The Newsroom

Is NBC prepping to end affiliation WHDH 7 Boston?

A battle is brewing in Boston. NBC is again at loggerheads with Sunbeam (December 2015)

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NY
NYTV
Mouseboy33 posted:
Back on topic. Ed Ansin Sunbeam owner(which owns WHDH Boston and WSVN Miami) spoke out to the Boston Globe. Seems NBC keeps trying to screw him over. Like they did back in Miami in the early 90s when NBC pulled its affiliate from WSVN and bought WTVJ and WSVN was forced to affiliate with FOX, hence the birth of the OTT tabloid format that Sunbeam perfected at WSVN and transplanted to WHDH Boston. The tabloid was WSVN's saving grace to keep viewers by turning their news product into "must see programming".

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/12/22/ansin-owner-whdh-accuses-nbc-playing-hardball-with-channel-negotiations/o9giEDI4eYIoPeuzRbw8DN/story.html#

The primary reason NBC left WSVN was due to their preempting of NBC programming in the run up to the 1988 Olympics. WHDH famously wanted to air an hour of news in place of The Jay Leno Show before its debut and stated that Leno's 10pm show would hurt the 11:00 News. Although 'HDH was ultimately proven right, NBC pulled rank so-to speak and threatened to rip the affiliation from them and WHDH caved. As for NBC, reports have said that they've pretty much already started the groundwork for the new NBC Boston and other reports suggest that the new O&O will replace their current Telemundo O&O WNEU 60 , with Telemundo moving to 60.2 and will go into operation when the current contract with WHDH expires in 2016.
NY
NYTV
Mouseboy33 posted:
Back on topic. Ed Ansin Sunbeam owner(which owns WHDH Boston and WSVN Miami) spoke out to the Boston Globe. Seems NBC keeps trying to screw him over. Like they did back in Miami in the early 90s when NBC pulled its affiliate from WSVN and bought WTVJ and WSVN was forced to affiliate with FOX, hence the birth of the OTT tabloid format that Sunbeam perfected at WSVN and transplanted to WHDH Boston. The tabloid was WSVN's saving grace to keep viewers by turning their news product into "must see programming".

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/12/22/ansin-owner-whdh-accuses-nbc-playing-hardball-with-channel-negotiations/o9giEDI4eYIoPeuzRbw8DN/story.html#

Also, in the same article you linked, Sumbeam turned down the offer to buy WHDH for $200 million, but wanted $500 million for both WHDH and WLVI CW56.

Here's a bit of history of South Florida Television: When WSVN was the NBC station in Miami, they would constantly preempt programming and the programming would be bumped to other stations, most commonly West Palm Beach's WPTV NBC 5 ended up picking up the slack for 'SVN's constant programming. The pre-emptions would make WSVN one of NBC's weaker affiliates and NBC decided to have an O&O rather than a third-party station. In the end, NBC bought WTVJ but ran it as a CBS station for a year since Sumbeam wanted the strong Fall 1988 Lineup, CBS bought Fox 6 WCIX and made them an O&O and Sunbeam wound up on 7.

And if NBC does decide to end things with WHDH (and per reports, they ARE done with them) The CW will simply move up to 7, just like Fox did in South Florida in 1988
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/television/2015/12/nbc_dials_up_heat_ch_7_set_to_lose_network_affiliation_in_2017
Last edited by NYTV on 28 December 2015 7:46pm
RK
Rkolsen
NYTV posted:
Mouseboy33 posted:
Back on topic. Ed Ansin Sunbeam owner(which owns WHDH Boston and WSVN Miami) spoke out to the Boston Globe. Seems NBC keeps trying to screw him over. Like they did back in Miami in the early 90s when NBC pulled its affiliate from WSVN and bought WTVJ and WSVN was forced to affiliate with FOX, hence the birth of the OTT tabloid format that Sunbeam perfected at WSVN and transplanted to WHDH Boston. The tabloid was WSVN's saving grace to keep viewers by turning their news product into "must see programming".

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/12/22/ansin-owner-whdh-accuses-nbc-playing-hardball-with-channel-negotiations/o9giEDI4eYIoPeuzRbw8DN/story.html#

Also, in the same article you linked, Sumbeam turned down the offer to buy WHDH for $200 million, but wanted $500 million for both WHDH and WLVI CW56.

Here's a bit of history of South Florida Television: When WSVN was the NBC station in Miami, they would constantly preempt programming and the programming would be bumped to other stations, most commonly West Palm Beach's WPTV NBC 5 ended up picking up the slack for 'SVN's constant programming. The pre-emptions would make WSVN one of NBC's weaker affiliates and NBC decided to have an O&O rather than a third-party station. In the end, NBC bought WTVJ but ran it as a CBS station for a year since Sumbeam wanted the strong Fall 1988 Lineup, CBS bought Fox 6 WCIX and made them an O&O and Sunbeam wound up on 7.

And if NBC does decide to end things with WHDH (and per reports, they ARE done with them) The CW will simply move up to 7, just like Fox did in South Florida in 1988
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/television/2015/12/nbc_dials_up_heat_ch_7_set_to_lose_network_affiliation_in_2017

The CW could move up to WHDH temporarily as their contract is also up soon. I'd imagine CBS would love to ditch Fox's MyNetwork for the CW (which CBS owns half of).
WH
Whataday Founding member
Just to drift slightly OT again... when local affiliates produce things like news titles which incorporate the network logo (ABC, NBC etc) does someone at the network have to sign it off?
NY
NYTV
Whataday posted:
Just to drift slightly OT again... when local affiliates produce things like news titles which incorporate the network logo (ABC, NBC etc) does someone at the network have to sign it off?

If the use the network name at part or the station logo (E. G ABC7), then they can use the logo for their local branding. The network already signed off on that when they became part of the network
MO
Mouseboy33
To see an exhaustive list of newscast titles by state including Canada and Mexico and their call letters check out this site.
http://ekimmell2.tripod.com/newscasts.html
Last edited by Mouseboy33 on 30 December 2015 8:54pm
RK
Rkolsen
NYTV posted:
Whataday posted:
Just to drift slightly OT again... when local affiliates produce things like news titles which incorporate the network logo (ABC, NBC etc) does someone at the network have to sign it off?

If the use the network name at part or the station logo (E. G ABC7), then they can use the logo for their local branding. The network already signed off on that when they became part of the network

Typically station logos need to get approved or they have to follow very specific style guide rules. I know for NBC affiliates their Olympic logos have to get approved by the IOC. ABC's latest round of affiliate agreements require stations to include their logo whenever said station upgrades their graphics package.

Here's a link to the CBS Style Guide aka CBS Eye-dentity http://promonet.cbs.com/external/CBSEyeDentity_Site/toc.html
Last edited by Rkolsen on 30 December 2015 10:27pm
NY
NYTV
Rkolsen posted:
NYTV posted:
Whataday posted:
Just to drift slightly OT again... when local affiliates produce things like news titles which incorporate the network logo (ABC, NBC etc) does someone at the network have to sign it off?

If the use the network name at part or the station logo (E. G ABC7), then they can use the logo for their local branding. The network already signed off on that when they became part of the network

Typically station logos need to get approved or they have to follow very specific style guide rules. I know for NBC affiliates their Olympic logos have to get approved by the IOC. ABC's latest round of affiliate agreements require stations to include their logo whenever said station upgrades their graphics package.

Here's a link to the CBS Style Guide aka CBS Eye-dentity http://promonet.cbs.com/external/CBSEyeDentity_Site/toc.html

And at last check, Fox has no such mandate ( but they DID reinforce branding for affiliates a long time ago), which allows stations to use a non Fox logo for their station.
Here are the logos of WFXT Fox 25 Boston , the left was the logo when WFXT was owned by Fox and the one used by new owners Cox Communications)
http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2015/10/fox25-logo-1.jpg
Last edited by NYTV on 31 December 2015 2:04am - 2 times in total

8 days later

NY
NYTV
Looks like my earlier statement is correct: NBC WILL pull the affiliation from WHDH effective 12/2016 and will move to WNEU 60.2 :
http://www.newenglandone.com/news/local-news/item/1300-nbc-set-to-announce-nbc-boston-today.html


[New England One]
MO
Mouseboy33
Yep TVSpy is reporting from an obtained memo that NBC Boston is due to launch next year. ITs gonna be on Channel 60. Hugh drop down the dial. All Telemundo will be moved off of Ch60 to a digital subchannel, likely 60.1 Looks like WHDH is dead in the water with no significant affiliation to speak of. Though WGN 9 - Chicago and KTLA 5 LA are major CW affiliates and are very successful. So its possible to be successful with a netlet affiliation. But I expect WHDH to ramp up its news product even more to stave off audience erosion, though they likely will experience a drop.

from TVSPY
Quote:
NBC Owned Television Stations president Valari Staab told staffers today that the division is launching NBC Boston on January 1, 2017, ending any speculation that current NBC affiliate Sunbeam-owned WHDH would lose its affiliation.

In a memo obtained by TVSpy, Staab said the launch would make the 12th NBC station in the owned group. Mike St. Peter, current head of NECN and Telemundo Boston will add NBC Boston to his gm’ing duties.

“To be clear,” said Staab. “The new NBC-owned station will be a broadcast channel available to over-the-air viewers like our other NBC and Telemundo stations, not a cable-only channel as has been publicly speculated. Additionally, we are committed to expanding our over-the-air coverage of the market and are currently looking at a variety of options to accomplish that.”

http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/nbc-to-launch-nbc-boston-next-year/161346
The new NBC-owned station will use the updated facilities at NECN.



Also breaking developments from the Boston Herald. They are reporting meetings are due to take place at WHDH in about an hour.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/01/nbc_set_to_announce_nbc_boston_drop_whdh
Last edited by Mouseboy33 on 7 January 2016 7:02pm
NY
NYTV
Mouseboy33 posted:
Yep TVSpy is reporting from an obtained memo that NBC Boston is due to launch next year. ITs gonna be on Channel 60. Hugh drop down the dial. All Telemundo will be moved off of Ch60 to a digital subchannel, likely 60.1 Looks like WHDH is dead in the water with no significant affiliation to speak of. Though WGN 9 - Chicago and KTLA 5 LA are major CW affiliates and are very successful. So its possible to be successful with a netlet affiliation. But I expect WHDH to ramp up its news product even more to stave off audience erosion, though they likely will experience a drop.

from TVSPY
Quote:
NBC Owned Television Stations president Valari Staab told staffers today that the division is launching NBC Boston on January 1, 2017, ending any speculation that current NBC affiliate Sunbeam-owned WHDH would lose its affiliation.

In a memo obtained by TVSpy, Staab said the launch would make the 12th NBC station in the owned group. Mike St. Peter, current head of NECN and Telemundo Boston will add NBC Boston to his gm’ing duties.

“To be clear,” said Staab. “The new NBC-owned station will be a broadcast channel available to over-the-air viewers like our other NBC and Telemundo stations, not a cable-only channel as has been publicly speculated. Additionally, we are committed to expanding our over-the-air coverage of the market and are currently looking at a variety of options to accomplish that.”

http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/nbc-to-launch-nbc-boston-next-year/161346
The new NBC-owned station will use the updated facilities at NECN.



Also breaking developments from the Boston Herald. They are reporting meetings are due to take place at WHDH in about an hour.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/01/nbc_set_to_announce_nbc_boston_drop_whdh

Well, NBC has been through this before with WTVJ in Miami and The Bay Area TV switch with their current KNTV 11. Plus if anything, NBC could also ask the FCC to increase their power as well. This could be bad for WHDH.
NY
NYTV
Plus NBC has not formally said they're moving to 60. That's what's been thrown around, but they could still buy another station in the market for example, the independent station WWDP 46

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