Scripps News Shutting Down OTA

[K.M. Richards]

But by the time the Pacific time zone airs WNT, wasn't the news already broken when it aired earlier in the Eastern and Central zones?

I suppose, except I watch it on KABC/7, which airs both the live feed @3:30pm and the later replay. I always watch the earlier live broadcast.

 

[JeeperOne]

Not when most of their affiliates are on subchannels (Indianapolis, Cleveland, Columbus OH, and Raleigh NC are among a very few exceptions). I'm a regular viewer, and I hate to see it go, but they're not going to compete with the hours of well-produced local news available on ".1" channels in most, if not all major markets.

To say nothing of the fact that even the .1 channels where Scripps News is are all Ion affiliates (Which have no other news unless a Scripps-owned station or someone else produces news for it)

They're also not going to compete with the major networks' cable/streaming newscasts. Scripps is a station owner, not a network, and it looks like they may have finally figured that out.

They just happen to own a bunch of networks

They just can't get the advertising that the big boys can.

Not with Scripps News in its present form. Now Court TV is a different matter. It OTOH isn't intended to be a news network though it's run much like a news channel for True Crime fans in the sense it offers gavel to gavel coverage of live trials. The original Court TV was the same way & it was a cable/satellite channel

This carnation of Court TV is on subchannels & on streaming (Both free & paid). While it (Like Scripps News) will likely be pulled from pay providers like YouTube TV because people want their content for free, it won't be pulled from free streaming providers & OTA subchannels. The reason why Scripps News is being pulled from OTA subchannels is because it's a traditional news channel whereas Court TV is not

 

[Syfy]

I’m curious where the great ratings number came from. I’d like to see those numbers he’s using.

Sure I thought you’d already know where to find the ratings for the evening news ….. thought that would be common knowledge but apparently you don’t know where to find television ratings so here you go you’ll see the abc evening news is in the top ten shows nationwide in ratings . I would consider that pretty good and please don’t assume I’m just pulling things out of mid air again. USTVDB: U.S. Television Database

1	NFL Sunday: National	FOX	27,291,000	+14%
2	Sunday Night Football	NBC	22,512,000	+25%
3	Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick	NBC	16,466,000	+20%
4	Thursday Night Football	AMZN	16,220,000	+21%
5	The OT	FOX	13,848,000	+23%
6	Monday Night Football	ABC	13,177,000	+19%
7	Football Night in America	NBC	10,433,000	+1%
8	Matlock	CBS	7,742,000
9	World News Tonight with David Muir	ABC	7,184,000	+4%
10	60 Minutes	CBS	6,601,000	-37%
11	NFL Regular Season	ESPN	6,399,000	-53%
12	Saturday Night Football	ABC	6,271,000	-5%
13	The Voice	NBC	5,957,000	+17%
14	Nightly News with Lester Holt	NBC	5,612,000	-7%
15	Chicago Fire	NBC	5,603,000	+147%
16	America's Got Talent	NBC	5,462,000	+196%
17	Chicago Med	NBC	5,458,000	+131%
18	Monday Night Kickoff	ABC	5,263,000	-23%
19	9-1-1	ABC	4,930,000	+216%
20	Dancing with the Stars	ABC	4,892,000	-2%
21	Evening News with Norah O’Donnell	CBS	4,470,000	+2%

 

[PTBoardOp93]

you’ll see the abc evening news is in the top ten shows nationwide in ratings . I would consider that pretty good

That's really more about the total collapse of network prime time. You'll note only one prime time show in that top 1 listing.

The #1 network of 2003-04 (CBS) had 13.6 million average viewers in prime time. The #1 network of 2023-24 (still CBS) earned 5.6 million average viewers in prime time, a decline of 60%.

 

[Barry]

In my opinion, CBS News 24/7 is an excellent on-line news service. It is relatively unbiased, and uses CBS correspondents. I hope it continues for many years, but would not be surprised if it undergoes cutbacks, or is even discontinued. It never has had much advertising, and is probably quite expensive to run. But they apparently control costs by running segments that are also on the OTA TV news reports.

CBS News 24/7

 

[IM42A]

In my opinion, CBS News 24/7 is an excellent on-line news service. It is relatively unbiased, and uses CBS correspondents. I hope it continues for many years, but would not be surprised if it undergoes cutbacks, or is even discontinued. It never has had much advertising, and is probably quite expensive to run. But they apparently control costs by running segments that are also on the OTA TV news reports.

CBS News 24/7

They do a good job. I much prefer them to CNN, or Scripps News for that matter.

 

[TheBigA]

In my opinion, CBS News 24/7 is an excellent on-line news service. It is relatively unbiased, and uses CBS correspondents. I hope it continues for many years,

The scary part about anything with CBS now is that it's parent company Paramount has just been sold, and the new owner is laying off staff. They're not fans of linear 24/7 TV services, and Paramount has a lot of that. The advantage CBS News has is that they have many ways to spread out the costs of doing the news. All of them together make a lot of money that funds all of the individual services. Scripps didn't have that advantage.

 

[Syfy]

In my opinion, CBS News 24/7 is an excellent on-line news service. It is relatively unbiased, and uses CBS correspondents. I hope it continues for many years, but would not be surprised if it undergoes cutbacks, or is even discontinued. It never has had much advertising, and is probably quite expensive to run. But they apparently control costs by running segments that are also on the OTA TV news reports.

CBS News 24/7

Not to get off topic. I remember when Josh Elliott was one of the main anchors for cbs 24/7 he was so talented I hate that he was fired for something ridiculous that wasnt even anything wrong he did. It was a basically a made up thing because Charlie Rose felt threatened by him apparently and wanted him out.

 

[MMVRBfan9]

Okay, so now that most of the dust has settled from the initial news, has there been any conclusion about what the Scripps News diginet is going to be replaced with? I'm assuming either another teleshopping network, a duplication of some other diginet, or the return of the informal yet informercial-ized 'ION Shop'. I don't believe that the children's qubo channel is coming back being as how as soon as E. W. Scripps took over Ion Media they couldn't slam qubo into oblivion quick enough.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Okay, so now that most of the dust has settled from the initial news, has there been any conclusion about what the Scripps News diginet is going to be replaced with?

They haven't made any announcement, and anything that might be discussed here would be pure speculation, so no, there has been no "conclusion".

IIRC, when Scripps replaced TrueReal with Jewelry TV in the spring of 2023, they didn't make an announcement until a couple of days before they did it. So maybe we won't know until it happens.

As Caine used to say on "Kung Fu": Patience, grasshopper,

 

[valvashon]

Scripps pays other stations to carry some of the subchannels the local ION/Inyo station can't carry due to lack of bandwidth. Here in Seattle KIRO carries Laff on 7.4 and KCPQ carries a duplicate of Grit on 13.2 and Ion Mystery on 13.3. Scripps could move or duplicate one of those on the KWPX 33.7 space and cut the contract or let it run out on the subchannels carried elsewhere.
Laff 7.4 looks terrible with extreme macroblocking so that would be my choice to move to 33.7 but Scripps is going all in on the ION brand so a move of Ion Mystery to 33.7 could also be a good choice. To say that Scripps is pinching pennies is an understatement so it could also be Mystery to 33.7, Laff to 13.2 or 13.3 (with better PQ) and ending the Grit simulcast, all happening as or when the contracts run out.
Similar arrangements could be made in other markets.

Val

 

[IM42A]

Scripps pays other stations to carry some of the subchannels the local ION/Inyo station can't carry due to lack of bandwidth. Here in Seattle KIRO carries Laff on 7.4 and KCPQ carries a duplicate of Grit on 13.2 and Ion Mystery on 13.3. Scripps could move or duplicate one of those on the KWPX 33.7 space and cut the contract or let it run out on the subchannels carried elsewhere.
Laff 7.4 looks terrible with extreme macroblocking so that would be my choice to move to 33.7 but Scripps is going all in on the ION brand so a move of Ion Mystery to 33.7 could also be a good choice. To say that Scripps is pinching pennies is an understatement so it could also be Mystery to 33.7, Laff to 13.2 or 13.3 (with better PQ) and ending the Grit simulcast, all happening as or when the contracts run out.
Similar arrangements could be made in other markets.

Val

Wonder if Inyo would consider buying WZRB here in Columbia? I know it's not part of the deal, but I have to wonder how much money it's making for Scripps as things stand now.

Stations — Inyo Broadcast Holdings

 

[Mr Tony]

Wonder if Inyo would consider buying WZRB here in Columbia? I know it's not part of the deal, but I have to wonder how much money it's making for Scripps as things stand now.

Stations — Inyo Broadcast Holdings

Huh? Inyo just owns some stations due to duplication ownership by Scripps. Scripps still runs them so it’s a moot point.

 

[IM42A]

Huh? Inyo just owns some stations due to duplication ownership by Scripps. Scripps still runs them so it’s a moot point.

I didn't know that. I thought it might be some kind of divestiture to put Scripps on a better financial footing.

 

[itsTheRolyPoly]

Scripps pays other stations to carry some of the subchannels the local ION/Inyo station can't carry due to lack of bandwidth. Here in Seattle KIRO carries Laff on 7.4 and KCPQ carries a duplicate of Grit on 13.2 and Ion Mystery on 13.3. Scripps could move or duplicate one of those on the KWPX 33.7 space and cut the contract or let it run out on the subchannels carried elsewhere.
Laff 7.4 looks terrible with extreme macroblocking so that would be my choice to move to 33.7 but Scripps is going all in on the ION brand so a move of Ion Mystery to 33.7 could also be a good choice. To say that Scripps is pinching pennies is an understatement so it could also be Mystery to 33.7, Laff to 13.2 or 13.3 (with better PQ) and ending the Grit simulcast, all happening as or when the contracts run out.
Similar arrangements could be made in other markets.

Val

Huh? As far as I'm aware, Laff is on 7.3 and Telemundo Seattle is on 7.4.

 

[valvashon]

Huh? As far as I'm aware, Laff is on 7.3 and Telemundo Seattle is on 7.4.

Oops- you're right on the subchannel assignments.

 

[JeeperOne]

The scary part about anything with CBS now is that it's parent company Paramount has just been sold, and the new owner is laying off staff. They're not fans of linear 24/7 TV services, and Paramount has a lot of that. The advantage CBS News has is that they have many ways to spread out the costs of doing the news. All of them together make a lot of money that funds all of the individual services. Scripps didn't have that advantage.

And NewsNation CERTAINLY doesn't have it

Add that to the fact that Nexstar has cannibalized their local stations by limiting their live streaming to their individual apps with NO Smart TV apps (Only mobile devices with NewsNation itself BARELY offering live streaming) & they're at AN EVEN BIGGER disadvantage

Scripps bought Newsy, which itself had established as a streaming news service akin to what you'd find on foreign broadcasts. All Scripps did was convert it into a news outlet in line with what Domestic audiences are used to seeing & attached the Scripps name

They already had some affiliates. All they had to do was get more (Which they did)

Now the affiliates will be without Scripps News, it won't be much of a surprise as to what the Scripps & Inyo Holdings stations do with the open subchannel but it will be interesting to see what others do with it though

 

[valvashon]

Hey TV stations: Just because you have had a subchannel doesn't meant that you need to keep that subchannel if the programming goes away for whatever reason! With the advent of ATSC- 3 lighthouse stations those subchannels have moved to other ATSC-1 stations and the picture quality has suffered greatly in some cases. My previously mentioned KIRO subchannels are a great example- if Laff goes away the bandwidth should be given to Telemundo, at least until KIRO gets some modern encoders. Given that they are owned by Apollo, that's unlikely.

 

[IM42A]

Now the affiliates will be without Scripps News, it won't be much of a surprise as to what the Scripps & Inyo Holdings stations do with the open subchannel but it will be interesting to see what others do with it though

Now that there is no nationwide news-oriented OTA diginet, I've wondered if NewsMax2 or even OAN (One America News) might try to fill the gap. When NewsNet went off the air, WWJS Hickory/Charlotte NC replaced it with NewsMax2, not clear if that was a stop-gap measure or something more permanent. Given that both Newsmax2 and OAN (especially OAN) are, shall we say, kind of ideological, I'm not sure if that would work nationwide, especially in more "blue-state" areas. With WWJS, a Christian station in a more conservative part of the country, NewsMax2 is a logical fit, but that wouldn't necessarily hold true in many other markets.

 

[TheBigA]

Now that there is no nationwide news-oriented OTA diginet,

What about NBC News Now. All three majors have digital streaming networks.