NBC Considering Giving 10pm/9pm Back To Affiliates

[Roadrunner 216]

30 minutes ago, iron_lion said:

constant commercials

Anyone correct me here, but I'm pretty sure SNL is why it's still what it is. They definitely command a premium on this 90-min block, considering the ads that show up, especially right after the A block. Ad revenue has never been more important in this economy.

[GodfreyGR 652]

10 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

considering the ads that show up

As long as the network can keep selling it, they will keep running it. Basic economics.

[PTVNews 194]

20 hours ago, GodfreyGR said:

As long as the network can keep selling it, they will keep running it. Basic economics.

 

Surprised people still "watch" ads in this day and age. If I've ever been counted in a TV show's ratings by chance, their's a 99% chance I fast forwarded and didn't see any of the ads. 

Edited October 31, 2022 by PTVNews

[C Block 1566]

It's sounding like Fox is expecting that NBC and ABC will indeed drop the 10pm hour. I've heard that the O&Os are looking into what effect, if any, it would have on their long-established 10pm newscasts. It sounds like there's actually not much overlap between viewers who watch the big 3 primetime offerings and those who watch primetime newscasts.

[tyrannical bastard 3955]

21 hours ago, C Block said:

It's sounding like Fox is expecting that NBC and ABC will indeed drop the 10pm hour. I've heard that the O&Os are looking into what effect, if any, it would have on their long-established 10pm newscasts. It sounds like there's actually not much overlap between viewers who watch the big 3 primetime offerings and those who watch primetime newscasts.

Even if NBC (and ABC) drop 10pm programming and compete with Fox stations with newscasts, there's still plenty of dayparts where Fox can counter the networks with local news.  Most notably,  7-9 am when Today and Good Morning America are on.  NBC ties up 9-11am with even more Today and ABC stations are locked in at 11am with The View.

 

CBS may be the first to drop morning news if they finally give up on the 7-9am hour after decades of failure.  And WWL would have the last laugh!

[TheRolyPoly 2451]

8 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

And WWL would have the last laugh!

 

And the first to re-add the 7-9am portion on WWL-TV. They'd do so in a heartbeat.

[J1975am 208]

7 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

And the first to re-add the 7-9am portion on WWL-TV. They'd do so in a heartbeat.

Yes. Yes they would.

[nathannah 2446]

Peacock is adding affiliate stream access to the $10 premium plan  at the end of the month (NBCU-owned stations are available now to start), which is equal to what Paramount+ provides on their own tier (Fox and ABC don't provide the same, and Fox is limited to owned stations besides KCPQ and WITI because of contractual issues). As someone who finds the NBC app's affiliate stream with TVE a nightmare just to get to, this is a better way to get it.

Edited November 8, 2022 by mrschimpf

[Glimmer 282]

NBC to keep the 10pm hour (at least for next season)

[Spring Rubber 705]

1 hour ago, Glimmer said:

NBC to keep the 10pm hour (at least for next season)

The irony of the old NBC logo that was used in Deadline's cover image for the story.

[Nelson R. 569]

5 hours ago, Glimmer said:

NBC to keep the 10pm hour (at least for next season)

Probably smart because their primetime lineup

is pretty strong. I could see them dropping it in 2024 though.

[NowBergen 685]

6 hours ago, Glimmer said:

NBC to keep the 10pm hour (at least for next season)

1.  I'm glad they did not do that.  They have some real good 10 pm shows.

2. I would not be surprised if they are trying to convince another network or both to join them.

3. It gives local stations more time to consider what to put on - it could be a boost to syndicated dramas or comedy.  Let's be real, just how much more local news or Family Feud do we all need.  Many DMA's already have one or more options already for news at 10, and, have cable options as well.

[CLETVFan 367]

I think they made a mistake keeping the 10pm hour.  A lot of network programming is crap and whatever is sort of the weakest can move to cable and Peacock.

[Rusty Muck 4378]

9 hours ago, Glimmer said:

NBC to keep the 10pm hour (at least for next season)

Good. It doesn’t help the affiliates to be forced to program an extra hour of primetime in an environment where syndication is an endangered species.

[Nelson R. 569]

1 minute ago, Myron Falwell said:

Good. It doesn’t help the affiliates to be forced to program an extra hour of primetime in an environment where syndication is an endangered species.

Most would be airing 10pm news 

[Georgie56 3307]

Just think, in LA, there would be four 10pm newscasts if NBC does indeed go through with this in the future. KTLA, KCAL, KTTV, and KNBC.

Edited December 17, 2022 by Georgie56

[Rusty Muck 4378]

21 minutes ago, Nelson R. said:

Most would be airing 10pm news 

Good luck if you’re in Billings, Montana or Alpena, Michigan or Wheeling, West Virginia, or any small market that can’t support one 10pm news, let alone two or more. Or in any market that is not in a political swing state (Wyoming, Mississippi, etc.) and won’t get that easy money.

 

The pending death of syndication and the presumed death of scripted primetime will inevitably result in the death of local news programming for television stations, many of which will simply become relay stations for large-market stations and/or O&Os. And those stations may be reduced to being nothing more than a turnkey diginet or rerun farm.

 

If the audience no longer exists for syndication or scripted primetime programming, how in the wide wide world of sports is it going to remain for local news???

 

Edited December 17, 2022 by Myron Falwell

[Rusty Muck 4378]

14 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

Just think, in LA, there would be four 10pm newscasts if NBC does indeed go through with this in the future. KTLA, KCAL, KTTV, and KNBC.

They used to have four with KCOP in the mix, and KCOP struggled for years before Fox ultimately subsumed everything into KTTV.

 

Los Angeles is almost an anomaly with three 10pm English-language newscasts battling it out against each other. If such a thing were to be tried out in Memphis or Jacksonville or Omaha, the results would be beyond disastrous.

 

There is such a thing as too much local news in Anytown, USA. When you gripe at operators “cheapening out” on news and graphics and music, muse about off- and on-air talent resigning and getting out of the industry, or insist MMJs are a pejorative for Something Bad, maybe it's because the economics of More Local News doesn't exactly add up the way you want it to.

[carolinanews4 377]

1 hour ago, Myron Falwell said:

Los Angeles is almost an anomaly with three 10pm English-language newscasts battling it out against each other. If such a thing were to be tried out in Memphis or Jacksonville or Omaha, the results would be beyond disastrous.

 

LA is hardly an anomaly with three English-language newscasts at 10P. Charlotte (much smaller than LA) has had three 10P newscasts for years (WJZY/WAXN/WCCB). Heck, down the road in the Greenville/Spartanburg market (smaller than Charlotte) they have also had three news broadcasts competing at 10 (WHNS/WYCW/WMYA). Nothing "beyond disastrous" occurred in those markets.

 

Also, why is 10 o'clock so special that you can't have multiple stations competing with news? In recent years, some FOX stations have been adding 11 p.m. newscasts that compete with NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates. And what about 6 a.m.? Many markets have four stations airing news. The Charlotte market has five. No disasters to report during those hours.

 

I totally agree with your point about too much news. Stations have gone to the well a lot with news expansion. Part of that is driven by budget restraints while some of it comes to a lack of creativity. But to say that three stations fronting news at 10 p.m. would be beyond disastrous is a bit over the top. 

[Rusty Muck 4378]

1 hour ago, carolinanews4 said:

 

LA is hardly an anomaly with three English-language newscasts at 10P. Charlotte (much smaller than LA) has had three 10P newscasts for years (WJZY/WAXN/WCCB). Heck, down the road in the Greenville/Spartanburg market (smaller than Charlotte) they have also had three news broadcasts competing at 10 (WHNS/WYCW/WMYA). Nothing "beyond disastrous" occurred in those markets.

 

Also, why is 10 o'clock so special that you can't have multiple stations competing with news? In recent years, some FOX stations have been adding 11 p.m. newscasts that compete with NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates. And what about 6 a.m.? Many markets have four stations airing news. The Charlotte market has five. No disasters to report during those hours.

It might be out of sheer ego and resentment towards Fox that WCCB still trudges along under Bakahel but they aren’t exactly in the best shape. WJZY flopped so badly under Fox ownership that Nexstar completely blew up the station’s identity in a bid to be competitive. WAXN is owned by a private equity firm so the obvious outcome is them doing it all on the cheap with no investment, extending already strained resources at WSOC. When you add in WBTV doing More Local News under Gray (and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try a 10pm news again somehow), something is bound to give.

 

If WCCB and/or WJZY were to throw up the white flag and concede a battle for ratings that amounts to diminishing returns, no one should be surprised in the least.
 

1 hour ago, carolinanews4 said:

 

I totally agree with your point about too much news. Stations have gone to the well a lot with news expansion. Part of that is driven by budget restraints while some of it comes to a lack of creativity. But to say that three stations fronting news at 10 p.m. would be beyond disastrous is a bit over the top. 

This is not 1993 or 2003 or 2013. The landscape today is not the same as in the past and people have every incentive to abandon OTA TV if the content they want no longer exists. Having nothing but cheaply-run local news with practically no distinction between them is a recipe for trouble, especially with a finite audience that risks shrinking—even ever so subtly—regardless of the market size. Why would I want to watch the “attack of the clones” that is the same late-evening local news on a plethora of stations, with the same music from SAM or Gari, the same format with emphasis on Bad Things with minimal Actual Local News of Relevance, the same minimal sportscast and the same 10-day Super Doppler Googleplex Extended Outlook?

 

Am I saying the audience for OTA is dying? No. At least not for a few decades. But it’s absolutely eroding; even if it is a small erosion, it is still a needlessly self-inflicted wound for the industry.

[nathannah 2446]

4 hours ago, carolinanews4 said:

 

LA is hardly an anomaly with three English-language newscasts at 10P. Charlotte (much smaller than LA) has had three 10P newscasts for years (WJZY/WAXN/WCCB). Heck, down the road in the Greenville/Spartanburg market (smaller than Charlotte) they have also had three news broadcasts competing at 10 (WHNS/WYCW/WMYA). Nothing "beyond disastrous" occurred in those markets.

It really depends on the market though; those two markets have had sustaining newscasts since the WB/UPN days that have continued on and on, and WAXN, WRDQ, KMCI and WMLW have been aversions where they have an independent schedule built on strength that hasn't needed an affiliation. Others since then...it's hard to start a news operation or convert a station which has been stuck in VLC automated irrelevancy since MyNet bailed out of scheduling competitively to carrying some news. The only real case I've seen that happen is WMYD, and that took a transition away from a scratch rated INN product and Granite puttling little money into the station, to Scripps buying it and having WXYZ put newscasts on, to pull off.

 

But you're not going to be able to finance news operations on irrelevant stations much longer. WCCB's op is pretty much on death watch now because the moment that CW contract ends, WMYT is getting it. In Milwaukee, WISN presumably could've placed a 9 pm show on WVTV anytime since 2006, but instead is happy to let it air on True Crime Network and call it a loss leader that provides a good alternative to WITI. The same with KOAT and the Acme duop in ABQ before Nexstar paired them with KRQE and just put the 9 on what's now their DT2 Fox.

 

And I notice that WCNC wasn't even mentioned in Myron's comment; they've always been irrelevant back to the Ted Turner days. Eventually they'll throw in the towel and call it a day because there's only so much news you can watch or put on in a market before it just is complete white noise. Eventually you might just see some of these stations move the only thing with a pulse, the J!-WoF hour, to 10pm and just put on news from 2pm to primetime.

[Nelson R. 569]

6 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

 

But you're not going to be able to finance news operations on irrelevant stations much longer. WCCB's op is pretty much on death watch now because the moment that CW contract ends, WMYT is getting it.

WBTV News at 10 on WCCB is sounding better and better 

[Rusty Muck 4378]

12 hours ago, Nelson R. said:

WBTV News at 10 on WCCB is sounding better and better 

I’d put my money on WCCB moving MeTV to 18.1 and selling off their program inventory to Nexstar.

[tyrannical bastard 3955]

At one time, Mobile/Pensacola had 4 stations doing news at 9pm CT.  Longtime OG WALA FOX 10 with their 9pm show, WEAR started one for WFGX in Pensacola, WPMI started one for WJTC in Mobile, and finally, WKRG in Mobile started a Pensacola-centric one for WFNA.   The first shoe to drop was the WJTC 9pm show which ended up moving to 7pm (since it's an independent),  and WFGX's later gave way for the evening version of The National Desk. Only WFNA's version remains along with WALA's today.

 

It's been mentioned before, but getting another news hour out of WPMI would not be possible, unless they get "subsumed" like the other Sinclair shells, or sacrifice another hour of news.  When it finally happens, they may even have to relax the rules for stations like WPMI in the same boat.

 

Wheeling was mentioned earlier.  All WTOV would have to do is simulcast their Fox 9.2 10pm show on 9.1.

 

And WFMJ may as well start a 10pm show on the CW to compete with the WKBN one.  All they would have to do is either simulcast or move it over to NBC when the time comes....

Edited December 18, 2022 by tyrannical bastard

[Georgie56 3307]

Orlando and San Diego also have three hour-long 10pm newscasts. As for the latter, KNSD produced KSWB’s 10pm before the Fox era began.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Georgie56