland-buying-wbnx I guess hell is finally freezing over.

Damn, even I was shocked that this finally happened. I think Ernest Angley's church has mostly moved to YouTube and the internet, since any of their shows haven't aired in quite a while on WBNX. I don't think it will be much of a loss of employees for WBNX since they likely all work...er...volunteer their lives towards their lord and savior. (Lord Ernest P. Winston Angley....hopefully feeling the effects of the rapture he preached to his followers) It will likely shake up the market programming-wise since WBNX has been the dumping ground for anything syndicated, especially if Nexstar passes on anything. WUAB will probably go back to being an independent (or MNTV), and this could be leading up to them ever getting the Cavs or Guardians rights from Bally...er...whatever that dumpster fire RSN is called these days (FanDuel?)

I've always figured that WBNX was going to be someone's duopoly partner in Northeast Ohio, it was just a matter of time.

Nexstar is purchasing WBNX from Ernest Angley, forming a duopoly with WJW. WBNX will reaffiliate with The CW on Sept. 1, 2025.

Today is a very sad day across Northeast Ohio media (and on my birthday nonetheless. ). The great, legendary Jim Donovan, has passed away. Cancer took Jimmy away from us at only 68. https://www.wkyc.com/article/entertainment/television/jim-donovan-former-wkyc-sports-anchor-cleveland-browns-radio-voice-passes-away-68/95-36aabdb8-47ab-49e5-b1aa-521f0497f688?fbclid=IwY2xjawGKE9RleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdWcsJ03tKfm2gT_bVTWupX6-wRoQoFPIqj_Q2EmupYd3T6-8yEUZtcJ2w_aem_mwiVPFEoLfpbB2876Hnqqg