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KSL is in Another Controversy, yet again.


AaronQ

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http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/ksl-stops-airing-nbcs-hannibal-because-its-too-graphic_b88792#disqus_thread

KSL pulled "Hannibal" off the air because the show is "graphic". In my honest opinion: LDS, other religious groups, and soccer moms need to get a grip. If you think a particular show is offensive, then change the goddamn channel and don't bitch and moan about it. IT'S CALLED COMMON SENSE PEOPLE!!!!!!!

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http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/ksl-stops-airing-nbcs-hannibal-because-its-too-graphic_b88792#disqus_thread

KSL pulled "Hannibal" off the air because the show is "graphic". In my honest opinion: LDS, other religious groups, and soccer moms need to get a grip. If you think a particular show is offensive, then change the goddamn channel and don't bitch and moan about it. IT'S CALLED COMMON SENSE PEOPLE!!!!!!!

I know it's not that simple, but I don't feel like thinking today. So, in simple terms...YES.

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For a network affiliate to be owned by a religious organization, I think KSL is holding on to the tradition of family-friendly programming, which they decide which NBC shows to air and which to be replaced by family-friendly shows

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GOD I wish NBC would just revoke their damn NBC affiliation! But alas! They cannot. :(

It was pretty hard to do that when KSL was the dominant newscast in Utah for a few decades. Now KUTV is leaving them in the dust.

 

 

And BTW, the show is currently aired on CW30 (KUCW).

Ultimately this is what happens when KSL refuses to air any of NBC's shows (ie: Saturday Night Live)

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Yet, KSL says that they're fully committed to NBC. Sure. At what point does the network say "enough is enough"? When they signed their affiliation agreement with NBC, KSL knew full well that the network (or any network for that matter) can and will put on shows that are controversial/against one's beliefs. So if they have a problem with NBC and its content, then why not just be an independent? That way they can control what they show instead of pre-empting network shows.

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My question is, aren't the affiliates contractually obligated to air network programming? If not, they should be (with exceptions for local MAJOR breaking news and local sports).

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NBC probably hasn't cared much beforehand; aside from The New Normal and Hannibal, every primetime NBC show that KSL has pulled ended up getting cancelled for various reasons (lawsuits for poker, while Coupling and The Playboy Club were just plain awful to begin with)

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Yet, KSL says that they're fully committed to NBC. Sure. At what point does the network say "enough is enough"? When they signed their affiliation agreement with NBC, KSL knew full well that the network (or any network for that matter) can and will put on shows that are controversial/against one's beliefs. So if they have a problem with NBC and its content, then why not just be an independent? That way they can control what they show instead of pre-empting network shows.

Well, remember the circumstances that drove NBC to KSL in 1995 (a byproduct of NBC selling KUTV, KCNC and WTVJ's transmitter facility and channel 4 license to CBS... so CBS could sell WCAU to NBC... and so the Group W/CBS affiliation-pact-turned-merger could be consummated) likely left NBC with no other choice than to give KSL a whole lot of leeway in preemptions. It's quite obvious that KSL really didn't want to lose the CBS affiliation, and NBC never wanted to sell off KUTV.

 

I do agree in that KSL easily could pull a KTVK and become a news-heavy independent and barely miss a beat. But that's hardly a guarantee that NBC will find another affiliate to replace KSL, rather, they are probably afraid that it would be a repeat of CBS's mammoth affiliation demotion in Detroit back in 1995. There is no fall-back station like a KNTV available for them if KSL did become an indie. (Yes, KSTU is for sale, but does NBC really want that signal? Plus any other owner still would have the remainder of KSTU's 10 year long affiliation pact with Fox.)

 

And so this marriage of convenience continues...

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NBC probably hasn't cared much beforehand; aside from The New Normal and Hannibal, every primetime NBC show that KSL has pulled ended up getting cancelled for various reasons (lawsuits for poker, while Coupling and The Playboy Club were just plain awful to begin with)

I don't remember NBC sinking as much time and effort to promote those aforementioned shows as they have with Hannibal, though. Almost on the level that they promoted Revolution back in the fall.

 

They have to be smarting from this move.

 

(Had to edit because I unintentionally garbled the first sentence for whatever reason.)

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Well, remember the circumstances that drove NBC to KSL in 1995 (a byproduct of NBC selling KUTV, KCNC and WTVJ's transmitter facility and channel 4 license to CBS... so CBS could sell WCAU to NBC... and so the Group W/CBS affiliation-pact-turned-merger could be consummated) likely left NBC with no other choice than to give KSL a whole lot of leeway in preemptions. It's quite obvious that KSL really didn't want to lose the CBS affiliation, and NBC never wanted to sell off KUTV.

Exactly.

 

This happened because CBS could extort some great concessions from NBC for the must-have in Philadelphia. Which in turn happened because Group W changed its remaining three stations to CBS. Which happened because Scripps (and WMAR) signed with ABC, stripping the network of its longest-tenured affiliate. Which happened because Scripps needed to secure affiliations for two stations and keep other potential network partners at bay. Which happened because Fox partnered with New World. Which happened because Fox got the NFC contract.

 

And it wasn't like CBS wasn't a target for preemptions either: Picket Fences, anyone?

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And it wasn't like CBS wasn't a target for preemptions either: Picket Fences, anyone?

Had they remained a CBS affiliate, KSL may have refused to air a good chunk of their extensive (and rote) procedural lineup by the same standards they are applying to Hannibal. Definitely all the CSI's. Criminal Minds as well.

 

HIMYM and Two and a Half Men would have also tested the limits of the Deseret News.

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Looks like KSTU was having fun at KSL's expense.

 

It also looks like some of the commenters didn't get the humor. [No surprise there.]

No kidding.
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KSL would be better as an ABC affiliate because their programming seems a little less graphic than NBC. In most cases, anyways.

 

Or, even better: KJZZ converts to either NBC, ABC, or CBS (let's just use ABC). KJZZ could swap virtual channel positions with KUED channel 7 and would then be branded as ABC 7 (provided that KJZZ gets a new owner). NBC could then move to KTVX, making KSL an independent like it should be.

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Guest Former Member 207
KSL would be better as an ABC affiliate because their programming seems a little less graphic than NBC. In most cases, anyways.

 

Or, even better: KJZZ converts to either NBC, ABC, or CBS (let's just use ABC). KJZZ could swap virtual channel positions with KUED channel 7 and would then be branded as ABC 7 (provided that KJZZ gets a new owner). NBC could then move to KTVX, making KSL an independent like it should be.

Realistically speaking, KJZZ is a LMA with KSL, and they program as conversatively as KSL. The only other English commerical stations in the market (besides KUTV, KTVX, KSTU, and Ion's KUPX) are co-owned with another station; KUCW with KTVX, KMYU (from St. George) with KUTV. All the other stations are either Spanish, religious, or educational (KUED and KBYU with PBS; KUEN is a public independent).

 

Speaking of KSL, and is something I've pondered a while ago...if Hannibal and other programs that KSL find objectable are taken off their schedule, why is Law & Order: SVU (a show that at times can be pretty explict in nature) still on then? I think the shows that they take off the schedule may more to do with ratings rather than what they find more acceptable to families.

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Realistically speaking, KJZZ is a LMA with KSL, and they program as conversatively as KSL. The only other English commerical stations in the market (besides KUTV, KTVX, KSTU, and Ion's KUPX) are co-owned with another station; KUCW with KTVX, KMYU (from St. George) with KUTV. All the other stations are either Spanish, religious, or educational (KUED and KBYU with PBS; KUEN is a public independent).

 

Speaking of KSL, and is something I've pondered a while ago...if Hannibal and other programs that KSL find objectable are taken off their schedule, why is Law & Order: SVU (a show that at times can be pretty explict in nature) still on then? I think the shows that they take off the schedule may more to do with ratings rather than what they find more acceptable to families.

As I pointed out on another thread regarding KSL's preemption of The New Normal, the only options for NBC would be to create an owned-and-operated station from scratch through a new license, buy KJZZ and terminate the LMA with KSL, or buy one of the religious or educational outlets and convert one of them to a commercial license in order to get a station in Salt Lake City that carries NBC programming full-time without the worry of preemptions. It's not like NBC would be new to having an O&O in SLC, it already owns Telemundo station KEJT-LP.

 

I should point out that if NBC moved its programming to KUCW, it wouldn't be a precedent for a station co-owned with a Big Three network to carry an affiliation with a Big Three network itself. Contrary to this column in the Salt Lake Tribune, it is possible to own two Big Three affiliates in the same market provided that only one of them is among the four highest-rated stations: Gannett acquired an ABC station in Jacksonville to go with its NBC affiliate there in 2000, and Nexstar is purchasing a NBC affiliate to go with its CBS affiliate in Fresno - both companies used this same provision, so if NBC wanted to dump KSL once its affiliation contract ends, it wouldn't be impossible to move it to KUCW since it is probably not among the four highest-rated stations in SLC.

 

Ultimately, NBC must be frustrated with KSL to some degree, Utah is basically one market, so all of the network affiliates come from the state's capital city, therefore KSL is their only affiliate in Utah. Plus, every primetime program that KSL has preempted because of objections over content since it joined NBC, with the exception of The New Normal and Hannibal (since their fates for the 2013-14 season haven't been decided yet) have been cancelled, granted that is a coincidence but a weird one at that. Even if it is just one station, having an affiliate that preempts your programming constantly because of the ownership's religious beliefs and having those shows moved to a CW affiliate in a weekend timeslot doesn't bode well for helping your shows attract an audience long-term.

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Guest Former Member 207

Great points, tman...I'm not all too familiar with Utah, other than the fact all of the major Salt Lake City stations have statewide coverage, on cable, satellite, and by terrestial means. Southern Utah (Cedar City-St. George) does have another over-the-air NBC outlet as a back-up, as Las Vegas' KSNV has a translator in the area. Looking at KUEN's set-up, conceiveably, that station's programming could be moved to a subchannel of KUED, since the two stations are more or less sister stations; KUED is owned by the University of Utah, while KUEN is owned by the Utah State Board of Regents, which is the governing body of the state universities there, including the University of Utah. KUEN carries MHz Worldview as a subchannel, as well as KUER radio; KUED offers PBS World and V-me. NBC (or some other broadcaster) buys the KUEN facility, converts it to commerical, and you have your own NBC outlet. Either that, or they could do something far-fetched, and go the subchannel route (over KUTV, KTVX, or KSTU), and create "NBC Utah". I don't think either scenario is likely to happen anytime soon, but stranger things have happened.

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Exactly.

 

This happened because CBS could extort some great concessions from NBC for the must-have in Philadelphia. Which in turn happened because Group W changed its remaining three stations to CBS. Which happened because Scripps (and WMAR) signed with ABC, stripping the network of its longest-tenured affiliate. Which happened because Scripps needed to secure affiliations for two stations and keep other potential network partners at bay. Which happened because Fox partnered with New World. Which happened because Fox got the NFC contract.

 

And it wasn't like CBS wasn't a target for preemptions either: Picket Fences, anyone?

If GE/NBC had calmed their hot-ass nerves back in the mid-1990s they could have landed a Philadelphia NBC O&O with due time. I'm pretty sure they could have landed WCAU upon the CBS/Group W deal being sealed. Instead, they bomb rushed to get their hands on WCAU in the process lost KUTV and KCNC to CBS.

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If GE/NBC had calmed their hot-ass nerves back in the mid-1990s they could have landed a Philadelphia NBC O&O with due time. I'm pretty sure they could have landed WCAU upon the CBS/Group W deal being sealed. Instead, they bomb rushed to get their hands on WCAU in the process lost KUTV and KCNC to CBS.

I doubt that any length of time would have changed anything with that deal.

 

Yes, NBC lusted for a Philadelphia O&O as early as the early 1950s... it even got to the point where they extorted Group W into trading the license for KYW and WPTZ-TV (now KYW-TV) in exchange for the licenses to WTAM, WTAM-FM (WMJI) and WNBK (WKYC) in Cleveland ... after NBC threatened to strip WBZ and WBZ-TV of their NBC affiliation if Group W refused. It was a deal so one-sided in NBC's favor that the Justice Department ordered it completely overturned after nine years of acrimony and lawsuits.

 

But fast forward to 1995. NBC was the only realistic bidder for WCAU available. (Fox was simply the victim of bad timing... they were closing in on acquiring their own affiliate, WTXF, in a trade with Paramount.) CBS held all the keys and dictated the terms to NBC as for proper compensation, because after all, CBS was selling one of their key O&Os to their biggest competitior. And CBS was still stinging from losing the legacy Storer stations (New World) to Fox, so they wanted to shore up the remaining affiliate base in any way possible.

 

Thus, NBC lost KUTV, KCNC and severely damaged WTVJ by moving it to what was then an analog channel 6 signal that was in no way on par with 4, 7 and 10 (which only changed after WTVJ went all digital). And both networks got significant tax considerations in the process.

 

Nothing would have changed this deal in any way.

 

Now, was it karma coming back to bite NBC? You bet.

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Why just can't Bonneville International end this nonsense and do what's right for them: SELL KSL!!!!

 

I can see Belo, Meredith, Hearst, even Hubbard lining up as potentials (they probably need another Channel 5 anyway).

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Why just can't Bonneville International end this nonsense and do what's right for them: SELL KSL!!!!

 

I can see Belo, Meredith, Hearst, even Hubbard lining up as potentials (they probably need another Channel 5 anyway).

Agreed; if you can't take the heat, sell the restaurant.

 

And if getting airtime for the LDS General Conference is important for them; aside from KSL, the LDS Church already has many non-profit broadcast outlets in Utah aside from the Bonneville stations. If you count them as loosely as Sinclair/Cunningham/Deerfield-type relations, they have a triopoly of TV (KBYU-TV, KSL-TV, and the KJZZ LMA), and radio (KBYU-FM, KSL-FM/KSL-AM)

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