Fox Moves from WTRF to WTOV

[NewsMaster 226]

Fox in the Ohio Valley is moving from WTRF's .2 to WTOV's .3.

 

The ABC feed on WTRF will most likely move from .3 to .2. But I wonder if WTRF may pick up The CW as a way to keep their 10pm newscast.

[The Frog 396]

WTRF's Fox subchannel also carries MyNetworkTV on a secondary basis. Will that transfer over to WTOV as well?

[Leavellebrett 85]

 

WTRF's Fox subchannel also carries MyNetworkTV on a secondary basis. Will that transfer over to WTOV as well?

 

From what I've seen, MNTV will stay with WTRF... unless I'm reading incorrectly.

[padrechuck 25]

WTOV's new Fox channel will be branded as FOX9 rather than Fox Ohio Valley as it was when it was on WTRF. By the looks of WTRF's schedule on WTRF.com it looks like the My Network TV will fill in for Fox, and the 10 o'clock news becomes 7NEWS at 10.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

WTOV's new Fox channel will be branded as FOX9 rather than Fox Ohio Valley as I was when it was on WTRF. By the looks of WTRF's schedule on WTRF.com it looks like the My Network TV will fill in for Fox, and the 10 o'clock news becomes 7 NEWS at 10.

 

Are you in the Wheeling-Stubenville market? I'm just curious where cable providers are going to put the new Fox 9 and if they're going to replace the WTRF one or just add it with the WTRF one.

 

I bet Sinclair is also going to ask cable providers to drop WPGH from their lineup if they haven't already.

[DirtyHarry 720]

 

Are you in the Wheeling-Stubenville market? I'm just curious where cable providers are going to put the new Fox 9 and if they're going to replace the WTRF one or just add it with the WTRF one.

 

I bet Sinclair is also going to ask cable providers to drop WPGH from their lineup if they haven't already.

 

I don't know about that. DC is one thing, because another company (Fox) owns the Fox affiliate. But since Sinclair owns both affiliates, do you think they care where the eyeballs come from so long as those eyeballs are watching a Sinclair station? Eyeballs watching the Pittsburgh station translate to more ad money than eyeballs watching the Steubenville station, don't they?

 

Since Steubenville is only about 40 miles from Pittsburgh, is that close enough to use WTOV's news operation to produce a Pittsburgh-centered newscast for WPGH? If Charleston and Huntington can have split news operations, then why not open a Pittsburgh bureau and restart the news?

 

I know the traditionalists probably don't like this idea, but since everything is virtual these days I don't know if this would be too much of a stretch. The weather staff is already in place and the sports staff already is going to cover Pittsburgh pro sports. Add a couple of anchors and reporters and I think you have a plan.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

I don't know about that. DC is one thing, because another company (Fox) owns the Fox affiliate. But since Sinclair owns both affiliates, do you think they care where the eyeballs come from so long as those eyeballs are watching a Sinclair station? Eyeballs watching the Pittsburgh station translate to more ad money than eyeballs watching the Steubenville station, don't they?

 

Since Steubenville is only about 40 miles from Pittsburgh, is that close enough to use WTOV's news operation to produce a Pittsburgh-centered newscast for WPGH? If Charleston and Huntington can have split news operations, then why not open a Pittsburgh bureau and restart the news?

 

I know the traditionalists probably don't like this idea, but since everything is virtual these days I don't know if this would be too much of a stretch. The weather staff is already in place and the sports staff already is going to cover Pittsburgh pro sports. Add a couple of anchors and reporters and I think you have a plan.

 

Although it's a creative idea, I don't think it's logistically possible. Steubenville is 40 miles from Downtown Pittsburgh and that's only one half of the market. If there's a story that happens in say Monroeville, Murrysville (where that high schooler went on a stabbing spree earlier this year), or Latrobe (where a lot of the Pittsburgh stations just spent a good bit of time covering Steelers training camp), you would have to tack on another 30-40 miles.

 

Why invest in something like that and still be at a competitive disadvantage when you can just outsource your newscasts to WPXI.

[DirtyHarry 720]

 

What would be the difference compared to the current arrangement they have with WPXI?

 

That's kind of my point, believe it or not. Point being, since the news already comes from WPXI, what's the difference if it comes from Steubenville instead? Besides, now you have a local identity with unique talent. Why give exposure to a competitor and share revenue if you can produce virtually the same product in-house? Since the infrastructure is already in place at WTOV, it doesn't seem like it would require a lot of extra bodies/cost. And Steubenville is close enough to Pittsburgh that it wouldn't be hard to know what the important stories to cover are going to be.

 

And if you block the channels from cable in each others' markets or make the presentation different enough, would anybody even know that the WPGH newscast is coming from Steubenville? And then you also have product for WPTT (or whatever they call it now) at 11 PM or midnight. (WSYX's 11 PM news runs on WWHO at midnight.) Theoretically, you would be taking some viewers from the competition at 11 PM although I doubt that they will get much of a bump in the ratings.

 

But best of all ....... they can now have a way of doing a GOOD DAY PITTSBURGH without having to build a news operation from scratch.

 

I don't see why you couldn't do most of the behind the scenes work from Steubenville or maybe somewhere in between ... like 20 miles east of Steubenville and 20 miles west of Pittsburgh.

 

The only problem I see is the risk that you degrade coverage in Steubenville to the point where it becomes too Pittsburgh-centric for the market. But other stations do split newscasts like WSAZ, so they can work around that issue.

 

How does the 10 pm newscast do in the ratings? I can't imagine that it does as well as an in-house newscast would.

 

http://www.wsaz.com/home/misc/Charleston_Split_18322959.html

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

That's kind of my point, believe it or not. Point being, since the news already comes from WPXI, what's the difference if it comes from Steubenville instead? Besides, now you have a local identity with unique talent. Why give exposure to a competitor and share revenue if you can produce virtually the same product in-house? Since the infrastructure is already in place at WTOV, it doesn't seem like it would require a lot of extra bodies/cost. And Steubenville is close enough to Pittsburgh that it wouldn't be hard to know what the important stories to cover are going to be.

 

And if you block the channels from cable in each others' markets or make the presentation different enough, would anybody even know that the WPGH newscast is coming from Steubenville? And then you also have product for WPTT (or whatever they call it now) at 11 PM or midnight. (WSYX's 11 PM news runs on WWHO at midnight.) Theoretically, you would be taking some viewers from the competition at 11 PM although I doubt that they will get much of a bump in the ratings.

 

But best of all ....... they can now have a way of doing a GOOD DAY PITTSBURGH without having to build a news operation from scratch.

 

I don't see why you couldn't do most of the behind the scenes work from Steubenville or maybe somewhere in between ... like 20 miles east of Steubenville and 20 miles west of Pittsburgh.

 

The only problem I see is the risk that you degrade coverage in Steubenville to the point where it becomes too Pittsburgh-centric for the market. But other stations do split newscasts like WSAZ, so they can work around that issue.

 

How does the 10 pm newscast do in the ratings? I can't imagine that it does as well as an in-house newscast would.

 

http://www.wsaz.com/home/misc/Charleston_Split_18322959.html

 

Technically the infrastructure still exists at WPGH since it was able to produce newscasts from there before. If they're going to restart the newscast, why not just rebuild it at WPGH's studios in Pittsburgh rather than outsourcing it to Steubenville?

 

In all honesty, it's because Sinclair treats WPGH just like KDNL. Which is sad considering the history that Sinclair has with WPGH/WPMY. Just like in St. Louis, the Pittsburgh market is dominated by 3 affiliates and Sinclair never sees a point in investing in something they don't think will get big ratings. And to their advantage, they're in an AFC market so they don't have to worry about Fox possibly trying to establish an O&O there so Sinclair can do the bare minimum just as long as they satisfy their contract with Fox.

 

Back to the point of this thread, trying to make WTOV invest more resources into the Pittsburgh area is just going to degrade the quality of the news coverage for the Wheeling-Steubenville area which WTRF would love to take advantage of and topple WTOV from their lofty #1 perch they've held onto for so long.

 

Long story short: Why would Sinclair invest/risk in something that will probably not improve the ratings of WPGH at the risk of degrading the news coverage of the Ohio Valley?

[DirtyHarry 720]

 

Technically the infrastructure still exists at WPGH since it was able to produce newscasts from there before. If they're going to restart the newscast, why not just rebuild it at WPGH's studios in Pittsburgh rather than outsourcing it to Steubenville?

 

In all honesty, it's because Sinclair treats WPGH just like KDNL. Which is sad considering the history that Sinclair has with WPGH/WPMY. The Big 3 affiliates dominate the market and Sinclair never sees a point in investing in something they don't think will get big ratings. And to their advantage, they're in an AFC market so they don't have to worry about Fox possibly trying to establish an O&O there so Sinclair can do the bare minimum just as long as they satisfy their contract with Fox.

 

What's it been, like 10 years since they've had a newscast? And they were probably analog and were editing tape back then!

 

I think the overhead you have in all the people who are behind the scenes, like assignment desk people, editors, engineers and whatnot are what makes a restart cost-prohibitive. Since WTOV already has that stuff in place, if there is a way to piggyback on what's there then it might be more doable.

 

I gave you the link to the WSAZ page. If a Charleston-centric newscast can run on an LPTV and cable in Kanawah County, I don't see why you couldn't do something like that for WPGH ... at least to restart the news operation. Then if it ever becomes self-sustaining, more things can be done in Pittsburgh.

 

Just thinking out loud here, but what you could do is let WTOV run a traditional Steubenville newscast at 11 and make the 10 pm news a split newscast with some Steubenville stuff on Fox 9 and Pittsburgh stuff on Fox 53.

 

Like I said, I think the Good Day shows seem to be successful in the ratings and big moneymakers. That is the big benefit to running a newscast in-house in my mind.

 

Is any of this logistically possible though? I don't know.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

What's it been, like 10 years since they've had a newscast? And they were probably analog and were editing tape back then!

 

I think the overhead you have in all the people who are behind the scenes, like assignment desk people, editors, engineers and whatnot are what makes a restart cost-prohibitive. Since WTOV already has that stuff in place, if there is a way to piggyback on what's there then it might be more doable.

 

I gave you the link to the WSAZ page. If a Charleston-centric newscast can run on an LPTV and cable in Kanawah County, I don't see why you couldn't do something like that for WPGH ... at least to restart the news operation. Then if it ever becomes self-sustaining, more things can be done in Pittsburgh.

 

Just thinking out loud here, but what you could do is let WTOV run a traditional Steubenville newscast at 11 and make the 10 pm news a split newscast with some Steubenville stuff on Fox 9 and Pittsburgh stuff on Fox 53.

 

Like I said, I think the Good Day shows seem to be successful in the ratings and big moneymakers. That is the big benefit to running a newscast in-house in my mind.

 

Is any of this logistically possible though? I don't know.

 

I still don't think it's logistically possible because you still need to upgrade the facilities at WPGH to do the hypothetical split-newscast in addition to hiring people to run the Pittsburgh Bureau. Otherwise you'll be stretching out the resources of a station in a 100+ market to try to cover news in a Top 25 market (Pittsburgh is much bigger than Charleston).

 

Sinclair doesn't seem to be willing to invest in stuff like that unless they know for sure they'll make money off it, it's why they're dragging their feet trying to get a newscast going on KDNL and which they'll probably stick with the cheapest possible option which is to outsource the newscasts on WPGH to WPXI.

[The Frog 396]

WTRF 7.2 is now My Ohio Valley.

 

http://www.wtrf.com/story/26414170/wtrf-my-ohio-valley-starts-september-1

[padrechuck 25]

In short promos for their upcoming Fox9 at 10 newscast, the background graphic and music are the new Sinclair graphics and music. Wondering whether the main News9 NBC graphics and music will change as well when the new broadcast begins on October 6th??

[compubit 670]

Hmmm...

 

The new newscast was supposed to start after the first of the year - looks like it got moved up... Time for a Road Trip after the 6th...

 

J

[padrechuck 25]

With the debut of News9 at 10 on FOX9, WTOV updated this morning to the graphics and music to the new Sinclair package. Update also included new duratrans and set signage.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

With the debut of News9 at 10 on FOX9, WTOV updated this morning to the graphics and music to the new Sinclair package. Update also included new duratrans and set signage.

 

They actually switched last night after the football game. But you're right, that's exactly why they made the switch because they explicitly said that it was in prepration for the launch of Fox9 News at 10.

[abric 157]

 

With the debut of News9 at 10 on FOX9, WTOV updated this morning to the graphics and music to the new Sinclair package. Update also included new duratrans and set signage.

 

The switch was made last night.

(from news89 on Youtube)

[padrechuck 25]

I noticed new mic flags too. Just the blue square with the gold 9. No news9 and peacock 3 so sided flags anymore.

[darkpowrjd 0]

I saw it myself.

 

I do admit that they don't look awful, and they do what they are meant to do (a lot of stations are doing the "plain and clean" look anymore). That being said, it's been a LOOONG time since I've seen WTRF have a better looking graphics package than WTOV, and it's now happened (for some reason, DirectTV took MyOV completely off of the service when FOX made the flip to WTOV, so right now, TOV is the only access to 10PM news that UOV Direct TV customers have right now).

 

And it seems like WTRF has a better product right now, too. They just need a second anchor at the desk and they could have something big there again, despite it being owned by WVMH!

[padrechuck 25]

Odd thing I noticed today on News9 Live at 5. The set signage in Severe Weather Team 9 has been changed BACK to the previous signage. The duratrans behind the news desk are still the new ones, but the the weather center is back to the original 2010 set debut signage. Go figure???