kdex86

Cox Media Group stations are off Verizon Fios. This affects subscribers in Boston (Fox) and Pittsburgh (NBC): https://triblive.com/aande/movies-tv/wpxi-taken-off-verizons-fios-tv-in-retransmission-spat/ Meanwhile, Mission Broadcasting stations could also go dark on Fios. The current contract expires tomorrow (Dec 17). This may potentially affect subscribers in Albany (Fox) and Providence (Fox and CW): https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/atva-says-verizon-may-lose-mission-broadcasting-stations-in-retrans-dispute

I can understand noontime being the "launch time", since you likely have fewer viewers than morning/evening and can use it as the "initial test" in case something needs to be adjusted. But specifically Thursday as the day of the week to make the switchover seems weird to me. I would think Monday would be the optimal day since then you have the whole Mon-Fri "typical workweek" to sort out kinks if there are many of them.

Is there a specific reason as to why every station's "new graphics" launch date is a Thursday?

NECN is still available through Xfinity where I live (SE MA). Not sure if it's because I'm in Bristol County where we're still forced to watch WJAR for NBC programming. On weekdays from 5 - 7 AM, 4 - 6:30 PM, and 7 - 7:30 PM they're simulcasting NBC 10 Boston's newscasts. Which is nice since WBTS isn't on cable here (and probably never will be )

That's actually a good idea - do a test run on a newscast less likely to be seen in case there's a glitch, so the ones with more viewers are less likely to see technical difficulties. Conversely, all of the NFL's broadcasters choose to debut new graphics during a Super Bowl, which in my opinion, is really stupid. If something goes wrong, everyone sees it and the broadcaster becomes laughingstock. Also, why debut new graphics at the END of a season rather than at the beginning?

With the 2026 Winter Olympics coming up, when will the network (and at the very least, their O&O stations) be bringing back the Olympic rings underneath the Peacock? For the 2024 Summer Olympics, the rings came back on January 1 - 207 days before the Paris opening ceremony. Right now we are 190 days from the Milan opening ceremony and the "regular" logo is still being used.

Is there a reason why the noon news is typically the first to get new graphics and not the morning news? It makes no sense to me. Otherwise, I like the refresh. More importantly, they got rid of that very annoying "da-duh-DUH-duh" sound they would play whenever the "Next 7 Days" weather graphic appeared. It was annoying as fuck and not very hospitable to some neuro-divergent viewers.

Any reason why rebroadcasts at say, 2 AM are on a Tues-Sat morning cycle, skipping Sun and Mon mornings?

Any reason why the "Saturday" team (Laura Jarrett and Peter Alexander) were both anchoring on a Wednesday today? It completely threw me for a loop, but even more baffling was that the "voiceover" and graphic at the start of the show still said/displayed "with Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin" when Laura and Peter have their own voiceover/graphic that you see on Saturdays. Man, that is flagrant false advertising!

It still doesn't explain why the time bug is there on Sat. and Sun. nights.

The time bug inconsistency saga on NBC 10 Boston continues... It's absent from Mon-Fri 11 PM newscasts but on Saturday and Sunday nights, it is visible. What gives?

Is there a reason why WBTS doesn't show the time of night during their 11 PM news, opting to show a weather icon instead? Earlier in the day, you can see the current time in the bottom-right corner:

Is there a difference between co-anchor and news anchor on Today?

Also, DirecTV subscribers will get all 3 of Disney’s direct to consumer streaming services (Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+) included in certain TV packages. This is better than the deal Spectrum got, since their subscribers only get Disney+ and ESPN+, still having to pay full price for Hulu. Thank you for not caving, DirecTV!

For DTV Stream subscribers in Atlanta and Orlando, this is the 2nd time this calendar year they have lost local ABC. The first time was in January when DirecTV had a dispute with Cox Media. So apparently local stations on DTV Stream require TWO contracts? One with the station’s parent company and one with the parent company of the affiliate? That’s not good. It’ll result in just more blackouts in the future. Also, this is the 5th dispute resulting in a blackout going back to October 2022. One of them (Mission Broadcasting) is still ongoing. Providence and Albany are still without local Fox. The Patriots have 6 Fox games, and the Giants have 8 Fox games. Seeing how most sports bars use DirecTV as their provider, this will hurt businesses in those DMAs.