WPLG & ABC Parting Ways

[carolinanews4 455]

WPLG being dropped from YouTubeTV, Hulu, etc. at the start isn't surprising. The network negotiates the retransmission consent rights for all the affiliates. So, WPLG was covered by the agreement ABC made with Google. No ABC. No agreement for Local 10. They will have to hammer out deals with all the vMVPDs.

 

To be honest, not being on YouTubeTV isn't the end of the world. While it is the largest platform of its kind by far, it has about 9.4 million subs nationwide. There are 125 million TV households in America. So YouTubeTV has about 7% of the national population. Let's assume that a metropolitan area like Miami skews slightly higher than, say, a rural Midwest market where internet connectivity may be slower. Even if YouTubeTV has 8 or 9% of the Miami market, WPLG can survive. But it might be enough to shave off just enough viewers to cause some pain. 

 

On the flipside, WSVN's ABC feed is immediately covered by all ABC agreements once that feed is live. It will be interesting to see if it is up and running on day one. (It should be since they have had plenty of lead time)

[mre29 1967]

22 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

I'm gonna be curious about that myself. At first, I suspect ABC won't be immediately available, but there will be time before they shuffle everything along, at which point ABC will be available.

 

Depends on the hotel, I'd imagine. The mid-tier chains (Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn, and anything "above" them) will likely switch over on day one, but the budget motels and independent hotels/motels/inns will likely be dependent on their respective cable providers.

 

As for WPLG, I agree that it'll likely disappear from hotel cable systems. I was in the Chicago area for a few days in March 2019 (when the CW was on WPWR) and was looking forward to watching WGN's newscasts, only to discover that, even though the printed channel list in the guest info folder listed "WGN (CW)", it was WPWR that was carried instead.

 

[nathannah 2792]

Also thinking of clinics and hospitals that have to do the same with their lineups; I've been in the hospital a couple times this year and those lineup cards are a low priority to update, and sometimes they don't perform a rescan (they are locked down heavily so even if you bring a remote of your own, you're not able to do anything outside the regular remote), so some channels are completely missing (or like MTVU, somehow still carried even though no provider in 2025 has them in a current consumer plan, along with mini guide channels showing listings for a group of channels).

 

Thankfully it's less of a concern in Atlanta where nothing will change between WANF and WUPA channel-wise, but WANF is also losing that YTTV and Hulu etc. coverage, and Zeam is still awful to navigate (their channel list is alphabetical and there's no option to just have the calls K and W on top, you either have to go into the app options to enable closed captioning, or enable it on first tune or it'll never appear again during that session).

 

2 hours ago, mre29 said:

As for WPLG, I agree that it'll likely disappear from hotel cable systems. I was in the Chicago area for a few days in March 2019 (when the CW was on WPWR) and was looking forward to watching WGN's newscasts, only to discover that, even though the printed channel list in the guest info folder listed "WGN (CW)", it was WPWR that was carried instead.

I was at the Red Roof Inn in Hoffmann Estates in September and they have Dish, but the channels are mapped in a bizarre QAM map that makes no sense (they had Roku TVs so they put priority on Roku Channel stuff), and WPWR and WCIU, along with MeTV were not options at all. Oddest hotel stay I ever had (had to deal with someone transmitted in a vestibule kiosk at 1am in the morning because my key went dead and they do not staff the lobby at all).

Edited July 12, 2025 by nathannah

[Georgie56 3661]

I would also wonder what this means for the channel’s carriage in the Caribbean. I was in Montego Bay, Jamaica last year for a family vacation and Flow carries the Miami locals, including WPLG.

 

Same thing for ABC Miami. 

Edited July 12, 2025 by Georgie56

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

On 7/10/2025 at 9:25 PM, TheRolyPoly said:

This move will also affect WPLG internationally via the Bahamas, USVI, or other places that carry it for the ABC feed.

 

6 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

I would also wonder what this means for the channel’s carriage in the Caribbean. I was in Montego Bay, Jamaica last year for a family vacation and Flow carries the Miami locals, including WPLG.

 

Same thing for ABC Miami. 

 

Already mentioned that issue. More than likely, it'll be ABC Miami over WPLG.

[l_miro 245]

now they're doing mashups of old footage so they can, repeatedly, slap their sponsor on it 
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=706801362064463&__cft__[0]=AZXpm9HTX2yeRNtztTYGzNJpR0DHpitDjBD_8zUtjnX_XsDYaaNIQNYiSoVcE8L0dpuS_wECrAuoyD3KRIyJN4vTf7FJr_HszwOMZ4bhYcTmqLDhdciOsRgd1AXvn1OsWAy3sIZHhRK3w7kwd7XixqlXeZqCgE5-xvhd7l1d4MmB8YqORwdQrsuWmoaFMt9_A2JTi7Q-o4OmMGucoARbZJ0j&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

 

 

On 7/11/2025 at 7:22 PM, carolinanews4 said:

Even if YouTubeTV has 8 or 9% of the Miami market, WPLG can survive. But it might be enough to shave off just enough viewers to cause some pain. 

 

 

WHDH, which WPLG are copying, is not on YoutubeTV, Hulu or Fubo for whatever that's worth.

 

But 8%-9% loss of viewers would be quite the drop in eyeballs considering (unless they changed their mind) WPLG sell their commercial airtime based on impressions - that could be worth $6-$7 million in ad revenue going by their 2023 revenue estimates of $73mil. And then add the drop of advertising cost, plusl the people who aren't going through the friction of surfing here and clicking there for WPLG's app.

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

Even I forget sometimes that WPLG is no longer part of Graham...

...so BH Media was not grandfathered in like it was with Graham and WJXT.

 

From the getgo, WJXT AND WJCW were both available on YTTV because Graham made that deal before they launched.  WPLG's divestiture was several years before YTTV existed, so they only had their ABC affiliation as a key to get them on the streaming services.

Getting retransmission payments based on a hyper-local news presence may be a disaster in the making,  so they will probably opt for "must-carry" status to keep themselves on pay TV providers.  By doing so does lessen their leverage to get on "channel 10", but the way cable and satellite TV work nowadays (being all digital), there's really no excuse not to be, unless the providers want to purposely stick it to them by denying that channel slot.

[Rusty Muck 4688]

On 7/10/2025 at 4:45 PM, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

So they're doubling down on linear television? That's not going to work well for them. BH doesn't have the infrastructure for that.... Frankly there's demand for non-linear targeted stories, but not without the cost offset for the SAAS development.

They probably had no choice in the matter as YTTV, Hulu and Fubo were under no obligation to continue carrying an independent station. And why would they?

 

It's only a matter of time before Berkshire Hathaway puts WPLG up for sale in a liquidation.

[TVLurker 389]

6 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

They probably had no choice in the matter as YTTV, Hulu and Fubo were under no obligation to continue carrying an independent station. And why would they?

 

It's only a matter of time before Berkshire Hathaway puts WPLG up for sale in a liquidation.

WHDH says hi.

[tyrannical bastard 4678]

6 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

They probably had no choice in the matter as YTTV, Hulu and Fubo were under no obligation to continue carrying an independent station. And why would they?

 

It's only a matter of time before Berkshire Hathaway puts WPLG up for sale in a liquidation.

If this was 20-25 years ago, Univision or Telemundo would have snapped up the station to give the station the prime real estate it deserves for leading the market.

[MediaZone4K 2664]

Local 10 News has been running op-eds from their GM Bert Medina announcing the new newscasts.

 

Interestingly they will still do heavy news out put on weekends. Notably a full 5-11am block, as well as a 5, 6:30 and 9pm on weekend evenings.

 

They will also have weekend PM sportscast at 9:30 and 11:30 pm.

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

WDFL streams live online. Boy, will their quality be 1,000,000x better than what they're airing now once ABC Miami shows up. This stream probably won't work anymore either once the switch takes place.

 

https://wdfltv.lightcast.com/player/52136/52136

[TVLurker 389]

41 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

WDFL streams live online. Boy, will their quality be 1,000,000x better than what they're airing now once ABC Miami shows up. This stream probably won't work anymore either once the switch takes place.

 

https://wdfltv.lightcast.com/player/52136/52136

I just read the ticker. Turns out it (and the stream) is moving to 18.2.

 

Sunbeam is simply leasing out 18.1.

[Georgie56 3661]

12 hours ago, MediaZone4K said:

Local 10 News has been running op-eds from their GM Bert Medina announcing the new newscasts.

 

Interestingly they will still do heavy news out put on weekends. Notably a full 5-11am block, as well as a 5, 6:30 and 9pm on weekend evenings.

 

They will also have weekend PM sportscast at 9:30 and 11:30 pm.

 

 

[NYAZSporty 196]

Looking on TVPassport & I have posted this on the Broadcast Plaza Discord, but they have the first day schedule for the new ABC Miami. 
4:30-5AM GMA First Look
5-7 Today In Florida
7-9 Good Morning America
9-10 Today In Florida
10-10:30 Extra
10:30-11 Deco Drive
11-Noon The View
Noon-1PM 7 News at Noon
1-2PM GMA3
2-3PM General Hospital
3-3:30 & 3:30-4 25 Words or Less
4-5 Tamron Hall
5-6:30 7 News
6:30-7 World News Tonight
7-7:30 Extra
7:30-8 Deco Drive
8-11 Primetime
11-11:35 7 News at 11
11:35-12:37AM Jimmy Kimmel Live
12:37-1:06AM Nightline

[Georgie56 3661]

And WPLG has released their August 4th schedule on the TitanTV grid at their website.

 

4:30-11am: Local 10 Morning News

11am-noon: Live With Kelly & Mark
noon-1pm: Local 10 News at Noon
1-2pm: Law & Order: SVU
2-3pm: 48 Hours
3-6:30pm: Local 10 News
6:30-7pm: Local 10 World News
7-7:30pm: Wheel Of Fortune
7:30-8pm: Jeopardy!
8-9pm: People Puzzler
9-11:30pm: Local 10 News
11:30-midnight: Daytime Jeopardy!

 

 

Addendum: WSFL will replace the WPLG 10pm newscast with Seinfeld on the 4th.

Edited July 22, 2025 by Georgie56

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

1 hour ago, Georgie56 said:

And WPLG has released their August 4th schedule on the TitanTV grid at their website.

 

4:30-11am: Local 10 Morning News

11am-noon: Live With Kelly & Mark
noon-1pm: Local 10 News at Noon
1-2pm: Law & Order: SVU
2-3pm: 48 Hours
3-6:30pm: Local 10 News
6:30-7pm: Local 10 World News
7-7:30pm: Wheel Of Fortune
7:30-8pm: Jeopardy!
8-9pm: People Puzzler
9-11:30pm: Local 10 News
11:30-midnight: Daytime Jeopardy!

 

 

Addendum: WSFL will replace the WPLG 10pm newscast with Seinfeld on the 4th.

 

Also, I'll add that WPLG's last 10pm news for WSFL will be Fri., Aug. 1st as they've stopped doing the weekend 10pm for some time there.

 

WSFL already has Morning Rush from Scripps News and that'll go from 8-10am. Two new programs from the streamer will be added, including Today As It Happened at 6pm (hour-long) and The National Report at 11pm (also hour-long). The former of the two will push Inside South Florida, WSFL's only locally-produced show, to 5:30pm.

[l_miro 245]

They really shoved GMA3 to 1pm for Deco reruns

 

Sunbeam doing Sunbeam things

[24994J 5888]

44 minutes ago, l_miro said:

They really shoved GMA3 to 1pm for Deco reruns

 

Sunbeam doing Sunbeam things

 

That's the timeslot for GMA3. 1ET/12CT.

[l_miro 245]

11 hours ago, 24994J said:

 

That's the timeslot for GMA3. 1ET/12CT.

 

well, there goes my excitement for the day

[MediaZone4K 2664]

It's almost surreal to see WSVN promoting FOX.

 

(From Craig Stevens on LinkedIn)

 

Edited July 22, 2025 by MediaZone4K

[l_miro 245]

30 minutes ago, MediaZone4K said:

It's almost surreal to see WSVN promoting FOX.

 

(From Craig Stevens on LinkedIn)

 

 

not unusual at all, they used to run lower thirds during Deco and daytime programming for upcoming FOX shows. The 10pm newscast teasers that run between 8-10pm also mention the network and the shows. And the 6-6:30pm newscast often features previews for upcoming shows. American Idol was really the big one they pumped constantly

[l_miro 245]

billboards going up around town.

 

I wonder if they were smart enough to buy social ads against WPLG's FB profile and followers

 

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2025/7/21/ba-bye-local-10

 

[NYAZSporty 196]

13 minutes ago, l_miro said:

billboards going up around town.

 

I wonder if they were smart enough to buy social ads against WPLG's FB profile and followers

 

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2025/7/21/ba-bye-local-10

 

Good on Sunbeam to do this. Had a feeling they would after seeing the initial report on this on 7 News & Craig Stevens (whose FB page looks to me like he's kinda a fanboy to ABC with all the posts relating to the switch) stating they'd be doing an ad campaign ahead of the launch of ABC Miami.

Edited July 22, 2025 by NYAZSporty

[MediaZone4K 2664]

1 hour ago, NYAZSporty said:

...& Craig Stevens (whose FB page looks to me like he's kinda a fanboy to ABC with all the posts relating to the switch) .....

Craig Stevens social media is almost

that of a news junkie like us on this site! He often posts his favorite classic intros and graphics from WSVN.

 

I've also seen those billboards while visiting South Florida, ABC 18's promotional effort has been very good.

 

Contrary to the Miami affiliation swaps in the 80s, I haven't seen WSVN or WPLG mention each other in news reports about the new affiliations. For example WPLG is (understandably) not mentioning where viewers can find ABC programming now, they're just announcing that they are no longer ABC. Correct me if I'm wrong, I also haven't seen any of the other local news stations mention this (at least in our view) big media news.

 

Edited July 23, 2025 by MediaZone4K