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Tribune/CW Split Scenario

The CW has renewed their affiliation deals with virtually all of their station groups except for Tribune. Relations between the two haven't always been the best, and negotiations are expected to come to a head in January. Both parties are eyeing alternatives market-by-market in case things go south. What makes this more interesting is the news that CBS and WB are having discussions with Fox stations as well: https://deadline.com/2015/10/fox-tv-stations-mynetworktv-renewal-cw-tribune-1201597635/

In the event that Tribune and CW are unable to come to an agreement, these are the possible outcomes:

Market - Current affiliate -> Potential suitor

New York : WPIX -> WLNY, WWOR

Los Angeles : KTLA -> KCAL, KCOP

Chicago : WGN -> WPWR, WCIU

Dallas-Ft. Worth : KDAF -> KTXA, KDFI

Washington D.C. : WDCW -> WDCA

Houston : KIAH -> KTXH, KUBE

Miami-Ft. Lauderdale : WSFL -> WBFS

Denver : KWGN -> KTVD

St. Louis : KPLR -> KDNL

Portland : KRCW -> KPDX

Hartford-New Haven : WCCT -> WCTX

Portsmouth-Norfolk : WGNT -> WTVZ

New Orleans : WNOL -> WUPL

Thoughts?
 
The CW has renewed their affiliation deals with virtually all of their station groups except for Tribune. Relations between the two haven't always been the best, and negotiations are expected to come to a head in January. Both parties are eyeing alternatives market-by-market in case things go south. What makes this more interesting is the news that CBS and WB are having discussions with Fox stations as well: https://deadline.com/2015/10/fox-tv-stations-mynetworktv-renewal-cw-tribune-1201597635/

In the event that Tribune and CW are unable to come to an agreement, these are the possible outcomes:

Houston : KIAH -> KTXH, KUBE

Thoughts?

KUBE, I doubt. I have the gut feeling that 57 will soon be spectrum bait. NRJ is a speculator, and the KUBE-DT license may very well be bidding adieu. Picking up the CW affiliation from Tribune seems rather unlikely. They are pretty successful (as much as you can be as an English language independent) as they are.

KTXH is a Fox O&O with MyNetwork TV affiliation, the sister station of KRIV Fox 26. Could it happen? Maybe. Will it? Doubtful. If anything were to change down here affiliate wise, it could very well be KPRC Channel 2. NBC owns our local Telemundo affiliate KTMD-DT, while it does not own NBC affiliated KPRC. Given what is happening up in Boston with WHDH, it sure makes me wonder if we might very well see NBC 47 and Telemundo 47.2 down here in the next few years.

Edit to add: I guess if you're looking for some good ol' fashioned speculation, perhaps Tegna is stripped of the CBS affiliation, KIAH-DT obtains that, and we end up with CW 11 & CBS 39. Hey, why not? We're just shooting the breeze anyway...
 
More likely in New York the CW moves to WLNY 55(owned by WCBS) than WWOR 9 (due to being a My Network TV channel and being Co-owned by WNYW) with WPIX returning to independent status(and being better off).
 
In the event that Tribune and CW are unable to come to an agreement, these are the possible outcomes:

Market - Current affiliate -> Potential suitor

St. Louis : KPLR -> KDNL-DT2

Portsmouth-Norfolk : WGNT -> WTVZ, WSKY

Fixed.
 
KUBE, I doubt. I have the gut feeling that 57 will soon be spectrum bait. NRJ is a speculator, and the KUBE-DT license may very well be bidding adieu. Picking up the CW affiliation from Tribune seems rather unlikely. They are pretty successful (as much as you can be as an English language independent) as they are.

KTXH is a Fox O&O with MyNetwork TV affiliation, the sister station of KRIV Fox 26. Could it happen? Maybe. Will it? Doubtful. If anything were to change down here affiliate wise, it could very well be KPRC Channel 2. NBC owns our local Telemundo affiliate KTMD-DT, while it does not own NBC affiliated KPRC. Given what is happening up in Boston with WHDH, it sure makes me wonder if we might very well see NBC 47 and Telemundo 47.2 down here in the next few years.

Edit to add: I guess if you're looking for some good ol' fashioned speculation, perhaps Tegna is stripped of the CBS affiliation, KIAH-DT obtains that, and we end up with CW 11 & CBS 39. Hey, why not? We're just shooting the breeze anyway...

Tegna will most likely NOT have KHOU (nor Graham with KPRC) go to the CW!
 
KUBE, I doubt. I have the gut feeling that 57 will soon be spectrum bait. NRJ is a speculator, and the KUBE-DT license may very well be bidding adieu.

I agree with this; KUBE is probably not long for this world.

KTXH is a Fox O&O with MyNetwork TV affiliation, the sister station of KRIV Fox 26. Could it happen? Maybe. Will it? Doubtful.

KTXH might itself be spectrum bait. Odd that it has four program streams, but sister KRIV has only one. Combination coming?

Edit to add: I guess if you're looking for some good ol' fashioned speculation, perhaps Tegna is stripped of the CBS affiliation, KIAH-DT obtains that, and we end up with CW 11 & CBS 39. Hey, why not? We're just shooting the breeze anyway...

TEGNA recently signed a new affiliation deal with CBS, so the network is not going anywhere in Houston for the time being.
 
WKTC/channel 63 in Columbia S C (Sumter city of license) is one, so it could happen.
 
If Tribune drops CW and MNTV isn't available, what do they put on prime time? Could there be any dual CW/MNTV stations?

I don't see why not. In the other thread I linked to above, it was noted that Fox's second Los Angeles station, KCOP/13, has moved the MNTV programming to 11:00pm-1:00am in favor of first-run "syndnewscation" in prime-time (TMZ Live and Hollywood Today Live, both of which also air on their KTTV/11 in the afternoon).

A similar schedule could be implemented, with the CW in prime-time and MNTV against the network affiliate news and late night talk shows, if there was no other alternative.

My question would be whether either would prefer being on a subchannel to such an arrangement. I know of at least one small market (Santa Barbara CA, market #122) where MNTV is on a subchannel of ABC-affiliated KEYT/3 with RetroTV airing outside of prime time and where the CW airs as part of CW+ via a subchannel of NBC affiliate KSBY/6 San Luis Obispo. Both stations have digital translators including the subchannels in each other's community of license, mostly to facilitate cable system carriage because of the Santa Ynez Mountains physically dividing the market in half. (To add to that confusion, Fox is on a subchannel of CBS affiliate KCOY/12 Santa Maria, with a translator in Santa Barbara ... all while the two other full-power stations in the market are affiliated with Telemundo and Univision.)

I know I went long-windedly off-track with that, but I think it proves that all kinds of possibilities exist for combined affiliations.
 
KECY 9 in the Yuma AZ/El Centro CA Market is a combined Fox/MNTV station with Fox first then the MNTV shows after it. They operate on AZ time with no time change and have been for a few years now.
 
No way will Fox put the CW on KCOP 13 (They own the station AND the network it's affiliated with) CBS could however pick up the CW for KCAL 9 though

Cheers & 73 :)
 
No way will Fox put the CW on KCOP 13 (They own the station AND the network it's affiliated with) CBS could however pick up the CW for KCAL 9 though

Sorry to muddy the discussion, Pat. I didn't mean to suggest in post #11 that KCOP would be in play as a possible CW affiliate. I just used them as an example of MyNet programming now running in late-night and suggested that this is an indication that if no other option is available in some markets, a dual CW/MyNet affiliation could work on a similar schedule, as an answer to post #9.

I think the question of KCAL carrying the CW would be dependent on the ratings and revenue for their present newsblock from 8:00 to 10:00pm. Sure, CBS would want to be loyal to its second network, but if doing so results in a huge hit in billings, it might not be such a slam dunk. Remember, that prime-time news has been on channel 9 since 1989, when Disney took over from RKO. (♫ California 9 ♫)

Also keep in mind that KTLA/5 has been expanding the amount of news programming in recent years. As of this week, their weekday news programs air at:
4:00am, 4:30, 6:00pm, 6:30, 11:00 (half-hours)
5:00am, 6:00, 9:00, 1:00pm, 3:00, 10:00 (hours)
7:00am (two hours)

That's 10½ hours of news programming every weekday ... 90 minutes shy of being half the broadcast day. And the 6:00/6:30pm shows repeat on KTLA/5.2 in the 9:00pm hour. (And yes, I realize that even though they air them as "separate newscasts" they essentially have a six-hour news block from 4:00 to 10:00am every weekday ... and they do weekend news from 6:00 to 9:00am, plus the 6:00/6:30pm and 10:00pm newscasts.)

You want to take bets that if Tribune dropped the CW on KTLA and CBS put it on KCAL with no other viable options, we'd see "KTLA News at 8" and "KTLA News at 9" the same week?
 
No way will Fox put the CW on KCOP 13 (They own the station AND the network it's affiliated with) CBS could however pick up the CW for KCAL 9 though

Cheers & 73 :)

With the report that CBS/WB are engaged in discussions with Fox, the possibility of CW moving to Fox's MyNet stations, especially in markets without a CBS duopoly alternative, is not the non-starter some people think it is.
 
A report without sources, quotes, etc is not fact. Speculation that Tribune will split with CW is just that: speculation.

I'm sure this is all part of a large negotiation. Tribune wants a better deal from CW. CW is trying to convince Tribune that they should either make a deal or risk losing the affiliations to competitors in many markets.

Fox has invested a lot in My Network TV and it is doing exactly what they want. It's a success. They have a lot more commercial avails during MNTV than CW allows. CW also requires a fairly large reverse compensation for affiliation. I don't see Fox making a deal with CW unless there is a substantial change in that deal. CW would be reluctant to do such a deal because every other affiliate owner would want the same deal.

Simply put: don't expect anything other than a renewal from Tribune before too long.
 
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