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NBC planning local news channels on O&O's, starting with WNBC this fall

F

FightingIrish

NBC Universal plans to announce Wednesday that it will start a 24-hour local news channel along the lines of cable’s New York One. It will de-emphasize the identity of the NBC network’s flagship station, WNBC, Channel 4 in New York, rechristening it a “content center,” and making it one part of a larger local media effort.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/business/media/07cnd-wnbc.html?ref=nyregion

The news channel will be on the digital tier of local cable systems, and likely subchannels. They will rebrand WNBC and remodel the news set. The local news channel idea will likely spread to their other O&O stations, particularly in L.A., Chicago and Philly. They may also add another digital channel dedicated to local lifestyle coverage, like real estate listings and restaurant reviews.
 
I like the idea but the issue will be trying to make it something worth watching. News is not a great money maker, if it makes any at all. With a heavy news market like NYC, there already is an abundance of news.

In the early days CNN used stringers (read: lowly paid workers new to the biz) and found an niche to bring all kinds of news. Will NBC use this channel to cover more of NJ and CT and other parts of the NYC market? OR will they just rerun news ad nauseum

WGN-TV in Chicago runs a cable news network for local news and it is so bad it's unwatchable. I mean it isn't even up to the standard of a college. And it's the same thing hour after hour. Now Chicago's a huge city they should be able to come up with different news to appeal. But whatever I think the success of channels like these will lie in the ability to come up with something new at a low cost
 
KNBC pretty much already has what WNBC is planning to do. They have a digital channel called "News Raw", which repeats their newscasts, some other locally-produced programming including original content from their website. KNBC's News Raw also features some of those "Incredible World of DIC" cartoons on Sunday mornings to meet the E/I quota. When we had the Malibu fires this past fall, this channel was incredibly useful when the main KNBC had to carry football. News Raw is already carried on Time Warner Cable, and I think one of the other local systems in the market.
 
Clever idea - albeit one that perhaps the cash-strapped Universal shouldn't look into, but, whatever...

Mark said:
Will NBC use this channel to cover more of NJ and CT and other parts of the NYC market?
Click to expand...

"Computer says no..."

OR will they just rerun news ad nauseum
Click to expand...

"Computer says yes."
 
Mark said:
Will NBC use this channel to cover more of NJ and CT and other parts of the NYC market? OR will they just rerun news ad nauseum
Click to expand...

That would be a good idea - kind of like News 12's regional news coverage. Maybe they could focus 1-hr blocks of news to different regions. But from reading the article it sounds like this is going to be a low-budget operation so I doubt we'll see any expanded news coverage. It kind of sounds like WABC 7-2 that repeats the 5pm and 6pm newscasts up until about 8pm.
 
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