mrschimpf

A few updates for Scripps, mainly that as of Friday, The List and The Upside were cancelled, and have been replaced with a live hour of Scripps News a la NBC News Daily, which connects to the integration mentioned above. For The List, here's their goodbye video.

The second thing is that the withered corpse that was the original HD graphics package for The Morning Blend from the Journal days (2008 vintage!) is gone and replaced with a sunnier Scripps-generated package. It's been on for months on KTNV, but just got to WTMJ.

And here's the TVNC article regarding the change; it looks like it'll roll out to more stations in the fall, and KIRO is actually carrying it in Seattle. 

4 hours ago, Geoffrey said:

Looks like the graphics change has been implemented. Keeping the new graphics but making some adjustments:

 

Person's name and title is again displayed under the headline, which is bolder. Locators have been squared off, as has been the CNN bug (except for the top-left corner, not pictured here), but the curves remain elsewhere. The flipper is now written in all caps and is often nearly impossible to read (I'm sure this will be addressed quickly).

 

So definitely not the "back to the old style" that Dylan Byers reported but more of a hybrid adjusting the new design.

I should've known; I really don't trust Puck to get story basics right, so this is just another confirmation of that and it was just the graphics people adjusting, so my last post doesn't really stand (though I'm sure the meddling is there all the same).

Watters started out on O'Reilly as a correspondent/PA, so it's more of an ouroboros where nothing has really changed at all and FNC decided not to be adventurous and go with anyone outside of even the prime block, but who was in the timeslot already to start out with. This is basically what would've eventually happened as a succession plan if Bill had stayed with the network and been a proper gentleman.

It was pretty well expected that you could've bet on it, but still disappointing.

Why do I get the feeling Zazlav watched NBC Nightly News and threw a tantrum that his graphics '(censored) (censored) (censored)' compared to their 'new (censored) package)' and told everyone 'start (censored) over' after who knows how much work was done? I would not be shocked if CNN's graphics department hates him just as much as those at TCM right now (and since CNN+ was scuttled, it trebled).

The only time I can really think of a reverse being done was WPVI (we all know THAT story), or probably in the 70s or 80s because a newer machine just didn't work with the news department's ENG conversion yet and had to be back-burnered until it was fixed, or more rarely, a network switch forced an old system to be implemented as they were no longer licensed to use the network's software and devices (a la CBS).

You see this all the time on Fox station morning shows like Good Day. Most of the segments are paid for by the business being promoted and aren't just the reporter just coming into a business looking into something new at random, but coordinated in advance (you don't see a trampoline park open at 7am or a restaurant with their dinner menu at breakfast, usually). This is downright tame, especially for a Saturday morning show.

At least they were completely transparent about it being a sponsored segment; most in smaller markets just aren't.

It would have made natural sense if WANF let CBS go because of the SEC...but really, that was the only reason I could've seen them bailing. CBS's other event programming, the Masters across the state in Augusta, and the Falcons no longer stuck to WAGA most of the season because of the end of 'conference exclusivity' deals? That easily sweetened the pot for Gray to pull the trigger on renewal.

The big Atlanta unknown now is where the CW goes, but I don't see it going on a prime station without compromising on NXT's end or time-buying being the result; it isn't going to be on WPCH though just because of Gray's current overall Atlanta blueprint.

They're throwing all the money at one creator (Taylor Sheridan, who refuses any script help and writes nothing but worn-down tropes) towards one demographic (which mostly watches INSP and FNC) while starving promotion from their other shows and creators outside the SpongeBobs and South Parks, and like any PG cable channel has been for the last ten years, you have to watch the content at the time it comes out before they pull it back because they refuse to let it thrive or give unknown creators security (the Heathers situation).

Their model is unsustainable, and that their cable portfolio is now in the infomercials and home shopping level of filler nobody actually watches...they're lucky they have CBS primetime and Tom Cruise, because everything else they've touched is just not doing well.

44 minutes ago, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

I am a personal friend of 2 of the meteorologists there and they've been so frustrated by him since day 1...

 

Bill Steffen winding down his schedule to emeritus status times out to when they came there and I'm beginning to wonder if there might also a component to that, along with the change to a more generic image/theming away from its longtime 'good friend to the community' framing.

I really do like that the graphics finally acknowledge that most TV's/smart screens show every bit of data and no longer really need a safe zone designed in the 50s, and actually show most of the entire picture, so it's an out of the way graphics package unlike many noisy sports and news packages which overload you with statistics or information (still waiting on DraftKings to officially sponsor presidential odds and polls ).

But yes, 'breaking news' has become just as bad a term as the George Carlin Seven to me. It's overused and 'Developing Story/News' carries the story just as well.

It fills two hours and provides a common branding to stations whose creative department simply does not exist any longer and are usually paired with Fox or the CW, or going at it alone. The days of Malrite, Gaylord and Grant's originality are long over.

I'm assuming this is the team actually purchasing time on KJZZ rather than Sinclair having the direct rights (though still holding marketing rights), which allows much more flexibility with the contract overall than they had with AT&TSN.

2 hours ago, EVVTV12 said:

I know we have talked about this before for previous years, but why hasn’t the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 tired to sell some of their shows to the US syndicate market? I’ll say it, I will watch Countdown, Pointless, and Tipping Point before I watch another newscast. 

They have different commercial break structures for one, along with an entirely different structure to their unions and they're royalties overall, so unless it's packed into an ad-friendly format like Benny Hill and Monty Python were, it's usually passed on. There's also 'oh no scary accents!' syndrome that makes them a hard sell (though all those Discovery reality shows with bad mic work needing to be subtitled/lots of mumbling are much worse).

But the other thing is a lot of folks have long figured out VPNs to watch direct from overseas without the obnoxious sell-throughs many syndicated shows have now (theme weeks and 'special offers'), and UK-specific streaming services now exist in the US, so that's where their focus went long ago, along with public television. It's also why BBC America is just an American rerun farm now, because AMC's budget cuts have killed their acquisition budget.

28 minutes ago, AmericanErrorist said:

They're going to try to build an NFL studio program from scratch.

They have part of it already (the NFL Films content), they just need the hosts to wrap around it. This I can't criticize them for outside if they don't get a good panel of hosts (shh don't tell Antonio Brown).

Personally I really miss good investigations of consumer issues like pricing and grocery store issues, but Food Lion and Pink Slime pretty much scared ABC and NBC into full time crime on their newsmagazines, and you don't see CBS even cover many of those stories any longer.

I still don't understand what they're going to merge...the team golf concept nobody understands or has any loyalty to, or making LIV a part of the FedEx Cup? The Champions Tour just being yeeted out of existence?

I am just left with more questions than answers about what this merger will do except confuse the rights holders, the PGA loyalists, and the clubs that host events already on the edge (your BC Opens) who may lose their tour stops. Maybe this is more PGA tossing money at LIV to just go away and get back to normal than anything.

Certainly the best thing at this point would be for executives to stay 100% behind the scenes. If I never have to know a TV station/network's executive or general manager outside the context of image campaigns or editorials, that is a very good thing. This is 100% junk news about people we'll never see on-screen yelling at the people on-screen (except with payroll screws to turn rather than just pointless yelling).

I get the feeling that the VPN routing traffic within team territories for MLB.tv is much more than the number of BS+ subscribers. I'm sure the numbers for Tennis Channel Plus are also miserably low and starving that sport for exposure they've been losing for over a decade.

Who wants an L3 that fits more words in it?!?! Who? 

That seems to be the big change out of this; more wordy L3s, which this seems to be designed for (they were bad in the old package...and this now looks even worse). I know cable news is trending older and these graphics seem to now be designed as a mobile-first experience, along with being designed to be stripped down for FAST experiences, but the only people that like these graphics are political spokespeople who can have CNN crunch even more inaneness onto the screen.

Glad the ticker is gone though; remember they did have a really nice flipper back in 2013, but Zucker had it removed on his day one for the ticker because he was that much of an egomaniac.

13 hours ago, jase said:

The flashing 'live' is unnecessary.

It has to flash to prevent screen burn-in, which I can predict will be now really obvious for the old package on public TVs that never switch off CNN.

2 hours ago, mightynine said:

Considering the path the other CBS O&Os have gone, call letters in a box is probably more likely than not. It would easily slot into any CBS News (Local Name) graphics set.

At least there's only two-three stations (KBCW, WPCW, and maybe WUPA) that ever specifically ID'ed as CW in the calls, so there's not much FCC legwork to do regarding any call changes, and a few like WPSG already have brands like 'Philly 57' that easily adapt to the box (no need to change a call with 'Paramount' in it already).

5 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

Like who's going to watch a University of Akron basketball game?

Look at the sidebar and ticker with extremely inane and degenerate gambling figures and statistics from Bally. Outside of direct friends or family and university students that are only there to watch the game, their viewership is either the lowest of the low bettors, oddballs who refuse to watch paid sports networks for some reason, or sports bars that need to fill one of their eighteen screens during the day.

On 5/13/2023 at 9:21 PM, CircleSeven said:

• The tower facility of WSJV ($200k).

Here's what it says on the asset purchase agreement :

Don't understand why Lowcountry is getting the latter, unless there going to acquire an LP in the Bend in the future.........

WSJV's transmitter was relocated to the WSBT tower several years ago (and will serve as an upcoming 3.0 lighthouse), so it's been extraneous real estate for Gray for that long outside lease money they get from WBYT (WSJV's former FM sister).

Another factor for the sale; WFLA and WTTA share UHF High 9. WSNN is on UHF 26. You move that transmitter to Riverview at the same height as the full-powers, and you've got a solid UHF signal serving the most important parts of the market to simulcast WFLA and WTTA and can keep WSNN's main signal in 720p (safe bet they dump all the Scripps subchannels which already air on WXPX).

WSNN already news-shares with WFLA, so there may be no on-air changes outside a transmitter move and having WSNN cover the non-prime slots (including the presumptive 10pm WTTA show) in lieu of WFLA.

On 5/26/2023 at 11:00 AM, newscopter7 said:

Days hasn’t gone to Peacock to die. It’s one of Peacock’s most streamed series if not the most. And the show that replaced  it on NBC is pulling 500,000 less viewers than Days. 

And no more pre-emptions. In this case the move was needed, and eventually CBS and ABC will have to make the same decisions because if you have news content on and news breaks there's no one to really anger outside the few people who did a feature and didn't see it on TV. It's stupid because press conferences were designed to digest events during the day and be part of a rundown later instead of being covered live, but it's too late to go back to that form of distribution.

3 minutes ago, mre29 said:

In that c

 

In that case, I'd like to know its opinion of the ownership situations in Lima, OH, and Victoria, TX.

 

Much different as it's across low-powers, unlike the Anchorage situation. And those are pretty much 'RTC affiliates' merely existing to Hoover up RTC revenue, not Anchorage where there should be competition.

Understandable for some affiliates above market 100 (the most prominent is WISH unless WTTV-DT2 gets it as originally planned), but...

Why would any Plus group affiliate opt their stations out of this?! Maybe your Coastals and Allens will consider it, but most of these groups grab The CW affiliation mainly to have a respectable backup in case of breaking news and not have to bother with scheduling much. Why would they want to opt out on that coverage and deal with the VMVPD's alone? For most of these affiliates below 100, The CW+ sub is a rounding error.