mre29

5 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

Absolutely not. Hearst doesn't buy stations unless they are wastes of money like WBBH in freaking Fort Myers, Florida, a totally inconsequential market of old people.

So, were WVTM and WJCL were wastes of money, too? How about (checks notes) WMTW in 2004? I'm pretty sure there were old people in southern Maine back then...

4 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

If they wouldn't have bought LIN with Frankly I'm sure we'd be still seeing their 2000s web design in 2024, no doubt...

Please. I've made great strides in repressing those memories...

That said, I miss LIN's early-2010s websites. They looked good. (Case in point.]

1 hour ago, Rusty Muck said:

I expect him and Nexstar to completely fumble and bumble this and WPIX winds up being forced to be sold to a company hostile to Nexstar and the CW, and he can kiss the network's flagship goodbye.

If WPIX ends up with Hearst or Graham, I will laugh.

On 5/21/2024 at 2:51 PM, Vlad said:

Wow! How incredible is that? First time I've ever seen a graphics package done in mid-air haha. And of course, classic LA California style,  they changed their graphics in the midst of a police chase, ha! Classic move by KABC hahaha.

It would've been funnier if the anchor had reacted to the change.

"Annnnd our new graphics just debuted. Is this chase that boring?"

5 hours ago, bpatrick said:

For all this, however, I have often wondered why ABC, CBS, and NBC don't follow the lead of Fox and the CW and end primetime at 10/9.

One of them would have to blink first and hope the other two don't wipe the floor with them.

For anyone who needs it:

(You're welcome.)

6 hours ago, 24994J said:

ABC was interested, but Allbritton wasn't interested in making multiple deals.

I've said it before and will undoubtedly say it again: ABC could have teamed up with a company interested in the other Allbritton station (Hearst, Graham, Tegna, etc.), help that company outbid Sinclair, and split WJLA off from the other stations afterwards.

2 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

Not only will he not get it, he'll stubbornly refuse to sell anything in order to buy it.

 

This is the same clown who runs a company that proudly boasted on their own website they could buy ABC "with little friction". And no one has seemingly considered this is why the FCC has started to crack down on them.

Don't worry, Perry -- Rand Paul is coming to your rescue!

Quote

Dr. Paul introduces Local News and Broadcast Media Preservation Act
 

HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – According to Dr. Rand Paul’s office, on Wednesday, he introduced the Local News and Broadcast Media Preservation Act which would give local broadcasters and newspapers “relief” from government restrictions.

 

“With the rise of social media and an ever-changing media landscape, it is imperative that our local newspapers and broadcasters are given the freedom to adapt. My Local News and Broadcast Media Preservation Act gets government out of the way and frees broadcast media from the chains that restrict their ability to better serve their customers,” said Dr. Paul.

 

Officials with his office say the Local News and Broadcast Media Preservation Act would exempt print, broadcast and digital news organizations from federal antitrust laws to allow them to compete with and negotiate with national tech companies. Additionally, the legislation would allow local broadcast companies to merge without government interference to allow those broadcasters to better compete against tech giants.

 

According to Dr. Rand Paul’s office, lastly, the bill would eliminate the local and national caps on radio and television ownership and would create an environment which would allow maximum flexibility for competition and negotiation.

Shouldn't they be referring to him as Senator Paul?

I hope the bill crashes and burns. All it would do is help Nexstar, SInclair, and Gray gobble up more broadcasters, leaving smaller broadcasters such as Hearst and Graham (and smaller) unable to acquire stations because they keep getting outbid.

Those look really good. I miss living in a Hearst market.

On 4/18/2024 at 10:24 PM, H-Town TV Fan said:

Bumping this thread after almost 2 years, but one of the new Hearst-ers in WZVN got the WMUR Hearst package and Hearst Classic theme music today.

"We're finally not alone!" -- WMUR 

Good to see the site's back, even if it's undergone a few changes in the process. Definitely not the first online community I've been a part of that's undergone changes over the years, and unlikely to be the last.

(I'd have chimed in sooner, but I moved from NH to CT and am cheerfully buried in things that need to be done.)

6 hours ago, JTT said:

I don't understand why some of the digital channels like METV needs to be on more than one subchannel.  For example, I can find METV, Heroes & Icons, and Catchy TV in the Los Angeles area on more than one local subchannel.  Why is this the case? 

Looks like it has to do with signal strength, at least for MeTV. Via Wikipedia:

Quote

Before a signal upgrade in late 2018, KAZA's over-the-air signal was not available in much of western and southern Los Angeles County, due to its channel-sharing agreement with low-powered Class A UHF station KHTV-CD, which necessitated the continual co-affiliation through KDOC.

I should note that here in the Boston-Manchester market, MeTV is on subchannels of both Hearst-owned ABC affiliates, WCVB and WMUR, with identical schedules except for the stations' 10pm news and a 10:30pm repeat of Chronicle on WCVB 5.2. Xfinity carries both feeds, likely because of those newscasts.

1 hour ago, Recovering Producer said:

So, the answer is variable, depending on their strategy to get as close to the cap as possible,  but if they divest from the smallest markets they own, it would be a decent number.

Just what is Nexstar's current coverage percentage, anyway?

How many stations would Nexstar have to sell to get back under the cap?

Of course, this does bring up one good question:  Where the heck is Al Jazeera English? It's already free, so...

YES! I've been hoping this would happen for a while now -- either this or more cable providers grouping BBC News with the other news channels. (You shouldn't have to pay extra for one news channel when you're already get three or more as part of basic cable.)

6 hours ago, HSV cheesehead said:

Rhetorical question: Why am I simultaneously surprised and not surprised about this?

Because the BBC has been missing from the FAST news channels space for far too long. Besides the American news-focused channels (ABC News Live, CBS News, NBC News Now, and LiveNOW from Fox), BBC News's direct competitor, Sky News, has been there for years, and there's also Euronews and other channels.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in WBDland....

Warner Bros. Discovery to Overhaul TruTV With Sports; Sets Nightly Block for Games and More

Quote

 Warner Bros. Discovery wants to bring one of its “zombie” cable networks back to life with a big jolt of sports.

 

The media company intends to create a new nightly sports block for TruTV, the reality-series cable network that has largely been left to show endless episodes of the popular prank show “Impractical Jokers” and the caught-on-camera serial “World’s Dumbest.” In doing so, Warner no doubt hopes to create new value where there has only been a little. A new sports schedule would likely draw broader viewership and new ad dollars to the network, and might even spur cable distributors to accord the outlet more value in future carriage contracts.

TruTV isn't the only "zombie" WBD needs to deal with...

On 2/28/2024 at 10:48 AM, ATLNewsExpert said:

Huge bombshell out of New Zealand this morning (evening over there) as Warner Brothers Discovery announced proposals to completely SHUTDOWN "Three NewsHub", newsroom, all newscasts (6pm and late), everything, putting up to 300 employees at risk of loosing their jobs.

 

[...]

Aside from the WBD connection, why not post this in the International News forum and then link to it here?

On 2/28/2024 at 11:13 AM, tyrannical bastard said:

If Scripps does decide to sell, who in their right mind would buy them with what they've done to their stations?

 

It would have to be some kind of private equity deal to keep things running, but if that ever happens, what's left to cut to make a profit on their investment?

Or the stations could be sold to multiple owners who are established broadcasting companies.

So, how are local newscasts on various CBS affiliates (not the O&Os), anyway? How are the newscasts on Hearst's KCCI and WLKY? What about Graham's WKMG? Scripps's WTKR, WTVR, WTVF, and MTN stations? Tegna's WBNS, KHOU, KFMB, etc? Weigel's WDJT? The many affiliates owned by Sinclair, Nexstar, and Gray? (I'm particularly interested in Gray's WFSB and Sinclair's WGME.)

So, is everyone only interested in talking about the CBS-owned stations? The original poster never specified that...

WGBH.

43 minutes ago, patlovestv said:

At some point in recent days, the website has been revised with an updated launch date of April 2.

Five weeks and a day is a notable shift. I guess they didn't have enough content ready to merit sticking to the original date.

On 2/15/2024 at 6:48 PM, mrschimpf said:

Will this set up yet another reboot of Geraldo at Large where he'll get a half-hour to do whatever he'd like?

Geraldo Still at Large.

9 hours ago, 24994J said:

Morning Express on CNN would be a square peg in a round hole. There's a reason it co-existed with the flagship. They want to do a show on CNN that has panels and politics, and that is the polar opposite of everything HLN was airing. IF 'Morning Express' and its former anchor were brought to CNN, it would be in name only, and Robin Meade would be terribly miscast.

So, basically, Morning Express was meant to compete more with Today and Good Morning America than with Morning Joe and Fox & Friends?

22 minutes ago, atlnews2 said:

They could have saved so much headache if they just moved Robin Meade to CNN instead of letting her go. 

If I remember correctly, Morning Express was often beating New Day in the ratings. Too bad Licht was focused on cloning CBS This Morning.

What's Meade doing these days, anyway? Maybe she's available...

From the Variety article:

Quote

Warner Bros. Discovery was running “CNN This Morning” on HLN, now largely devoted to repeats of the series “Forensic Files,” as a replacement for that network’s own long-running A.M. program, “Morning Express,” led by anchor Robin Meade in one form or another for more than two decades. Now there is no signature morning-show format on either network.

This would be a damn good time to finish killing off HLN.