nycnewsjunkie

The one pet peeve I have about the new package so far is the font; it looks a little bit outdated to me. Still, considering how old the previous Gray packages looked, beggars can’t be choosers.

This is a long one, so my apologies in advance. TLDR, Nexstar isn’t the future, local≠always better, and accessibility is paramount. I’ll have to disagree on quite a few of your points. First, Nexstar is not handling change in the industry well at all. They don’t have many other assets other than a mammoth amount of TV stations, which, in an industry that’s on the downswing, is like being the king of the coy pond. They’ve also put all their eggs in the proverbial basket of a floundering cable channel that has been hampered by distribution from the start. Also, it certainly doesn’t help that Nexstar actively restricts local streaming in order to “fulfill obligations to cable providers” or however they spin it. When you still live and die on retrans money, to the point where I can’t live stream a newscast, you aren’t handling change in the industry well. Also, where did you get the ratings info for the stations you cited? I find it rather surprising that KRON was able to beat KTVU. That said, if they did, I doubt it’s because KRON has more of a local brand; on the contrary, I would credit the amount of upheaval and turnover at KTVU more than anything innovative KRON has supposedly done. Also, no offense, but KUSI is a joke. Appealing to angry boomers is not a sustainable plan that anyone should follow. Granted, if WGN decided to call themselves “NewsNation Chicago,” people would notice. However, just because a station slaps on a local brand doesn’t mean they’re a better station, or one that has an advantage in the market. There are some stations that have enough legacy and clout to have a unique local brand, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. Most TV stations are bland, boring, and stuck in the 1990s in terms of branding, accessibility, content, and relevance. To get back to what this thread is about, what CBS has done is an effort to future-proof the company’s local newsrooms. Their stations are far more accessible than ever before; I can go on the CBS News app and see any CBS owned station’s local news, plus additional local content. It’s the best approach to accessibility that any station group has implemented so far. Compare that to your example, Nexstar, which does absolutely nothing on this front. That said, if some successful stations hold on to legacy brands either temporarily or permanently (like WBZ or KDKA, for example), I don’t think it matters as much as we think it does, especially since every station so far (except KCAL) visually emphasizes their presence on the CBS News app. Conversely, if most CBS stations drop their channel number, I don’t think it will either positively or negatively affect their ratings or viewer trust; there was neither outcry nor excessive curiosity among most viewers when KPIX and KCNC switched over. While *some* stations don’t need to drop legacy brands that are already working for them, they do need to reinvent themselves a bit, and prioritize accessibility in order for both older viewers and people in my age group to consider them relevant. So far, while the implementation hasn’t been perfect, CBS has done a decent job of that.

I’ll admit that I’ve changed my mind on that a bit; I know I said that Mester should’ve been more professional, but it was apparent that Pete Saiers didn’t exactly endear himself to the staff by giving Lynette Romero such a terse dismissal. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was only one of many missteps that he made.

Wendy McMahon basically said that the approach to the rebrand would be conducted on a market by market basis. There were some assertions made that WBZ and KDKA would drop their brands entirely because of the radio stations that share those call letters; as we know now, those assertions were inaccurate. Edit: I probably asserted something here or there too, so my apologies.

More like Soo Kim trying to perform CPR on a cadaver.

With all due respect, I doubt their ownership situation had anything to do with their ratings. Most viewers don’t know or care which station group is being sold to whom. I’d attribute it to WANF gaining traction in the market with their new product.

I guess they’ve walked back the “CBS New York” brand, at least for now. Even the newscasts are still called “CBS2 News.” If I had to guess why, perhaps it’s because there are a lot of OTA viewers in NYC? That’s the only reason it would make sense to me.

The annoying thing is, it’s still less than cable (at least where I live), and as @MD TValluded to, the prices for similar services (like fubo and Hulu) have gone up by about the same rate. I would happily switch out YTTV for multiple streaming services, but for something like March Madness, it doesn’t really work when the Turner games aren’t on a streaming service.

Meanwhile, the Utah Jazz are looking at providing a hybrid linear/DTC offering next season. https://awfulannouncing.com/nba/utah-jazz-looking-at-hybrid-linear-direct-to-consumer-broadcast-model-for-2023-24-season-and-beyond.html

Agree, and if MLB had a streaming app where I could watch all games of every team without region locks, I’d shell out the money for it. I’m sure a lot of other people would too. Same goes for NHL/NBA. The NFL essentially has that service already with Sunday Ticket; why can’t the other leagues have something like that?

I wish they’d change that logo, but those graphics look like they’ll fit the station well.

I think I might make a few “visits” to Chicago and LA as well, just to check it out, you know…

I generally agree, but I think radio was heading in that direction whether they had live talent or not. Musical artists, talk show hosts, and anything else that’s on the radio have never been more accessible, so most people (especially my age) aren’t going to consume content via an outdated medium unless we’re driving. Even then, I usually listen to either a podcast or my Spotify playlist. People are already “going somewhere else.” I think NBC’s 10pm proposal is a symptom of a bigger problem. Other than live sports, I can’t remember the last time when there was an original show on one of the major networks that I actually wanted to watch. “Abbott Elementary” and “Ghosts” are pretty good, but most shows are either safe, unfunny comedies (the “Night Court” reboot,) cheesy crime dramas (most of the CBS schedule), or game shows. There’s also outright garbage like “Farmer Wants a Wife,” which is better fit for meme material than something I’d actually want to watch as a full series.

I think Peacock is a much bigger priority for them than USA. Trying to make a sports destination out of a cable network that isn’t ESPN is an uphill battle in 2023, and NBC has severely lagged behind in the streaming race. The problem with their strategy is that a few live sporting events alone won’t convince enough people to subscribe to Peacock. Other than “The Office,” much of their content is awful (this video takes a good look at it). FWIW, they are looking to make a run at NBA rights, so there’s that.

They’ve been doing this for several months now; the promo is the only thing that’s new.

That’s a shame. I really like Reggie as a broadcaster, and he and Dan Bonner had some good chemistry with Kevin Harlan. Considering that Stan Van Gundy has previously defended the government that just flew spy balloons over the US, I can’t say that I’m a big fan of him. I really hope they don’t pair him w/ Harlan.

That has to be outdated; if they did, they would be the “broadcast home of the Yankees since 2023,” since PIX hasn’t carried them for some time.

Probably because they got paid to air live sports and didn’t have to pay production costs. We might see bad ratings and a harmful association w/ Saudi Arabia, but Nexstar sees an opportunity to run low cost programming on a low rated network and make a quick profit. It worked. For better or worse, this kind of thinking is perfectly in line with how Nexstar runs the rest of its media operations, including NewsNation.

The columnist in question comes off as a lackey for large media groups. He seems to run defense for every M&A.

I’m probably going to be preaching to the choir here, but this is precisely what I don’t get about Apollo and SG’s handling of this. If they had just spun off the conflicts in Cox markets, and possibly a few other stations, I’m pretty sure they’d own Tegna right now. How could they be so greedy and arrogant as to shoot themselves in the foot? I’d go as far as to say that this was more incompetent than the failed Sinclair/Tribune merger. Sinclair/Tribune established the precedent that even an M&A-friendly FCC wouldn’t tolerate companies trying to blatantly circumvent ownership rules. Apollo/SG knew that precedent (and knew they were dealing with a stronger FCC), and decided to circumvent those rules anyway. That’s just stupidity IMO.

No need to say sorry, I totally agree; it’s very distracting. And besides, what are we here for if not to nitpick everything.

If Jodi hadn’t replaced a successful duo, she might’ve gotten better ratings; the unceremonious dumping of Jim and Kaity was why I haven’t really watched PIX since. Looking back, I probably would’ve been welcoming of the changes if they had been implemented at 6:30pm (or another time slot) instead of 10pm.

I respectfully disagree. The KRON and WFLA sets don’t look very local; they just look cheap and tacky. The only prominent elements in most of those sets are the tall array of monitors and the bad lighting. The new KTLA, KXAN and WPIX sets are improvements IMO, and if you’re looking for local touches, WPIX’s set incorporates subway tile. KTLA actually overachieved with their studio; their set looks like something you’d see on a national show, and I imagine they spent a crap ton for it. The new round of sets aren’t any more or less local than the last round, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Not sure about how I feel about the timeouts being stacked, but I kinda like it. It’s much better than what they use for the NFL. Apparently, they also show milliseconds when the clock goes under 1 minute, which apparently confused some people

I started a thread in the Speculatron; hope this is more convenient.