tyrannical bastard

On 6/26/2023 at 10:04 AM, NBC 5 Chicago said:

After 3 months since it was announced,  it looks like Nexstar independents and the rest of the CW's and MyNetworkTV that have not been added yet will finally be added to YouTubTV this week. 

It begins.  Tomorrow is the official date but several stations including WGN, KRON and WMYT are live as of now.

Waiting on the subchannel CWs (WJTV/WHLT, WNCT) as well as the official return of WJMN since CBS stripped them of their affiliation last year.

Just throwing this out there, and it's a topic that's good for the speculatron.....

If Perry Sook & Sean Compton bring aboard Jeff Zucker to make something of NewsNation....

How much worse could it get?   Perhaps all of Jeff Zucker's cronies...er ass kissers will join him from CNN and finally wipe all of that baggage from there.

Now as for CNN itself, would some of the broadcast companies be willing to chip in and buy it as a joint venture?  After all, where else would they get their Jeanie Moos and TALAT packages from?

Unlike Disney, who for decades of the home video era created the artificial scarcity of limited releases before things are put back into the "Disney Vault", the stuff that's being pulled from streaming services may never see the light of day again unless somebody finds it in the dumpster, and then has to cough up the rights to have it see the light of day again.

The industry is such a mess, the streaming services can't even afford to keep EXISTING content that PAYING customers either are watching or want to watch.

I sense another A.A.P. situation where a equity firm or consortium of companies buys up dead content to license elsewhere.   What good is it doing sitting in a warehouse when it could be monetized, streamed or purchased outright?

Zucker wants to buy CNN back.

https://nypost.com/2023/06/22/cnn-may-be-put-up-for-sale-jeff-zucker-wants-to-buy-sources/

And my reaction....

Should Sinclair drop the CW, they could easily fill the time with TND or one of their diginets.

And if Weigel drops WCIU, WGN's the easy choice since primetime doesn't affect their schedule that much.

I've seen a lot of ads where Byron Allen's court show promos are being aired on rival stations without any local tag or even a "check local listings" mention at the end.   I'm told these are actual "time buys" where Allen buys the time regardless of whether the station airs the show or not...

Well over a year after their mishmashed graphics, they're finally upgrading the set?

We shall see if they finally go full-KOIN with their on air package.

Dr. Phil's a goner in a month or two, so dare I say it....3 News at 3?

Here we are over a year later, and WJET is STILL using their awkward mix of the Local 12, (L3s and fullscreens), Nexstar's ABC ticker and Nexstar KOIN package (it's also being used in their weather graphics.)

They're also on a temp set because you can see the lighting glaring on the monitor behind the talent (and it's definitely the set that Nexstar ships into a market whenever they're undergoing a set upgrade)

So maybe the awkwardness is coming to an end soon?  Moreso on WJET since WFXP uses the Nexstar FOX package, but with the same style open as WJET. 

Pat Robertson, the founder of CBN has passed away at age 93.

https://apnews.com/article/pat-robertson-dead-christian-broadcasting-700-club-91299d0953c014ca6860fe545cac793e

Take this as you will, just so everyone sees this as they see fit, may he RIH.

Now here's an interesting business venture.

Apparently, Lilly (or an affiliated venture) has a fitness center in Erie using the "Erie Fitness Now" name, using the exact same logo as their "Erie News NOW" logo.

Their website even has a link to "Erie News Now"

They even do fitness segments on WICU and WSEE.

If it's an affiliated venture, (or even sponsored), shouldn't that be disclosed, even though it's painfully obvious?

CNN is so screwed up right now (along with WarnerDiscovery) it would almost make sense for Nexstar to just give up on NewsNation and take CNN, and maybe a few more networks off of WarnerDiscovery's hands.  The implosion of cable TV is imminent, and Nexstar could get these networks on the cheap.

Then again, Perry being Perry, he'll make the same mistake Sinclair did with the former Fox RSNs and overvalue them to the point companies drop them and we have another Bally's situation...

The question is, will the CW still air golf events?  And will all the things we hate about LIV golf (aside from it's backers) trickle into PGA Tour events?

I could care less about golf, but those who watch it may be in for a real surprise if some of the LIV-stuff makes it into mainstream golf.

From WIS's release, it's the first time Local News Live is being offered on a station's main channel (at least from what I've seen).   I expect it to be something that is part of Gray's schedule, and could easily be the "filler" of an otherwise local news-intensive schedule aside from network programming, and/or lifestyle programs.

Fun fact:

Some of the people who rose through the ranks of Sinclair to corporate-level jobs cut their teeth at WBFF in Baltimore. 

So while they worked on shows like Captain Chesapeake back in the day, they now hold some corporate-level job over the hundreds of stations they run!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QUGMVYIHvA

Del Parks is now the President of Technology for Sinclair.

Dwight Weems is now the Director of Creative Services for Sinclair.

And now, it's come to this.   Diamond has been ordered to cough up the rest of the money it owes to the affected baseball teams, or they must forfeit the rights to carry them.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/37776665/diamond-sports-group-ordered-fully-pay-twins-guardians-diamondbacks-rangers%3fplatform=amp

So basically Diamond Sports is getting no relief whatsoever from the bankruptcy they filed? Ouch!

6 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

Stadium is garbage. The only thing I ever see on there are these lesser universities nobody has ever heard of. Like who's going to watch a University of Akron basketball game?

Ironically, Akron's basketball team is probably the best sport they have.   

As for the rest, it proves your point exactly.   The school actually cut their baseball team a few years back, and they've actually debated about dropping out of the Mid-American conference to go FCS.  They're one of those schools that falls short of ticket sales, so they have to buy up all of the unsold tickets just to maintain attendance standards to be an D1 FBS school.

And to actually watch Akron, it's usually buried on ESPN+ (along with the rest of the MAC) while Stadium truly airs more of the FCS teams and conferences we've likely never heard of!

17 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

WALA already has a 10:00 p.m. newscast five nights a week, but they don't have a 6pm.  If they landed NBC, they could add a noon and a 6:00 p.m., and simulcast the rest from Fox 10 outside of network programming.

Another wrinkle....
According to Nexstar's 2022 annual report, their CBS affiliations are only under agreement through June of next year.  Sinclair's NBC affiliations are only good until the end of 2024.

With CBS losing the SEC after this fall, CBS is going to be far less valuable to WKRG than it's been in the past.  Even with the NFL, its the AFC while the New Orleans Saints are primarily on FOX and WALA.  WEAR is locked into ABC until 2026 and will be the new "home" of the SEC (along with ESPN) beginning in 2024.

After seeing what happened to NBC after WRAL picked them up (worst to first), Nexstar and WKRG may jump at the chance of landing NBC.  The bigger get may be getting Sunday Night Football and the Today Show, along with the NBC Nightly News.

As for CBS, if they're fine with landing on WPMI.....they would get more programming time in the morning, TPIR, Y&R, B&B, and they would get way more NFL games than they do now, plus better sports on the weekends (minus the SEC)...and they would be fools not to bring back a noon show, which is usually a CBS station's meal ticket to win a time slot (thanks to TPIR/Y&R).

Of course, Gray could still pull for CBS or NBC as well (as a .2), especially if landing CBS was tied to a bigger deal that kept WANF as a CBS affiliate.

7 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

In those markets mentioned, Gray should take a stab at the network affiliations of the Sinclair zombie stations. Having a Fox and a Big Three affiliation would be especially beneficial, as it expands their newscast options. WALA, for example, could add additional evening newscasts and a 10 pm newscast to compete with WKRG if they took the NBC affiliation away. On the flip side, in Columbia and Sioux City, extended morning newscasts and 9/10 pm newscasts could be added with the Fox affiliation on their DT2.

WALA already has a 10:00 p.m. newscast five nights a week, but they don't have a 6pm.  If they landed NBC, they could add a noon and a 6:00 p.m., and simulcast the rest from Fox 10 outside of network programming.

1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

It seems Gray has been hiring quite a few of the best people let go as Sinclair made the big cuts. I know KTIV had quite a few openings though, so this is a good time to pick them up. I wouldn't be surprised if they added additional newscasts (do they do morning news on weekends, for example?)

They compete side-by-side in a lot of markets where Sinclair made cuts (Mobile, Gainesville, Toledo, Columbia, Macon...now that they have WPGA) and some staffers may have simply crossed the street if they had an opening.

I know that one of the departed meteorologists from Mobile got a chief job at WGXA in Macon.

Roughly calcluating....20 hours of content at 10mbps of H.264 compression is about 10GB.

That's about the size of a tiny USB drive or SD card people can get for less than $5.

Makes me wonder if Nexstar or Mission is trying to fill out their presence in the top markets.  They would have to play the "mission" card if there was a full-powered station they wanted to get their hands on. Otherwise, they could stumble onto a Class A station, which Nexstar could acquire outright, and if it was part of a channel sharing arrangement with a full-powered station, all the better.

If such a station existed in Atlanta, there's your new CW station right there.

This is sickening.   Just more of the content owners trying to take control of their own content, so only they can own it and the viewers can only watch it the way the owner wants them to.

The viewer is going to prevail in the end.  It's how VCRs came into play.  And with the right amount of ingenuity and legal standing, The viewers are going to find a way to have control of what they receive on the air.

Even though it was almost 30 years ago with the New World-Fox deal, these stations really had to scramble to fill in some of their dayparts after losing either NBC, ABC or CBS to FOX.  Even moreso, if they turned down the Fox Kids block (which most did) and sent that to another station.

For about 4 or so years, WJW in Cleveland had an afternoon sitcom block from 1-3pm.  Shows included were All in the Family, Barney Miller, Laverne & Shirley, Family Ties, The Odd Couple, and The Jeffersons.  They were all past their runs, so it was cheap and easy cash syndication.  At the time,  it was a way to see a show I hadn't seen in years, as well as being the first time I've ever watched AITF during my summer breaks. 

By 1998, this block was gone and FOX had secured more syndicated talk shows to fill out the schedule.