NBC News, MSNBC, ABC News and others from across the pond

No problems watching videos like that on the NBC News website - and, the last time I checked, live streams of NBC News Special Reports are fine too. It's just O&O newscasts that are the problem.

I don't think it's got anything to do with Comcast taking over - they were geoblocked for years before that. But, in early 2014, I noticed that WNBC's streaming newscasts were watchable in the UK - and that remained the case up until a month or so ago. Most other stations like KNBC in LA and WRC in DC continued to be geoblocked throughout.

It must have been a challenging time of day for all three broadcast networks as the story first broke in the overnight hours on a Sunday and then the full scope of it was realized during their Sunday morning current affairs time. I don't think Willie has done many NBC News Special Reports before. He did seem to do well. It seemed CBS had a difficult start. CBS News Sunday Morning was on air, a program that doesn't do rolling news or use any on-screen graphics, so they had to keep interrupting that broadcast utilizing CBSN until Scott Pelley was in place. He was there for about an hour and then disappeared, only to be replaced by other CBSN anchors.

I live in the central time zone. My NBC affiliate carried the Today show, Meet the Press, then went to some paid programming, then later went back to Today/NBC News Special Report. The ABC affiliate carried the ABC News Special Report all morning. The CBS affiliate aired Sunday Morning, the CBSN Special Report, then the Scott Pelley portion of the CBS News Special Report, then more CBSN coverage.

I'm interested in knowing what you mean by paid programming. Is that like product advertising, and infomercials? What time of day would this have aired?

scottishtv:
Paid programming is a fancy word for infomercials/product advertising. At that time each Sunday morning (I believe it was 10:30 or so) this NBC affiliate (WFIE) shows a half-hour local real estate show which is paid for by the realty company. I only mentioned it because I was surprised they would interrupt the special report carrying a story of that magnitude for an infomercial. My NBC station airs Today at 7a and Meet The Press at 8a and then it's informercials for the rest of the morning unless NBC Sports is on. Local TV here is full of infomercials on the weekends, especially Sunday mornings after the broadcast network has stopped original programming. I live in a smaller market (it's a tri-state viewing area which comprises in total about 700,000 people) so we don't have any local news on Saturday or Sunday mornings/afternoons at all. Not even a live cut-in during the breakfast shows. All we have is either 5/6 pm news and 10 pm news.

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad you mentioned it! I guess things are easier for schedulers in the UK with a single time zone, but I still find it quite odd that infomercials would air as daytime filler like that - esp after a live breakfast programme, and Sunday current affairs show. I guess the fact they are paid for is important to the station commercially.

I don't think our typical daytime diet of property, antiques and cookery shows is ideal, but I'm glad our commercial stations have to keep the tellyshopping stuff to the middle of the night.

scottishtv:
You're welcome. I did get a glimpse into the daytime shows you're talking about when BBC America about 10 years ago would show many of the property/DIY/antique/home improvement shows during their daytime schedule. While those wouldn't necessarily be innovative I would still prefer them over an infomercial during the daylight hours on a weekday!

The time zones are a challenge for network programmers for sure. At least living in the central time zone we get to see network news programs live instead of tape-delayed. I live in a market with an NBC affiliate, two duopolies (ABC/CW is owned by the same company as is the CBS/FOX affiliate) plus PBS and a few other independents. The NBC affiliate has it's own news operation and the duopolies share operations between the two affiliates. The duopoly was bad for this market as we used to have four independent sources for news; we now have three. The CBS/FOX affiliate WEVV started producing news again after 16 years. Before that we had just two when the ABC/CW affiliates merged.

Back to the infomercial issue; they used to be relegated to overnight/weekends only. Viewing habits have obviously changed and in this market at least late night/overnights are filled with some of the more highly rated syndicated dramas/comedies and overnight newscasts in the case of ABC/CBS. On the one hand I can slightly see why the NBC affiliate shows infomercials during the afternoon because a whopping 5 hours of their daily schedule is dominated by Today (including the 4th hour which is replayed again in the overnight hours at 3am.) Since the trend is to start local news at 4p or even earlier in some markets they only have the low-rated early afternoon to schedule all their syndicated game shows/talk shows so it's easier to show paid spots. The overnights where they would have either gone off the air or showed infomercials before are now filled with repeats of the 10pm bulletin, the 4th hour of Today, CNBC's Mad Money and low-rated syndicated stuff.

The four affiliates that are duopolies simulcast all of their morning newscasts on both channels until the network programming begins. In the evenings the FOX/CW will show news at 4, 6:30 and 9 while the ABC/CBS stations will show news at the traditional 5, 6 and 10 slot. The duopolies have the bulk of the syndicated programming for this viewing area and show far fewer informercials during the week.

As for why weekends, especially Sunday mornings, are filled with paid programming and religious paid programming I don't have a good answer. There must not be enough of a demand to show weekend local morning news. I agree pairing Sunday morning national current affairs programs with infomercials is an odd juxtaposition and I can't imagine they retain many viewers. Saturday and Sunday afternoons are just as dreadful unless the network has live sports programming to air.

I have said all this with the caveat that I live in a smaller market so it may not be reflective of a larger viewing area. Hope this helps.

I had a basic understanding of how these markets worked, but you've filled in a lot of gaps. Very interesting and detailed post, thanks.

That's not true is it? I've only lived in Mountain and Pacific time zones, but my understanding is that all the morning shows are taped delayed for Central and Mountain time. Central time affiliates though can take the evening news live and run it at 5:30p CT since I believe that's when those broadcasts first go out.



Nobody's sitting around at home watching TV on weekend mornings and afternoons unless if they're watching sports. In general, people do other things on weekends, and affiliates fill their schedules accordingly, whether that's running paid programming or cheap-to-produce local newscasts.

My bad Charles. I stated at the end of my comments that the examples were from my viewing area and might not be representative of any other area or time zone. We do get the live feed of the EVENING news at 5:30ct on all three network affiliates HERE. I know some stations in other cities choose to air the evening news at 6 or even 6:30 central. The morning shows during the week are tape delayed. The only exception is that my CBS affiliate took the CBS Early Show/This Morning live from 6-8 ct during the 16 years that they didn't have a news department and didn't have any local morning news. I think Today and MTP are seen live on Sundays in the central time zone at 7 and 8 respectively because they go out live at 8 and 9 eastern. The only exception would be if a station chooses to air them at a different time due to local morning news. Same with GMA and This Week. The same may be true for CBS TM Saturday and Sunday Morning/Face the Nation. I know Sunday Morning and Face the Nation go out live from 9-10:30 and 10:30-11:30 eastern, respectively.

Here's a better look at NBC's graphics courtesy of Alain Hernandez.

On the weekends: I don't just sit around watching local TV just waiting for something to come on but I am home on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 6am to lunch time sometimes and would like to watch local morning news as I don't get to on weekdays due to my work schedule. While I understand they are a business it just seems lazy to put infomercials on Sunday morning, for example, right after a strong public affairs lineup. The ABC affiliate here doesn't even do a 5 or 6pm newscast anymore on the weekends opting instead to show paid programs. Neither does the CBS affiliate. Thats fine and I hope they make tons of money but the problem for the public is that if, for example, the NBC affiliate here that actually has news at 5 or 6 on Sat/Sun, carries an NBC sports program that runs over the news then we have no local news until 9 or 10 on Sat/Sun sometimes. That is unacceptable in 2016, even if one says you could always go on line. Their local news web coverage is a joke. Maybe I need to move.

It may be unacceptable, but in my opinion, it's merely representative of how unsustainable local broadcast television is becoming. Viewership and revenue continue to slide, and resources have been cut and stretched thinly for more than a decade now. While the shows that people watch will continue to plug along (weekday mornings and early evenings), the fringes of local news are going to suffer, particularly midday, late night, and weekends, and especially in small markets.

As an example of how unsustainable it is to produce weekend morning news in small markets today, the station where I worked was the only one in town that had a weekday morning newscast. The anchor also served as the sole producer *and* video editor, and she was slammed at how much she had to do. It was a one hour show, and aside from reheating local stories from the night before and hastily writing up any new press releases as readers or maps, the entire show was filled with what little could be found on the wires on weekends. That meant a lot of random national news, health, Consumer Reports, and some weird personal finance segment. It was a crappy way to spend an hour as a viewer, and it was our least watched newscast.

This doesn't mean that we're not going to see more newscasts added. Stations around the country are adding more newscasts, but it's mostly as a way to cheaply fill airtime. Corporate owners are going to keep insisting local newsrooms continue to do more with less, but there's going to be a time when working conditions are so bad that nobody will want to work like a dog just to be on TV. It's sad, but it's happening.