Brain 81 Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 By best budget, I am thinking in terms of budget and financial management skills of whoever controls the station (i.e. avoiding debts and spending within means). I am particularly interested in small markets especially, because of their limited ad revenue they get from advertisers, how they manage to survive within their means. I know that if I controlled a TV station, there will be a no debt principle and I will refuse to borrow as a company, no matter how limited my resources. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3464 Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 I think budgeting lies on the corporate level for most stations. Station groups have their "cash cows" that rake in the money either by strong revenue sources or by running their stations on the cheap whenever possible (usually the latter). These stations offset the losses that other stations produce when they need the money and resources to either stay competitive, or afloat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 Any station owned by ABC/Disney. CapCities was the master at staying within budget while maximizing profit, and most of their stations were either the leaders or close to it. Dan Burke and Thomas Murphy ran an amazingly tight ship, and the ABC O&Os are still largely run in that mold. Steve Bornstein, former head of ESPN and current head of NFL Network, called CapCities "probably the greatest media company ever". I wholeheartedly agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProButtonPusher 230 Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 Any station owned by ABC/Disney. CapCities was the master at staying within budget while maximizing profit, and most of their stations were either the leaders or close to it. Dan Burke and Thomas Murphy ran an amazingly tight ship, and the ABC O&Os are still largely run in that mold. Steve Bornstein, former head of ESPN and current head of NFL Network, called CapCities "probably the greatest media company ever". I wholeheartedly agree. No way. ABC's making tons of cuts. I'd say these days its NBC (as far as O&Os go) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
effseesee 101 Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 I know that if I controlled a TV station, there will be a no debt principle and I will refuse to borrow as a company, no matter how limited my resources. Good luck with that. Unless you're willing to sacrifice your own personal wealth, there's no way you can own and operate a television station without some sort of loan or line of credit. Try holding on to that principle when the transmitter blows up or your microwave truck needs a new motor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRob 920 Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 By best budget, I am thinking in terms of budget and financial management skills of whoever controls the station (i.e. avoiding debts and spending within means). I am particularly interested in small markets especially, because of their limited ad revenue they get from advertisers, how they manage to survive within their means. I know that if I controlled a TV station, there will be a no debt principle and I will refuse to borrow as a company, no matter how limited my resources. Debt is not a bad thing, as long as you know how to manage it. That's part of risk/reward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 No way. ABC's making tons of cuts. I'd say these days its NBC (as far as O&Os go) I did consider the cuts, but that's a corporate-wide thing out of the O&O's control. Every Disney division is supposed to be making these cuts, and they've been more apparent at their other divisions. ESPN lost 400 staffers - and it's the most valuable media network in the world. $40 Billion Dollars. It's not like NBC under GE, where they cut to the point that they were about to toss out local branding altogether. I do agree about the NBC O&Os. Under Staab they have really righted that ship (for the most part). Anyone who doesn't think Comcast ownership hasn't been a great thing for the company needs to look beyond the broadcast network. Had GE owned NBCU longer than it did, the consequences on the O&O level would have been catastrophic... and in my opinion, even worse than Sinclair buying all the things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnya2k6 171 Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 In Alaska, there's only one answer: KTUU. This past summer, they broke ground for their new, $22 million studios in midtown Anchorage which they'll be broadcasting from late next summer (usually, it takes two to three years for a new facility to be built). And as mentioned before, they also have the state's only satellite truck which has a national and international clientele. In Atlanta? WSB, (Cox's flagship station); I think they've made some good investments while maintaining their #1 ranking in both that market and among all ABC stations. They even used some of their own money to produce the 1986 TV movie "The Boy King" (a few clips are on YouTube, but not the whole film), which won the station a Peabody, the Oscar of broadcast journalism. But the answer also depends on keeping up with state-of-the-art equipment, especially HD. More and more stations in the last year or two have already went from shooting news on tape to XDCAMs and other tapeless cameras, as well as being on the forefront of social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc) and mobility with tablet/smartphone apps. Those have already helped their budgets a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mre29 1340 Posted October 31, 2013 Share Posted October 31, 2013 I honestly have no idea which station in Boston has the best budget, so I'll just guess and say WCVB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnya2k6 171 Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 I honestly have no idea which station in Boston has the best budget, so I'll just guess and say WCVB. Or any other Hearst station. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nelson R. 560 Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 Probably WSOC in Charlotte, a sister station to WSB. WJZY will figure to have a good budget as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronQ 259 Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 In Providence, RI; I'm going to say either WPRI/WNAC, or WJAR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brain 81 Posted November 2, 2013 Author Share Posted November 2, 2013 Great answers, let's hear more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanewsguy 509 Posted November 3, 2013 Share Posted November 3, 2013 San Antonio-my primary market (in this order): KSAT, they are building a new facility, are in full HD, produce the most news in the market, have the largest news staff in the market, they are very good about being involved in the community, this station hasn't laid people off unlike the other stations KENS, Belo's been OK for them, only studio shots are in HD, they still film and edit on tape (Sony Betacams) and then upconvert it to widescreen in the control room, they work with a fairly large staff as well, they have the most live trucks out of the market (I think they have five or six ENG vehicles, and two or three satellite trucks) WOAI/KABB (Sinclair), Sinclair doesn't really pour much money into this operation compared to KSAT and KENS, but they manage to put out a decent product with limited resources, all of WOAI's current equipment was approved for purchase by Newport, but some of their newest stuff (they ordered all new mobile SUV units not too long before Sinclair took the reigns, so Sinclair was actually the one who ended up paying for them, I'm sure they were pissed, because WOAI tended to buy more expensive items than they knew Sinclair would allow them too). They maintain a chopper for now. Sinclair has pink-slipped people here in the past and when WOAI/KABB consolidate next year, I would not be surprised if they pink-slipped more. KABB has about 1/3 the staff of WOAI and both work with small news teams (WOAI has more staff due to more hours of news and the fact their operation has existed far longer than KABB's) KWEX, they just moved into a new building but work with an extremely small staff (two photogs, one full-time GA reporter) and often use video from WOAI or KABB (KABB entering the fray last year when Sinclair inherited their agreement, originally it was just WOAI) KVDA, least hours of news in the market, lowest ratings, smallest staff (reporters also shoot, edit, write and present their stories, there's only one anchor and if she's off, either the weather gal or the sports guy fills in) Austin KVUE, by far, best graphics, most reporters, highest ratings KXAN, LIN definitely invests in them, decent graphics, only full-time investigative team, I *think* they have the only chopper in that market but they may have suspended it, not sure (I know KVUE, KEYE, KTBC don't have choppers currently but did at one point, which BTW, is unacceptable for DMA 40. At least one should have a chopper). KEYE, yes Sinclair owns them, but they work with a moderate staff, decent amount of news. They fired did not renew the contracts of Ron Olivera and Troy Kimmel. KTBC, second smallest news staff in the market, no political beat reporter, worst ratings Univision 62, smallest news staff Corpus Christi KIII, they recently converted to HD, and have experienced anchors and reporters, people who should be in much bigger markets but have chosen to stay in Corpus. KRIS/KZTV also tends to invest in their product but has more recent college grads on their news staff compared to KIII KORO, cheap, cheap, cheap, minimal news and no weekend newscast. Their plant isn’t HD so when they go to local ad break, all commercials are pillarboxed to fit in 4:3 SD since most commercials produced nowadays are 16:9. Same with ID’s during network, the program cuts to SD temporarily so they can display their ID. KUQI, I taped a few minutes of them when I was in Corpus back in August. I have to post it to YouTube, it’s really bad, almost like a high school station. They have no newscast whatsoever and I have no clue why London didn’t complete their transaction of them. KIII would’ve been great for this station. KUQI makes KIII look like major market quality. Houston KTRK, KPRC, KHOU, KRIV, I think in that order. Disney pours plenty of money into KTRK. The others don’t compare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3464 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Mobile-Pensacola seems to back up my theory on stations and/or entire markets "taking one for the team" by acting as "cash cows". WEAR owns the Florida side of the market and therefore rakes in a ton of money by being the only station that gives a hoot about Pensacola. WKRG rakes in the cash....by skimping on their on-air product in terms of programming, and cutbacks that have occurred in recent years. WALA rakes in the viewers....the on air product doesn't seem to reflect this, but they still rake in the viewers no matter how matter how lousy the product is. WPMI seems to put out the best product, but it could be better. Now that Sinclair owns them (along with WEAR) it has brought along with it a noticeable increase in government-oriented stories...and if it's critical of Obama, the viewers should be eating it up... Add to the fact the statewide Newhouse AL.com newspaper network watered itself down further into a 3-day-a-week news rag with little protest, and you have yourself a place to do business as cheaply as possible while the masses eat it up time after time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRob 920 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 We're definitely the worst. We produce 59.5 hours of news each week, but we don't have enough producers for all the newscasts. It's like fielding a baseball team with seven players. For example, the weekend producers split the 8am and noon shows during the week. We have 4 ENG trucks, one SNG, and one Tribune equivalent of LiveU. The new SUVs don't have four-wheel drive, and they did a poor job handling the last snowstorm. KMBC has the best budget being a Hearst station, and a station Hearst has put near the top of its group food chain for a long time. They're buying LiveU units for almost all of their reporters. Hearst has its own satellite for stations in the group. Between KCTV (Meredith) and KSHB (Scripps), I suspect KSHB has the better budget, judging by the stories I hear from the former KCTV employees we've snatched this year. KCTV has the better ratings across the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TVIntheDesert 183 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 All the Phoenix stations seem to have tight budgets, but from what I see, I'd rank the stations (in terms of news department's budget) as follows: 1. KPNX 2. KNXV 3. KTVK 4. KPHO 5. KSAZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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