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State Lotteries and local TV contracts

K

KML0224

Guest
I live in Connecticut and wondered about how state lotteries do their contracts with TV stations and/or markets within that state:

All in-state drawings and PowerBALL air here on WTIC-TV/DT (FOX) channel 61/D 31 of Hartford. They've been aired by WTIC-TV since the spring of 1997. Most drawings are also simulcast by sister station WTXX-TV/DT (CW) channel 20/D 12 of Waterbury/Hartford. The Connecticut Lottery Corporation, currently based in New Britain, is moving to Rocky Hill in the fall (both are very close to Hartford). WFSB-TV/DT (CBS) channel 3/D 33 of Hartford is also moving to Rocky Hill, but in July and not the fall. I wonder if C.L.C. would look at a new contract with a new station? Hmmmm!

Massachusetts Lottery drawings air nightly on WCVB-TV/DT (ABC) channel 5/D 20 of Boston. Strangely, I've never seen a drawing air for those in western Massachusetts on either NBC 22 or ABC 40 from Springfield.

Tri-State drawings aren't even aired in ME, NH or VT, for what I understand.

New Jersey Lottery's in-state drawings air on NJN, the New Jersey Network, which are PBS affiliates.

How are the contracts done with multi-market states like NY and PA?
 
WSB-TV Atlanta holds the contract for the Georgia Lottery, and is the flagship for the Mega Millions multistate drawing. (Glenn Burns, who does the drawings most of the time, is the station's chief meterologist). WSB has been doing the drawings since the lottery in Georgia started in 1993. I assume WSB will have the drawings as long as the lottery is around.
 
All I know for sure about PowerBALL (which Connecticut has) is that it's normally done out of West Des Moines, IA. I don't know if that's anybody's TV studio or not.
 
That may have been the case 7 years ago, but I think all in-state drawings are now done at WTIC-TV in Hartford. Speaking of Mid-Day 3 and Mid-Day 4, they'll also be drawn on weekends starting in July. Won't that be fun to interrupt FOX NFL Sunday in HD with a SD crawl! :(
 
I think it's strange that the Florida lottery drawings are carried on WTLH Fox 49 licensed to Bainbridge, Georgia. Before they were carried on WTLH they were on Tallahassee PBS affiliate WFSU.
 
I know that's true in Georgia, although the numbers
go up during whatever the local stations are running
at 7 PM; WSB does the nightly drawing at 6:59.

Here in North Carolina, WRAL is the flagship station
for the lottery drawing; in South Carolina, I believe
it's WLTX, the CBS affiliate in Columbia.
 
It's weirder in Orlando as WRBW-65 (My Network TV) airs Florida Lottery drawings. They don't even air the drawings live. I think WTMO-CA airs them live.

Before that:

1988-1995 - WFTV
1995-1998 - WCPX/WKMG (english)/WVEN-LP (spanish)
1998-1999 - WOFL (english)/WVEN-LP (spanish)
1999-2001 - WOPX (english)/WTMO-LP (spanish)
 
WGN has the contract for the Illinois Lottery. As far as I know, there is no other broadcast outlet in Illinois since WGN is carried on most of the state's cable systems and the drawings are aired during WGN News at Noon and Nine (which airs on the superstation feed. Illinois Lottery drawings can be seen nationwide, believe it or not).

In Indiana, WTTV-Indianapolis carries their lottery drawings, but I believe it's also syndicated out market-to-market. This is WTTV's second go-around with. They lost the contract to WNDY-Indianapolis from 1995-2000.
 
James Westerfield said:
It's weirder in Orlando as WRBW-65 (My Network TV) airs Florida Lottery drawings. They don't even air the drawings live. I think WTMO-CA airs them live.

Before that:

1988-1995 - WFTV
1995-1998 - WCPX/WKMG (english)/WVEN-LP (spanish)
1998-1999 - WOFL (english)/WVEN-LP (spanish)
1999-2001 - WOPX (english)/WTMO-LP (spanish)
Click to expand...
In Miami, WPLG (English) and Telemundo 51 (Spanish) currently hold the Florida Lotto TV rights. Previously they were held by WFOR (English) & Univision 23 (Spanish). Before WFOR, I believe WTVJ aired it.

In Fort Myers, WXCW (formerly known as WTVK & WNPL) airs the Lotto.

In Tallahassee, I think WTWC aired the Lotto for a while before WTLH did. WTLH may have had it in a previous stint as well.

Here is the link to the Lotto's TV Network: http://www.floridalottery.com/inet/media-tvdrawingsMain.do
 
For the Chicago market, WGN airs both the Illinois Lottery & Mega Millions. For NW Indiana residents, WYIN 56/DT-17 airs the Hoosier Lottery and Powerball. Before WYIN took over airing the Hoosier Lottery, WGBO 66 aired both the lottery drawings & then Lotto America, which later changed to Powerball. WGBO also had the Hoosier Millionaire show. They held it until December 31 1994 when the station was sold to Univision Broadcasting and went 24 hour Spanish language programming on January 1 1995. Then WJYS 62, like WYIN only covers the south suburbs of Chicago with their signal (their digital is a full market signal though) carried it for a few years, and forgot when they dropped everything Hoosier Lottery in favor of brokered religious programming & infommercials. After that, WYIN decided to pick it up.
 
As for the Massachusetts Lottery:

I believe the drawings were seen on WBZ-TV 4 from 1976(?) to 1987. I believe the Daily Numbers Game aired at 7:55. Then in 1987, it moved to WNEV (became WHDH in 1990). It was always on right along with Jeopardy! The Daily Numbers Drawing aired Monday through Saturday at 7:52, right in between Double and Final Jeopardy!, and Sunday at 6:52. Then after Final Jeopardy!, the specialty drawing (Mass Cash, Mass Millions, Megabucks) aired at 7:58. They kept it this way until 1994, when the drawings moved to WCVB Channel 5. The Numbers Game still aired at the same time, but in the beginning, the special drawing aired at 6:50 during the ABC News. Then in the fall, it moved to 7:10, and aired during Inside Edition. Then a few months after that, the drawings moved to 11:10 during the 11PM News, and have been there ever since. The BIG Game (now Mega Millions) was introduced in 1996, and has been airing around 11:00. On May 1, 1998, the drawings moved back to WBZ-4, and stayed there until 2001, when they moved to UPN38. In the fall of 2004, the contract ran out, and it moved back to WCVB Channel 5, and they introduced a dumbed-down new format which isn't nearly as good. Apparently, they don't have enough air time to do it the way they used to. I also heard that starting in 1998 or so, they only wanted The Lottery to be on one station for 3 years at a time, so that's why it kept moving. I don't know if that's still true with their new format, but they just recently moved the Mega Millions drawing from like 11:15 to 11:20 or so.

So much for the Massachusetts Lottery. Let's discuss the Rhode Island lottery now.

The Rhode Island Lottery has been airing on WPRI-12 for the longest time now. The Numbers drawing is done at 6:59 right before Wheel of Fortune every night, and Wild Money is done on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights at 7:29, right before Jeopardy! And Powerball airs at 11:30 or so on Wednesday and Saturday nights.
 
I'm not sure how true the three year rotation is with the Mass Lottery. I do know that the contract with WSBK ran until May 2004. No other station had bid and WBZ-WSBK had no interest in continuing their contract. 38 did air drawings until September, when 5 picked them up. The Lottery must have worked out the host-less deal with WCVB to have a station air the drawing.

What is interesting, though, is that some states pay stations to air the drawings. In Maryland, WBAL receives over $10Million over four years to air the drawings.

I'm unsure of how it works in Massachusetts. As a state entity that information must be available somewhere but I am unable to find it. From what I understand, though, stations took the lottery drawings in Mass. in hopes of gaining ratings during the late news. The station incurred the costs; as I believe all the hosts were employees of the station. (Dawn Hayes just happened to be hired by 7, 5, 4/38 I guess).
 
In Virginia the lottery drawings of course air pretty much throughout most of the state. I got this list from the Virginia Lottery's website.

* WTVR-TV Richmond
* WAVY-TV Hampton Roads
* WDBJ-TV Roanoke
* WCYB-TV Bristol
* WHSV-TV Harrisonburg

What market is missing? Washington DC !!!! I guess those who play the Virginia Lottery in Northern Virginia
are out of luck unless they get their numbers from either an online source or by watching the local DC newscasts. I think Richmond's WTVR is still available on cable in Charlottesville so that takes care of that area's players.

Even though the site says the drawings air on Harrisonburg's WHSV, a few months back WHSV was actually split into two different channels as far as cable carriage goes. One for Harrisonburg and another for Winchester. Rockingham County ( Harrisonburg ) and the counties to the east and south get Harrisonburg while those counties to the north of Rockingham County gets Winchester. While the drawings do indeed air on Harrisonburg's WHSV, they do NOT air on Winchester's WHSV feed. If it does Ihave yet to see it nor does the Virginia Lottery promote it. Even on the two WHSV websites, Harrisonburg's ( www.whsv.com ) features a lottery section while Winchester's ( www.tv3winchester.com ) the lottery is missing. Considering that the Winchester-Front Royal areas are growing as fast as they are I think that is a mistake on the part of both the Virginia Lottery and WHSV.
 
mleach said:
In Virginia the lottery drawings of course air pretty much throughout most of the state. I got this list from the Virginia Lottery's website.

* WTVR-TV Richmond
* WAVY-TV Hampton Roads
* WDBJ-TV Roanoke
* WCYB-TV Bristol
* WHSV-TV Harrisonburg

What market is missing? Washington DC !!!! I guess those who play the Virginia Lottery in Northern Virginia
are out of luck unless they get their numbers from either an online source or by watching the local DC newscasts. I think Richmond's WTVR is still available on cable in Charlottesville so that takes care of that area's players.

Even though the site says the drawings air on Harrisonburg's WHSV, a few months back WHSV was actually split into two different channels as far as cable carriage goes. One for Harrisonburg and another for Winchester. Rockingham County ( Harrisonburg ) and the counties to the east and south get Harrisonburg while those counties to the north of Rockingham County gets Winchester. While the drawings do indeed air on Harrisonburg's WHSV, they do NOT air on Winchester's WHSV feed. If it does Ihave yet to see it nor does the Virginia Lottery promote it. Even on the two WHSV websites, Harrisonburg's ( www.whsv.com ) features a lottery section while Winchester's ( www.tv3winchester.com ) the lottery is missing. Considering that the Winchester-Front Royal areas are growing as fast as they are I think that is a mistake on the part of both the Virginia Lottery and WHSV.
Click to expand...

Anyone know if the D.C. stations carry the Maryland lottery drawings? Those
stations are more heavily watched in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties
than the Baltimore ones are, and those are heavily-populated D.C. suburbs.

It is indeed odd that, since the D.C. stations are more heavily watched north
of the Rappahannock than the Richmond ones are, that they wouldn't show
Virginia lottery drawings.
 
In California, our Lottery has been around since 1985. The drawings originate in Sacramento, while the Big Spin (the Lottery's long-running game show--on the air since '85) originates from Hollywood (out of L.A.'s PBS station KCET). However, The Big Spin originally taped in Sacramento (I believe out of KCRA-TV), and veteran game show host Geoff Edwards was one of the original hosts. The original format was that ten contestants were picked to spin the wheel, with prizes ranging anywhere between $10,000 to $1,000,000, and that was it. In later years, they added a "Double" (and then later, "Triple") spot on the wheel, giving the contestants a chance to win double or triple their prizes. When the show shifted to Hollywood in the mid-90s (and changed hosts in the process--four different hosts since Edwards left), the show completely changed its format, giving it more of a "Price is Right" feel to it, where contestants had to play games in order to win a change to spin the wheel. The show is currently produced by Jonathan Goodson Productions (yes, Mark's son).

The California Lottery stations are...

KCAL Los Angeles (also available in Palm Springs)
KBFX Bakersfield
KHSL Chico-Redding
KYMA Yuma-El Centro
KIEM Eureka
KSEE Fresno
KSBW Monterey-Salinas
KCRA/KQCA Sacramento
KUSI San Diego
KRON San Francisco
KSBY Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo
 
In Arizona, the following stations air the Arizona Lottery and PowerBall

Phoenix (English): KNXV-TV 15 (ABC) - with translators all over northern and western Arizona.
Phoenix (Spanish): KTVW-TV 33 (Univision) - with translators statewide, including satellite stations KUVE-TV/KUVE-CA 46/38 in Tucson.
Tucson (English): KOLD-TV 13 (CBS)

KNXV took over the lottery recently in Phoenix; KPNX had it before.

Poor eastern Arizona (Safford/Duncan/Globe) gets left out when it comes to English language. Safford and Duncan's shared ABC translator's primary station is KGUN 9 Tucson, not KNXV, and their CBS primary station is KPHO-TV 5 Phoenix, not KOLD. Meanwhile, the only Phoenix network station without a Globe translator is KNXV. All three communities have their own KTVW translators, así que la loteria es en español solamente allí.
 
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