mrschimpf

I forgot another issue; Journal used to be really stingy with subchannels with Charter and Time Warner, so in a few places like ex-Charter markets, they've never had any subchannels on their systems, and Scripps hasn't corrected that oversight, so they're going into a situation in some markets where they have to deal with both Ion and Journal's negotiating errors restricting thier leverage to get the Katz networks on. My system only has Bounce TV from WMLW, and lost Grit when WCGV went off the air, so we're literally missing most of the suite in my market.

End of an era in Milwaukee...master control for WTMJ/WGBA/WACY is now at WRTV in Indy (and KMTV in Omaha is now out of WTKR/Norfolk). With the Good Karma Radio stations beginning to plan a move downtown and no more HQ uses, Radio City is going to have the reverse problem from KMGH...too much room, but the space gained is likely way too small for personnel and television studio uses.

I pity the poor cable companies tomorrow that have to either take 'why am I not getting (new network) that just popped up on Ion' because of their painful dependence on must-carry agreements on the main channel, having three of the same network on because Ion plopped Ion Life on a main channel in the market that used to be TBN/CW/some other network, or missing channels because you know there will be a station carrying a Katz subchannel that'll be like 'well (bleep) you too' and throw it off their lineup in spite the moment the clock strikes 6 tomorrow morning. Milwaukee's situation is such a mess with the Katz networks spread among WTMJ, WMLW and WPXE, and Green Bay the same with WGBA, WACY, WFRV, along with existing coverage of Ion on WBAY that you know will be gone soon to create another Ion/MyNet Frankenstein lineup on WACY.

Spectrum News 1 was really the only other choice as a statewide cable network, and that came with the handicap that it would only be on Spectrum, so the Brewers really had no choice. And going with Weigel would've meant re-stringing together a disparate network of broadcast stations which outside of WMLW, would've been likely a bunch of subchannels already in flux with the Quincy deal and minus Sinclair stations. The Brewers already saw what a disaster Victory Sports One was for the Twins; there was no way they'd launch a one-team RSN in 2021.

The Brewers are sticking with Bally Sports Wisconsin on a multi-year agreement (though how many years hasn't been announced). No on-air changes to personnel. The Marlins remain up in the air with a 2021 TV deal with BS Florida/Sun.

I still remember the days where we had to have a box because our city's build out had "A" and "B" lines which required an A/B switch and made recording from a VCR a guessing game (I went on a vacation hoping I recorded the ALF finale movie on ABC on the A side...only to come home to two hours of Saturday night CNBC on the B side). Despite that, we still had some split channels into the 90s until Charter bought our provider and implemented one-line service, then digital cable. And we didn't even get BET until 2012 locally. And in that time, we've lost channels because our city was classified as a Milwaukee market city, but Green Bay channels are also in our market, so as networks who don't care about decades-long relationships between viewer and stations, we lost the UPN/MyNet, CBS and Fox stations from Green Bay because of network greed. Thankfully streaming for most of them makes catching their news easy (except for Nexstar stations), but it's aggravating to pay so much a month for all this service and your provider doesn't want to deal with blackout hassles just to keep offering a Fox station from out-of-market, lest they lose Fox News next time because of bitterness on Rupert's end.

Not much of a loss from the $10 million Fox was going to buy it for in 2014 when they needed a backstop just in case they couldn't get the terms they wanted from Tribune for KCPQ pre-Nexstar purchase. Fox of course is pretty happy now with not having to run "Fox 24 Seattle" and a WBTS-esque mess of a translator network with a main tower 80 miles from downtown.

All addressed by the STELA act; local stations have blackout rights to overlay O&O's, no matter what, and you have to go through a process that includes actual U.S. mail in order to convince your local station (even a MyNetworkTV affiliate) to watch an OOM station such as WWOR or WABC, and you have to show literal proof, including pictures, documentation and video to show 'yeah, I can't get this station at all by antenna, I can't get cable which offers it, and I'm out of range of a streamer to get this station'...and maybe they'll approve your request, but that's also a crapshoot.

It's pretty much a certainty after this next retransmission cycle, Disney Channel and Disney XD are done. They've already killed the channels in Europe, Australia and Asia for a Disney+ focus, and it's only accelerating since COVID-19 (the only advantage Disney Channel has right now is its live-action shows are closed-set by design). Cartoon Network is losing product to HBO Max, and Nick is surviving on SpongeBob reruns and stunts. Qubo also tried the multi-gen strategy with the Filmation library earlier in their history, but for the most part the nostalgia of He-Man was of the 'only thing on for kids at the time of day' type of nostalgia rather than it being good, so it died off. But what did kill off Qubo was the horrid management of the 'i for Infomercial' era of Ion which decided to go hard on must-carry of their main network, but shrugging off carriage of the subchannel networks when there was plenty of room for carriage, despite plenty of viewer demand for it at the time. Once the digital transition came and other station groups and network owners argued for 'main channel/subchannel' carriage, it was just another bottom-barrel subchannel like RTV or TheCoolTV

Ion Plus; guaranteed to be closed. Their schedule is just second runs of crime series and Cancon already on the main Ion, so the 'waste of spectrum' comment is on the nose. Qubo has pretty much become the last resort network for children's producers to take their shows, so outside of mass E/I credits to keep the main Ion schedule kids-free and little cable/sat pickup, it's probably done too. And not commented but for sure done; Ion Shop. The days of all-informercial channels are best left to cable systems now. Also expect them to reel back paid religious time solely to Sunday mornings.

February 3, TBD on 28.2 moves to 28.1.

It was definitely the blue FNC cable feed, not the white no-clock Fox logo that was part of the SR all day. WITI aired regular Fox primetime beforehand.

Anyone seeing FNC and Laura Ingraham tonight on the O&O's after Fox primetime (or before on the West Coast)? I put on WITI to get the weather, and saw FNC on the air rather than the local 9pm show. I don't think this is the smartest thing to do tonight by any means.

A Fox affiliate newscast in a market where WLAJ long ago tapped out helps for sure, and people will be happy for an alternative to Gray/Nexstar (and Journal was a hamstring to them until Scripps finally came along). Miami is an extremely over-newsed market where an NBC-owned station struggles and the Spanish stations dominate. It would've likely launched already, but with The CW literally carrying what is usually Saturday afternoon sports filler in CW primetime in months because of production stoppages with their regular shows...do you want your newscast lead-in at the start to be "America's Christmas Choir Challenge" or "World's Funniest Pets"? You'd be suicidal to launch a newscast now with Associated Television drivel.

It's a Christmas Eve miracle . Nexstar and Dish have come to terms, and WGN America will be added to Sling TV in the near future.

WITI came in with half of their branding around their weather and personnel, but the market's patterns justify the investment. Fox's O&O footprint outside Orlando, Milwaukee, MSP and Tampa right now (and to a smaller extent the Texas Triangle) doesn't really have the need for huge weather resources by design. Also I'm in a market where TWC STILL has never put in an HD local unit, so I have to keep the SD channel on my channel map for local conditions (and the Milwaukee feed I get on the Spectrum app for some godforesaken reason advertises businesses from Cleveland on the local ticker). NBC basically ruined the network, and Allen's 'LOL Weather so funny!' clip shows from their library have not helped their reputation at all.

I'm just glad they haven't begun to stack scoreboards in the vertical video space to solely appeal to social media users.

The Brewers current FSN deal apparently just ran out, but they're in a rock and a hard place (Sinclair also owns the WVTV CW/MyNet feeds, and Weigel's WMLW is on a low-power stick). Their literal only other move would be to the local Spectrum News 1, so I would expect the deal to be renewed by default. But since the team's major sponsor is an area Native American casino and there's no sports betting in the state, they will push back hard against branding with some out-of-state entity Wisconsinites still associate more with pinball and fitness centers in the past than gambling.

Likely a bump into the Chicago market...they'll keep the facility, and then spring an application to transmit from Willis or one of the western Chicagoland AM towers once it's approved. Currently they're just north of that little jut of La Salle County where WWTO fought for years to get Chicago cable access before eventually getting a spectrum share in town to get it. Yet more unshocking hijinks from Venture Technologies (note WAOE dumped its MyNet affiliation and shows to go paid 24/7, so it's literally a non-factor in Peoria right now).

Ted Perry is back on WITI as of the Packers halftime report tonight, so the corporate-induced suspension is over for him; no return to socials yet (not linking to his Twitter, but Dan O'Donnell is...bitter he didn't win a firing).

Sunday is an NFL gameday, thus they got a Panthers halo effect on that night, and Fox Friday is traditionally a dead zone, so it was smart to just skip Friday until they had enough ratings (a lot of local stations in NFL markets, CBS, Fox, NBC, and even ABC have their main teams Sunday–Thursday for the same reason, with them both or one off on Friday nights).

I would have thought since he owns 60% of Fox Sports Wisconsin's ad inventory, David Gruber's "One Call...That's All! Sportsnet" was a virtual lock.

Considering those folks at WISN killed any effort by my county to reduce COVID-19 through inane 'but muh freedoms' protests against the county government (a county that isn't even covered in their news unless their 'outrage of the week' occurs here), it's no wonder WISN-TV long ago burned all bridges with them.

Corporate has now suspended him for the week...or longer.

They occasionally still have a Magnum sting pop up here and there (mainly during the overnight rundown on WakeUp), and on the overnight news replay, the 'previously recorded' flag still is from the pre-WDAF graphics, along with a T&T bug during some live news events. ETA - The late night newscast replay has the pre-WDAF T&T design wedged into the new graphics...along with an oddly-kerned Fox logo (note the 'X') which suggests they had to jerryrig the new logo design into the old 'FOX6 News/FOX6 Milwaukee/FOX6NOW.com' carousel logo template.