nathannah

This is a basic cable carriage fight where Newsmax now wants RTC rather than paying their way onto DirecTV...and these days trying to stay on a satellite service is akin to planning a hospice stay because they only have a few realistic years left. Somehow Newsmax turned what should have been just a number negotiation into 'censorship' because they're gone. Chris Ruddy, you do know you have your stream everywhere. I couldn't get away from it if I tried and it's probably on the Tesla. Better ratings than News Nation, OAN, RAV and 'Star Wars guys rips the current trilogy for 346 hours because they have women' on YouTube. You are so far from 'being' censored that it's absurd. Just ask for a few less cents and get your carriage back, because unlike OAN (which was bad), you have some respect and names.

And those occurrences were likely limited to when the Rams and Chargers were scheduled on Fox at the same time and got a KCOP bump (and really who was watching them early on specifically for the Rams or Chargers?). It really is sad how depreciated the 'sixth station' in a market has become just by its schedule or offerings.

And with that, Fox has finally found a way to finally deal with their worst case of triskaidekaphobia. Though the decline of KCOP from being a proper competitor to KTTV, and now just being both a glorified .2 and ATSC3 lighthouse is one of the saddest things to happen to a TV station.

I mean it predicted the Eagles in 2022 perfectly, so in that way, the promo did serve its purpose in warning the NFC East about the Eagles (along with just...Eagles fans). But yeah, the fine is justified, if just a little high (it's more of a $100k violation than $500k for me). Just use a generic Morse Code alert next time, Fox Sports.

As we talk about a station group that hates streaming in 2023, it feels appropriate that their broadcast automation is also overly-aggressive and cut off the last few minutes of Fox's Accused premiere last night on several Nexstar stations, which the network really wanted to get eyeballs on. Just another thing for Rupert to add onto the 'I Do Not Like Dealing With This Company' checklist he's kept since the network pulled their Indiana affiliations from Nexstar. I think this is likely just a technical error (I really hope so).

The Mannix and Cannon fans who have their shows pre-empted on WOIO's .2 would love this to happen. Of all the places to burn off MyNet, why choose the Me sub?

It's part of the CW's old Netflix deal so it would easily move there without issue. I do think that Nexstar only really renewed not based on the loyalty of the show (which is great since it has a just as loyal spin-off), but to avoid minority scrutiny if they didn't have a 'black' show somewhere. This is a company that's had major issues with their minority-owned shells, after all.

Honestly outside the Saudi Arabia stuff, LIV is pretty much just those who would usually migrate to the Senior/Champions Tour just trying to find a new place to play for money, because they have both egos and don't want to make way for new golfers and go gently into that good night and refuse to give up their past glory. Or younger golfers who just want to participate in the big tournaments and hate that they have to play in other tourneys like the St. Jude and Memorial to earn their way, or be on the PGA money list or be eligible for the FedEx Cup. It is 100% the Sour Grapes League and they just found the worst sucker of all to finance it, and the most desperate broadcaster to show it; it says something that Scripps or Ion didn't even bother or Fox let the paper company behind MyNet do so either. I don't forsee CW stations really boycotting it outright, but if they have weekend afternoon programming that already works, they might just bump LIV to overnights if it attracts a really lousy demographic and ratings. Their weekend advertising base is already poisoned enough with Weekend Adventure's geriatric bent, and the Has-Beens and Never Weres of Golf aren't moving that age down any at all.

The big problem overall is that "KCBS" has just become a jumbled mess ever since whichever guy at KNX-TV decided 'KCBS should be on our flagship station and we don't care that they've been on that San Fran station for decades'. It was the beginning of the end for channel 2's branding because for whatever reason, KCBS in SFO kept their call letters and come 2002, you had a brand manager's nightmare in LA where KCBS-TV, KCAL-TV, KNX, KFWB, and KCBS-FM all had different brands that never were united very well at all. KFWB eventually got shafted and KNX and KCBS-FM became Audacy properties (along with KCBS-FM), but it still left open that it's only in 2023 that CBSNS is getting around to finally one-branding their local news operation, a thing that should have been done either in 1984 when KNXT-TV became KCBS-TV, or in 2002 when KCAL because CBS-owned. At this point, stick with KCAL. CBS in LA=entertainment, sports or national news (the only thing that cares about KCBS-FM's calls is the FCC and PPM as it's 'Jack FM' to a normal person). KCBS may have been there longer, but KCAL has established themselves as a news brand.

With all the talk about NBC's late night future and Seth Meyers becoming Lorne's heir apparent at SNL, Studio 8G could open up, or they could redo 6A and eradicate the last traces of Megyn Kelly. New York would happily offer tax subsidies to support Kelly because there's no way she tapes at Stamford without making her and any guests extraordinary offers to deal with the drive up I-95 in a way Steve Wikos guests tolerate. I'm surprised it was Kelly who was open to it, though, probably because California's COL situation is overall painful, which is why she's in Montana when she can be.

He's 50-ish, so he'll probably become some other company's problem down the line. He'll likely get hush money since his behavior is incredibly toxic (the 'speaking to employees without sarcasm' item is pretty much so many toxic bosses), but there's a reason we remember "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap, George Pullman, and a certain Twitter head while the good executives are only mentioned in business classes.

The ABC deal was what they needed to go down the line with the rest of their stations to know it's going on; depends on if Stegna General negotiates for KHOU, or if it's Coxpollo that'll have to do it and if they don't bite, there's still the possibility of Fox and Graham trying to make a better deal for their stations before ABC can try there. Now that we know things are a go in the biggest markets, it'll be interesting to see if some of the carriage aberrations like WSYT do have a renewal shot or if Imagicomm doesn't bother and shoves it off to Sinclair or Nexstar to replace it with The Bible Game or something. And if this new deal includes a much more streaming-friendly window for same-week or same-month replays while respecting existing station rights.

Because that worked so well and perfect and awesome for the BBC–oh, they're replacing them with new models because their robocam system is comedic. The problem is certainly not the sitting anchors, though I do agree that CNN's scenics since moving out of CNN Center can easily be compared to a market 150+ station. Back of a screen and fuzzy 720p or lower video is the only thing you ever see, or a 2000s faux brick wall aesthetic.

I wish there was an ability to downgrade the terrible WRNN-owned stations to 200-watt AM daytimers instead of giving them better UHF signals. Also this 'upgrade' applies to share/sister station WMFP, so yay, clearer ShopHQ and OnTV4U farther away, Boston! I do wonder if KENV's upgrade would bring back a major network to that station, or at the very least making it a KMYU satellite. As for WMC, as Lizzo would say, 'it's about damned time'.

FYI also aired what turned out to be a very discredited edition of Miss USA in October. Unless you are a pageant superfan, you would've never known it was on because FYI's budget is the same as A+E Network's budget for paper and cleaning supplies. And the only thing Viceland proved is that young people will not pay for content that's on YouTube for free. I just don't understand why AMC consolidates around that sole channel and just cut things down to AMC and BBC World News. All of their networks don't really have a focus; BBC America has pretty much made way for Acorn and Britbox, WEtv just seems to be a CSI outpost, and IFC/Sundance are down to the Independent Spirit Awards and a few rare great shows like Sherman's Showcase. I get more monthly out of my YouTube Premium subscription for $10.50 than I do for $150 of cable programming, which for me is basically sports, local news, a couple of talk shows I like, SNL, and some shows I just prefer to let accumulate on my DVR and watch later without commercials. Most of the time I just watch a local looping weather channel I can stream for free. YouTube allows me to shift from Animal Crossing to football to old commercials to news opens to highway content to product reviews to Strong Bad to MLM takedowns to fun LGBTQ+ content and then odd rabbitholes like 'why is there a big NO SMOKING sign on supertankers' and dopey drivers on drivecams. And there's no bean counter to stop me from mainlining Caillou grounded videos for an entire night (it's trainwreck content), with not a commercial in sight.

I scanned by Great American Family one day during one of their Who's the Boss marathons done to waste time because they only care about existing during Christmas and Valentine's Day and Sony is happy to give them reruns for a pittance. The theme song was pitched to the point that Steve Wariner sounded like a eunuch, Tony, Angela and Samantha seemed to be on what Jessie Spano took for that one test and burning holes in the carpet as they did their scenes, and I could not understand much dialogue as even the captioning track was rushed. My spectrum brain noticed immediately and wished for everything to slow down. It was so disrespectful to the show, the actors, and the viewer, along with the creatives. All this...to shove in more ads.

VH1 just cut one of their four shows with a pulse, Drag Race, which is now on MTV to minimize that network's damage. It won't be long until the rest move there or BET. And to be fair, MTV Classic and BET Jams/Soul still actually show music videos so they haven't moved from their original remits; I have no issue with them. It's the acronym networks that just plug in a VLC playlist of one show and call it a day.

They're trying to buy the KVRR station network in ND/northwest MN and KQDS in Duluth.

There used to be fun to TV in the afternoons, where people did live shows and there wasn't a news story to be found. Now the fun is limited to the last part of the newscast and met/sports anchor interplay, and with even Jerry and Steve in reruns now, it's either bad court shows, news, or repeats of sitcoms only palatable to older audiences, and the newer tolerable sitcoms are absurdly easy to access in full and commercial-free (or with saner commercials) on streaming services. Only three game shows (and one, Family Feud, doesn't even get near a 1/10 of an entendre and makes me embarrassed to watch) are left, and it seems except for PBS, broadcast, cable and streaming have unilaterally decided that all kids watch is Fortnite and play Roblox and refuse to put money into any children's content (the Saturday morning E/I Hearst 'for kids...but really old people' racket doesn't count), and David Zazlav showed his true hand by culling every bit of kid's content from HBO Max and ready to cut Cartoon Network to the bone. Don't get me started on the refuse that is the Discovery networks, or alleged movie channels Sundance and IFC carrying not one independent film. I'm sure cable providers actually want to cut useless filler like MTV2, TruTV and 4 of the Discovery networks, but the big companies are like 'oh, you don't want Yellowstone or the NCAA tournament? Or SpongeBob? Welp, then you don't get CBS or Nick because you don't want to carry a diminished TV Land!' Big events get held hostage because of small networks which started as 'special interest', but now carry nothing but reruns.

It's also just a declining pool of viewers; at maximum you can have 15 million on a good night, and on a night where nothing is happening, it's down to 5 million. That's 1-5% of the country, and even then how many of those TVs just have it on for background noise? You have so many places where the TV is just set on FNC or CNN just for the sake of visual noise, and to try to talk a declining audience to switch to this 'new' network you associate with reruns and multiple programming directions, and you're not going to do that because you'll just get customers who are like 'put it on a REAL news channel' (or are in a place at 3am wondering what the hell a campmeeting is). Also don't forget just how much FNC is just in so many routines. Fox News Radio is now the main radio news service, along with their features on even mainstream full service stations, so even if you're nowhere near a TV with cable, Fox is going to be on something. NewsNation has just one radio station, WGN, along with whichever leftover affiliates somehow decided ABC, CBS, FNR, USA Radio, Salem, or Westwood One don't provide a good news product. WGN has become the most mid station to ever mid and is run godawfully (their schedule page thinks Jim Bohannan is still doing his show in his casket, I guess). And Fox has Fox Nation, MSNBC has NBC News Now, CNN has their app. At the start of 2023, I still cannot stream NewsNation on Spectrum or even in their app off wifi. Nexstar failed terribly at getting their ducks in a row before launching NN, and Perry's 'the web is a fad' thinking is going to come back to bite him sooner than later.

Personally, I wouldn't ever boast about beating taped programming on two nights the NFL buried anything with a (live and on-air and not involving home shopping) pulse, but for NN, I guess beating a taped show about the 'war on Christmas', on Christmas, in a very asterisk-heavy demographic manner, is an achievement in something, something enough to have your classic TV network being forced to acknowledge it on Facebook.

The hard sell of "CBS Deals" is really not helping. It's enough when your local advertorial show is doing it, but when a national morning show is pushing Wish refuse, it's absolutely intolerable. It might be making some money, but it's doing cheap and dirty damage to a brand that certainly doesn't need more.

Speaking of Nexstar and their bad web strategy, their stations are currently posting an old NN story about Biden getting COVID as new on social...WGN just had to rush out a retraction because someone on the web hub make a major error.

I realized that after I posted, of course. Thanks for reminding me of something I felt trauma from hearing (no offense to those in the actual videos).

They already have CW Bay Area, so it would only make sense (and speaking of, is the "Cable 12" appendage from the pre-UPN days really needed now? In a major tech hub where most don't have cable?).