Does KTLA have too much news nowadays?

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Just like radio. People are not listening to long blocks of KNX 1070 but its there for news when you need it.

My grandmother, god rest her soul, was the only person I knew who kept Philly's KYW on all the time...unless it was "story time" for All My Children. (Priorities, you know.) Even then, and setting aside even at that point not being in a target demo, it wasn't active listening. It was company for a person who lived alone save for family visits and was background noise as she did things like sewing.

 

[yungrose3]

Do You Have Any More Retro Schedules From The Hampton Roads VA Market?

 

[Kelly A]

Sometimes too much news can be overkill, and the audience does need a balance of syndicate shows.

How is owning 100% of the inventory for several hours considered overkill? Most syndicated shows only provide so many local station breaks mixed with their inventory.

Better yet some of these groups should start producing in-house shows. Have to go back to the early days of television. When local shows were apart of the day-part.

Really? Isn't that what local news is? As Grandpa Simpson mentioned, not since the end of the pandemic do normal folks sit around watching back-to-back multiple blocks of local news. They watch when their busy schedule allows. The trick is to be there when they do.

 

[TexasTom]

Really? Isn't that what local news is? As Grandpa Simpson mentioned, not since the end of the pandemic do normal folks sit around watching back-to-back multiple blocks of local news. They watch when their busy schedule allows. The trick is to be there when they do.

As I was recently reminded by the 75th anniversary special for a local TV station (WFAA in Dallas/Fort Worth), local programming used to consist of a lot more than just endless hours of local news. For that matter, while stations devoted fewer hours to their news blocks, they actually put more resources into what went into the local news that they did run -- it was interesting to be reminded that the station once sent local reporters overseas for big stories rather than just relying on the national feed from their network.

That said, I do understand why local newscasts have proliferated. Aside from your comment about owning all the inventory, it also seems that there isn't a lot of syndicated programming today that generates decent ratings so in many cases there simply isn't a compelling syndication alternative to plugging in another block of local news.

 

[Kelly A]

That said, I do understand why local newscasts have proliferated. Aside from your comment about owning all the inventory, it also seems that there isn't a lot of syndicated programming today that generates decent ratings so in many cases there simply isn't a compelling syndication alternative to plugging in another block of local news.

Much of that is leftover from the long-winded writers' strike. Everything involving writing and production was shut down for almost a year. Some of the usual folks who came up with plots and ideas left the industry due to not being able to pay bills while writing schedules for other shows pre-strike that weren't restarted due to going back and evaluating the costs involved post-pandemic. Studios fell back on reality and game shows because they were easy and less expensive. Right now it seems the only studios with budgets for innovative shows are working for AppleTV, Amazon, and Netflix.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

I forgot to mention a few things there's another company that does syndication but in their case they are aiming for their broadcast rights to major TV apps given that's where the majority of the target audience is at. Filmrise and Shout Factory are some of the syndication companies. So far I don't know of Filmrise and Shout Factory talking about syndicating their content to Nexstar, Gray, Sinclair, Hearst, Tegna, or Allen Media given that these syndicated companies see that the median audience are likely watching TV apps and not OTA TV or Cable. This can partially explain why Nexstar is expanding news for stations like KTLA.

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[TexasTom]

Much of that is leftover from the long-winded writers' strike. Everything involving writing and production was shut down for almost a year. Some of the usual folks who came up with plots and ideas left the industry due to not being able to pay bills while writing schedules for other shows pre-strike that weren't restarted due to going back and evaluating the costs involved post-pandemic. Studios fell back on reality and game shows because they were easy and less expensive. Right now it seems the only studios with budgets for innovative shows are working for AppleTV, Amazon, and Netflix.

It seems to me that syndication was hurting even before the writers' strike. There were a handful of established shows getting good ratings and a whole bunch of other shows all hovering around a 1.0 rating or less. Those sorts of ratings don't justify a substantial cash outlay for stations to buy a program, nor do they generate enough barter revenue to pay for anything ambitious. The only thing that the writers' strike did was to accelerate a trend that was already in place.

 

[K.M. Richards]

It seems to me that syndication was hurting even before the writers' strike. There were a handful of established shows getting good ratings and a whole bunch of other shows all hovering around a 1.0 rating or less. Those sorts of ratings don't justify a substantial cash outlay for stations to buy a program, nor do they generate enough barter revenue to pay for anything ambitious. The only thing that the writers' strike did was to accelerate a trend that was already in place.

And -- as far as I know -- you still need to get a run of more than 100 shows on the network to be able to offer it as off-network syndication.

 

[michael hagerty]

And -- as far as I know -- you still need to get a run of more than 100 shows on the network to be able to offer it as off-network syndication.

Even 20 years ago, when I was programming an independent TV station, syndicators were coming to us early, with only 60-ish shows produced but a commitment from the network to do two more seasons, with those to be immediately offered to syndication as the season following began.

Even with that commitment, the station that buys the syndication is risking burnout of the first batch of episodes. If you're playing a half-hour sitcom once a day on weekdays, and have 66 episodes to work with, each one (save one) will be played four times during that year. Yeah, 22 more episodes will arrive the following September or October, but they're aired in a month and you're still playing the 66 you burned the season before.

100 shows used to be achievable in five seasons. Increasingly, seasons are shortening to 13, 10 or even eight episodes, making 100 a hard number to hit while the show is still fresh.

 

[HappyThoughts1257]

Even 20 years ago, when I was programming an independent TV station, syndicators were coming to us early, with only 60-ish shows produced but a commitment from the network to do two more seasons, with those to be immediately offered to syndication as the season following began.

Even with that commitment, the station that buys the syndication is risking burnout of the first batch of episodes. If you're playing a half-hour sitcom once a day on weekdays, and have 66 episodes to work with, each one (save one) will be played four times during that year. Yeah, 22 more episodes will arrive the following September or October, but they're aired in a month and you're still playing the 66 you burned the season before.

100 shows used to be achievable in five seasons. Increasingly, seasons are shortening to 13, 10 or even eight episodes, making 100 a hard number to hit while the show is still fresh.

There's only one option!

Scripps KILM 64 would probably become an Independent station possibly branded as California 64 since Scripps News is going off the air on November 15th they might be interested to air Syndicated shows like Friends, Two and a half Men, The Big Bang Theory, The Connors, The Goldberg's, Court Cam and ¡Popstar! Today since nobody watches Syndicated Programming on late-nights on KTLA 5, so KILM 64 is the only option to become an Independent station and they might be interested in airing live local sports probably they might want to air Clippers, Raiders, Dodgers, Galaxy etc since KTLA 5 airs The CW Sports.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Pure fanciful speculation.

More likely they will move one of the other subchannels on 30 there. If I were going to guess, I would think either Ion+ or Laff.