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Everything posted by Rusty Muck
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WABC’s branding is such an atrocious and inconsistent mess that it’s a miracle they’re number one in anything. The “Disney Mandate” reads like another “CBS Mandate” to me, tbvh.
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That was 15 years ago. The industry and the consumer is not the same today as in 2008 and admittedly, Fox may have been way ahead of their time. To be honest, I don't think Jim Gardner would have cared if they changed to "ABC Philadelphia News" and unveiled a redo of MCTYW by Made Music a week before he retired.
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Paramount Global is putting attention and care at the CBS stations for the first time in decades. They're beginning to implement changes sorely-needed in the industry that the other networks will imitate, including branding and identifiers. And yes, I will not be shocked if one day, WPVI rebrands to "ABC Philadelphia" and WABC becomes "ABC New York". It will absolutely happen. "ABC 7" might mean WABC to you or WLS to someone in Chicago or KABC in Los Angeles, but they get drowned in a ton of other ABC 7s in social media and online portals. The current way of doing things is 100% unsustainable.
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Which happened 27 years ago. And unpopular opinion, the redone version wasn't that much better and should have been shelved. But MCTYW in the classic form is ridiculously dated, at least when compared to the iteration WNEP uses (which was kept because -- gasp!! -- it fits the Tegna graphics like a glove). Those stations are #1 despite Disney basically not giving a crap about them and treating them like an afterthought. Disney has not bought a station in the now-dead M&A mania because ABC remains such a low priority, it's all about the Pixar and the Marvel and the Star Wars product. Heck, they probably forget that they even own ABC.
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Apollo Global Management, which owns “Cox Media Group”, owns the trademark to Action News. Disney pays Apollo-Cox a fee to use the trademark on WPVI. (Disney DOES own “Move Closer To Your World”, which they bought after Mayoham Music went out of business.) Paramount Global has the first-use service mark for “Eyewitness News” which Westinghouse registered and will keep ownership of it after KYW-TV drops the name (again). ABC has always licensed the name from Westinghouse—>CBS—>Paramount.
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To be blunt, would anyone be surprised if ABC winds up wholesale rebranding their O&Os in the same way the CBS O&Os are? As @Weeters brought up to me, Wendy McMahon came to CBS from ABC, and did so after Bob Iger retired. Iger might really not be happy that Chapek just let her walk on over to a competitor the way she did. Just because Action News is the Delaware Valley’s Leading News Program (Disney has to pay Apollo-Cox for the “Action” name) or Eyewitness News is “News York’s #1 News” (and Disney has to pay Paramount Global for the EWN name) doesn’t mean those names are ironclad. If CBS can get this new branding convention to work, the other three networks will follow. And no station will be immune, brand legacy be darned. Nothing is ironclad or impenetrable. It might even be the reason why the ABC O&O graphic redo has been placed on hold indefinitely…
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Again, it misses the larger point: CBS has a stand-alone in a top 10 market that is poised to dump the CW anyway and become an independent. They are not going to keep running WUPA as a pass-through independent in the long-term.
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Zap2It is now showing that the noon debuts next Monday
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Here’s the thing: CBS has a station in Atlanta which is currently an affiliate of the CW (and possibly could be going indie). They aren’t going to keep the running the station as a stand-alone indie in a top 10 market. Nor do they have anyone to sell it to (friendly reminder that this is no longer a buyer’s market for TV stations or for large-scale M&As). Given that WWJ-TV is merely simulcasting an OTT/SVOD with a smattering of syndication and CBS programming, it’s not TOO outside the box to see CBS make WUPA, WTOG and KSTW in-house CBS O&Os. And even that LPTV in Indianapolis, WBXI-CD. Sure, CBS could use WTOG, WBXI-CD and KSTW as bargaining chips to get further established stations—and they probably will—but WWJ-TV and CBS News Detroit might be giving them a road map for the future that’s already under all of our noses.
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CBS still has that LPTV in Indianapolis. Just saying…
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The times I’ve watched the 62 simulcasts, I’ve been struck at how they deliberately pace stories and allowing them to breathe. It’s the polar opposite of most other newscasts in the entire industry but at the same time, it’s like they watched that 1980 aircheck of WABC Eyewitness News @HulkieDhas cited in the past as recommended viewing for TV executives and copiously took notes.
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Wasn’t local production of Detroit Now already switched over to 62/50? I’m not sure most people would be able to see the difference anyway. The timeline for buildout appears to be: add the 4pm, then the noon (and 7pm?) and then weekend evenings… then buildout weekday mornings, with weekend mornings as the last piece. Going by the original “40 hours a week” projection for CBS News Detroit simulcasts on 62, WWJ stands to have local news from 4:30–7am, 9–9:30am, noon—12:30pm, 4–6:30pm, 7–7:30pm and 11–11:35pm on weekdays, two hours on Saturday and Sunday morning and the 6 and 11 on weekends.
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Are we even sure that this is any part of the graphics package they’ll be using? It looks like an in-house mod of the logo just for that specific shot. There’s no L3 or bugs to speak of.
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Where are we drawing this conclusion? Because there's a gold ring around the transitional logo in that first picture that can be easily excised?
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KYW didn't use the EWN name from 1991 until 1998, reclaiming it two years after Group W ceased to exist.
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This could be a one-off to audition talent or work out logistics, but WWJ just added a newscast for next Sunday night right after the Grammys… ATM there's no newscast scheduled for the following Sunday night@Samantha
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They might not be THAT quick—mornings feel like it’ll fall in place by May at the latest—but they’re building this out at a rather steady pace and experimenting with likely talent pairings.
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That’s currently streaming-only but the legal ID tag suggests it might be added very soon. Their 4pm news launches next Monday. With The Drew Barrymore Show’s modular setup, the other half will be moved to 9:30 a.m. Also I’m watching the stream and they’ve added Detroit Now on WKBD…
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They still have to launch a 4pm news; it’s possible this was a talent audition.
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Apples and oranges. Sinclair could not legally keep either the 33 or 40 of “ABC 33/40” and if they filed such a request to claim VC 33 or 40 in the present day, it would be rejected. And AGAIN, people have no trouble finding James Spann when there’s a tornado and he rolls up his sleeves.
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4pm might not be far off at this rate, which would match up with their intended launch plans (after considerable revision). One thing I’m legitimately surprised about is WWJ running Entertainment Tonight at 1:35 a.m. … why not at 7:30 p.m.?? Amyre Sr. got her big break in 1975 as one of the first anchors for WGPR-TV’s Big City News, so it really does come full circle.
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These are diginets as opposed to cable. Thanks to the Ion/Inyo footprint, Scripps has a major OTA presence to exploit as well as getting them on every FAST/OTT/SVOD. tbh if they spin anything off in a few years, it’ll be the network affiliates. And they have no reason to even do that.
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KCBS 2/KCAL 9 - CBS Los Angeles News Thread
Rusty Muck replied to Roadrunner's topic in Los Angeles News
I looked at WBMA’s channel lineup with @Weeterslast night. It’s devolved into an absurdly laughable mess since Sinclair twisted arms and bent reality to get the Allbritton deal finalized: Sinclair could make it so much easier on everyone and call the whole enterprise “WBMA ABC” or “ABC Birmingham” or “ABC 58” or “ABC Alabama”… and yet… and yet, people still find a way to watch James Spann on ABC 58/68.2/17.2/40.2… errr… “ABC 33/40” AND are doing so in a market historically dominated by 6 and 13 with a branding that’s been obsolete for nearly nine years. That’s what I mean when I debate the actual importance of channel number branding in the post-DTV switch and early OTT/SVOD eras.
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The bitter part is that WGPR-TV has a legacy. It was merely erased from channel 62 in 1994 when CBS was forced to buy the station under duress and is now confined to a museum.
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Of note, Fox affiliate branding conventions came from how the MetroMedia chain identified themselves for decades. What had been “MetroMedia Channel #” was altered to “Fox Television Channel #” when Rupert bought the chain. By 1988, it was simplified to “Fox #”.
