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Miami is one of the most unstable markets for network affiliation. This is just shocking.

 

WSVN seems to be ashamed of being affiliated with Fox, so I can see them wanting to become the full-time ABC affiliate.

2 hours ago, MorningNews said:

I don’t have enough knowledge about affiliate swaps but is this truly final? It’s almost unbelievable even.

 

How will WSVN manage newscast as a Fox and ABC affiliate? How does branding even work for that and why would ABC be willing to relegated to a sub-channel in a significant market? 

Exactly my question, does ABC want to be relegated to a sub channel?

 

I would imagine they just simulcast newscasts.

 

Where does ABC go if it wants a full channel? WSFL, a less popular station with a high dial number?

 

If ABC ever goes to its own full channel they might want to start a news department --if it lacks one. The south Florida television market would then be saturated with roughly seven english major broadcast stations in one signal area (Counting WPB)

 

What syndication options are left? WPLG is already a news intensive operation...to fill programming holes they wont be too far off from KTLA's news output.

Edited by MediaZone4K
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Wow. That’s crazy didn’t think I’d see this happening. I wonder how WSVN gonna program news on the new ABC affiliate. Miami will be the largest market without full time affiliate. If this happens here in Miami than other markets could face something like this in the future, large markets with no big 3 full time affiliate with them being sub channel with another station. Now in some small markets there a big 3 is on a subchannel but not in a market as large as Miami. This means this will happen to other ownership groups, will go through this.

2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

If it can happen in Miami, it can happen anywhere.

 

Essentially I could see this happening with stations group that are locally owned or under some investment firm.

Someone here questioned if WPLG would vie for the Fox affiliation should that ever become available.

 

In many ways, Local 10 News news has the Fox tone that 7 News paved the way for... only now their news product is better than WSVN's, and I would argue it's the best English language product in the Miami DMA.

 

Local 10 News is very fast paced, high story count, and tabloid, with an emphasis on live shots, and spot news...much like 7 News. Should FOX ever migrate there, it would be a perfect fit. *Speculation... we'll cross that bridge if we get to it.

 

Overall WPLG is a great station and I hope it continues to do well after it becomes an independent like WJXT. 

 

 

Edited by MediaZone4K
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Just now, MediaZone4K said:

Someone here questioned if WPLG would vie for the Fox affiliation should that ever become available.

 

In many ways, Local 10 News news has the Fox tone that 7 News paved the way for... only now their news product is better than WSVN's, and I would argue it's the best English language product in the Miami DMA.

 

Local 10 News is very fast paced, high story count, and tabloid, with an emphasis on live shots, and spot news...much like 7 News. Should FOX ever migrate there, it would be a perfect fit.

 

Overall WPLG is a great station and I hope it continues to do well after it becomes an independent like WJXT. 

 

 

Keep in mind WSVN almost lost it FOX affiliation in 2017-18 when that failed Sinclair-Tribune was in progress of happening because Tribune had to spin of WSFL to FOX.

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2 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

Miami is one of the most unstable markets for network affiliation. This is just shocking.

 

WSVN seems to be ashamed of being affiliated with Fox, so I can see them wanting to become the full-time ABC affiliate.

 

WSVN and FOX have a 30 plus-year relationship and have described each other as 'perfect partners.' FOX went as far as to say, when they renewed the affiliation last year, that their 'relationship with Ed and the Sunbeam team is one of our longest and strongest affiliate partnerships.'  That doesn't sound like either party is unhappy.

 

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 Well, this is certainly a surprise! It'll be interesting to see how WPLG does as an independent (something tells me station management will be chatting with their counterparts at WJXT for advice), how ABC does on 7.2... and whether or not Sunbeam takes the opportunity to go shopping for a duopoly partner for WSVN (with ABC moving to said partner).

 

6 hours ago, Recovering Producer said:

I’m old enough to remember when NBC tried to sell WTVJ to what was The Washington Post company at the time to form a duopoly with WPLG in 2008, which would have been the first top 20 with two of the big 4 English language networks under common ownership. That felt wild and ominous for the future of the business then. 

 

Didn't that attempted sale also include WVIT?

 

2 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

Where does ABC go if it wants a full channel? WSFL, a less popular station with a high dial number?

 

It's on (virtual) channel 25 in one neighboring DMA (WPB) and 26 in the other (Fort Myers), so I don't think being on channel 39 would be that big a deal.

 

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On 3/20/2025 at 10:05 PM, Jase said:

 

WSVN and FOX have a 30 plus-year relationship and have described each other as 'perfect partners.' FOX went as far as to say, when they renewed the affiliation last year, that their 'relationship with Ed and the Sunbeam team is one of our longest and strongest affiliate partnerships.'  That doesn't sound like either party is unhappy.

 

 

WSVN has now been a Fox affiliate longer that it was with NBC.  July 1956 until New Year's Eve 1989, South Florida's Channel 7 was with NBC (32+ years); since New Year's Day 1989, they've been with Fox...thirty-six years and counting.

Edited by SDHIll1980
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10 hours ago, atlnewsfan03 said:

I also wonder if ABC has made any kind of offer to buy the South Florida station.

So, I actually think there might be something here. Maybe. It's a hunch. Maybe I'm wrong! But, allow me to speculate for a moment.

 

WSVN is in a very unique situation right now. They have plans to build a brand new facility, and their current owners are developing the real estate for both the current facility and the future one. They own the land at both sites, in fact, the future facility is on empty land they've held for years, and the current facility is on land they want to develop into expensive condos. The condo development wouldn't be planned if they didn't think it would make money, and it will probably make enough to pay for the new WSVN facility several times over. This whole new facility project has always had the underlying motive of Sunbeam wanting the station off the current land because they see the value in it, and they have a lot of empty land in Miramar that they can plop it on, to get it out of the way.

 

The common saying is "Disney doesn't buy stations", but there should be an asterisk there. Disney doesn't buy stations because Bob Iger is convinced most are overpriced.

 

Sunbeam has a very interesting position here. Their primary business is, at this point, property development. Building a building just to lease it out is what they do. It seems to me, like they could be in a position to sell WSVN at a "discount", with the remainder being more or less made up via a long-term lease on the new facility. This would be a huge win for Sunbeam. They can develop land that has sat idle for years, and have it immediately start making money, from a tenant that you really wouldn't have to worry about going bankrupt. They'd still make money off the station for years to come, and best of all, it'd be a predictable amount.

 

It is notable that, despite the project being announced some time ago, the parcel the new facility will sit on was untouched as late as October of last year, over a year after it was announced and approved by the city. What's the delay? 🤔

 

The fact we're hearing about this now means there's probably been talks about this for months. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that Sunbeam put the brakes on the project in order to provide the ability to any possible future owner (I think FOX is also in play here) to make changes before the construction begins.

 

I'm not sure we're done hearing about this "deal"... I don't think Disney would settle for a .2, if there weren't other things in the works. I've been saying since the new facility was announced that this seems ripe for them to sell the station and make money off the lease, and this seems to be the perfect opportunity to do so.

 

Spoiler

(This would also be very Miami... if ABC were to acquire the station before the Fox affiliate contract was up, there would be echoes of NBC running WTVJ as a CBS affiliate for a while, while they waited for the NBC affiliation contract at (coincidentally) WSVN, to be up. And, come on folks, the logo is already a circle 7! It's just too perfect!)

 

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On 3/21/2025 at 1:05 AM, Jase said:

 

WSVN and FOX have a 30 plus-year relationship and have described each other as 'perfect partners.' FOX went as far as to say, when they renewed the affiliation last year, that their 'relationship with Ed and the Sunbeam team is one of our longest and strongest affiliate partnerships.'  That doesn't sound like either party is unhappy.

 

When I say ashamed of being a Fox affiliate, I mean they appear to distance themselves from the Fox and Fox News brands.

 

I've never seen them refer to carrying Fox on air. I've hardly ever seen them air a Fox News package and if they do the anchors re-track it. I never see them take network cut ins ... there was a time they even partnered with CNN to air their coverage for a national event that happened.

 

While WSVN may have a good business relationship with Fox, as your post says, they seem to dislike that negative Fox connotation.

 

Edited by MediaZone4K
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1 hour ago, MediaZone4K said:

When I say ashamed of being a Fox affiliate, I mean they appear to distance themselves from the Fox and Fox News brands.

 

I've never seen them refer them carrying Fox on air. I've hardly ever seen them air a Fox News package and if they do the anchors re-track it. I never see them take network cut ins ... there was a time they even partnered with CNN to air their coverage for a national event that happened.

 

While WSVN may have a good business relationship with Fox, as your post says, they seem to dislike that negative Fox connotation.

 

 

When WSVN does air a FOX News package for national news, the reporters towards the end always say 7 News, not FOX News. They only showcase and say the FOX brand when FOX is on.

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8 hours ago, Jase said:

 

WSVN and FOX have a 30 plus-year relationship and have described each other as 'perfect partners.' FOX went as far as to say, when they renewed the affiliation last year, that their 'relationship with Ed and the Sunbeam team is one of our longest and strongest affiliate partnerships.'  That doesn't sound like either party is unhappy.

 


wccb and Fox had a great long standing relationship until they didn’t. Things can change 

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WSVN can get away with this since they were pretty much the first FOX affiliate to join their network as a strong news-producing station.  This alone inspired Fox to mandate newscasts on the majority of their owned and affiliate stations.

10 hours ago, GraphicsMan said:

Essentially I could see this happening with stations group that are locally owned or under some investment firm.

 

Those stations have the most to lose since they may not be able to meet a network's demands.  However, certain stations (like WFMJ) have the advantage since they are the ONLY competition in a market, given that the rest of the market is controlled by Nexstar.  Losing an affiliation to them would trigger market share issues when a group of full-powered stations controls virtually every affiliation in the market.

 

Also, NBC seems the easiest to deal with network-wise, given the WRAL/WNCN switch.  CBS got a bigger company to pay for network coverage despite a smaller audience and NBC finally got a good station in the Triangle after decades of failure on UHF stations.  That seems to be the case, unless NBC wants the affiliation for itself, which happened to happen against Sunbeam in both Boston and Miami, as well as shutting down duplicate affiliates in Hagerstown and Atlantic City.

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11 hours ago, mre29 said:

how ABC does on 7.2...

 

I’m especially curious about their situation because WPLG and WSVN both host their 1.0 feeds on WSVN and their 3.0 feeds on WPLG. While there’s plenty of room on the 3.0 feed to boost 7.2 to 720p or 1080p, is there enough bandwidth to host a third 720p plus 2 subs? The bandwidth would have to come at the expense of 7.1, as I’m sure 10.1 is in no interest to give up any bandwidth to help in this situation.

 

Anyway, curious to see if “ABC Miami” is regulated to SD because of this.

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5 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

When WSVN does air a FOX News package for national news, the reporters towards the end always say 7 News, not FOX News. They only showcase and say the FOX brand when FOX is on.

They don’t even air the networks cut ins, except for the prime time SOTU. Last time WSVN aired anything Fox related was during 9/11. 

13 hours ago, mre29 said:

Didn't that attempted sale also include WVIT?

Yes.

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2 hours ago, GraphicsMan said:

They don’t even air the networks cut ins, except for the prime time SOTU. Last time WSVN aired anything Fox related was during 9/11.

 

I remember the last major breaking news story WSVN carried... they used CNN, *NOT* FOX. The station is more allegiant towards CNN Newsource than FOX NewsEdge.

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11 hours ago, Weeters said:

So, I actually think there might be something here. Maybe. It's a hunch. Maybe I'm wrong! But, allow me to speculate for a moment.

 

WSVN is in a very unique situation right now. They have plans to build a brand new facility, and their current owners are developing the real estate for both the current facility and the future one. They own the land at both sites, in fact, the future facility is on empty land they've held for years, and the current facility is on land they want to develop into expensive condos. The condo development wouldn't be planned if they didn't think it would make money, and it will probably make enough to pay for the new WSVN facility several times over. This whole new facility project has always had the underlying motive of Sunbeam wanting the station off the current land because they see the value in it, and they have a lot of empty land in Miramar that they can plop it on, to get it out of the way.

 

The common saying is "Disney doesn't buy stations", but there should be an asterisk there. Disney doesn't buy stations because Bob Iger is convinced most are overpriced.

 

Sunbeam has a very interesting position here. Their primary business is, at this point, property development. Building a building just to lease it out is what they do. It seems to me, like they could be in a position to sell WSVN at a "discount", with the remainder being more or less made up via a long-term lease on the new facility. This would be a huge win for Sunbeam. They can develop land that has sat idle for years, and have it immediately start making money, from a tenant that you really wouldn't have to worry about going bankrupt. They'd still make money off the station for years to come, and best of all, it'd be a predictable amount.

 

It is notable that, despite the project being announced some time ago, the parcel the new facility will sit on was untouched as late as October of last year, over a year after it was announced and approved by the city. What's the delay? 🤔

 

The fact we're hearing about this now means there's probably been talks about this for months. I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that Sunbeam put the brakes on the project in order to provide the ability to any possible future owner (I think FOX is also in play here) to make changes before the construction begins.

 

I'm not sure we're done hearing about this "deal"... I don't think Disney would settle for a .2, if there weren't other things in the works. I've been saying since the new facility was announced that this seems ripe for them to sell the station and make money off the lease, and this seems to be the perfect opportunity to do so.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

(This would also be very Miami... if ABC were to acquire the station before the Fox affiliate contract was up, there would be echoes of NBC running WTVJ as a CBS affiliate for a while, while they waited for the NBC affiliation contract at (coincidentally) WSVN, to be up. And, come on folks, the logo is already a circle 7! It's just too perfect!)

 

 

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.

 

9 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

When I say ashamed of being a Fox affiliate, I mean they appear to distance themselves from the Fox and Fox News brands.

 

I've never seen them refer them carrying Fox on air. I've hardly ever seen them air a Fox News package and if they do the anchors re-track it. I never see them take network cut ins ... there was a time they even partnered with CNN to air their coverage for a national event that happened.

 

While WSVN may have a good business relationship with Fox, as your post says, they seem to dislike that negative Fox connotation.

 

 

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.

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1 hour ago, l_miro said:

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.

 

Well, hopefully construction is underway and that they do it fast, or make it a 24/7 operation (outside of hurricanes and whatnot).

 

The 70th anniversary is July 29th, 2026. That's almost 16 months away.

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1 hour ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

I remember the last major breaking news story WSVN carried... they used CNN, *NOT* FOX. The station is more allegiant towards CNN Newsource than FOX NewsEdge.

Have a feeling when ABC's aboard, WSVN, when it comes to their newscasts, might be a bit more judicial when it comes to nat'l stories mixing in ABC along with CNN moreso than currently constitued btn. FOX & CNN. Also with this affiliation change, Miami joins Phoenix (KTVK) having both Jeopardy! & WoF on a non-network affiliated/independent station.

Edited by NYAZSporty
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1 hour ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Well, hopefully construction is underway and that they do it fast, or make it a 24/7 operation (outside of hurricanes and whatnot).

 

The 70th anniversary is July 29th, 2026. That's almost 16 months away.

 

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.

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I don’t think this is gonna be a forever thing. I don’t think ABC is gonna like being on a digital subchannel. Again this would be understandable if Miami was a smaller market but I have a feeling something else is in the works for WSVN and Sunbeam. I just don’t see it lasting for long give this till 2028 and we’ll see what happens.

6 hours ago, l_miro said:

The renewal with FOX is coming up spring 2027, maybe Sunbeam is hedging its options just in case.

Yeah FOX I don’t know if this will sit well with them. One scenario could be FOX ends up purchasing WPLG. And WSVN becomes a full time ABC affiliate in fact I’ll go further not just do they become a full timer but Sunbeam their owner also affiliates their Boston station WHDH with ABC. Meaning that Boston current affilate WCVB becomes independent. 

21 hours ago, mre29 said:

Sunbeam takes the opportunity to go shopping for a duopoly partner for WSVN (with ABC moving to said partner).

 

Most likely they buy WSFL that give WSVN a duopoly. 

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14 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

When WSVN does air a FOX News package for national news, the reporters towards the end always say 7 News, not FOX News. They only showcase and say the FOX brand when FOX is on.

I think that’ll continue under the ABC affiliation. Except I remember some ABC stations when they air national reports would have their reporters say the station brand instead of ABC News. WABC used to do it a lot.

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