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WSPA-TV losing CBS affiliation to WYFF

It will be interesting to see where all of these stations will end up years down the road after going independent. WCCB in Charlotte has already started cutting back on their newscasts since becoming independent last fall and losing their placement on the streaming services. Has anyone heard anything on the stations in Miami and Atlanta that did the same thing and fell off the services as well last year?
 
WCCB in Charlotte has already started cutting back on their newscasts since becoming independent last fall and losing their placement on the streaming services.

The difference is WCCB is owned by a small local company. The stations were talking about here are owned by Nexstar, the biggest TV owner in the country. They will make sure their stations are on every possible streaming or cable service.
 
It will be interesting to see where all of these stations will end up years down the road after going independent. WCCB in Charlotte has already started cutting back on their newscasts since becoming independent last fall and losing their placement on the streaming services. Has anyone heard anything on the stations in Miami and Atlanta that did the same thing and fell off the services as well last year?
Here in Atlanta WANF (Atlanta News First) left CBS to become a mostly news independent like WPLG in Miami. In the beginning they were not on the streaming services, but then were added back after Gray Media did some negations. WANF is now on all of the majors. WPLG in Miami is owned by a small player and did not make it back on the streaming services. Instead, WPLG launched an app and has all of their programming 24/7 on the app.
 
Fact, or speculation stated as fact? If the former, citation please. If not, well ... moderators?

Craig Debolt, one of the WYFF folks behind the scenes and well known in the local media landscape and on this state board, posted it yesterday. I’m not familiar enough with the technical details to know why it isn’t something that can be done now to avoid confusion down the road.
 

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Here in Atlanta WANF (Atlanta News First) left CBS to become a mostly news independent like WPLG in Miami. In the beginning they were not on the streaming services, but then were added back after Gray Media did some negations. WANF is now on all of the majors. WPLG in Miami is owned by a small player and did not make it back on the streaming services. Instead, WPLG launched an app and has all of their programming 24/7 on the app.
If you go back and read the transcript of earnings conference call Gray Media held after dropping the CBS affiliation on WANF, they certainly implied CBS was playing hardball with the WANF affiliation and it was requiring their other CBS stations to pay more reverse comp. That’s why they dropped the affiliation. Dropping the affiliation reduced the reverse comp their other CBS stations pay.

They also said they believed there was going to be issues with the renewal before acquiring the station as part of the Meredith acquisition. They pointed out Atlanta was the only market where a big 4 network owned a station where they didn’t own the network affiliate.

This latest round of affiliation changes is different, network owned stations aren’t involved unlike the CBS move in Atlanta
 
Craig Debolt, one of the WYFF folks behind the scenes and well known in the local media landscape and on this state board, posted it yesterday. I’m not familiar enough with the technical details to know why it isn’t something that can be done now to avoid confusion down the road.
why not put them in the configuration they actually want them on august 1st? unplug this....plug in that.
 
Craig Debolt, one of the WYFF folks behind the scenes and well known in the local media landscape and on this state board, posted it yesterday. I’m not familiar enough with the technical details to know why it isn’t something that can be done now to avoid confusion down the road.

Thank you. If the OP had just cited that source in the first place ... oh, never mind. I'm just going to be attacked as "acting like a gatekeeper".
 
End of an era for Upstate broadcasting and WSPA-TV channel 7, longtime home of CBS. Seems like a sudden decision, as Nexstar has apparently rejected contract issues with Paramount/CBS. And looks like Hearst jumped in at the last minute to save the day and preserve a CBS outlet for the market. Key benefactors will be WYFF who may gain newscast viewers from a strong CBS prime time lead in at 11, and WBTV from Charlotte who gets a strong signal into Spartanburg and eastern parts of the market such as Gaffney and Rutherford County. Although out of market ratings may not benefit WBTV, but they may gain some antenna viewers.
 
Also Nexstar is trying to takeover Tegna, although a court ruling has it on hold. Meaning in neighboring Charlotte market counties, they will control NBC, FOX, and CW, with WCNC, WJZY, and WMYT. Not necessarily a fan of this, as it seems like a bit of a monopoly that could result in combined news operations at 36 and 46. But we shall see. But if this comes to pass, Nexstar will control WSPA, WYCW, WJZY, WCNC, and WMYT. With large areas of overlap between the markets for antenna viewers. And my gripe is that Nexstar does not like to provide news reports from their affiliated networks such as NBC, FOX, or CBS, but rather insert their own reports from News Nation or allow their local anchors to comment on national news feeds rather than run a special report from the network.
 
Craig Debolt, one of the WYFF folks behind the scenes and well known in the local media landscape and on this state board, posted it yesterday. I’m not familiar enough with the technical details to know why it isn’t something that can be done now to avoid confusion down the road.
I think it takes time to upgrade and change the technical aspects of the channel placement, and this was a sudden, unexpected development resulting in a bit of a rush job. More than just flipping a switch. And 4.3 was already vacant and available. Just my guess. And they apparently are still working on cable and streaming carriage from the various service providers.
 
Gaffney is smack dab in the middle between the Greenville and Charlotte TV markets, but as far as Charlotte stations on cable we only get WBTV 3 and WSOC 9. We used to get WJZY (when it was CW) but that went away a few years ago.

The strongest OTA signal from Charlotte is WBTV .. then WJZY and WMYT. WCNC is a bit weaker. WSOC is weak and even WHKY 14 (WJJS) is a recently added great signal from there. Most Greenville TV stations come in fine OTA in Gaffney, except for the small LD / LP stations.

This deal as is makes WYCW 62 redundant, would love to see what happens to that station as well as how CBS will be presented on cable around the upstate, can't be considered Channel 4 if that is reserved for NBC, and CW might get channel 7 what happens to channel 62 I think on cable it was Channel 14 or 15 (the other was WJZY) on Charter Cable.
 
I'm not finding 100% confirmation that 7 is taking the CW because of the only coverage from Nexstar is that CW is taking over the main channel in Birmingham, Jackson and Rapid City. Only thing mentioned for Greenville is that 7 will expand local news. & already does 7-9am and 10-11pm news on 62 would not be an expansion by airing them on 7 now. IF they fill the 12:30p and 6:30pm slot with news that would be expansion. If they keep CW on 62 then 7 could add primetime news as well.

I figured WYFF News 4 would just simlucast on CBS 4.3 as well and thats what the WYFF website now says. I wonder if the logo will look the same for both stations except on 4.3 will we see the cbs logo instead of the peacock on the bottom.
 


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