Weeters

Cater Lee, the creator of "The List" and "Right this Minute" is returning to Scripps as their Vice President of Programming.

 

http://www.scripps.com/press-releases/906-cater-lee-returns-to-scripps-as

 

It's not clear if this position has anything to do with the locally-produced programming (like "The Now" and "The Morning Blend") on the Scripps stations.

[quote name='TVNewsLover']I thought I read that the 3pm news hour is ending. Am I not remembering correctly?[/QUOTE] This Friday is the last show. Next Monday "The Fab Life" premieres. I'm thinking The Now might eventually launch at 4, but as @MilwaukeeInsider mentioned, they have to wait for everything to fall into place.

How old are the Journal graphics?

 

6 years old as of April. They debut when WTMJ went HD in 2009.

Word on the street is the studio is being cleared of everything so the entire floor can be replaced. The existing set will go back, with some alterations, many of which will be focused on the Orange Room.

 

Allegedly, this is going to take two weeks.

How much work would it take for Scripps to adapt their package from chyron to VizRT?

 

It really depends on a few things.

 

A good example of a poor conversion from to Viz can be seen at CBS O&Os.

 

Let's remind ourselves what the first leak of the current graphics looked like.

[GALLERY=media, 342]mobile L3 by Weeters posted Sep 15, 2013 at 4:33 PM[/GALLERY]

 

KDKA, last I heard, uses PixelPower CG's and thus the graphics use the pre-rendered files that were created in better software (probably Cinema 4D and After Effects)

 

These also match what's at WCBS

 

But look at the lower thirds at WBBM.

 

They animate on differently and look a bit different. WBBM uses VizRT, and so the lower third graphics were re-built in Viz, and not very well when you look at the other O&O's.

 

Since Scripps seems to obsess over how their stations look, my guess is they'll take the time to make sure everything looks right.

If I might ask... Are Chyron and Viz able to display the same graphics exactly the same or would this be an excuse to tweak the graphics to accommodate a different system?

You could use it as an excuse to change things up, because there are differences, but it sounds like Scripps is quite happy with the package just the way it is.

If it doesn't have the VizRT system I wonder if they'll just install what the Scripps stations used pre-merger.

That would be Chyron. From what I hear, Scripps is moving off Chyron to Viz (That's why they were hiring Viz people for the hub).

 

In the meantime I guess WGBA is just stuck in limbo.

I imagine they'll be cut over soon if they haven't already... They were gonna hire a couple graphical designers a couple months ago to work with the VizRT system Journal used...

 

I believe WGBA was one of, if not the last JBG stations to not have VizRT, which is why their version of the graphics package looks so messed up.

New set discussion has been moved.

 

Looks like based on this promo for a new show featuring a local sports talk radio host (Mark Madden), the new branding is "22 the Point"

 

https://www.facebook.com/my22pittsburgh?fref=photo

 

I'm not a huge fan of Sinclair but I will say that they do seem intent on providing a lot more local content for WPNT compared to before.

 

Don't forget the exclamation point! It's 22 the Point!

I moved the fantasy schedules that were in this thread over here: http://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?/topic/14830-msnbc-schedule/

When I clicked on WTVF it gave me their site with the WXYZ logo at the top. Of the other 2 one was blank and the other had a Scripps logo at the top.

 

As for the NOW... It ranges from bad in some markets to actually pretty good in Detroit.

Yeah, they're blank, but they exist, which is the important thing here.

 

Didn't TMJ4 just win an Edward R. Murrow award for best website?

Someone on here said that the Murrow awards have to do with content and not necessarily design.

I remember someone on here figured out where the Scripps websites hide before they go live during WKBW's integration...

 

http://www.scrippsnationalnews.com/web/wtvf

http://www.scrippsnationalnews.com/web/wtmj

http://www.scrippsnationalnews.com/web/ktnv

 

Barebones right now, but at least that means the awful Journal sites are going to go away.

I mentioned this in the shoutbox the other day. I finally noticed the old Nightly News part of the set being used the other day, for an interview.

 

 

It appears they essentially swapped everything around in the studio when the desk got moved. That little desk is the the one that used to sit in front of the couch area on the Rock Center set.

 

It looks like they just put in some wood paneling where the monitor wall used to be. You can see a small sliver of it on the left.

 

It would have to be awfully dominant to leapfrog all those bigger stations in revenue. WXYZ has always been Scripps cash cow so to speak. That their new Nashville station may be the #2 is surprising... Or maybe not... It is Scripps after all.

 

It was outperforming all the other Journal stations since the second they took ownership of it and became the de-facto flagship station for the group. It doesn't surprise me to hear it is #2 under Scripps.

 

Noticing that the studio cams and the hand held cam still don't color match.

 

That kind of stuff happens. Unless they splurged for a studio kit for that camera, you can't generally easily color correct through the camera itself. That's why the camera companies sell the "paintbox" add-on for thousands of dollars, after all.

 

Lets see what happens now that the Incentive Auction list is out. Scripps (and others) will be looking at that quick and dirty "cash out".`

 

If Scripps is serious about putting digital first...than why wouldn't they cash out a few low rated stations and convert them to virtual 'stations" as part of the Grand Digi-Plan?

 

Let them be the pioneers, and let the gubmnt give them the operating cash for the big experiment.

 

The entire dynamic is about to "be" changed forever based on this upcoming auction.

 

Scripps already said in an investor conference call (or whatever, it was on the SEC's website right before the Scripps/Journal merger took effect) that they weren't interested in participating in the spectrum auction at all.

 

EDIT: Here it is

 

 

I guess the one question that I'm sure you are getting a lot of people asking that, as well as each one of your peers is getting asked, is about the upcoming FCC broadcast incentive auction. It would be great to hear your views and your strategy and how you plan to position yourself, play the auction, and how you guys are thinking about approaching it.

 

 

Tim Wesolowski - The E.W. Scripps Company - SVP, CFO and Treasurer

 

Go ahead.

 

 

Rich Boehne - The E.W. Scripps Company - Chairman, President and CEO

 

It seems I get all the talking today, my lucky day. We are obviously spending a lot of time looking at a lot of the material that has been released relative to the auction. I think we have been consistent from the beginning saying we are broadcasters and we have an broadcasters since day one. We got some of the early licenses that were handed out in Washington, and we signed on some of the first television stations in America. And we expect to continue to be in the television business for decades to come.

 

That said, I think as a publicly traded company we have a responsibility to our shareholders to run the appropriate models, to look at how that spectrum is evaluated in every one of our markets and compare some of the options of selling back all 6 megahertz or channel sharing or partnering with other folks. But we have to compare that to what we see as a really viable long-term opportunity of funding an advanced standard to broadcast television in the United States. And I think ourselves and many of our peers in the industry are looking at an advanced ATSE standard that we think will allow us to better optimize the spectrum that we use for over-the-air broadcasting and give us a lot more flexibility to do things like additional multicast channels to serve the over-the-top audience.

 

We see opportunity for us to do the leasing of additional spectrum to telcos and others instead of just selling out and letting the government sell off that spectrum to those same folks. We think there's datacasting opportunities. There's opportunities for us to be able to provide targeted advertising to specific households through the new standards.

 

So we think that there's a great business on the backside, and we think that many of the businesses and revenue streams that could be our future have yet to be developed as a result of better optimization of the spectrum.

 

 

 

And so we will spend a fair amount of time in these next couple of months evaluating that on a market-by-market basis and then making individual decisions. But let me just be clear. Scripps will not be a wholesale seller. We will expect to be in our markets for the long haul and hopefully finding new, innovative business models to create great value for our shareholders with the spectrum we have.

I could potentially see them dumping duopoly stations as "redundancy" but it sounds like they're more interested in holding their spectrum for what may come in the future.

Is a "real-time desk" just a fresh name for an assignment desk, with the people working on it earning less money?

 

http://www.ftvlive.com/todays-news/2015/6/8/phoenix-station-ditches-their-assignment-desk

I'm pretty sure Edward Murrow, Water Cronkite, and maybe even ol' Ed Scripps himself are spinning fast enough to generate electricity for a small country at this point.

There was a technical glitch that kept them from rolling the headlines/open and caused them to come on late (everyone saw black for several seconds).

If I recall correctly, you have to push a button on the clicker to activate MagicTrak, which is what the hand-tracking thing is called. MagicTrak only works well when you use your whole open hand to point... That's why it was having issues when he was pointing with one finger.

 

You probably won't see "new maps" if they're just replacing an old system... The WSI maps have looked pretty much the same for years, and stations don't have a lot of options to change how they look, especially in markets where the other stations are using WSI systems.

Look at how quickly Fox was able to hub KTVU and how long it's taking WFXT to get off the Fox's hub. It's been what at least six months?

As far as graphics go, KTVU was able to adopt the O&O look as fast as it did only because they were in the process of switching to Chyron when the sale was announced. All FOX had to do was install their templates and get AXIS set up.

Looks like Scripps intends to keep VizRT at the former Journal stations, as they are looking for people with Viz experience for the hub in Tampa.

Well it's happened again and I've broken off discussion of the rumors of The Now going on hiatus to it's own thread.

 

http://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?/topic/14600-rumor-the-now-to-go-on-hiatus/

Because a new set is a pretty big deal, discussion has been split to it's own thread.

 

http://forums.tvnewstalk.net/index.php?/topic/14567-new-set-at-wpix/

 

 

This is a curious post from Scott.

 

http://www.ftvlive.com/todays-news/2015/3/2/cuts-happening-at-scripps-stations

 

Yeah. This seems like a good idea.

 

How long until anchors are fronting stories about "The Top Ten Things The Government Did That You Won't Even"