SDHIll1980

Let's see...4-11am, noon-1pm, 4-5pm, 8-10:45pm. 11 hours, 45 minutes, and that's not to mention three and a half hours of news produced for KCBS (although one of those hours is simulcast on 9). That's more than 15 hours produced each weekday by the CBS Los Angeles operation, trailing only KTLA by less than a few hours in terms of local newscasts. How much more news can 2/9 fit in, unless they go overnight (lol)?

...or make KTLA+ an over-the-air subchannel, and move some of the newscasts exclusively there. I know that the syndication market is pretty barren these days, and it's wishful thinking regarding my first statement, but it's also pretty much overkill to have that much local news on one station everyday. And before someone wants to ELI5 me about KTLA's news product...I live and grew up in Los Angeles, and have been watching this station for a couple of generations (I'm 44), including many of their newscasts when I'm home. I've always liked their news presentation, and they're in my regular rotation of local newscasts between them, KABC, KNBC, and sometimes KTTV. Give it some time, and the 11pm newscast will be expanded to a full hour...

Although his tie to the news world was only that as the continuity voice of CNN for many years, legendary actor James Earl Jones passed away today at age 93. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/09/entertainment/james-earl-jones-death/index.html

In Letterman's first five years on Late Night, he was off on Fridays, and Friday Night Videos aired in place after Carson. The final six years on NBC, Letterman was on five nights a week, with Friday Night Videos airing right after; when Bob Costas, Greg Kinnear, and Cynthia Garrett all did the Later program (plus a four year period of guest hosts between Kinnear and Garrett), it aired Mondays through Thursdays, while the different incarnations of FNV occupied the remaining weeknight. As far as I remember, Conan O'Brien was on NBC every weeknight, and didn't start doing four nights a week until he moved to TBS.

In sort of a throwback to the latter half of the Johnny Carson era of the Tonight Show, Variety is reporting that Jimmy Fallon will now be producing new episodes of Tonight just four nights a week, instead of five. Repeats/"Best of" shows will air on Friday nights going forward. https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/tonight-show-jimmy-fallon-four-nights-per-week-nbc-1236135343/

Donovan's replacement on Browns radio is former NFL Network anchor/reporter, ex-DirecTV RedZone host, and recent Rams preseason TV voice Andrew Siciliano. Siciliano filled-in for Donovan on three games last season. https://www.clevelandbrowns.com/news/andrew-siciliano-named-play-by-play-announcer-for-browns

Today--September 3rd (yesterday for you East Coasters) marked the 30th anniversary of the first of the massive network affiliation switches thanks to Fox acquiring NFL broadcast rights. Cleveland was the first market make to the switch, where longtime CBS affiliate WJW made the switch to Fox, while WOIO took on CBS after nearly eight years with Fox. Nine days later, Kansas City conducted its own network switching, with WDAF going from NBC to Fox, and KSHB doing the reverse.

Although both USC and UCLA have alumni up and down the West Coast, the real affect would be felt in Washington state and Oregon, as well as Northern and Central California (basically Fresno and everything north and west). From Bakersfield southward to the Mexican border, it's all Spectrum with Cox sprinkled in. Cox's service territory includes SW Los Angeles County, southern Orange County, and at least half of San Diego County.

I'm a Spectrum customer, and I was just reminded that it's been practically a whole calendar year since the dispute between them and Disney. Not only I lost the cable networks, but KABC as well, although disputes like these are a reason why I keep an antenna attached to the TV. Fubo did offer a seven-day free trial for Spectrum to try out their services (and I've used Fubo in the past)...signed-up on September 9th, two days later Spectrum restored Disney Channel, the ESPNs, FX, Nat Geo, and the ABC O&Os, and I cancelled Fubo later that day.

It wouldn't shock me if a new agreement ends up being similar to the one Disney currently has with Spectrum--Disney Junior and XD, FXM and FXX, Freeform, and Nat Geo Wild all dropped, and subscribers on the higher tiers (Choice, Ultimate, Premier) get Disney+ and ESPN+ for free.

Another NHL team flees the Bally Sports roster, this time the Anaheim Ducks. Fox Los Angeles formally announced today that it'll televise 65 games this upcoming season on KCOP, with the games also streaming on the Victory+ streaming service (the same company handling the Dallas Stars broadcasts going forward). https://www.foxla.com/news/fox-11-plus-announces-media-partnership-anaheim-ducks

Pioneering daytime talk show legend Phil Donahue passed away last night (Sunday 8/18), at age 88. https://www.today.com/popculture/news/phil-donahue-dies-rcna167132

On the local level, the Portland Trail Blazers are the latest team to leave a regional sports network, as the team and Root Sports terminated their contract with a season left remaining. The team will announce a TV broadcast home in the coming weeks, especially just as the NBA will announce its team schedules for the upcoming season today (8/15). https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2024/08/trail-blazers-leaving-root-sports-alternative-not-yet-announced.html Honestly, this could be ripe for Gray Media to snap up Blazers broadcast rights, as they have the KPTV/KPDX duopoly and their continual expansion of going after local sports rights, as they've done in Phoenix with the Suns, as well as recently acquiring the Pelicans TV rights for WVUE, and are entering into a joint venture with Cavaliers ownership to start an over-the-air sports network in Cleveland (and in Cincinnati via a WXIX subchannel) which is launching in the fall, although the Cavs will remain on Bally Sports for the time being.

As per Variety (and a few other sources), the price point for Venu Sports has been set: $42.99 per month. It'll be a seven-day free trial for those who sign-up at launch (date still TBD), and the monthly fee will be locked-in for one year. Subscribers will have access to fourteen networks: ABC, ESPN (including 2, U, News, and the ACC and SEC networks, plus access to ESPN+), Fox (including Big Ten Network and FS1 and 2), and Turner's TBS, TNT, and TruTV. Besides ESPN+ on-demand content, Venu will also offer the same type of content from Fox and Turner's sports libraries of documentaries and studio shows. Keep note that Venu would still need the proper regulatory approval, but it's expected to start operation when the NFL regular-season begins. According to ESPN, those who subscribe to Venu can also include it with a new bundle package with Disney+, Hulu, and Max (currently starting at $16.99/month).

To quote Wesley Snipes as Nino Brown in the opening scene of New Jack City..."money talks and bullshit runs a marathon..."

Fox issued a press release back in May highlighting their NFL coverage for this upcoming season (including Super Bowl LIX), and as many know that Tom Brady will make his NFL analyst debut with Kevin Burkhardt on September 8th (week 1), when the Cowboys face off versus the Browns in Cleveland. However, those in Tampa Bay, Washington DC, and their teams' respective secondary markets will see Commanders at Buccaneers instead. Greg Olsen, who served as Burkhardt's partner the previous two seasons will join Joe Davis as their #2 team, and there will be also some shuffling amongst the other broadcast teams. The only non-change will be the team of Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma. As per the USA Today, here's Fox's lineup of main broadcast teams (excluding the sideline reporters, although it's confirmed that Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi will work with Burkhardt & Brady) Kevin Burkhardt & Tom Brady Joe Davis & Greg Olsen Adam Amin & Mark Sanchez Kenny Albert & Jonathan Vilma Kevin Kugler & Darryl Johnston Chris Myers and Mark Schlereth

Agree with the part about redundancy. I can't see why NBCU didn't replace LX Home with NBC News Now as a subchannel. In fact, it would be cool if the Big Four O&Os plug-in their local and national streaming news networks as subchannels, that could at least increase their visibility among those viewers that just rely solely on over-the-air reception. Not everyone has access to or want to use the internet.

I'm a Spectrum subscriber, and use an Apple TV device to view their app. I just absolutely refuse to pay for a set-top box, so whatever shows I view for later viewing is all on-demand. I've been actually considering downgrading back to internet-only, especially with the latest price hike, and that ridiculous broadcast surcharge. I keep an antenna for backup purposes, and I have no issues receiving all of my locals, at least the ones that matter to me. My sister in Phoenix has Cox, and uses one of those boxes where it's just streaming apps, plus a few streaming channels, no locals or cable networks. All said though, and it's something I thought about earlier, it wouldn't surprise me if Spectrum phases out live TV within the proceeding decade, or whenever their local sports contracts run out.

Tyrannical Bastard answered the question very eloquently, but to expand on his point...let's say, for example, that the new sports streaming joint venture between Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox, and Disney becomes a success (and if it gets off the ground), if that doesn't put a nail in cable TV's coffin, it'll expedite the process much further. It also probably doesn't help that streamers such as Apple TV, Peacock, Prime Video, ESPN+ (with separate content from linear ESPN) and now Netflix are offering more and more live sports content, along with certain individual NBA and NHL teams now offering in-market telecasts via streaming and/or over-the-air TV without the use of a cable/satellite subscription. Traditional TV providers are continuously losing subscribers left and right, either to the likes of YouTube TV, Sling, or Fubo, or going back to the old "rabbit ears", with the streaming platforms serving as a complement. Not even the news channels are strong enough to keep cable alive IMO, especially when you have multiple streaming outlets to get live news from--from the Big Four themselves, their O&Os, their station partners, or independent outlets (including certain newspapers like the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times). Also, we've seen in recent years that you no longer need the use of cable/satellite to watch the premium movie networks...if you're not a sports fan, or even a news buff, those alone can entice you to "cut the cord", and subscribe to whichever individual streamers that may have your favorite movies. With the current setup, it's going to continue to make traditional cable TV even more useless outside of live sports and news.

Perhaps one thing I could agree with Mr. Muck is that all of the Paramount cable networks are all-rerun farms, outside of what you've mentioned. As an example, because I watch plenty of classic reruns on days I work from home (if I'm not watching news or sports), Logo is all-day/evening marathons of either Bewitched, The Facts of Life, The Nanny, Mama's Family, Will & Grace, Three's Company, or Married...with Children; the few original programs they had in the past that are still running have since moved to either MTV or VH1 (particularly RuPaul's Drag Race). BET Her is more or less another all-rerun channel, with repurposed content from linear BET or BET+, along with the annual simulcasts of their award shows. BET's Jams, Hip-Hop, and Soul channels also play all-day music videos. I don't watch any of the Nickelodeon channels or TV Land, and haven't in years. Comedy Central, of course, still has some original content, but most of their broadcast days are all-day reruns of the same dozen or so shows, or the same couple dozen movies they currently have rights to. Honestly, with the success of Pluto TV, they've made the Paramount cable networks rather useless, but they're still sticking around just to get retransmission dollars from the various TV providers around. Eventually, and who knows when, several of these networks will shutter and what original content they'll still offer can move to either Pluto or Paramount+ (or whatever becomes of that platform).

You can cross the Kraken off that list...they already announced back in April that they're leaving Root Sports, and are moving their telecasts to KING/KONG (the majority of the games on the latter station). As far as the metro NYC teams, so long as the MSG Networks control the TV rights for all three, the only way anyone of them air a game on over-the air TV (not involving ABC) are in one-off situations. The Knicks have priority on the main MSG Network, and if the Rangers are playing at the time as a Knicks game, they get moved to MSG SportsNet; in the event that the Knicks, Rangers, Devils, and Islanders are all playing at the same time, the latter two get moved to the overflow "2" channels. With the other teams you've mentioned...with the Kings, I could see them re-upping with KCAL for another season of selected games, while KCOP may have a better chance with the Ducks, although I doubt that would happen. With the Blackhawks, the new sports network that they co-own that's set to launch in the fall, it was mentioned that it would include some sort of over-the-air component in addition to cable/satellite coverage, although no specifics were mentioned. And with the Wild, with Bally Sports North being essentially co-owned with WUCW, which already aired Timberwolves and Minnesota United FC overflow games recently, as well as some Wild games back in 2022, as long as that RSN sticks around, I believe WUCW will continue in that "overflow" role.

It kinda makes you wonder, if CBS is sold off from Paramount, who gets the TV library? Back when CBS and the old Viacom split up, Paramount's TV library went to CBS and merged into what's still now CBS Studios.

Hell, if Reinsdorf was going to name this new channel, he should went old-school and brought back the "SportsVision" name. A better name than "Chicago Sports Network", in my opinion.

Nothing's official, even if Bill Simmons says that it's a done deal. I've been listening to many of his podcasts since his ESPN days, and sometimes he's been wrong about plenty of stuff. I'm not calling him a liar, but some of his thoughts comes from a "Bawwston" homer way of thinking. That said, if NBC does indeed take the Turner portion of the package, I hope they can find a way for the Inside the NBA crew to stay together... whether it be them or Amazon using them for pre- and post-game coverage. Meanwhile, ESPN will go through their usual shuffling of hosts and desk analysts, although their current lineup of Malika Andrews, Stephen A., Mike Wilbon, Kendrick Perkins and/or Bob Myers is actually a pretty good group compared to others from years past. Although, I would say that Myers doesn't have a lot of on-camera charisma (oddly enough, similar to Simmons, IMO), and Perkins can sometimes go off on some nonsensical tangents, but otherwise this group works well together.

Made official today--Red Sox vs. Cardinals, this coming Sunday (5/19) at 1:05pm Eastern; Chip Caray (Cards TV play-by-play), Will Middlebrooks (Red Sox color analyst), and Alexa Datt (Cards dugout/field reporter) will be on the call for this Sunday's game. It'll be the first of 18 telecasts, and all for free. Pregame shows will start 15 minutes prior to first pitch, and postgame coverage will be roughly the same length.