T.L. Hughes

Former WRTV news anchor Tanya Sumner (neé Spencer), who later became a town council member in the Indianapolis suburb of Whitestown after leaving journalism, has died at 53 from complications from a rare form of colon cancer she was diagnosed with in November 2022.

https://deadline.com/2024/05/tanya-sumner-dead-news-anchor-indianapolis-abc-affiliate-wrtv-1235941409/

CNBC is reporting that WBD appears to be pivoting from matching NBCUniversal’s bid for the “B” package that TNT currently holds towards matching the offer for the new “C” package framework that the league negotiated with Prime Video (encompassing regular season games, the In-Season and Play-In Tournaments, and alternating rights to a conference finals series).

That package is expected to go for between $1.8 billion–$2 billion, slightly lower than the $2.4 billion that NBCU is likely to offer for the “B” package. The Streamable points out that the plan for Max to switch its Bleacher Report Sports content to a paid add-on could be a wrinkle in that regard, unless it’s willing to make it a permanent no-extra-fee offering (a la Prime Video’s sports content), but that Venu Sports could help bridge the gap (although Prime Video already has a wide subscriber reach built in, though having a larger streaming-only package of NBA could pose issues, especially given recent political posturing over streaming-exclusive college football games on ESPN+).

1 hour 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 (the two-hour newscast delay certainly shows that). Most of their 'new sets' are repainted hand-me-downs, Newsnation seems to be frozen into a 2007 understanding of cable news and their personalities, and The CW today is programming-wise the second coming of PAX TV with a few sports packages which were Speed Channel, Fox Sports Net and Golf Channel filler in the 2000s.

 

I still remember arguing with a creative last summer about how All American was only renewed by Nexstar for tokenism reasons (she was convinced they were all in and had no idea what Perry had done in the past) and now that prophecy is coming true with even The WB/CW's longest-tenured actor Jared Padelecki about to lose a job for the first time since Dean was written out of Gilmore Girls in 2005...he got an entire two month break before Supernatural. It's sad when the most consistent thing on their schedule now is the 3-hour Hearst rent-a-block on Saturday mornings, and I'm damned sure they'll eventually offload that and tell their affiliates 'we're done, you're on your own'.

Paramount and WBD should have only sold a combined 33% of their stakes in The CW to Nexstar, rather than giving up all but 25% of the network. By offloading the majority of the network to Nexstar, the company’s strategy for The CW seems to hinder it more in the name of making it profitable while making it more difficult for the network to make it into the black (even though they claim it’s slashed the network’s operating deficits, while simultaneously stating that the network’s revenue will soon no longer be disclosed publicly) by driving away its existing audience through the replacement of its more costly but better produced shows with low-cost fare and imports that make it less competitive with the Big Four.

It makes you wonder what the network would look like under a Paramount/WBD/Nexstar equal partnership. Would the programming be much like the CW pre-Nexstar or a hybrid of the old and new formats?

The service now has a name: Venu Sports.

There is a Speculatron thread for Sinclair’s possible station sales that a lot of these comments can be put into.

6 hours ago, NBC 5 Chicago said:

TWC is changing up its schedule.

 

AMHQ has been extended an hour weekdays to 1pm EDT replacing Pattrn. 

 

Pattrn has been moved to weekends at 1pm EDT following Weekend Recharge. Still hosted by Stephanie Abrams and Jordan Steele. It was the same episode on Saturday and Sunday. 

 

Weather Underground is no more with a new show called Weather Unfiltered replacing it from 1pm-5pm EDT ending its 9 year run. The new show will still have Mike Bettes, Alex WIlson and Dr. Rick Knabb as hosts. They were teasing a new look and feel. I'm guessing just new show graphics and not a company wide graphics change which they've had for over 10 years now.

 

Pattrn makes sense to move to weekends as it constantly gets preempted due to severe weather coverage. This may have also been impacted by the recent layoffs. 

 

Weather Underground has been one of my favorite shows. I think the new show is going to lean into Mike, Alex, and Dr. Rick Knabb's quirkiness, games, etc. more. I've always liked and appreciated that. It made their show fun than the a just straight forward here's the weather show. 

Is Weather Unfiltered a new show or just a rebranding of Weather Underground? Considering the show was created when TWC and the Weather Underground website were under the same ownership, it sounds more like a brand licensing agreement to use the WU name for the show lapsed (separate from TWC’s existing content agreement with The Weather Company) and they rebranded the show accordingly.

It always struck me as odd that AMHQ had been extended to the noon ET slot during severe weather situations, rather than extend WU one hour early, given AMHQ’s (as its full and abbreviated names indicate) intended as a morning show. (Granted, it’s still morning in the rest of the country while it’s noon in the Eastern Time Zone, but up until now, dating back to at least the 1995 creation of WeatherScope (although there was no daypart-based titling for that program from 1996 until the relaunch of its forecast shows under the Weather Center brand in 1997), noon ET was usually the delineation between TWC’s morning and afternoon schedules.)

And, at least, the network added an hour of non-documentary programming on weekends, even if it’s not technically a weather forecast program.

Sam Rubin, KTLA's entertainment reporter for 34 years, died today (May 10) from a heart attack at age 64.

https://www.tmz.com/2024/05/10/sam-rubin-ktla-entertainment-reporter-dead-dies-heart-attack/

Harry J. Pappas, co-founder of Pappas Telecasting Companies (whose stations have since become part of Sinclair's broadcasting portfolio), died on April 24 in Reno, Nevada. He was 78.

https://deadline.com/2024/05/harry-j-pappas-dead-pappas-telecasting-companies-founder-1235910952/

35 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

In the eyes of the FCC, Mission only controls the programming and license of WPIX.  Nexstar may have the "non-license assets" which likely includes anything involved in the production of newscasts, including equipment and personnel.  As long as said newscasts (or any other programming provided by Nexstar) don't take up more than 15 percent of the station's airtime, then it can't be counted as ownership of WPIX.

Thing is, WPIX runs 59 1/2 hours of newscasts per week (approximately 35% of its airtime), along with several additional local shows (10 extra hours), and the entire CW schedule (15 hours of primetime, a three-hour E/I block and an hour-long political talk show, plus sports).

Weigel is launching another diginet, MeTV Toons, on June 25. Pretty much an outgrowth of MeTV's existing Monday-Saturday cartoon blocks (Toon In with Me and Saturday Morning Cartoons) and a broadcast equivalent of Boomerang (both its original all-classic cartoon format and its current daytime-only classic block), it will feature shows and shorts like Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Popeye, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Woody Woodpecker, Casper, Betty Boop, and Speed Racer.

Bob Bergen, the voice behind various Looney Tunes characters (like Porky Pig, Tweety and Marvin the Martian), will be the announcer for the network.

Should we move this thread to the Breakroom section? Seems like it fits there.

1 hour ago, bpatrick said:

Somebody forgot Texas, the Another World spinoff that tried to capitalize on the Dallas craze in 1980.  NBC put it on against General Hospital (then in the Luke and Laura craze) and Guiding Light at 3 PM, and it made few if any inroads against the established hits on ABC and CBS.  NBC made another goof when it moved Texas to 11 AM, against The Price Is Right.  Texas and The Doctors had their last episodes Dec. 31, 1982.  Texas was actually the first soap to debut as an hour show and, yes, it was on NBC.

Oh, yeah, I did forget about Texas. Its creation also led to Another World being cut down from 90 minutes back to the then-newly standard one-hour format, after only 17 months in the longer runtime, and contributed to the half-hour Doctors' demise by bumping that soap from its 3:00 p.m. ET slot to 12:30 (where it would be more vulnerable to preemption by some affiliates), putting it in direct competition with Ryan's Hope and (within a year of moving to that slot) The Young and the Restless. Search for Tomorrow's move to NBC soon prompted The Doctors to move up a half-hour to noon ET, dragging down ratings even more in its final year.

17 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

Plus, --correct me if I'm wrong--none of the soaps that started out as an hour were successful.

Only four soaps ever started as hour-long programs, all on NBC: Texas, Santa Barbara, Sunset Beach and Passions. All three were at or near the bottom of the daytime ratings throughout their respective runs, but only one never lasted longer than four years. (Santa Barbara ran for nine years and Passions ran for eight years, followed by an ninth that aired on what eventually became the now-defunct Audience Network after NBC dropped the show in 2007 to make room for the fourth hour of Today.) I'm not sure if Santa Barbara (1984–93) was ever dead last in the ratings at any point, given there was a lot of low-rated competition at various points during its run (Loving, Generations, Ryan's Hope, Capitol and, having spiraled into its nadir during its final years following its 1982 move from CBS to NBC, Search for Tomorrow).

The Aaron Spelling-produced Sunset Beach was technically the least successful of the three serials, only lasting for three years from January 1997 to December 1999. (Fun Fact: It was the only conventional daytime show to ever be featured on the overnight block once known as "NBC All Night".) Oddly, despite consistently having poor ratings throughout its run, NBC chose to give Sunset a few multi-month renewals toward the end of its run because it performed well among younger audiences. That decision to renew the show short-term in early 1999, along with NBC and Sony securing a deal to renew Days of Our Lives after settling disagreements during contract talks (including issues over same-day PPV rebroadcasts on DirecTV, with speculation that it somehow would end up being picked up by ABC should NBC drop it, despite a lack of room on ABC's daytime schedule at the time to allow for a fifth soap), contributed to Another World getting the axe.

Passions (1999–2008; until 2007 on NBC) had similar issues as Sunset Beach, finishing at of near the bottom of the ratings (and doing at least slightly worse in total viewers than the soap it replaced, Another World (which placed eighth in the ratings out of the eleven soaps on the air at the time of its cancellation, ahead of only Sunset and Port Charles), did during the last couple of years of its run); it didn't land in last place among the soaps until ABC canceled Port Charles in 2003, reducing the number of daytime serials from ten to nine. Like Sunset Beach, Passions stayed on NBC because of its performance among teenagers and women 18-34 (it typically placed first among both demographics).

Former Apple and Hulu executive Pete Distad has been hired as CEO of the new streaming service.

52 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

I wonder if this will lead to a total rebrand of TruTV down the line.

If that happens, they'd just rename it after the sports division. WBD already has TNT Sports-branded networks in the UK (previously known as BT Sport) and three South American countries, so...

Also, the expansion of sports on TruTV is interesting, given its supposed to be one of the channels carried on the planned sports streaming service.

I think this thread should be placed in the "International News" section.

A little late on learning this, but Gray struck a deal to air the WFAA Mavericks package in two of its Texas markets (one of which technically is a border market with Oklahoma):

* In Lubbock, KLCW and KMYL will split the games evenly between them (3/1, 3/13, 3/29, 4/5 and 4/10 on KLCW, and 3/11, 3/21, 4/4, 4/9 and 4/12 on KMYL).

* In the Sherman-Ada market, KXII will air most of the games on its MyNetworkTV subchannel 12.2, while the remaining two games (3/29 & 4/12) will air on its Fox sub on 12.3. 

It looks like the TVN+ subscription drive helped, as starting today (Monday, March 4), TVNewsCheck has resumed regular updates to its website, distribution of its daily morning and afternoon, and "Tech Thursday" newsletters.

Nexstar has filed a lawsuit against the FCC over the recent modifications to its broadcast ownership regulations.

Simone Jameson has reportedly been let go by WXIX, over these photos that she posted following a boxing workout on her station-branded social media.

(Note: FTVLive has posted several stories lately about reporters, like Jameson, who posted photos to their work accounts that most people, especially those outside the news business, would normally post to their personal social media.)

This isn't a news theme, but I've always wondered what the name and composer of this production music was (it's heard several times in this video from a 1999 Cox Communications free preview of HBO, one portion being most clearly audible at the 7:50 mark).

Cox had used the piece for its free preview weekend events dating to April 1997 (during an HBO/Cinemax preview occurring the weekend Twister made its debut on HBO, over a week after it became the first film ever released on DVD), when they were still hosted by Terry Rich and produced through his production and marketing firm Rich Heritage.

I've also added an audio clip taken from a fishing program included in a now-deleted YT channel surfing video (I had to convert the audio clip into an mp4, since TVNT links don't accept mp3s).

So, it looks like TVNC has resumed publishing on their website in a reduced capacity, though some original content (like certain MarketShare articles) are now paywalled to subscribers of their $199/year TVN Plus tier.

Since Valentine's Day, TVNewsCheck announced a drive seeking a subscriber goal of 1,500 broadcasters to help cover operating costs, with the hope of reintroducing "expanded, behind-the-scenes coverage" exclusive to TVN Plus subscribers as soon as the next two months.

WMBF sports director Dave Ackert was charged with public intoxication early Monday (February 12) outside of a Myrtle Beach area bar. Ackert reportedly entered the bar through the backdoor and ordered a beer; apparently after several beers, he was cut off from drinking any further by the establishment's owner, who took his beer away because Ackert was “highly intoxicated.”

Ackert was escorted out after threatening to kill the bar owners, but continued to threaten people outside. He refused rides home via an Uber called for him by the owner (Ackert refused to get in because he claimed the driver was an “assassin”), and by police, who brought Ackert to J. Reuben Long Detention Center, from where he was released later that morning.

Fox Weather has been added to Hulu + Live TV and TCLtv+ (TCL's AVOD live TV service accessible on its television set models).

As I figured, TBN will carry Merit Street over-the-air on its O&Os. Having passed through KTBO while channel surfing, TBN has already begun running a promo feed on its DT2 subchannels ahead of the Merit Street network's launch, which is now scheduled for February 26.

But it won't be a replacement for TBN Inspire, outside of channel placement. Instead, to make room, Inspire and Smile were each moved one subchannel ahead (Inspire from DT2 to DT3, and Smile from DT3 to DT4), while Enlace has been dropped entirely and relegated exclusively to the TBN Plus streaming platform. (This would leave Daystar as the only English-language religious network that offers an over-the-air Spanish-language service, assuming other 3ABN stations removed 3ABN Latino and its sister networks a couple of years ago like KUOT-LD did in my market.)