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So, I actually think there might be something here. Maybe. It's a hunch. Maybe I'm wrong! But, allow me to speculate for a moment. WSVN is in a very unique situation right now. They have plans to build a brand new facility, and their current owners are developing the real estate for both the current facility and the future one. They own the land at both sites, in fact, the future facility is on empty land they've held for years, and the current facility is on land they want to develop into expensive condos. The condo development wouldn't be planned if they didn't think it would make money, and it will probably make enough to pay for the new WSVN facility several times over. This whole new facility project has always had the underlying motive of Sunbeam wanting the station off the current land because they see the value in it, and they have a lot of empty land in Miramar that they can plop it on, to get it out of the way. The common saying is "Disney doesn't buy stations", but there should be an asterisk there. Disney doesn't buy stations because Bob Iger is convinced most are overpriced. Sunbeam has a very interesting position here. Their primary business is, at this point, property development. Building a building just to lease it out is what they do. It seems to me, like they could be in a position to sell WSVN at a "discount", with the remainder being more or less made up via a long-term lease on the new facility. This would be a huge win for Sunbeam. They can develop land that has sat idle for years, and have it immediately start making money, from a tenant that you really wouldn't have to worry about going bankrupt. They'd still make money off the station for years to come, and best of all, it'd be a predictable amount. It is notable that, despite the project being announced some time ago, the parcel the new facility will sit on was untouched as late as October of last year, over a year after it was announced and approved by the city. What's the delay? The fact we're hearing about this now means there's probably been talks about this for months. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that Sunbeam put the brakes on the project in order to provide the ability to any possible future owner (I think FOX is also in play here) to make changes before the construction begins. I'm not sure we're done hearing about this "deal"... I don't think Disney would settle for a .2, if there weren't other things in the works. I've been saying since the new facility was announced that this seems ripe for them to sell the station and make money off the lease, and this seems to be the perfect opportunity to do so.

The Times Square location never made sense as they never took advantage of the location. The show could be broadcasting from a basement in Kansas for all we know. Might as well not waste money using expensive real estate if there's nothing to gain.

Zoomed out view of the portion of the part of the set that the floor and background can be adjusted. Posted by Ryan Field.

When WSVN does air a FOX News package for national news, the reporters towards the end always say 7 News, not FOX News. They only showcase and say the FOX brand when FOX is on.

wccb and Fox had a great long standing relationship until they didn’t. Things can change

When I say ashamed of being a Fox affiliate, I mean they appear to distance themselves from the Fox and Fox News brands. I've never seen them refer to carrying Fox on air. I've hardly ever seen them air a Fox News package and if they do the anchors re-track it. I never see them take network cut ins ... there was a time they even partnered with CNN to air their coverage for a national event that happened. While WSVN may have a good business relationship with Fox, as your post says, they seem to dislike that negative Fox connotation.

WSVN and FOX have a 30 plus-year relationship and have described each other as 'perfect partners.' FOX went as far as to say, when they renewed the affiliation last year, that their 'relationship with Ed and the Sunbeam team is one of our longest and strongest affiliate partnerships.' That doesn't sound like either party is unhappy.

I don't know if it was ABC being wary of Scripps or more that Scripps doesn't feel like forking over more reverse comp for another ABC affiliation.

I get the impression that all ABC cares about is WSVN's ability and willingness to pay the reverse compensation.

I did not have that on my bingo card.

They’ll probably have to lay off staff regardless as ad rates and retrans fees are likely to decline without ABC programming

The WPLG story is big news, so I broke that off into its own thread. Please take the discussion there.

Just wow. It seems like April Fool's Day came twelve days early, but this is legit. South Florida has to prepare for another massive network affiliation switch, not counting WSFL dropping CW to go indie. Other than WTVJ, WFOR/WBFS, and obviously the Spanish network O&Os, WSVN and even WSFL have to be in play for the new ABC affiliation.

I assume WPLG wants to become WJXT South with this move.

I think the radio side of this forum needs an Out and About section of its own, so I'm starting it now. Starting Monday, March 24th, KMOX will gain a full-time signal on the FM dial at 104.1 WHHL, where they laid off the entire staff last week. https://radioinsight.com/headlines/296285/kmox-makes-addition-of-104-1-simulcast-official/ Also, the popular Los 40 brand is well known in Latin America but most popular in Spain, the original country where the brand was created. Its finally expanding to the U.S. While it has been in the states since last year (mainly as a digital platform), only now has the radio side expanded via distribution from Hispanic Radio Network. https://los40.us/ https://radioinsight.com/headlines/296301/hispanic-radio-network-launches-pair-of-24-7-networks/

Have a feeling when ABC's aboard, WSVN, when it comes to their newscasts, might be a bit more judicial when it comes to nat'l stories mixing in ABC along with CNN moreso than currently constitued btn. FOX & CNN. Also with this affiliation change, Miami joins Phoenix (KTVK) having both Jeopardy! & WoF on a non-network affiliated/independent station.

They don’t even air the networks cut ins, except for the prime time SOTU. Last time WSVN aired anything Fox related was during 9/11. Yes.

WJXT in Jacksonville has been profitable for years running local news and Big Bang Theory re-runs

They could go back to Studio 57. CBS News 24/7 has been embracing VR/AR studios anyway..

WSVN can get away with this since they were pretty much the first FOX affiliate to join their network as a strong news-producing station. This alone inspired Fox to mandate newscasts on the majority of their owned and affiliate stations. Those stations have the most to lose since they may not be able to meet a network's demands. However, certain stations (like WFMJ) have the advantage since they are the ONLY competition in a market, given that the rest of the market is controlled by Nexstar. Losing an affiliation to them would trigger market share issues when a group of full-powered stations controls virtually every affiliation in the market. Also, NBC seems the easiest to deal with network-wise, given the WRAL/WNCN switch. CBS got a bigger company to pay for network coverage despite a smaller audience and NBC finally got a good station in the Triangle after decades of failure on UHF stations. That seems to be the case, unless NBC wants the affiliation for itself, which happened to happen against Sunbeam in both Boston and Miami, as well as shutting down duplicate affiliates in Hagerstown and Atlantic City.

I wonder if opportunities for airing sports programming from the local teams will become available.

They tried to sell WVIT at the same time but found no buyers for it.

WSVN has now been a Fox affiliate longer that it was with NBC. July 1956 until New Year's Eve 1989, South Florida's Channel 7 was with NBC (32+ years); since New Year's Day 1989, they've been with Fox...thirty-six years and counting.

Well, this is certainly a surprise! It'll be interesting to see how WPLG does as an independent (something tells me station management will be chatting with their counterparts at WJXT for advice), how ABC does on 7.2... and whether or not Sunbeam takes the opportunity to go shopping for a duopoly partner for WSVN (with ABC moving to said partner). Didn't that attempted sale also include WVIT? It's on (virtual) channel 25 in one neighboring DMA (WPB) and 26 in the other (Fort Myers), so I don't think being on channel 39 would be that big a deal.

Someone here questioned if WPLG would vie for the Fox affiliation should that ever become available. In many ways, Local 10 News news has the Fox tone that 7 News paved the way for... only now their news product is better than WSVN's, and I would argue it's the best English language product in the Miami DMA. Local 10 News is very fast paced, high story count, and tabloid, with an emphasis on live shots, and spot news...much like 7 News. Should FOX ever migrate there, it would be a perfect fit. *Speculation... we'll cross that bridge if we get to it. Overall WPLG is a great station and I hope it continues to do well after it becomes an independent like WJXT.

Miami is one of the most unstable markets for network affiliation. This is just shocking. WSVN seems to be ashamed of being affiliated with Fox, so I can see them wanting to become the full-time ABC affiliate. Exactly my question, does ABC want to be relegated to a sub channel? I would imagine they just simulcast newscasts. Where does ABC go if it wants a full channel? WSFL, a less popular station with a high dial number? If ABC ever goes to its own full channel they might want to start a news department --if it lacks one. The south Florida television market would then be saturated with roughly seven english major broadcast stations in one signal area (Counting WPB) What syndication options are left? WPLG is already a news intensive operation...to fill programming holes they wont be too far off from KTLA's news output.

Their brand is far more (I know this is no longer reality) <Scott Chapin voice> 7 News </Scott Chapin voice> than anything else with the word Fox in it. So that’s not a huge deal. At the end of the day, when there’s an impasse with BH/WPLG and ABC, Mickey Mouse decided getting some money from an established Sunbeam WSVN operation on a .2 benefited them more than the cost of them establishing or supporting some other broadcast company scrambling for a solution for ABC to air on a much lesser known UHF OTA PSIP .1 and that station would be short on programming to fill off network hours. The network affiliate is a smaller piece of the viewership pie than it was, so Disney/ABC will take the money they can get from linear TV while it still has some value to them rather than spend to build their own as streaming tries to run out the clock in its fight against broadcast. Sunbeam saw a viable path to a second substantial South Florida revenue stream with minimal effort at least to start on a few months notice in a TV business reality of limited syndicated programming and less of it available every season. It’s an almost turnkey operation for weekdays if you just run ABC programming and 7news/Deco Drive simulcasts. I believe the only current gaps between the start of World News Now and the end of Nightline would be 3 to 4pm and 7 to 7:30pm. Even if they run the cheapest paid programming in those slots, it’s still revenue they weren’t generating before. WPLG’s plan come August is the most fascinating current unknown to the public part of this to watch moving forward.

Correction: WSVN switched from NBC to Fox, but marketed itself as an independent for the first couple of years with Fox because the network aired prime time programming only a few nights a week at the time. (Fox didn’t add children’s programming until 1990, and wouldn’t expand to a full seven-night-a-week prime time schedule until 1993.)

I'm betting WSVN newscasts will be mostly simulcasted on 7.2.

ABC on Channel 7, it’s almost like it’s meant to be. I wonder if WPLG will make a play for the FOX affiliation when that agreement is up.

That almost reminded me of the old CityPulse news program on Citytv Toronto

I’m old enough to remember when NBC tried to sell WTVJ to what was The Washington Post company at the time to form a duopoly with WPLG in 2008, which would have been the first top 20 with two of the big 4 English language networks under common ownership. That felt wild and ominous for the future of the business then. 17 years later the business model is so dramatically different this feels like a “yeah something like this was bound to happen in a market that size eventually” moment. Yet another network switch in a market where change has been pretty constant.

WSVN has formally announced the adding of ABC to its affiliation lineup on the air. WPLG also announced the ending of its ABC affiliation on TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF4ISfI7QJU

Here's another thing... WPLG will fill up ABC programming with news. WSVN will have to decide which simulcasts will go on 7.2 and which will be exclusive. Get ready for the cable/satellite paperwork that'll be discussed to find out where ABC will be located while WPLG stays on 10 more likely.

WPLG said they made a generous offer to ABC and if they had to pay more than that it would risk laying off staff

ABC’s move to WSVN-DT2 will make Miami the largest market with a subchannel-only Big Four network affiliate, which is a weird thing to note considering that Big Four multicast affiliates are typically associated with sub-75 markets with nowhere near the number of stations that South Florida has. CMIIW, I think Atlanta (affected by the 1980 NBC/ABC switches and the New World deal), Baltimore and Denver (both of which saw all of their Big Three stations swap networks in 1995 as a result of the CBS/Westinghouse deal) are currently the only Top 30 markets where none of the Big Three networks has a “legacy” affiliate (i.e., a station that it has been affiliated with prior to 1980). Given that ABC stayed with WPLG during the 1989 switches, making it the only Big Four network not affected then, Miami will now join that list.

I do see this... the WPLG and WSFL news arrangement will be off come Aug. 4th since they'll want to move the 10pm news over to WPLG itself and restart the 7-9am block it once had. Add 6:30 news as well, finally bridge the gaps on weekends mornings, and this could be the story that finally gives WSVN a run for their money. I mean, they already have but this will take things to a whole new level.

What a big way to venture into WSVN's 70th year. I truly didn't see this on my bingo card for 2025 or for 2026.

We don't know that yet, it's just speculation. We've yet to hear from ABC about where they're going.

ABC's NBA games, SEC football, everything else all headed to WSVN

WSVN will be the new ABC affiliate carrying it on 7.2 while maintining FOX on the main 7.1 channel.

This assumes that this isn’t a negotiating tactic on WPLG’s part: walk away knowing ABC has no good options for a replacement affiliate (considering WSVN is most likely locked in with Fox, and six other stations are owned by the parents of the other major English- and Spanish-language networks), so that the network will have no choice but to crawl back and meet its offer, a gamble that’s incredibly risky (they’re dealing with Disney, after all). We know other station owners have been trying to claw back on the reverse compensation model for the same reasons why WPLG said no to ABC’s terms. WSFL is the only option (relying on its existing deal with Scripps, though that would necessitate Scripps building the market’s fifth English news department from scratch), unless Disney/ABC pulls what NBC did in Boston a decade ago and launches an O&O from scratch. If it goes through, none of the major English-language television stations in Miami will have been an affiliate of their network for longer than 36 years, a rarity for a top-20 market.

... What?

It will be interesting to see what ABC ends up doing; WSFL? A subchannel on one of the existing stations? Perhaps do they avoid the broadcast game entirely and launch an entirely streaming Miami station? We shall see… …and we have an answer! WSVN will become the new home for ABC

Fox Kansas City (WDAF) has switched to the graphics that was first debuted by Fox Indianapolis (WXIN) last year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vbehyeetv0

Don't care what anyone says, or how good they try to make it. Full VR sets are really lame.

IMO, 40 isn't that young and I don't think it should be a problem if networks are always seeking younger demos. I disagree with the anchor bench, CBS has the weakest. They haven't really groomed anyone that stands out for larger roles, with Nate Burleson and Gayle King being their most prominent personalities. In comparison, NBC has Guthrie, Jackson, Peter Alexander, Tom Llamas, Kate Snow, Kristin Welker, Jose Diaz-Balart, and Lara Jarett etc... I agree however with the poster who said Savannah lacks that evening news quality. Is 12 years on the national level that short of a time? In this day and age, people are advancing much quicker as the industry changes and turnover gets higher (at least at the local level).

Snow would have been a solid choice, but it’s clear she wants to spend more time with her family. Guthrie is not at the level of say.. Diane Sawyer. She’s decent on Today, but is no where near good enough to be ‘the face’ of NBC News. And Jackson is too young (40) and when compared to ABC’s Johnson and Davis or CBS’ Duncan, they are all better than her, imo. I don’t think they wanted to take Alexander away from his current position. That said, it’s possible he gets a bigger role down the line (I.e.. succeeding Diaz-Balart on NN Saturday). The Liamas move buys NBC some time to build their anchor bench. When compared to ABC and CBS, they are pretty weak.

He was in over his head at noon & 5 on WNBC, he was bland as all get out on ABC, so my expectations are low for Tom. I said it over the Discord, but I'll ask here; he was clearly hired to be NBC's Muir, but will he end up being more of a Jeff Glor?

I’m pretty meh on Tom Llamas being the replacement if they decide on him. He’s underwhelming.