Question regarding the term 'sister stations'

[J.W. Rodriguez 5]

I was always curious about this.

 

An NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX-owned station would call another O&O a sister station, a network affiliate would call a station owned by the same company a sister station, but why is it that a CBS, NBC, ABC, CW, or FOX station would call an affiliate owned by a different company or a network O&O a sister station? I've been wondering about this for years.

[east-tx-tv 117]

It is a bit strange.  Different stations have different uses for "sister" stations.  Most I hear using it are addressing another O/O, another same-company-owned station, and much more rarely, a fellow network affiliate.  More often, I hear "_(network)_ station" or "_(network)_ affiliate" by a station to refer to another same-network station, if the station doesn't say the other station's call letters directly.

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 836]

Sister stations are stations that are owned by the same company as them.  For example WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids is the sister station to WLNS in Lansing -- both are owned by Nexstar.  WNBC in NYC is sister to KNBC in LA -- both are owned by NBCUniversal... etc etc etc

Edited April 26 by MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie
Added Wiki link

[MorningNews 1361]

I’ve always viewed as more ownership based than affiliate based. For instance, KHOU and WFAA are sister stations in Texas despite one being a CBS affiliate and the other being ABC.

[T.L. Hughes 824]

Should we move this thread to the Breakroom section? Seems like it fits there.

[mer764KCTV5 126]

1 hour ago, T.L. Hughes said:

Should we move this thread to the Breakroom section? Seems like it fits there.

Yea,  it probably should. 

[C Block 1546]

It's kind of a silly term that doesn't mean anything, and I don't know whether viewers really care or notice. I usually don't write it in reporter tosses and will instead just write "reporter XXX has the story from XXX" as that's just simpler to say anyway.

 

Stations have all kinds of different types of arrangements with other stations. The most seamless type is under the same owner, at least operationally. Stations under the same station group can share content really easily. Depending on how their IT is set up, they can view and download video directly from each others' servers, view assignment grids, Slack channels, and even entire show rundowns of other stations. Of course, where an owner owns stations can be somewhat arbitrary geographically – it's not like a station in Philadelphia has a reason to pull content regularly from their 'sister station' in Phoenix.

 

Then there are all sorts of less formal arrangements between stations that don't have the same owner, but are located in adjacent markets. These ones might be less noticeable to the viewer. Usually, they're at least the same network affiliation, but not always. Under these arrangements, stations are probably sharing content more often because their content is more pertinent to one another, but the process of sharing content is more manual. These arrangements rely on assignment desks to email out their assignment plans of the day, phone calls to coordinate what content they're interested in and when they need it, and FTP/fileshare downloads to send it. (Of course, back in the day, there was a lot more sharing via microwave, satellite, or fiber.) Are these arrangements 'sister stations?' They obviously have share more interest in content, but operationally they are distinct, and corporate owners will have different policies and practices that will drive newsgathering and editorial tone differently.

 

Also, the whole Nexstar blockade of not sharing any content with any other non-Nexstar station regardless of affiliation for 24 hours has changed things a lot. That whole practice needs to stop, and I don't know why the network feed services (Newsedge, News Channel, NNS, et al) are putting up with that.

[Megatron81 222]

I remember that WZZM had a fast slide from Detroit they took it from WXYZ it was a couple of years ago when Scripps owns Fox17 in West Michigan. I'm guessing because WZZM is ABC and WXYZ is ABC they got the ok to air that story and maybe Fox17 wasn't going to air that story on their newscast. Wood TV has aired a story from time to time from WDIV.