Always nice to see news operations expanding. Agreeing with Fybush, it is certainly odd to see them shooting for 7PM instead of the traditional 5-6:30 slot.
It's also very odd to see a Fox station supplying news for an ABC affiliate, rather than the other way around! Perhaps Smith Media is thinking that WVNY News has been seen as such as "joke" given its past history, that their 7pm effort would make a better splash by carrying the branding of the Fox station. Not to mention, if allows them to save money by using the same music, graphics, set, etc.
As for the 7pm timeslot... perhaps they think they've got more of a fighting chance there -- with local news all to themselves -- than they would going up against their well-established competition at 5/6pm. It's not a bad strategy on-paper. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out in-book this May. Considering Smith probably had to hire zero additional bodies to make this addition, even modest ratings could be considered a success... as long as the newscast makes more money than whatever syndicated fare formerly occupied the 7pm slot. (And considering news is ALL local spots, that goal shouldn't be too difficult to obtain.)
I am also guessing that staffing issues might be easier for the "7 and 10" setup, as opposed to "5/6 and 10." Depending on what's required of the 7pm show, you may not need people to come in any earlier than they already did for the solo 10 show. For example, if the producer works from 1:30 to 10:30 (assuming a 1-hour unpaid lunch) they could stack both shows. But it would be tough for that same person to walk in at 1:30 to produce a 5pm show. You'd really need your 5pm producer to start earlier -- meaning they wouldn't be able to stay until 10 -- ultimately leading to the bottom line: you'd have to hire a second producer.
Part of me wants to say the 7pm show could be like "testing the waters" for eventual expansion into 5 and 6pm territory. But knowing the station would need to add at least another producer and a few more reporters, I leaning more towards guessing such a move is far into the future, if ever. Adding the 7pm show isn't a giant risk, considering they probably didn't need to hire any extra bodies. I'd say they'd need to show corporate some really, really strong numbers at 7 and 10 before attempting to justify hiring more people to go on the air at 5pm. You don't need lots of reporters to craft two 30-minute shows, but you do if you're trying to (competitively) fill the 90 minutes between 5 and 6:30.
