tyrannical bastard

The irony in that is TruTV in itself. They didn't want to be "Court TV" anymore. Enter ION, and they bring it back! So now, you have a TruTV clone...

Someone please tell me this is real life, and not Byron Allen taking TWC to lower lows than Jeff Zucker.... (checks TV guide to see if this is for real real, and yes, it is!) For anyone asking WTF....here it is from my own YTTV guide

Newton Minow, the former FCC chairman who once coined television as a "vast wasteland" has died. https://tvnewscheck.com/regulation/article/newton-minow-former-fcc-chief-who-dubbed-tv-a-vast-wasteland-dies/ During his time, he championed the passage of the All-channel receivers act, mandating that all televisions had the ability to receive the UHF band, as well as helping lay the groundwork for NET and later, PBS. The "S.S. Minnow" on Gilligan's Island was coined after him, in jest to his "vast wasteland" remarks. A minnow being a small fish, helped to make the name stick.

More like a clone of "Cheddar News"....dumbing things down for Gen Z.... At least it's not as ill-conceived as the TBD network....that's like trying to surf the internet on a landline phone.

With Nexstar owning the CW, they may be in play to have drawn the short straw. With the implosion of the RSNs and the explosion of local news content, both are DVR-proof programming that can thrive on broadcast TV. Basically with Nexstar calling the shots at at the CW, they put themselves at a serious disadvantage without major investment from their former majority owners. The netlet era is over, unless Nexstar can find gold. So far it's a controversial golf league and an albatross news network. If they were smart they would be pursuing the soon-to-be available sports leagues that the RSNs can no longer afford. But of course the problem in all of this is retransmission revenue. The programming is so expensive so it's going to come back somehow... Likely in the form of a blackout come renewal time.

Gray renewed all their current CBS affiliates in the fall of 2021. However, this was before the Meredith merger and those stations are likely on a prior agreement.

Gray's stock price has been dragging the last month or so. Could it be that their now-hometown flagship station is in imminent danger of losing CBS to WUPA? When WISH lost CBS to WTTV, it took out several million dollars from the value of LIN's stations going into Media General.

I really think there could be some .2 situations, especially in Nexstar markets where they don't already have the CW.

Philly, SF, Seattle, Tampa and Sacramento all have Nexstar stations that could snatch up the affiliation and put it in house. In Atlanta, this could be another step in CBS moving off of WANF and onto its own station. If they started a news department from scratch in Detroit, they could very well do the same in Atlanta with a "Digital-first" mentality. And if such a move ever happens, WANF or WPCH could be the new home of the CW in Atlanta. It'll be sad if WPCH got it because that would basically be the end of the WTBS to WPCH run as a superstation and local Independent. Another group to watch will be Sinclair, All of their CW affiliations are up this year as well. Which could make it interesting in places like Pittsburgh where you would think a station like WPNT would snatch it up.

Technically, Sinclair only provides services to both WNBW and WGFL under a master services agreement. WNBW is owned by MPS Media and operated by New Age Media, and WGFL is owned by New Age Media. Back in 2013 Sinclair tried to acquire them, but there were too many conflicts in several of their markets, so they worked out in an arrangement to where either service agreements were started or non-license assets were moved or acquired. This is how the FOX affiliation moved from WDSI to WTVC 9.2 in Chattanooga as well as in Tallahassee where it moved from WTLH to WTWC 40.2. It's basically a complicated spiderweb so Sinclair can be involved without owning the stations outright.

It's taken this long, but Sinclair is hell bent on turning themselves into the TV version of IHeartMedia. They say that TND is powered by the journalists across the nation at all the Sinclair stations, but where is this reporting? It's basically a ruse for all of Sinclair's "correspondents" to be in one place at one time, spreading all of their reporting at the expense of actually providing useful local information.

Since CBS is taking their local news channels to the digital realm, the opportunity for viewership is much greater than if it was just a TV station. Many of the viewers are probably going to be coming this way, and because of their investment in this, it makes sense to put it on TV as a side-effect...to provide a valuable service once and for all for the long-beleaguered "CBS Detroit" Basically, any TV viewership is likely going to be eclipsed by "impressions" or hits on the digital side of things.

I've only seen the CW stations added so far, and these don't even include the .2 ones in places like Jackson, MS, Greenville, NC and Charleston, SC.

I believe they have a previous arrangement to carry all of Nexstar's CW stations. Now when is YouTube TV going to carry the rest of Nexstar's stations? (Independents and MyNets)

Sinclair is clearly leading the charge of downsizing and eliminating local newscasts. No other company is doing this.....yet. We had the Vision Alaska stuff a few years ago where some tiny market newscasts were shuttered in favor of NewsNet. Another thing to consider is that 2024 is just around the corner. And by pumping outside news in from a company notorious for it's "must-runs", I'm going to leave it right there.....

NEW info: In addition to the news operations in Toledo, Medford, and Sioux City being shuttered, Sinclair is also ending "local" newscasts in Omaha and Gainesville. https://tvnewscheck.com/journalism/article/sinclair-shutters-five-news-markets-we-just-turned-off-the-lights-for-many/

But considering all the crap that Sinclair pulled to try to get Tribune.... I'm sure the FCC would be glad to have any of Sinclair's licenses in somebody else's hands.

I'll say it once, I'll say it again. Once the Tegna / Standard General deal officially dies, Sinclair's TV stations and RSNs will be Standard General's next target. Even if Apollo is brought on board, the conflicts are far less than they would have been as Tegna's new owners. Plus, Standard General owns Bally's itself, so if there's the money to keep that the Diamond Sports dumpster fire burning, there's enough dark money to keep them and the Sinclair stations going.... And maybe they'll actually invest in these places where Sinclair has neglected their stations and left them to die...

On the local level, some of the Sinclair stations pump out some really excellent journalism. WSYX has taken a more harder edge "On Your Side" advocacy approach and other stations are very critical of corruption, wasted tax dollars, and being "a voice for the voiceless". On the corporate end, yes some of their products are very lacking. It's like you're taking a middle market newscast and simulcasting it to whatever market can't afford to put one of their own anymore. It's basically all the "must runs" that put Sinclair on the map as everyone's most hated company they've never heard of. And I really believe there is something going on with Sinclair. Especially tied to the Diamond Sports bankruptcy. Every time the judge forces them to make a payment of some kind, another round of layoffs begins in some market they can barely keep the lights on to begin with.

Gray snags the Phoenix Suns from Bally to broadcast on KTVK and Arizona's Family TV https://cordcuttersnews.com/bally-sports-loses-rights-to-phoenix-suns-nba-games-as-fans-can-now-watch-the-suns-for-free-on-broadcast-tv/

Allen Media has a long way to go to decent respectability. Owning the Weather Channel is a good start, but the bottom line is Allen Media (and Entertainment Studios) are the slumlords of daytime TV with all of their cheap "court" shows.

WNWO is the poster child of an also-ran station. Aside from it's days as Malrite/Raycom station, it's been the 5th station in a 2 station market. Also in a place like Toledo, it's quite telling when descendants of a single company have circled through EVERY station in the market. Raycom dumped WUPW for WNWO (Malrite merger) Raycom sells WNWO to Barrington for WTOL (Liberty merger) Gray dumps WTOL to Tegna to keep WTVG (Raycom merger) Securing NBC at the time may have been a bright spot, but that may have made it more vulnerable to outside competition from Detroit and Lima. As an ABC affiliate, and the Detroit stations on cable, WDHO/WNWO didn't have a prayer. And lest we forget Sinclair's extended blackout with Buckeye Cable that even extended into the 2014 Winter Olympics. With CBET and CBC coverage readily available, there were plenty of nails in the coffin already....

With all of the stations expanding their newscasts, the syndication inventory has to land somewhere. That's probably why stations like WBNX are doing so well, despite losing the CW and being tied to the controversial Ernest Angley ministry. And with third wheels like WPMI in Mobile, the syndication is "technically" programmed by the licensee (Deerfield) so it adds a little credence to it being something NOT tied to Sinclair. But then again, Sinclair is the one who runs the station and sells the ads....

And here's WNWO's take on their impending shutdown: https://nbc24.com/news/local/nbc-24-statement-on-modified-news-operations

Dear Lord, if Sinclair can't even afford to outsource a newscast to another market, then they are either seriously in debt, inept (cough cough Chris Ripley) or are that hell bent on making TND their primary source of news... IF WNWO is affected, then WOLF's newscast in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton is probably dunzo as well. KTVL is a shocker. Were they a truly independent operation? Or are they one of those stations (like KHQA) that's farmed out to another market? Virtually their entire station is run out of the old WICD newsroom in Champaign, IL, several years after Sinclair shut down their operation and merged the rest with WICS in Springfield. Basically at this point, any third rate station that's run from afar or is a shell game in the same market is probably ground zero for Sinclair's ulterior motives.