nathannah

The application says it will be converted to a non-commercial license, but of course a channel sharing agreement with the translator can be made to round that little obstacle.

Free TV Networks has finally realized that their coverage for Defy outside Gray is absolutely terrible (not a single full-powered station in California for either network outside KRON!), so they put their tail between their legs and Scripps (which killed it for Ion Plus last year, with FTVN getting the name and branding rights literally last minute for their male A&E rerun farm) is now carrying Defy again on some of their stations. Some contract expirations on Gray stations allowed the expansion of 365BLK and Defy to more markets.

And as for the PBR, there's a happy ending for them; Fox Nation (who is doing much better and can pay for the rights) will pick up their weekly events.

I think in this case he had good reason to walk; whatever they offered beyond 20/20, it's all a downgrade.

Flew under the radar and found out about it when it was added to the 'junk drawer' tier of my Spectrum system; apparently Herring and Spectrum came to an agreement to add both OAN and AWE to their systems in May, and they're starting to add it now. Not questioning Spectrum because I'm sure they're laughing all the way to the bank with whatever little viewership OAN/AWE will provide to make that carriage deal (or maybe Herring finally realized overpricing his channels as 'premuim' was stupid in the long run).

Hopefully the show is restructured around her, because IE has needed a solid refresh for over a decade.

WTMJ taking it on the chin and letting so many go. Now Tom Durian is done at the end of July to move on to KVVU, Henderson...and Las Vegas, as evening anchor, since Steve Chamraz is entrenched. KTNV must be livid.

That can be attestable (TBN lost most of their Spectrum carriage over the years for their other channels outside regular TBN and enlace) but there's also the reality that cable providers are not up to paying $2 more for a channel with a shaky business model (big star with their own show tricking down an audience on generic other content already found on other channels) and whose product is already otherwise free or available in rerun form elsewhere or on podcasts. TBN is hard into digital first as then they don't need to bother with the middlemen negotiating carriage or the costs of the analog era translator network they sold off to speculators and subfarm operators. That he had no control of his network library at all certainly didn't help matters, but also that broadcast surcharge fees are getting near $50/month, it's beginning to be a losing battle for bundles, with providers beginning to fight back (re: the old Cinci Bell fighting Nexstar because they don't want NewsNation just to carry Dayton's NBC/CW stations) or having to capitulate (Spectrum getting back the dumped Disney networks in exchange for Hulu access at their own terms). Phil refused to do the most basic research that TBN simply doesn't negotiate carriage well outside must-carry and their JVs like Hillsong have had a high failure rate, that .1 channel leases for stations rarely watched, even must-carry on pay TV systems are a money pit (CHSN learned that too even as subchannels), and now he's learning that lesson in bankruptcy.

It's also on KAZT's third subchannel as they de facto operate Loudon, and Sinclair is KTXD through Cunningham. KVMD indeed kicked them off their LA main channel coverage a few weeks ago. Current affiliate list

Here's a full breakdown; Mountain Broadcasting (which owns Merit's NY flagship, WMBC) is the second largest creditor, followed by KVMD, its LA station, and Olympusat, along with DirecTV and Nexstar and the COPS producers, among others. So it's more than TBN, but every one of his affiliates has said 'we're done', and I'm sure TBN expected a basic network, not for him to throw them into multiple culture wars. I don't really have sympathy for them because they knew they are literally competing with his own reruns, but those other groups are not going to be made whole.

Meanwhile, another slap on the wrist for the latest group of closed captioning, license renewal and children's program reporting violations (they should really fix that; you're not seeing that with Gray, Scripps or even Nexstar); $500,000, which compared to the 2020 $48 million fine is chump change.

And for Comcast homes, it's not even the position they care about the most; they'll probably promote wherever they land in the HD 430s tier instead, because they know outside those who still haven't been moved to streaming/Xumo boxes, very few watch SD channels at that position, outside of DVR space saving/'stubborn olds'. It may even just take channel 431 from WPLG and they'll have to move and switch channel positions in the 430-450 tier with another station (444 is blank so that's a possibility). But on YouTube TV, Hulu, Fubo or anything else, it'll be seamless for ABC viewers, including recordings, while WPLG likely end up with having to start all over, and will find itself having to negotiate their own carriage in the future.

And now two years later a new deal has been reached; all those networks are actually coming back to Spectrum, along with Hulu with ads access. I think we can easily see that Spectrum held out and Disney realized that fewer children watching their channels did make a difference in depressing their other properties, like Elio's box office performance last week; kids are not watching interviews with the adult voice actors on Good Morning America and certainly not The View (the only real prominent promotion I saw for the film).

That story is a very interesting way to spin away from the fact that they've just lost half their weather staff, and Tyler and Kristen felt so underappreciated (you can easily argue Kristen was doing so much more work/shifts than the actual chief, and Tyler basically ran the day shift all by himself), that they just gave up and looked for other opportunities. The days of Paul Joseph and John Malan keeping that station the market's gold standard are truly over.

The thing I dread most is if this down the line just becomes a timeslot to dump 'viral video...but around the world' content rather than being made up of quality international news. The appetite for 'it was on TikTok and Storyful authenticated it, so it's news' content is wearing out very quickly (especially with AI making it much harder to verify), and most stations already dismiss world news because it either doesn't have video, it has no hook (South Korean parliament fights), or they want stories pre-edited by a wire so they don't have to translate anything. It feels like they want to copy WSVN's 'around the world' format, but also keep WNT's style of anchoring, which just doesn't work without someone who handles it well like David Muir who somehow makes their 'happening now' vernacular work. I just don't think Louis Aguirre has that gravitas. (and yeah, I remember those New World years where those stations had multi-screen 'satellite centers' and promoted 'the power of CNN'...then barely used them after awhile and once FTS took over, that focus and the CNN affiliations quickly evaporated.)

Just wanted to share this for the fans of long credit closes; it's 4th of July hiatus time for the show, so this morning's Kelly & Mark was a blended repeat of several interviews with the last segments cut (i.e. Fall Fitness Week or New Year/New You) when they were still in the old studio, but appropriately the first shot in this was of the view from atop Iger, so I thought I'd fit it in here since the network/WABC usually don't linger for long on skycam network shots. Plus we rarely get to hear the full show theme these days. Enjoy!

In case you were all wondering why the fast track to get CBS out of 1515, we know now; Paramount is trying to get out of the lease so Caesars can put a casino in the building.

The funny thing is that EWTN and the Vatican have a terrible relationship because of a lot of things, including EWTN's hate of Vatican II. If Rome could start its own American operation with EWTN's carriage, they would dump them in a heartbeat. And sadly, 'Christian television' has become just a euphemism for 'right-wing' content; the local religious station in Milwaukee airs a lot of wingnut shows and full podcasts now, including the Worldview Report, which actually gets an audience as an 'alternative' to the local newscasts at 10 p.m. and The National Desk.

The Chevron strike-down has hit the FCC's decisions; by a 6-3 party-line vote today, the Supreme Court ruled that lower courts can now decide cases without FCC input (link from my employer with their view; here's another view from Broadband Breakfast). This was about the FCC declaring that online junk faxes didn't need to comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (the case they ruled on now goes back to the 9th Circuit), and though I'm not law-versed by any means (and I would appreciate more clarity), this seems like a major shift for the FCC's rulemaking process well beyond telecoms where their word is now not exactly set in stone.

Also the WBKB deal to MMM was sorely needed as the news department basically had everyone who should just be behind the scenes writing, anchoring, newsgathering and doing tech work on-set. The staff was overwhelmed and the Sinclair deal, though certainly not the best, allows them to just focus on reporting news and send off the video to Traverse City to be edited into broadcasts. It has not been shut down, just pushed to a more manageable level for a market like Alpena. Same with WBUP/WBKP/WJMN. Any result there was better than either closing a station or just selling out to spectrum speculators like Innovate/HC2 whose 'commitment' to local service is basically 'does the antenna work and will we get paid to air FAST channel offal to nobody'. KXGN doesn't have that burden now, and is basically a free agent. They could choose to be merged into their existing Scripps MTN network (the Cowles deal for news out of Spokane is just absurd), or decide to go closer and be merged into one of the three North Dakota networks, be it KX/Nextar, KFYR/Gray or Forum/KBMY.

Which means she manages sales for a pharmaceutial company and goes around medical facilities selling physicians on their drugs (Wikipedia says they have a chloesterol drug). Probably a lot easier money and schedule for her.

Sadly, that's just time just getting away from the model that morning news, local and national, should just start your day with light fare and very short mention of the crime roll, including a softer theme. Once the Fox/Tribune morning news model became standard, the calm model has disappeared to get you out the door like a triple Red Bull shot (remember how their ESPN counterpart Get Up had the original slogan of 'get up, get sports, and get going'? Has not been that way for years), with the light themes all but gone and just as aggressive as they are at 6pm. It was clear when Kimmel switched from a structured duratrans background to a full screen, along with ESPN's digital center that this would be the future for all set design; less physical pieces, more screens. But even though it was from my most loathed segment, I do love how it's possible to frame each screen in the background to make it feel fuller, and create space like seen below.

I do wonder if they would do a test week with This Week; the thing I like is that the set does have adaptability with the screens, which are much better and clearer (we have yet to see the D&S nightmare palate though that goes with that segment). And it also has 'election night HQ' all over it; just a much more open space overall. And it looks like DeMarco and Eva are gone from GMA3. Bummer on that one. Expected it, but still wanted a few more weeks with them.

Watched it on Hulu...call me old-school, but your news reporters shouldn't be literally changing clothes to do fitness segments on cheap fitness junk. There used to be a line between sales and news, and there still is! Just saw it last week in Milwaukee on WTMJ where the news side kicked The Morning Blend off the set before a court verdict during a commercial break, just threw the set stools somewhere and started news coverage! I don't care if it's Saturday and 'low expectations' and it's 'only a half-hour', don't make reporting talent do informercial/secret sale segments!

It'll be nice to look at different colors besides yellow and blue (along with those awful digital backgrounds/optical illusion blocks of the last couple years), and I suspect despite this shot, the show will not base its entire design color on a 1997 Compaq Presario. I do hope they keep using Ray (their mascot), and there's still a couple of corners to be seen in this design, so hopefully the presentation/interview area will look nice. At least now the weekend crew isn't stuck in the dungeon set and everything's in one building. I'm crossing my fingers the studio is named for Charlie Gibson, not only because it's so deserved, but because having to hear the announcer say 'live from Hudson Square' every day when we barely see the exterior will get generic and dull real quick.