Huh? Viacom/CBS does own both CBS and CW.
You may be referring to the FCC dual network rule, which doesn't apply here:
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CW To Be Sold? Nexstar Among The Suitors.
- Thread starter nelsonincharlotte
- Start date
Huh? Viacom/CBS does own both CBS and CW.
You may be referring to the FCC dual network rule, which doesn't apply here:
So ViacomCBS could own all of The CW then?
Sure. There was a period when CBS owned UPN. CBS then closed UPN and started CW with Warner.
Pagey, a comic book expert who covers The CW's DC Comics shows on his YouTube channel, just posted a video regarding what the sale of The CW could mean.
Pagey says that Nexstar would be the best choice for a new owner because the company already operates numerous TV stations that are affiliates of The CW, including WPIX New York and KTLA Los Angeles. Regarding any new shows that would premiere after Nexstar takes over, he says that Nexstar would be more demanding of ratings performance than WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS have been. Therefore, under Nexstar, The CW would cancel more shows than it has in recent years.
Pagey says that Nexstar would be the best choice for a new owner because the company already operates numerous TV stations that are affiliates of The CW, including WPIX New York and KTLA Los Angeles. Regarding any new shows that would premiere after Nexstar takes over, he says that Nexstar would be more demanding of ratings performance than WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS have been. Therefore, under Nexstar, The CW would cancel more shows than it has in recent years.
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Keep in mind many, if not most cord cutters who use those OTT streaming services also use an antenna to receive their local OTA stations. A lot of people consider those channels important even after they cut the cord, especially since they're free and easy enough to receive with a small indoor antenna if you're in the city or near suburbs.
That's an interesting idea notwithstanding the pushback about Newsnation's currently poor ratings. The counterpoint to the wildly successful scripted shows that OTT services offer is Live TV. That basically means live OTA news or sports, which don't work as well when watched later on demand. With many cordcutters no longer getting the cable news channels, there may be some growth potential for Newsnation over the air nationwide.
This could also cause a subchannel shuffle...WZTV would have to give "CW Nashville" to WKRN to put on 2.2, then SportsGrid moves to 2.5, 17.2 or is gone for good. If WKRN keeps SportsGrid, WZTV might want to reacquire WeatherNation for 17.2 or bring over Dabl, Stadium or Charge from WNAB.
The CW CEO Mark Pedowitz Confirms the Network Is Up for Sale: Read Note to Staff
"It’s too early to speculate what might happen," CW CEO tells employees via email
If this is the case that Nexstar is taking over CW then this means that CBS managed CW affiliates in San Francisco, Sacramento, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Seattle would either be converted into CBSN affiliates like in the case of San Francisco, Sacramento, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Or in the case of Atlanta and Seattle CBS can simply sell the CW affiliate to Nexstar if this is the case.
Umm interesting to see CW move to KRON4 in San Francisco and my Network move to KICU-TV a Fox managed station. KBCW can simply be a CBSN station.
Sacramento that would mean KMAX (CW affiliate managed by CBS) would lose their CW affiliation and get converted into a CBSN affiliate and move CW to KTXL 40 as a subchannel since KTXL is a Nexstar owned station.
In Seattle and Atlanta I can see CBS easily selling KSTW and WUPA the CW affiliates to Nexstar.
In San Francisco and Sacramento in Particular where CBS owns a CW affiliate if KTXL grabs the CW affiliation I can see KMAX become branded as CBS13+ named after their primary CBS station KOVR and simply run the station in the same way CBS would operate KCAL9. Likewise KBCW will be rebranded as KPIX5+ and will operate in the same manner KCAL9 has been in the past 20 years as an independent station managed by CBS. MyNetwork for Sacramento will be relegated to late night hours on KQCA-TV and it will be a primary Fox station managed by Hearst television.
Honestly, Nexstar is more likely to sign sweetheart affiliation deals with VCBS for the majority of the soon-to-be-former O&Os. Nexstar flat-out doesn’t have the cap space to buy any more stations.
The CW CEO Mark Pedowitz Confirms the Network Is Up for Sale: Read Note to Staff
"It’s too early to speculate what might happen," CW CEO tells employees via emailwww.yahoo.com
If this is the case that Nexstar is taking over CW then this means that CBS managed CW affiliates in San Francisco, Sacramento, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Seattle would either be converted into CBSN affiliates like in the case of San Francisco, Sacramento, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Or in the case of Atlanta and Seattle CBS can simply sell the CW affiliate to Nexstar if this is the case.
Umm interesting to see CW move to KRON4 in San Francisco and my Network move to KICU-TV a Fox managed station. KBCW can simply be a CBSN station.
Sacramento that would mean KMAX (CW affiliate managed by CBS) would lose their CW affiliation and get converted into a CBSN affiliate and move CW to KTXL 40 as a subchannel since KTXL is a Nexstar owned station.
In Seattle and Atlanta I can see CBS easily selling KSTW and WUPA the CW affiliates to Nexstar.
KRON and WPHL (and maybe even WJZY) are likely to be CW affiliates but that’s about it. Because CBS will retain a stake in the network their stations might as well be continuing as O&Os.
The CW CEO Mark Pedowitz Confirms the Network Is Up for Sale: Read Note to Staff
"It’s too early to speculate what might happen," CW CEO tells employees via email
If this is the case that Nexstar is taking over CW then this means that CBS managed CW affiliates in San Francisco, Sacramento, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Seattle would either be converted into CBSN affiliates like in the case of San Francisco, Sacramento, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Or in the case of Atlanta and Seattle CBS can simply sell the CW affiliate to Nexstar if this is the case.
Umm interesting to see CW move to KRON4 in San Francisco and my Network move to KICU-TV a Fox managed station. KBCW can simply be a CBSN station.
Sacramento that would mean KMAX (CW affiliate managed by CBS) would lose their CW affiliation and get converted into a CBSN affiliate and move CW to KTXL 40 as a subchannel since KTXL is a Nexstar owned station.
In Seattle and Atlanta I can see CBS easily selling KSTW and WUPA the CW affiliates to Nexstar.
Because of the station ownership cap rule, Nexstar may have to give up some stations in return. I've suggested KOIN (Portland), KLAS (Las Vegas) and WNCN (Raleigh) to send to CBS. CBS would love to have an O&O station in Vegas for prestige. Perhaps KOIN and KRCW come as a package. In that case, the CW affiliation might go to KPDX and the MyNet affiliation to a sub-channel of KPTV.
But wait Nexstar can get Mission Broadcasting to go around the ownership limits by having them buy the licences of WUPA and KSTW. This is like when Deerfield, Cunningham and Howard Stirk Holdings step in and buy the TV licenses in some parts of the USA and Sinclair will step in and do newscasts on these three venues.
Markets & Stations – Mission Broadcasting, Inc.
missionbroadcastinginc.com
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NewsNation on KTLA in Prime Time vs the local based Prime Time News on KCAL? One guess to whose ratings would sink to the bottom!
How far could this go with Nexstar moving CW to their owned stations if they buy it? They own WREG CBS 3 in Memphis and WJKT Fox 16 in Jackson, TN. Moving CW to WJKT would probably cause Fox to be moved to a subchannel in the Jackson area or dropped. Currently CW is on WNBJ 39.2 in Jackson. I can't see them moving CW to WREG unless it's as a subchannel. It's currrently on WLMT 30.1.
Nielsen estimates that 14% of TV homes have no linear TV service: over-the-air, traditional cable and satellite, or virtual cable (such as YouTubeTV).
No linear TV is is the second-largest group, after traditional Cable/Satellite service, and slightly larger than OTA only households.
I just had the realization that, because VCBS would remain a stakeholder in the CW and would continue to co-program it, the CBS-owned affiliates are by definition O&Os like the Nexstar-owned affiliates would be.
That would leave WCIU and WLVI as the only CW stations in the top 10 media markets that are merely affiliates.
That would leave WCIU and WLVI as the only CW stations in the top 10 media markets that are merely affiliates.
It's pretty much a moot point now, but I always thought in the event that if KTLA ever went back to being an independent, and KCAL took The CW affiliation for Los Angeles, KTLA would essentially "take-over" the prime time news block from KCAL. Hell, over half of L.A.'s Very Own's broadcast day (weekdays) is dedicated to news anyway...4am-2pm, 3pm, 5-7pm, 10-11:35pm--14 hours, 35 minutes in all, each weekday...and that's not counting the L.A. Unscripted lifestyles program weeknights at 7pm. Those remember several years back, as soon as KCAL cancelled one of their afternoon newscasts (the 3pm edition), that following Monday, KTLA debuted a new afternoon newscast in the same slot, so that precedence is there.
KCAL, even under a CW affiliation, (I believe) would still be a news-intensive station as well...you could shift one of the prime hours to 7pm, and take the other hour, and put it in the morning--create an extension of the KCBS morning news, from 7-8am, and then all of the court junk throughout the day and newscasts at noon and 4pm as per usual.
But wait Nexstar can get Mission Broadcasting to go around the ownership limits by having them buy the licences of WUPA and KSTW. This is like when Deerfield, Cunningham and Howard Stirk Holdings step in and buy the TV licenses in some parts of the USA and Sinclair will step in and do newscasts on these three venues.
Markets & Stations – Mission Broadcasting, Inc.
Like I said, the CBS-owned affiliates are likely to remain as network O&Os if this deal is what I think it is. Why why Sinclair go to the trouble of purchasing WUPA, WTOG or KSTW when CBS would be operating them as a de facto shell owner anyway?
It's a good thing this site doesn't have the reputation of being full of half-cocked crazy speculation unmoored to reali...
Oh, wait. I remembered where I was.
Anyway - c'mon, folks. The entire business model that grew Nexstar into such a large, successful station group over the last decade or so is built on what? Local affiliates of the Big Four networks, covering as large a footprint of medium- and small-market America as possible.
There is exactly 0% chance, and maybe even less, of Nexstar walking away from Fox in Cleveland or CBS in Raleigh or Indianapolis (and the Browns/Titans/Colts, NASCAR, March Madness, and so on) just to turn those stations into "CW O&Os."
The game here, if there is one at all, is just to preserve the programming service that feeds the outliers within the Nexstar model, the big-market ex-Tribune stations that depend on the CW for some of the revenue they feed back into the Nexstar machine. Maybe CW comes back to WGN when the current WCIU deal runs out, but that's about it.
In smaller markets, Nexstar stations might well pick up CW for subchannel carriage as contracts with competitors run out - I could imagine WROC in Rochester or WSYR in Syracuse getting CW on a .2 once the current deals that have them on Sinclair .2s expire - but there's not a market in America where Nexstar would benefit from handing off CBS or Fox or NBC to a competitor just to put CW on a .1.
Oh, wait. I remembered where I was.
Anyway - c'mon, folks. The entire business model that grew Nexstar into such a large, successful station group over the last decade or so is built on what? Local affiliates of the Big Four networks, covering as large a footprint of medium- and small-market America as possible.
There is exactly 0% chance, and maybe even less, of Nexstar walking away from Fox in Cleveland or CBS in Raleigh or Indianapolis (and the Browns/Titans/Colts, NASCAR, March Madness, and so on) just to turn those stations into "CW O&Os."
The game here, if there is one at all, is just to preserve the programming service that feeds the outliers within the Nexstar model, the big-market ex-Tribune stations that depend on the CW for some of the revenue they feed back into the Nexstar machine. Maybe CW comes back to WGN when the current WCIU deal runs out, but that's about it.
In smaller markets, Nexstar stations might well pick up CW for subchannel carriage as contracts with competitors run out - I could imagine WROC in Rochester or WSYR in Syracuse getting CW on a .2 once the current deals that have them on Sinclair .2s expire - but there's not a market in America where Nexstar would benefit from handing off CBS or Fox or NBC to a competitor just to put CW on a .1.
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