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OTA TV in 2016 and Beyond: The Futures of The CW and MyNetworkTV

The problem is not that the CW and MyNet exist. It's what they are.

So long as the CW gets next to zero ratings and puts up shows with zero buzz, and MyNet serves as a crutch to glorify independent stations with more reruns, their stations are a waste of spectrum.

There was some hope when the CW merger happened that it could truly challenge the Big Four as a fifth major network, but I don't think it ever really tried. Now I think a fifth network is exactly what broadcast TV needs. As for MyNet, there are better ways to prop up independent stations than the reruns it puts on that people can get on cable or Netflix.

The CW and MyNet show how the legalization of duopolies has helped to cripple broadcast TV. CBS and Fox don't want to do anything to undermine their own networks or, at this point, give people more reason to cut the cord. Someone else would have more incentive to be more innovative with those channels.
 
Morgan Wick said:
Now I think a fifth network is exactly what broadcast TV needs.
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For what? The big four can't keep their schedules filled with shows people want to watch. How would adding a fifth network to water down content help anyone?

With competition from basic cable shows competing for advertising dollars, how would dividing broadcast TV advertising revenues into yet another piece provide the resources to produce TV worth watching? There are too many bargain-basement reality shows and game shows as it is.
 
Avid Listener said:
For what? The big four can't keep their schedules filled with shows people want to watch. How would adding a fifth network to water down content help anyone?
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On the one hand, broadcasting needs all the people putting content - any content - on it people actually want to watch as it can get. On the other, and more specifically, the broadcast industry could use an interloper bringing in as many lessons from cable as would be feasible and legal, as well as as many insights into where the TV business is headed, as it can.

With competition from basic cable shows competing for advertising dollars, how would dividing broadcast TV advertising revenues into yet another piece provide the resources to produce TV worth watching? There are too many bargain-basement reality shows and game shows as it is.
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You're contradicting yourself here: cable is competing with broadcast for advertising dollars, yet a fifth network would only further divide the broadcast sector of the pie? I prefer to look at the fact that broadcast's sector of the pie is growing, regardless of how much its individual members are getting.
 
Morgan Wick said:
You're contradicting yourself here: cable is competing with broadcast for advertising dollars, yet a fifth network would only further divide the broadcast sector of the pie? I prefer to look at the fact that broadcast's sector of the pie is growing, regardless of how much its individual members are getting.
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Even if advertisers are putting more money on broadcast TV than cable networks, splitting the money spent on national broadcast networks from four piles into five piles means each of the five piles will be smaller. Each broadcast network only worries about how much money it is making on advertising, not how much the broadcast segment as a whole is making. Theoretically, for every dollar spent on advertising on four broadcast networks, each one gets an average of 25¢. Increase that to five networks, and each one gets an average of 20¢.

A reduction in income for the broadcast networks is not likely to result in improved quality of programming. As a TV viewer, I'm more concerned about having good programs to watch than I am with the relative income situations of different television content transmission media.
 
I say for Chicago, WGN-TV would most likely drop CW to become an independent again. Unless they lose all their sportscasts, I could see them dropping CW to be independent. Most sportscasts get farmed out to WCIU (the sole local Independent, if you only count stations programming them), in order to air CW programming most of the time. MNT on WPWR-TV will stay as long as Fox keeps the network going. Being a Fox O&O, they're not going to drop the network to be 100% independent. That's simply 2 hours that they don't have to program themselves at the local level. Should the CW remain after 2016, they might either affiliate with them & air MNT programming along side CW programming, or CBS's WBBM-TV might be forced to add a subchannel to their station, in order to keep CW on Chicago airwaves. Then in a situation like that, CBS would have to get the new CW on cable, & satellite would be forced to add CW from a subchannel, as CBS would require that as part of the retransmission consent. I don't know if WCIU would be willing to affiliate with CW, if WGN-TV drops them. They already carry a number of sportcasts from WGN-TV when WGN-TV can't carry them (whether because they have to air CW programming, or if 2 sportscasts force WGN-TV to farm off one sportscast, if both air at the same time). WCIU refused to affiliate full-time with Univision back in the 1990's, that it forced Univision to seek a station to carry their programming full-time, & luckily for them, WGBO was for sale. Also, WCIU carry some college sportscasts that aren't aired anywhere else. If they did take the CW affiliation, they might place it on WMEU-CD 48.1/WCIU 26.2 than on WCIU 26.1, since WMEU-CD is mostly time-shifted programming from WCIU.
 
dave73 said:
I say for Chicago, WGN-TV would most likely drop CW to become an independent again. Unless they lose all their sportscasts, I could see them dropping CW to be independent. Most sportscasts get farmed out to WCIU (the sole local Independent, if you only count stations programming them), in order to air CW programming most of the time. MNT on WPWR-TV will stay as long as Fox keeps the network going. Being a Fox O&O, they're not going to drop the network to be 100% independent. That's simply 2 hours that they don't have to program themselves at the local level. Should the CW remain after 2016, they might either affiliate with them & air MNT programming along side CW programming, or CBS's WBBM-TV might be forced to add a subchannel to their station, in order to keep CW on Chicago airwaves. Then in a situation like that, CBS would have to get the new CW on cable, & satellite would be forced to add CW from a subchannel, as CBS would require that as part of the retransmission consent. I don't know if WCIU would be willing to affiliate with CW, if WGN-TV drops them. They already carry a number of sportcasts from WGN-TV when WGN-TV can't carry them (whether because they have to air CW programming, or if 2 sportscasts force WGN-TV to farm off one sportscast, if both air at the same time). WCIU refused to affiliate full-time with Univision back in the 1990's, that it forced Univision to seek a station to carry their programming full-time, & luckily for them, WGBO was for sale. Also, WCIU carry some college sportscasts that aren't aired anywhere else. If they did take the CW affiliation, they might place it on WMEU-CD 48.1/WCIU 26.2 than on WCIU 26.1, since WMEU-CD is mostly time-shifted programming from WCIU.
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If it's not a CW affiliate for any reason, WGN-TV ought to show Chicago the same programming we in the rest of the country see.
 
"People want them to go away thinking the good old days of indie stations will come back."

I hope you're saying "good old days" with tongue in cheek. I certainly don't pine for the old days of off network reruns, judge shows, el cheapo "Dialing for Dollars" type shows, old theatrical movies carved up to censor content and fit 2 hour time slots with commercials, and crappy local commercials for used car dealers, and the like.

My TV watching is now almost 100 percent through my DVR so I can time-shift and avoid commercials; or via NetFlix, Amazon, and the premium cable outlets, supplemented by the basic cable shows that everybody is buzzing about - Breaking Bad, Mad Men, etc. I have almost no time left over to watch the major networks, much less my local independent stations.

If the CW folds, my local TV market (San Francisco Bay Area) would end up with 3 independents, instead of the current 2. As viewers' habits stray more to the internet for their content, I can see at least one of the indies folding.
 
It appears that Tribune Broadcasting's CEO isn't pleased with what the CW has been offering and has made comments on that displeasure just as the CW's new fall 2014 lineup was announced.
Here the link: http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/tribune-ceo-says-hes-not-pleased-with-cws-performance/
With Tribune CW O&O's in a few top markets, what if anything, will this be for the CW's near future fortunes? It's seems the new schedule is adding some new intriguing programming, namely more comic book tv, but the CEO has a point about youngin's not really watching much tv...the demographic the network caters towards. What do you reckon about competition from 'big brother' CBS and WGN America's "cable channel" transition? What about Tribune's CW affiliations being pulled? This isn't the first time Tribune has expressed displeasure from the CW's chronically low ratings; a few years ago (late 2000's early 2010's), Tribune O&O's like KWGN-Denver, WNOL-New Orleans, and KIAH-Houston deemphasized their network affiliations in their respective brandings.
 
MMVRBfan said:
Here the link: http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/tribune-ceo-says-hes-not-pleased-with-cws-performance/
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I find the “Maybe I can put some of my content on there” comment ridiculous.

What’s he planning on doing? Threaten to disown The CW unless they run edited-for-content versions of Salem? Good luck with that, Mr. Liguori. You’ll do nothing but alienate CBS and WB from selling syndicated content to your stations.

MMVRBfan said:
What about Tribune's CW affiliations being pulled? This isn't the first time Tribune has expressed displeasure from the CW's chronically low ratings; a few years ago (late 2000's early 2010's), Tribune O&O's like KWGN-Denver, WNOL-New Orleans, and KIAH-Houston deemphasized their network affiliations in their respective brandings.
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If Tribune hits the nuclear option, CBS will flip their independent/MyNet stations to The CW. In Tribune markets without a second CBS station, the MyNet station owners will no doubt choose to flip.
 
crackedscreen said:
I find the “Maybe I can put some of my content on there” comment ridiculous.

What’s he planning on doing? Threaten to disown The CW unless they run edited-for-content versions of Salem? Good luck with that, Mr. Liguori. You’ll do nothing but alienate CBS and WB from selling syndicated content to your stations.


If Tribune hits the nuclear option, CBS will flip their independent/MyNet stations to The CW. In Tribune markets without a second CBS station, the MyNet station owners will no doubt choose to flip.
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Chicago is one of those markets where CBS doesn't own a second TV station, and in the top three markets, the MyTV station is owned by Fox. The only viable standalone option in Chicago would have to be WCIU. It's either that or The CW perhaps gets relegated to a subchannel of WBBM...which would be quite embarassing in market #3.
 
Speaking of the nuclear option mentioned earlier, The Arsenio Hall Show has been canned after just one season. Funny since it was announced back in February that it was renewed for another season (the other season in a two-season deal with Tribune). Looks like CBS is firing back at Tribune for those comments about the CW's performance. WPIX CW11 in New York moved Arsenio from 11PM to 11:30 due to ratings slumps. WGN America finally made its announcement that Chicago sports is going away for good, too. In another semi-related tidbit of news, Saban Brand's time-leasing of Vortexx (satAM kids block) for the CW is canceled as well--to be replaced with yet a third Litton block called 'One Magnificent Morning', thus officially ending a tradition that really got going in the early 1960s.
 
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