l_miro

Miami station ranks have always fluctuated in the total viewer/households ratings, outside of the Spanish stations. There never was that one station that is constantly nailing the #1 spot, like say WPTV did for some time in WPB. WPLG has always been almost predictably strong at 6pm in households. WSVN competes primarily in the demo, that's how they make ~$40mil more than WPLG. Their late news is #1 in 25-54 as of now. Overall, looking at my old sfltv notes, everyone's viewership is down 10x compared to 10-15 years ago. Looks like the diehard viewers are left watching

Europe is varied, and fragmented. But it's not dire yet for various reasons - a lot has to do with the fact the media there is fed by taxpayer money. Even the private channels. The EU doles out tax money as subsidies, and countries' governments do that too separately. Whether anyone watches or not they throw money. The rating trends with the young are the same, and in some ways worse than the US. Add to that the fact that star anchors rarely if ever make 6-7-8 figure salaries, there are no networks to bleed the retrans fees from cable, and sport isn't eating up the budgets to the same level. The NFL bags $13B/yr in broadcast rights, the NBA $2.7B. UEFA is around $3B/yr for broadcast rights and unlike the US, various channels acquire the rights some of which operate like an HBO does. In Eastern Europe, where I'm from originally, will have some games air on broadcast but a lot of the games will be on a pay channel in the style of HBO that sits on top of your cable/satellite subscription. If not fans pull up some foreign satellite channel out of Germany/Italy and watcht that way I was talking to a friend in the biz the other day, and he said they're surviving because they aren't news focused. EU broadcast TV has never been news-focused like the US. bTV/NovaTV in Bulgaria has 2hrs of a GMA-like morning program, then it's coffee talk, gossip, cheap Turkish and Indian soaps until 6pm with a few minutes of noon news, and a 1 hour in-studio political program. The 6-7pm news follow and then it's Masked Singer or whatever bullshit show is on with another 10-15 minutes of news at 11pm. So 3-ish hours of news total in a weekday. Overall the trends of the young not watching are the same or worse as the US. At least for Eastern Europe they're worse, we're leaping right into social medial and our young people are constantly out with their friends. On weekends especially.

Europe does not allow big pharma ads on TV, granted their tax payers foot the bill for a lot of TV production, but it hasn't collapsed their market. In the US the cost of sports, and bleeding affiliates for retrans fees is leaving them scrounging up for cash to invest in something watchable

barring a hurricane visit, 16 months is probably doable. WPLG started construction in October '07 and was on air in March 2009. besides, it's not like that building is a complex work of art, it's a tarted up concrete box made from precast panels on a slab. 60-90 days for the shell is probably very realistic. Getting the other stuff done will eat most of the time.

WSVN is likely not for sale for the forseeable future. We would be reading a very different news releases right now if it were. ABC just didn't want Scripps' alsoran station, and liked what Sunbeam offered. The renewal with FOX is coming up spring 2027, maybe Sunbeam is hedging its options just in case. WPLG will try and give it a go alone copying what WHDH did in Boston but don't nobody be shocked to hear they're for sale As far as construction of the new building for WSVN - people think they were in a rush to move but the new studio was always contingent on the big project accross the street being approved first, and the city didn't take the last vote on that till 11/2024. Ansin siad he wants employees to have somewhere to go, which makes sense many of them live in Miami Shores and the beach for years, they're used to having nice places to visit and Miramar isn't exactly hot, hip and happening. The goal, as I've been told, is to be in by the station's 70th anniversary so they can tie it all up and make a big deal out of it. nah they don't distance themselves. It's a branding decision since the switch days. Currently WSVN airs FOXNews Sunday at 9AM, it used to be on at 4AM Mondays right before Today in Florida. And during the Iraq war they heavily promoted being attached to FOX News. They actually make use of and mention FNC more now than they ever have, and last I was told they're still part of the CNN pool/NewsSource or whatever that's called. Similarly, WHDH referred to itself as '7NBC' only when they mentioned NBC shows during a newscast. Come 2009 when they went HD, the peacock was completely gone from the WHDH open.