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NEWSnet Signs Off

J

Joey1986

Just read on LocalNewsTalk that NEWSnet signed off and laid off all of its staff today. Here’s a post on X from a now-former employee:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1819486587027128346

My local (now-former) affiliate, KFLA-LD, now has ShopHQ on 8-1, duplicating 8-3; while 8-2 replaced Sports News Highlights with Fun Roads.

BTW, this is my 800th post!

EDIT: Here’s a news article with details on the shutdown:

 
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The NewsNet website still has a livestream as of 6:10pm CT today, but this might be zombie automation that hasn’t been shut down yet.
 
Wow pretty surprising. I assumed before that NewsNet was operating at a loss but was willing to do that because Manoj Bhargava is a billionaire and he was using it to have an influence.

I wonder what happens with the nearly 100 LPTV stations they bought. I think they spent close to $50 million on LPTV stations.
 
Don CT said:
What is Newsnet?
Click to expand...
Standard Wikipedia disclaimer, but aligns with known facts: NewsNet - Wikipedia

Zombie livestream on the NewsNet website still going at a 7:55pm CT check.

inari said:
I wonder what happens with the nearly 100 LPTV stations they bought. I think they spent close to $50 million on LPTV stations.
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Including KVVV here in Houston, which had NewsNet on 15.1, the sibling Sports News Highlights channel on 15.2, and ShopHQ on 15.3. I would guess religious operators will be circling the carcass, though there are plenty of airtime brokers who might scoop up the stations.
 
inari said:
I wonder what happens with the nearly 100 LPTV stations they bought. I think they spent close to $50 million on LPTV stations.
Click to expand...
WUMN in Minneapolis is still airing Univision, but unless if they buy the station, it will not be Univision on primary with in the next few months. Maybe put ShopHQ on .1 when their contract ends?

K26PF-D is still off the air, according to Rabbitears. They could turn in the license, but they will barely receive any money from the FCC.
 
This is a crazy story. A few years ago, an LPTV station in Cadillac MI decided it could make money turning their local news operation into a national diginet. That was back in the day when lots of companies were launching these digital TV channels. When the bottom dropped out of the cable business, as well as the ad-supported media business, it hurt all these small companies. They sold to the 5 Hour Energy drink tycoon, who's been terrorizing media companies for the past few years.
 
Nathan Obral said:
Shocked to hear that a tiny news channel owned by a billionaire who nearly destroyed Sports Illustrated couldn’t survive.
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Just like how WRNN after they signed that agreement with iMedia. They couldn't survive without home shopping. And now both WRNN and Bridge are in their last leg now that Bridge sunset NewsNet down and WRNN is still relying on home shopping for their profit.


At least we have our local stations to count on the news on over-the-air.
 
mightynine said:
So is what's streaming now just a zombie playlist of outdated segments?
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Yes. At a check around 9:30am CT today (August 3) they are running yesterday’s morning news. Automation obviously still going with whatever was last loaded to the playlist. Maybe no one around to shut it down?
 
Newsmet viewership had to be very low given that even a major city TV stations newscast has more viewers than even this one. In Major cities this Network was rarely promoted or known given that the major stations started promoting their TV apps.
 
In Phoenix, KVPA-LD has replaced NewsNet on 42.1 with Simulcast of Shop HQ which is also on 42.3. Sports News Highlights on 42.2 has been replaced with Fun Roads TV.
 
yeoldeschool said:
“We believed people would want to watch a clean, non-bias news network, but we were wrong,” Bhargava, owner of parent company Bridge Media, said in a statement sent to Crain’s. So is that NewsNet's epitaph, or America's?
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He's only been the owner for two years. The network has been around for at least 5. They've been doing basically the same thing since the beginning.

All over the country, all-news radio stations have been adding talk shows. KRLD, KTAR, and a few more. Straight news is expensive, and doesn't build TSL. People tune in for the headlines, and they're gone in ten minutes. That's hard to sell. Listeners are horrified that their unbiased news station has added conservative talk, but that's how things are going now.

The other thing that hurt this endeavor was the death of the diginet.
 
yeoldeschool said:
“We believed people would want to watch a clean, non-bias news network, but we were wrong,” Bhargava, owner of parent company Bridge Media, said in a statement sent to Crain’s.

So is that NewsNet's epitaph, or America's?
Click to expand...
From what I saw while sampling the network, NewsNet simply came across as cheap with few resources, visually dull, a poor man’s CNN/FNC/MSNBC, in no way compelling. It was like watching the #3 local newscast in a bottom 50 market. Distribution on often obscure LPTVs didn’t help, and you can get news content from countless internet sources.

Meanwhile at a 10:30pm CT check Saturday night the zombie webstream is still going with two day old newscasts.
 
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