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Overall a solid new look for 6ABC, watching the broadcast right now. And wow, the "Action News" format is very apparent with the new package. The pace of the newscast is notably quicker than the big sister up north. I never fully watched an Action News broadcast before. But overall, it's a solid product. Glad they kept the music theme too! At this point is KABC the only station now left to get the update? Seems like most of the O&Os have converted now at this point.

I agree with you MediaZone, the set is a bit dated now at this point having been in use since 2012. The studio can certainly use some updates, but we have to remember how horrible their set always was even before they moved to the street studio in 2012. So I still think 'Abysmal' is a bit harsh, to say the least. They are the only station in New York to have a street studio which to me beats any other station in NY. That alone is quite amazing. Their current streetside studio, despite now being just over 10 years old, is still country MILES away better than what they had before. Their previous studio was also cramped, small, and (even burned down) only to be rebuilt again. The issues you pointed out with the camera and graininess are quite possibly rooted in two things: 1. They are still on 720p (two steps below 4K), so they are not able to get the best picture quality because for some reason ABC and Disney opted for 720p during the HD rollout of the late 2000s rather than 1080i which allows for better lighting and picture quality. Most people won't notice the difference between 720 progressive and 1080 interlace, but 1080 is still more pixels and thus better quality. I'm not sure if ABC will ever upgrade to 1080i but that is certainly a limiting factor. 2. I do agree with you that WABC's set/studio lighting has never been optimal. It's always been just fair. They've always had issues with lighting and contrast. One thing they could do that is cost-effective is simply invest more in their lighting to squeeze more life out of the current studio till they move downtown later in the decade. It would certainly add more life to their aging set. Overall, I think WABC has come a very long way with its on-air appearance. It's taken them up until now really to get it right. With a couple of tweaks to the lighting and cameras, they can easily enhance their studio's look. And right now with the new group package, it's possibly the best look they've ever had. At the time it was pretty dated and antiquated and arguably the worst in the market. I don't think their current set is all that bad, is it on par with the rest of the O&Os, I think it is actually. All the other O&Os have newer updated sets so naturally they are more modern but WABC's new studio is on the horizon with the big move for ABC downtown so I'm willing to bet they will exceed our expectations when they move down there. I hope they go with a nice futuristic "White and Blue" look similar to CBS, rather than the dark blue hues we commonly associate them with. Would be a refreshing more modern look for them.

Here is KAKE’s new graphics package

The 2013 graphics and to a lesser extent the current KABC package look great. Switching over to the O&O mandate would not be an upgrade for the station. I almost wish the 2013 KABC look was the mandate. But the mandate does look better than what was running in NYC, Chicago and Raleigh.

A recent interview in Newsday featured Katiy Tong: https://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/kaity-tong-wpix-qhg4zhj3 She reflected on her time at WABC (where there were protests in 1991 when she was dropped as anchor) and WPIX (where she reminisced about her time with Jim Watkins). She also mentioned that her recovery has not been easy. Hoping for the best for her.

Yeah. KABC's current graphics still look great and relatively modern, yet has appeared somewhat outdated in recent years. Their news set remains my personal favorite among the ABC owned and operated stations, however. If I'm not mistaken, they are under some type of O&O-wide mandate to switch over to the new graphics package within a certain time frame. But, given that it is such a large undertaking for it all come to fruition, and, as you mentioned, to have that ultimate look, those may all very well be playing a role with regard to them taking their time with changing over to the new package right now.

Hmmm, the whole thing went live today on WPVI. Opening was the same as the Sunday edition (full length open, but no other change). All in all, sure, interesting changes in action. No ticker yet at noon, but space is there. Some familiar feel amidst the new design. Interesting. (Edit-posted my comments without noticing the comment above had been added; didn’t mean to look as though I didn’t read it, just hadn’t seen the notice a new post was made as I slowly typed.)

THIS JUST IN: WPVI (6abc Philadelphia) has officially SWITCHED and it looks GREAT!!

Purely personal, I’d rather hear the full cut on all shows, 11 pm included. And since Nydia remains on Sunday mornings, don’t see a reason not to have a talent opening. But they certainly have their reasons and it’s all fine. Just a personal preference, I think it loses something in the short versions. So be it, all good.

Stephen Clark told me that he was through 4 directors in 4 years. He wasn't much happy there either.

There wasn't any doubt from me. I knew it wasn't going anywhere. I was just curious how they were going to make the opens work with it. And it didn't turn out too bad.

I would say reserve your judgement till it fully debuts. That was just the generic version (notice no talent was mentioned). I think regular opens will feature some more of the cool elements that we've from the other stations including the live time and weather and maybe some scenery or even headshots of the talent.

Well at least now we know how they'll make the open work with MCTYW lol. And it looks good.

Wow, looks cool! To me honestly, it looks better than I even imagined it! Getting excited for the full look any day now basically!

WPVI hasn’t debuted the new look in full yet, but they debuted their version of the open today. (h/t @24994J) RPReplay_Final1710131284.mov

Meanwhile, elsewhere in WBDland.... Warner Bros. Discovery to Overhaul TruTV With Sports; Sets Nightly Block for Games and More TruTV isn't the only "zombie" WBD needs to deal with...

NextTV gave us more: So this isn’t meant to air exclusively in the morning hours like Live with Kelly & Mark is and Daily Buzz was. It will also premiere sometime this summer, before the preseason kicks off.

This has Weigel, the CBS indies and the Fox Plus stations written all over it, along with Scripps just going by a raw eyeball of where it would air in NFL markets (Green Bay it'll likely be WACY for sure, likely KMCI for Kansas City, WCIU for Chicago and WMLW for Milwaukee).

PVI already has the new weather graphics.

It seems it's somewhat done https://pagesix.com/2024/02/16/entertainment/abc-news-staffers-on-edge-as-network-prepares-to-move-to-nyc-no-mans-land-hudson-square/

"This is what I mean." We know what the set looks like. Screenshots don't prove your point.

This. Houston is a great example where the CBS affiliate historically struggled behind ABC and NBC stations until Oprah bolstered them into a competitive and then (although brief) a market leader. WFAA's lead in Dallas started to slip when Oprah ended her show. Outside of that, it was always puzzling to me why CBS News and CBS stations generally performed so badly despite having the dominating entertainment division.

It has a lot to do with lead-ins. WCBS had Judge Judy at 4 and the 5:00 was doing well. Then they lost Judge Judy and immediately fell. They picked up the show again and shot back up to #2. WABC had Oprah at 4 and those viewers made them #1 at 5. The winning allowed the station to remain stable in terms of talent and presentation. When Oprah ended her show and WABC replaced it with a newscast, viewers were already so accustomed to Eyewitness News that they largely stayed with them. Syndicated and network lead-ins are huge, along with stability (which is often a chicken-or-the-egg-type thing with winning).

Late to the party, so CNN will have News CENTRAL and NewsROOM now? It's clear that NewsCentral will be the main dayside brand but how will this differ from Newsroom? I'm glad to see Newsroom still around but I'm surprised they didn't just MSNBC it and unite all of dayside headline coverage under one brand.

I mean, given that those 2 stations are the only CBS O&O’s in their states (Colorado and Texas, respectively), you can’t really blame them.

And certain folks on Twitter are totally reacting with full understanding and sense to who that investor is . Of course, they aren't, really (the top result is Sputnik's imported gloom and doom). I'm sorry to tell most of them, but George Soros investing into Audacy doesn't immediately mean every one of their stations will become Air America, everything will become better or that he'll be able to get better songs on a radio station. Outside the all-news stations which everyone doesn't want to change, Audacy stations have been declining into automated and hubbed irrelevancy since the CBS merger, and it feels like he's throwing money into an open wound. I don't expect we've seen the last of Audacy in its doom spiral.

WEEK made the switch at 5pm today

Okay so we can stop this whole "XXXX" removed the NBC/CBS logo and make this thread longer than it already is, I spent the last 90 minutes going to every Gray owned and/or operated NBC website. I went to the livestream tab and watched the latest newscast to get the most accurate info. As you can see by the table I made, 99.5% of the staions have removed the NBC peacock from the station logo and branding. I can also verify that a good chunk of the CBS stations have also removed the CBS eye from the station logos (no I won't do a table). Wikipedia and Logopedia are NOT the best source for this info, as I found most of the station pages have NOT been updated to reflect the removals. I propose from here on out, let's stop posting that station XXXX has removed the peacock or eye from the logo. Unless the station completely revamps the logo, let's just know that this is now verified that Gray is removing NBC/CBS logos (ABC/FOX are unknown at this time)...

The majority of these are valid points. I get the idea behind a younger host but as we see with figures like Alex Trebek or Lee Lin Chin on SBS Australia, if the host is "hip enough" or carries that nostalgia factor, they'll also resonate with younger viewers. Plus marketing the experience of veteran anchors like Jim Gardner did might help. I also think presenting the news from an educational standpoint (a condensed version of explanatory journalism like various youtube channels and VOX, on top some positive --but not fluff --story choices might attract viewers. EDIT: I'm game, so longs as CBS doesn't dumb down the product to appeal to a younger audience (Today & GMA)

Thompson has acknowledged that most people (when it comes to politics) have gravitated towards channels that align with their political beliefs (i.e.. FNC or MSNBC) and aren't interested in getting a 'nonpartisan' viewpoint from CNN.