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On 3/3/2023 at 6:11 PM, 8Viewer said:

In 1987, KFMB's Loren Nancarrow did a story about the Los Angeles TV news ratings war and the type of stories being aired:

 

 

Didn’t realize KCBS tried a hybrid KABC and WNBC knockoff set going back in time after the over contemporary ice block desk set. Looks like a design from the late 70s/early 80s but debuted in 87.

Yeah the tight 2 shot looks like a college newscast, the metal accents behind the monitor make it look like a rolling monitor stand in a conference room and the graphic on the screen lacks depth - it all looks too close to the anchors like they're pressed against a wall. Maybe a better landscape shot will help that aspect, and they can rework the monitor accents. 

The DC stone is a nice nod, though white is tough for TV, and to be honest the layout of the studio and materials feel more like the lobby of a class A office building or museum than a The Other Site. 

Weather nooks look visually interesting with nice depth, we'll see how that plays out. 

Surprised they didn't keep this studio larger and put Telemundo in the former News 4 studio, but guess they have other uses in mind.

23 hours ago, Muppetman03 said:

Chuck Bell had actually mentioned something like this back in December

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl3Oj4jOJCu/?igshid=NmE0MzVhZDY=

 

Spring of 2024 - guessing the set will finish before the newsroom

That was an interesting one where they shoehorned to something more traditional a few years after launch. Guess the audience / focus groups thought it was too sterile

Those vertical panels, the wood and broad landscape shots were a nice distinctive look for the market, curious to see if any of those cues stay 

KRON NewsCenter 4 at 11 Nov 10, 1988. They had just introduced the '4' logo that's been used through present day, but wouldn't get around to updating the lower thirds for almost a year. 

KRON Daybreak 8:25am TODAY cut-in December 1986

KPIX 1981 newsroom promo

KRON June 1984 preshow

On 2/18/2023 at 1:28 PM, 24994J said:

 

I respect the hell out of your opinions and insight, but that's not fair, and you know it. The average observer sees new mic flags, new graphics, and hell, even new jackets, caps, etc. That looks "permanent" enough, no? It's not the duty of said observer to prove that the station will pivot again, so soon. To me, phasing out KCAL in 2023 would be silly, and lasting into 2025 would have made this a permanent change, in my view, as it will have lasted way longer than less significant/more "permanent" rebrands.

 

Let's see what happens in 2024, at the earliest.

Yes less than a year is unlikely and they even redirected the @CBSLA youtube to @KCAL. They pulled out the likeness of Jerry Dunphy not Cronkite and Rather for the launch. 

I think KCAL is a part of LA insider lexicon like “LAX.” It’s also unique as a two syllable brand. Much easier to repeat to others when talking than say KTLA or CBS LA (over twice as many syllables).

We’re all human and those factors are first principles. 

16 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

CBS News has already been merged into the O&Os and vice versa; they are in the process of assimilating into each other.

More like engaged vs married.

Wendy isn’t playing along in the #2 market and their likely largest audience market LA.

Full on KCAL branding as the lead horse, marginalizing CBS. And interesting the KCAL set is the most traditional- big desk - and format / talent most consistent vs the throw spaghetti at KPIX. It looks and acts like a lot like a WABC or KABC, and gets to play at 10 for the audience that likes that authoritative feel.

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/kcal-news-rebrand-cbs2-los-angeles-1235479093/amp/

She knows CBS News isn’t the brand its inflated egos think it is…not taking that gamble in LA wiping out KCBS.

1 hour ago, Myron Falwell said:

With all due respect, this is a multi-faceted discussion on something unprecedented in American broadcasting but has happened in literally every other country on the planet. What is the dividing line between discussion and speculation?

 

If this works for CBS---and if I were a betting man, I would throw my money into the "yes" column---there will be ramifications throughout the entire TV industry, including among the large station groups that remain in existence and among the other networks. It WILL happen because it has ALWAYS happened ever since the days of Philo Farnsworth, William Paley and David Sarnoff.

 

Never forget the old adage that television, and especially local television, is built on copycats.

Retrans is the difference. We have a much more developed pay for home video entertainment ecosystem than any comparable country. 

It's prolonged the life of marginal 3rd / 4th / 5th place broadcast players  for 10-15 years beyond its otherwise shelf life and insulated the industry for better or worse. 

Another question is what's the viability of national CBS News itself if that dries up. Weakest hand at the table. Does it get picked up by a non-profit motive owner? It will be a while - retrans is contract based so there are lag effects, but it is the underlying cash that's propping the current size of the industry.

55 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

How has WFAA "lost market leadership" when demos can be extrapolated and manipulated in such a degree than any station in the market can claim to be #1 because of one specific time period? Or that market ratings are no longer commonly available? Or that Nielsen's methodology looks to be increasingly flawed?

https://katytrailweekly.com/what-has-happened-to-the-dallas-news-leader-p5241-182.htm

55 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

Or is it just a commonly held assumption with no factual backing because people on this board and in other places don't like Tegna?

The younger demos today are not the younger demos of the 1980s. And guess what, those people will be in the 25-54 demo in a matter of years. Less and less people watching in the money demo is nothing but bad news and makes the local TV news business wholly unsustainable.

 

WFAA's management hasn't changed much since the Belo days, and maybe that's why they have been having issues finding ways to target younger demos. But guess what, you can't play to the same audience forever with the same, tired product that is not in any way distinguishable from any other station in the market. The people watching now will get older, less desirable to advertisers and the TV product will become less relevant to the general public. Cable news targets 65+ and up and is only profitable because of retransmission fees, not because it commands any actual blue-chip advertising. That can't work in OTA.

 

It's the age-old adage of "evolve or die". CBS stagnated under Moonves, Dunn and Friend, and it's a long-overdue makeover. Tegna has been doing it pre-emptively and whether or not they succeed or fail is still very much to be determined, contrary to many a popular opinion.

Doing this mid-week is an interesting move, almost like they literally couldn't wait to get the renaming over with.

Local TV news has been a decaying cash cow business for a few decades now. First 20 channels of cable, then 100, then the text internet, now the broadband everywhere video internet (which at least plays more toward the video strength of a local TV news product). 

I'd argue those market leaders were more distinctive over the years because of their consistency as a point of distinction. 

CBS was an also ran of local stations well before Dunn and Friend, aside from a brief renaissance under Swanson and what WCCO pulled off vs KARE as TEGNA messed up its cash cow via unappealing innovation. 

Of course innovation happens. But CBS isn't creating any meaningful proprietary technology here like Google did in 1999 or Chat GPT, or any real tech company. They're simply changing the window dressing of the presentation to adapt to additional storefronts of distribution - something any station can do rather quickly for the parts that might ultimately stick, and avoid for those that fall flat. In other words a free market test for others like TEGNA was post 2013. 

34 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

It does because once the Apollo-SG bailout officially dies, Tegna won't be able to find a sucker buyer for their group as a whole. They barely did when Apollo stepped in as a not-silent partner, enabling SG to "outbid" Byron Allen. But tbh, Byron dodged a bullet not getting Tegna.

Being successful breeds complacency. Look at the ABC O&Os. They are poorly positioned for a digital environment and are in a bad position in the world of social media. "Channel 6 Action News" and "Channel 7 Eyewitness News" are successful despite their names being forever stuck in the 1970s, and their formats are not really any different from any other newscast in the country. WABC and WPVI's main draw is ... rusted dial syndrome? Because people like musical cues unchanged for nearly 28 years on both stations? Because they're the local ABC station? Because they like the main anchors? Because they still call themselves "channel 6" and "channel 7"? Because Disney treats the stations like a budget line item and appears to be wholly disinterested in running a TV network?

 

That's all fine and good until you realize that less and less people are watching OTA news nowadays--especially in the lower parts of the 25-54 money demo and especially the 18-25 demo--because they opt for online sources. CBS and Gray are approaching fertile ground. If WSVN could remake themselves from being a sleepy NBC station to the king of sleaze and trash in a matter of months in 1988 and transformed the industry, there's no reason why it cannot happen again in the present day.

 

And yes, this would have been unnoticed by the previous three stooges that ran CBS, Moonves, Friend and Dunn.

And Tegna is an example of product change gone too far, costing market leadership of the Belo stations like WFAA.

The WABC/WPVIs (WFAA before TEGNA) bring in more cash than any competing stations in their markets by a large margin. As a viewer their differentiation seems to be a consistent on air product while other weaker stations more regularly toy with formats.

Like all market cash cow leaders in business they face the innovators' dilemma of having a cash cow at risk, and the more radical product change tends to be done naturally by new entrants or the less competitive players with less at risk. Just like the WSVN example. 

News in any form has always skewed older. Trying to please the 18-25 and even the 25-34 group with news is the fools game played by many losing stations during the days when formats changed every 2 years in the 80s and 90s. People age into news as a habit as their responsibilities in life grow and they spend more time at home. The ABC O&Os whether they knew it or not over the 80s to today did a good job of providing consistency for regular news viewers, the habit seekers who tend to be older. Easy to read and digest like an early dinner special. 

I do find it fascinating no digital first, digital only news production outlet has scaled nationally here. Buzzfeed...no. Vice...no. Huff Post...no. 

Yahoo news, Apple news, or the AOL news pages are the closest equivalent but they just aggregate legacy sources.

CBS is making a grand experiment, and it's just that - an experiment. It might be a home run. It might fall completely flat. But the market dictates they should be the first mover of this kind of product risk as those with much less to lose. This isn't a situation where more $$ invested necessarily is the differentiation, but the way the limited pool of $$ is allocated and used to shape the product. 

12 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

Soo is delusional and so is the Tegna board. It’ll be extended for a few months in a vain attempt to keep it alive but it’s already failed. Contrary to the occasional pieces of hopium published on some financial websites, the DOJ and FCC are literally sitting on their hands and refusing to weigh in or indicate they’ll ever do anything about it. Which is worse than actually voting the deal down.

 

Apollo-SG didn’t close on the Tegna deal in 2022, nor will it ever close. All parties are now wasting their collective money and time and Tegna—itself too big to fail—will be left holding the bag on assets they won’t be able to sell the way they want to.

 

Why is doing a branding convention implemented practically everywhere else on this planet a position of weakness? Because they aren’t using archaic brands like “Eyewitness News” or channel numbers or (with one current exception) call letters?

 

They’re actively targeting an audience Nielsen has been struggling to adapt and measure properly—which is not that radical when you notice that Gray has done the same thing at WOIO, which has also been implemented at WANF (and they aren’t even using call letters or channel numbers in their branding). CBS’s future is both in streaming and OTA and they’re betting on it being successful on free  providers like their in-house PlutoTV. In fact, CBS News Detroit is pushing their Pluto channel a lot since it came online.

Which has nothing to do with interest rates. 

The position of weakness isn't the branding convention. It's being the 3rd or 4th player in very competitive markets and having a management scandal on top forcing them to take more risks on the format of the product, and also giving them 'less to lose' than incumbents who have more at risk if the experiment has unintended negative consequences. Incumbents with more to lose tend to iterate their way into change. 

And yes Pluto is a factor of the CBS decision making - they got something right with a service that was as 'cable like' in interface for people who are used to broadcast/cable, and giving them broadcast like libraries, vs being a splashy "everything is change" approach. 

17 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

Soo Kim’s buyout attempt happened right before the prime rate was raised multiple times, killing off this M&A “rolling thunder” of the past decade. And there’s a good chance it’ll be raised again in the coming weeks.

 

Even if Tegna doesn’t want to exist, their options are extremely limited.

SG didn't close in 2022 - they could have chosen to not make concessions like promising to not cut any journalism jobs for two years or pursue their lobbying efforts if they were scared by the financing environment.

Instead they keep pressing. Whether they're being prudent is a whole other matter. 

https://www.fiercevideo.com/video/standard-general-asserts-tegna-deal-nears-finish-line

The CBS O&O exercise is a grand experiment from a position of weakness and not much more. 

34 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

Who said anything about owning television stations? I betcha there’s a group or two in Texas willing to take quick cash from CBS and convert their stations into a full-power KTVT repeater or semi-satellite. They don’t even have to be the market’s existing CBS affiliate…

TEGNA is the topic of the original mention. Their ownership will find something more than that kind of deal for their CBS affiliates. 

8 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

Not unless you have plans to expand your presence... and there's a bunch of CBS affiliates owned by one company that doesn't want to exist in places like Houston, San Antonio and Tyler.

CBS is making a hail mary effort with local news on fringe strength stations.  They’re a long way from wanting to deepen their broadcast license exposure. 

Maybe they picked Texas precisely because they have no licensed station presence outside DFW with no plans to add one and want to see how many more of the Pluto streamers they catch via the name when scrolling the program guide. Pluto is company owned and a “network” audience of its own.  Then maybe build some non broadcast license ops if there’s traction. 

Ironically Pluto is one of the most if not the most broadcast like of the streamers…cable channel program guide like interface by default. Made it easier for linear TV viewers to adapt. 

The 3 shot with the weather anchor looks pretty good actually - the horizontal light bars make the set look more expansive than it is. A change of pace from other sets that are too bathed in white, have that stuck in a corner feel. 

If they removed 'CBS AUSTIN NEWS' logo taking over 4 screens on the 2 shot it would be a lot easier on the eyes. 

I think the last 6 months a number of sets are breaking that TEGNA 2013 set mold that's become stale, making better use of dimension and depth, and using a fuller sized desk to make the talent more professional. 

WLS Eyewitness News Brief 1989

Rare cut of NS2000 here. It's somewhere between the sound of the original 1984 cuts and the early 90s synth update for WABC. Not clear if it's just a track mixdown of the original cuts, or a new arrangement altogether. 

Nice evolution of the package - plays well on big 4K TVs, not dumbed down flat to only work on a 10 inch phone.  Intricate detail and depth for 4K, but bold and easy to read the key points from a distance. Keeping the italics gives it that feel of speed on the field.

Nice use of light and metallic for the player pop ups (even if it's still the cartoon drawing portraits). 3D metallic just looks impressive on big screens. 

Typeface stayed distinctive and avoided the herd mentality of some Gotham like generic rounded sans serif that's polluted airwaves for years. 

Well done Fox.

Looking good, nice depth and spaciousness despite the smallish studio 

The giant monitor on the desk with a big logo feels heavy...takes away from the talent...I'd rather they were more subtle with branding and used the overhead header for branding, but those are easy tweaks with the setup. 

Good eye I like the dimension and light effects of that matchup graphic from last week

They were smart to ditch the overly flat and somber late 2010s graphics in 2020 - audiences are growing tired of graphics made for a Microsoft Surface on their 4K TVs 

On 1/27/2023 at 7:05 PM, Myron Falwell said:

Including the very old demos that seek out cable talk channels regardless of the high channel number they are on?

 

Surprised that no one has pointed out that those channels are listed as “CBS”, “ABC”, “Fox” and “PBS” … not “News8”, “10News”, “Fox 5/69” or “KPBS”. The generic displays on YouTube TV lend themselves DIRECTLY to CBS’s new branding convention.

For Fox or CNN they never had the memory of on air channel number branding visual or audio. There’s also no local vs national programming distinction. 

For a WPVI they’ve heard and seen  “Channel 6” or “ABC 6” with that iconic “6” for decades. What would an older person using voice command remote say by instinct? “ABC Philadelphia” or “Channel 6”? Maybe “Action News” 

In Denver it’s “9” through and through. 

Then there is the Fox decision to de emphasize Fox and emphasize the KTVU 2 in the most digital forward market.  TEGNA has emphasized iconic channel logos in recent years.

Lots of puts and takes unique to each station and market not all of them related to digital program guides.

Hard to make a blanket decision unless you have fewer legacy viewers at risk. It’s an easier one for the also rans or newer entrants to make.

Like KUSI that ditched the attempt at 9 branding (they started as a hidden 51 emphasizing KUSI at the start)

17 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

I’m trying to understand the logic of debating the importance of channel numbers when they’ve been falling into irrelevance since the DTV switchover… and will further become irrelevant as ATSC 3.0 is rolled out.

 

This isn’t 1994.

For some stations, a chunk of the large legacy audience is older and still familiar with the channel numbers as the 'brand.'

Probably less so or close to none with  some of these 4th place CBS stations, or a new one like CBS DETROIT. And certainly a lot less so than 20+ years ago, and as you note fading further.

Think WPVI or KTRK for example. 

1 hour ago, Bsean said:

I agree. I use YouTube TV and regardless of the channel number, the first channels that appear are CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox. I'm in San Diego, so the order isn't even in number order... 8, 10, 7, 5... 

 

I'll also add, that's the default, but you can customize the order of the channel listings by putting your most watched at the top. So in the end, that channel number really doesn't matter 

 

FWIW my Hulu screen shows channel logos but it's alphabetical (including cable nets) - and for the local stations uses the network name as the first letter for(so ABC 10 before CBS  sorting 

Nice breakthrough set look and great use of a masthead banner for an iconic and authoritative 2 shot. Has a KTSP vibe from decades back but smaller scale.

Would rather they had warmer elements - the black/white/grey/concrete is harsh on the eyes and even makes you feel cold. Fixable quickly with paint and flooring or picking up some of the wood cues from the desk. I get CBS is a black logo but sometimes this gets too literal. 

Agree the talent selection is uniquely Detroit and not in a forced hipster way. 

While I wouldn't want to work for someone with his style, the investigation sounds like the result of "morale" excuses on the part of those resistant to change. CBS News rank and file are deeply set in their ways and tend to be on the more hostile side to management.