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.

So have some of the main news anchors at ABC, NBC, and CBS been forced to cut their weekends short 2 weekends in a row now? I hope they got overtime pay - I know I wouldn't want to have to work two 6-day weeks in a row...

For example, on WCVB in Boston, Mon-Fri have white headers but Sat-Sun have gold headers. And on WPRI in Providence, Mon-Fri have white headers but Sat-Sun have red headers. Why is this?

I live in southeast MA. I get both WCVB and WLNE over the air. WLNE airs World News Tonight at 6:00 PM ET on Sundays while WCVB airs it at 6:30 PM. I tuned into WLNE at 6 and got the Rachel Scott version. I'm guessing WCVB got David. Is there a reason why Sunday editions of ABC World News Tonight are not consistently at 6:30 PM across all Eastern time zone markets?

Cindy, Mike, Kelly Ann, AJ, and David all appear in the station's on-air weather promos. Michael does not, and Harvey retired in 2022.

First it was Nexstar. Then is was Tegna. Now Cox Media is the next station group to potentially have a dispute with DirecTV. Source: https://www.nexttv.com/news/directv-and-cox-media-look-set-for-another-retrans-standoff-as-station-group-accuses-pay-tv-operator-of-attacking-local-journalism WFXT was running a ticker during syndicated programming alerting viewers of a potential blackout:

I tuned into the Today show this morning for the first time in quite a while. I have some questions: Why is there both a “cold open” AND a “warm open” at the very start of the broadcast at 7:00 AM Eastern? It seems rather redundant. From 8:00 AM to the first commercial break, all of the news headlines are accompanied by a graphic that reads “the news at 8”. Why is this? Doesn’t the viewer know it’s 8 AM? It seems kinda tacky to me.

I'm sorry, but this is "one step forward, two steps back" for Nexstar and DirecTV. The "Mission Broadcasting owned" stations have been dark on DirecTV (satellite and stream) for almost a year now, when it's obvious that Nexstar "operates" these stations. Nexstar is clearly double-dipping with TV providers when it comes to retransmission fees, and the FCC should really do something about it.

Lol, this commercial is coming from WPRI in Providence. The city of Providence itself (along with the rest of Rhode Island) is served by Cox. Comcast only transmits WPRI in Massachusetts, and they also carry WBZ out of Boston everywhere they carry WPRI. If this station goes dark nobody will be missing CBS programming in Massachusetts.

Mission (and Nexstar) stations are still on Cox cable. I can confirm WPRI and WNAC are still on Cox in RI. But Mission Broadcasting stations are still off DirecTV (satellite and stream). Is there some sort of loophole that Nexstar is exploiting by "directly owning" one station in a market and "Mission Broadcasting" owning a different station in the same market? For example: in Providence RI Nexstar owns WPRI (CBS) and Mission owns WNAC (Fox). WNAC airs local news at 10 PM that has the same graphics and on-air talent as WPRI. in Burlington VT Nexstar owns WFFF (Fox) and Mission owns WVNY (ABC). WFFF airs local news at 10 PM that has the same graphics and on-air talent as WVNY. in Albany NY Nexstar owns WTEN (ABC) and Mission owns WXXA (Fox). WXXA airs local news at 10 PM that has the same graphics and on-air talent as WTEN. Currently DirecTV subs in Providence and Albany don't have their local Fox stations but still get the other station in the duopoly. Burlington market DirecTV subs lost Fox but still have ABC. And during the Nexstar/Verizon Fios dispute, these markets kept their Fox stations but lost WPRI or WTEN. This seems very weird and confusing to me.

I think they're doing it to bully residents of Bristol County, MA. Also, if someone decides to cut the cord and use an antenna to watch TV in that area, they may see NBC on Channel 10, only to find out it's WJAR, "NBC 10 Providence".