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CW To Be Sold? Nexstar Among The Suitors.

Nathan Obral said:
KRON and WPHL (and maybe even WJZY) are likely to be CW affiliates but that’s about it.
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Fox would stay on WJZY, CW would go to WMYT with a call letter change to something like WCWT, with My Network TV going to WCCB or WAXN.
 
fybush said:
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.
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Yeah, the more I think about this deal… it’s basically Nexstar reacquiring the ownership stake in the network that Tribune gave up in exchange for a ten-year groupwide affiliation pact. The CW therefore becomes the three-way joint venture it was meant to be all along.

This deal really doesn’t change anything outside of Nexstar having a direct hand in the joint venture that operates it. They and CBS can continue to run their CW affiliates as they always have been. Both Nexstar and CBS can boast joint ownership of the network and its lead affiliates. VCBS gets cash on hand as they are (wisely) looking at trimming excesses; they can afford to have less direct involvement with a network its highest-profile affiliate owner can help manage, but they can continue to help program. Win-win-win.

And it turns out (as @Sammi Brie found out for me) that typical CW affiliation contracts DO have provisions in case of a sale, but nothing exists that states an affiliation can be terminated at-will. So it’s a moot point.
 
Becomes an interesting scenario in Philly where there is a CBS duopoly, if this hypothetically happens. Nexstar already has the My Network station, though for all practical purposes it’s an independent. My Network airs for the insomniacs only. If they wanted to bring the CW in and kick My Network…what does CBS do with their erstwhile CW station? Does the current deal for Disney’s WPVI to do the evening news on WPHL get renewed?

Heck, the status quo may be fine for everyone. Just interesting to see if it could lead to some dominoes falling.
 
fybush said:
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.
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Good point because in some cities Nexstar got Fox affiliates KSWB, KTXL, WXIN, WJW a few years ago from Tribune. They were the largest Fox Affiliates outside the Fox Owned stations. I doubt Nexstar will remove the Fox affiliations from those stations and also parts of this is revenue access from NFL games too that air on Fox Sports.

Likewise I doubt Nexstar managed KLAS-TV would lose their CBS affiliation parts of this is that KLAS-TV is the home station for Raider Games whenever CBS Sports is airing them.
 
I tend to agree with a couple of folks in that I think the current CW affiliations, for the most part, will stay where they are, and let's not forget less than a year ago, The CW and Nexstar signed a long-term affiliation extension for at least 37 of their current stations, including the likes of WPIX, KTLA, KDAF in Dallas, DC's WDCW, and KIAH in Houston...if I remember the one of the inital reports, it was at least for ten years. At least in those bigger markets, and even with ViacomCBS and Sinclair's CW stations, they're staying put for the foreseeable future. However, that's not to say that there wouldn't be potential affiliation changes in some cities, but it not may be as plentiful as some may think.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
Becomes an interesting scenario in Philly where there is a CBS duopoly, if this hypothetically happens. Nexstar already has the My Network station, though for all practical purposes it’s an independent. My Network airs for the insomniacs only. If they wanted to bring the CW in and kick My Network…what does CBS do with their erstwhile CW station? Does the current deal for Disney’s WPVI to do the evening news on WPHL get renewed?

Heck, the status quo may be fine for everyone. Just interesting to see if it could lead to some dominoes falling.
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WPHL has a win-win deal with WPVI. WPHL gets to counterprogram Fox 29 at 10pm with “Delaware Valley’s Leading News Program” and WPVI in turn promotes 17’s in-house morning news during that newscast. Whomever drafted that arrangement is to be commended.

Similarly, KIAH has a sweetheart deal running a 9pm news produced by the market’s leading news op, KTRK. Why change it?
 
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It’s a great deal for everyone. It gets fun to contemplate the parent company of KYW having a financial interest in a network currently running on their owned station, but majority controlled by a business partner who owns another channel. Of course it’s reasonable to imagine a move of the CW under those conditions at some point. Then it becomes more fun to wonder if they hold the station they no longer have their baby network on and if so, what do they do with it?

So many fun dominoes.
 
AbrahamJSimpson said:
It’s a great deal for everyone. It gets fun to contemplate the parent company of KYW having a financial interest in a network currently running on their owned station, but majority controlled by a business partner who owns another channel. Of course it’s reasonable to imagine a move of the CW under those conditions at some point. Then it becomes more fun to wonder if they hold the station they no longer have their baby network on and if so, what do they do with it?

So many fun dominoes.
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One wonders what would have happened if Tribune never gave up their stake in the CW in the first place and it remained a three-way partnership.
 
zeebre12 said:
But it gets such low ratings and is unprofitable. Why bother with it at all?
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It’s a bigger picture. If the companies were losing money on the whole ecosystem they would move on. They haven’t. They want to change the structure not abandon it entirely. They have the business insight.
 
vchimpanzee said:
Why is there a UHF discount? With digital TV, VHF is inferior.
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It only remains because the FCC is incapable of relaxing the 39% ownership cap, if not removing it outright. Ajit Pai revived it (after Tom Wheeler removed it two years earlier) in hopes of doing substantial dereg, only for the Sinclair-Tribune merger implosion to crush those plans entirely.

And honestly it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the current FCC remove it again. It’s existence, removal and restoration have little to do with the industry itself.
 
An article on Deadline describes The CW's business model as follows.

"The network’s business model has worked because of its unique setup, being co-owned by two major studios that supply all of its scripted programming. While The CW has never been profitable as a stand-alone entity, it has created value for its studio parents, providing U.S. broadcast distribution for shows that they can then exploit internationally and on streaming."
 
stationless listener said:
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.
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How on earth is CBS owning a station in Las Vegas prestigious?
 
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