The Newsroom

NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC affiliates and TODAY

NBC launches new Washington D.C. bureau and studios (February 2018)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
RK
Rkolsen
Yesterday (the 26th) NBCU held the ribbon cutting ceremony for the NBCU Boston Media Center. It’s been open a month but all divisions are broadcasting from it. The suits at NBCU, Comcast, the LT Governor of Massachusetts and officials from the city of Needham and the owners of the Boston Celtics (which own 20% of NBC Sports Boston) were on hand. The newsroom is named the Burke Newscenter after the Chairman of NBCUniversal Steve Burke who took over when Comcast bought NBC and will be retiring next month.

Here’s a the article with pictures of the ceremony and different parts of the building. There’s a video with the different managers and department heads talking about the facility basically how it’s the best, top technology, revolutionize story telling - basically what you hear when there’s new facility of any type. But it is definitely the most high tech in the US and likely rivals some networks.
CA
cat
Looks very nice but is anyone actually watching NBC Boston? Last I read, many couldn’t receive it and it’s ratings were dreadful.
RK
Rkolsen
cat posted:
Looks very nice but is anyone actually watching NBC Boston? Last I read, many couldn’t receive it and it’s ratings were dreadful.


The ratings improved but they’re still in a very competitive market which already had five English languages broadcast (four are Boston based and one in Manchester, NH) stations and NBC’s NECN cable channel. Although the product is solid I don’t think the newscasts is getting any decent ratings (last I heard they were either in fourth or flash place) but viewers are apparently tuning in for the NBC shows but they aren’t retaining the viewership.

Signal wise it’s now got full market coverage via two full power sticks. The first one is WBTS-CD - which previously used the call signs WYCN-LD. Prior to the NBC purchase WYCN sold its spectrum in the incentive auction and had to find a new broadcaster. In this case they entered into an agreement with a full power station WGBX. Then WYCN-CD was sold to NBC and channel sharing agreement took effect on January 18, 2018. So NBC at the time was on WBTS-CD which was still on a low power signal until last year in addition to being on WYCN-LD which despite being labeled as a low power station for all intents and purposes is a full power station*. Then on August 8, 2019 they swapped call signs so WYCN-LD became WBTS-CD and vice versa versa (confused yet?). Here’s some technical info from RabbitEars.info about the channel sharing with WBTS-LD/WGBX and see that in addition to NBC Boston they carry six other SD subchannels (one of which is NBC Boston’s sub-channel Cozi.

Then NBC Boston has a simulcast on the full power Telemundo affiliate WNEU, which is licensed to Merrimack, NH. This station and its spectrum NBC owns, carries Telemundo Nuevo Inglaterra and NBC Boston in full HD along with NBC O&O SD sub channels Telexitos, Cozi and LX. Originally WNEU had their transmitter based near Manchester New Hampshire and did not have good city coverage in Boston. Therefore there was a need at launch for a station to cover Boston so at the time and before the ultimate purchase and call sign swap with WYCN-CD, they bought the low power WBTS-LD. At the time WBTS-LD’s NBC and Cozi signals were also transmitted on WNEU for fuller market coverage and Telemundo and Telexitos were carried on WBTS-LD for city coverage. If I remember correctly WBTS-LD barely covered the city proper. Originally WNEU’s transmitter was based near Manchester, NH but they’ve moved it to the CBS Tower in Boston which is also home to WGBX (heres the current service contours. Before the move the two stations signal covered a large part of the market (eastern Massachusetts and the entire state of New Hampshire) as most of the Boston based stations barely reached Manchester but now that they’re both based at the CBS Tower they cover roughly the same area. To maintain consistency in NBC Boston is on virtual channels 15.1 (WBTS-CD/WGBX spectrum) and on 15.3 (WNEU’s spectrum) likewise Cozi TV is on 15.2 and 15.4.

As I mentioned before WYCN-LD now serves as a Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra repeater for the Providence, RI market and also carries all the aforementioned SD subchannels. Before WYCN the station was bought buy NBCUni the station already entered into a channel sharing agreement with WGBX. WYCN signed off the air at the end of that August and resigned on to the air with a new transmitter based in Norton, MA along with its city of license to a Providence, RI (thus changing its DMA).

Hopefully I got this right and it made sense, the whole situation is confusing from the get-go and I bet employees there weren’t fully sure whats what. Originally it was on virtual channels 8.1 (WBTS-CD’s old virtual channel and now WYCN-LD’s) and 60.4 (WNEU’s virtual and physical channel). However now it’s on virtual channel 15.x. They brand it as NBC 10 Boston due to it being on channel 10 on cable and satellite.

*Several low power stations entered into channel sharing agreements with full power stations and I wonder if the FCC will ever decide to reclassify these stations as full power to collect more money.
JB
JexedBack
👆
I can never get my head around American local TV.
I’ve tried to understand it all. Very difficult from a simple UK perspective.

Surely now the major networks could just go straight to home 24/7 via cable and satellite.
Leave the local news stations to do their thing.
LH
lhx1985
Presumably, they don't for the same reason that ITV PLC don't just hand back the channel 3 licence patchwork in the UK - afterall, ITV own their own national multiplex, SDN, and could easily set up a single national ITV channel there, if they wanted to.

But, for what they'd gain in no longer having to provide regional programmes, deal with STV and no longer having to stick to quotas on UK-made shows, news or other public service programming commitments, they'd lose access to their favourable EPG position, universal carriage, etc. They'd also be risking having Ofcom readvertising the licences for a new channel 3 network to compete with the new ITV.

In the US one of the networks could decide to become fully cable/IPTV/satellite, but would would equally lose that universal access, the eyes of anyone unwilling or unable to pay for subscription television. It's also likely that there are other companies who would dive straight into any OTA broadcast spectrum that the current crop of networks decided to turn their backs on..

It's worth pointing out that one of the biggest networks is owned by a major player in cable TV, Comcast - if they don't want to bin off the Network/Affiliate model in favour of wholly in-house distribution, then it's clear that something still works very well for them there.
Last edited by lhx1985 on 3 March 2020 11:14am
MA
mark Founding member
As you may have heard, Chris Matthews announced his sudden retirement from MSNBC yesterday.

The final edition of Hardball lasted just a couple of minutes. Chris Matthews came on, said his goodbyes, and then went to a break. Steve Kornacki picked up after the break from a different studio and covered the rest of the hour.

All planned (the background has been widely reported), but very unusual.

EL
elmarko
Incredibly crappy way to treat the production staff on your show, that. I can't imagine it was a nice moment having to scramble if there was no warning it was coming.

Edit: Your post suggests he'd been wanting to go for a while but the manner was a surprise? His impression of Joe McCarthy the other week probably didn't help...
JS
JosiahStuart
NBC News said in an article on their website (and app) that his retirement was going to happen eventually, but because of recent controversies surrounding him and things he has said on-air, he and NBC came to the mutual agreement to end his contract effective immediately. My parents saw this live last night and were surprised as well.
RK
Rkolsen
Incredibly crappy way to treat the production staff on your show, that. I can't imagine it was a nice moment having to scramble if there was no warning it was coming.

Edit: Your post suggests he'd been wanting to go for a while but the manner was a surprise? His impression of Joe McCarthy the other week probably didn't help...


The staff of the show was reportedly told an hour before air. The rest of the show remained branded as Hardball and when Steve Kornacki came back they still played out the package which had Chris in it. Kornacki seemed stunned, makes me think he wasn’t told until right before air.
CA
cat
To be replaced by Shepherd Smith.. who is currently looking for a new home? Would the MSNBC audience really be up for that?
RK
Rkolsen
cat posted:
To be replaced by Shepherd Smith.. who is currently looking for a new home? Would the MSNBC audience really be up for that?

Probably not and not willing to pay his hefty price tag. If anything it probably would tank the 8PM lead in.
RO
Rogo23
cat posted:
To be replaced by Shepherd Smith.. who is currently looking for a new home? Would the MSNBC audience really be up for that?

Probably not and not willing to pay his hefty price tag. If anything it probably would tank the 8PM lead in.

I actually think MSNBC viewers would love Shep, however I think he should put at 10p ET when more people are home, Lawrence O'Donnel is apparently retiring within a year so his hour will be open. Put Nicole Wallace at 7p ET, and fill her slot.
Someone (Kornacki, Heilman) at 4p, -figure out the 5pm hour (drop Chuck) -, Ari at 6p, Nicole at 7p, Chris at 8p, Rachel at 9, Shepard at 10p, Brain at 11p. And if I was in charge I'd give Jacob Soboroff a 1 hour show at 12m ET/9p PT live from LA which would give MSNBC a west coast advantage instead of having reruns leading into local news times.
Last edited by Rogo23 on 4 March 2020 3:18pm

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