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TSSZNews

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Posts posted by TSSZNews

  1. 5 hours ago, carolinanews4 said:

    If this is a benefit of a group product, and that is a big IF, then it is an inadvertent benefit. To say a New Yorker who goes to LA will be drawn to KABC because they share a lower third with WABC is probably overstating the impact of graphics. The real driver for a group package is cost savings. Plain and simple. In ABC's case, it is one package for eight stations. Fox and NBC have been doing it for years. Not only do you save on development but there are downstream savings because topical graphics can be shared. KABC, KGO, and KFSN are probably all sharing flooding graphics for intros, display monitors, etc. 


    There are for sure cost efficiencies with group packages, but I would argue it's largely because of all the equipment driving them - remember for the most part that too has to be standardized. If you think about it, that's where stations are finding savings. FOX with Chyron, NBC and ABC with Ross, etc.

    I guess my point is that if you're doing a group package right, you're finding ways to affird localization opportunities so it doesn't get stolid or boring. Keep the design language consistent across the group, but having local flavors that can sometimes go beyond just swapping a photo or video in the open -- maybe a color palette change like KYW, for example - at least shows you have some boots on the ground paying attention. I agree; most probably don't care if stations share a lower third. But I bet if a station's group main opens can showcase the market and demonstrate some care and consideration into it, it could go a long way.

     

    That's what makes me really interested to see how WPVI interprets the ABC group package. If anyone has latitude to distill what is a fairly formulaic open down to its core design language and keep the heart of what's made their locally grown anthem open successful for, what, 50 years now--it's them.

  2. 13 hours ago, Abraham J. Simpson said:

    The thing is: who actually notices? For all the complaints about common elements, how many viewers are actually going to be in two markets with common designs, and happen to watch the stations in question, and happen to pay that kind of attention, and actually care? Effectively no one. 
     

    Nobody cares if WABC and KABC, for instance, have common design elements. A few people like us on message boards aren’t representative of the public at large. 


    I sort of disagree with this take. There are many purposes of a group package, and one of them is for viewers to identify with the group's product throughout the country. If your hometown news has a certain feel and familiarity, and you go move or travel to another market and see that similar feel and familiarity, you're more likely to watch them. It's not a conscious thought - in that sense, nobody truly "cares" - but it's less about caring and more about easily identifying a source of (in your view) trusted information in unfamiliar territory.

    That especially starts to matter when you have the 100+ station deep groups, but it's just as important for the "smaller" O&O footprints as well. Otherwise, why bother with things like "CBS News (city name)"? Different groups are going to approach it differently.

  3. 50 minutes ago, sfomspphl said:

    I am surprised though they're using 100% still shots for the tiles in the opens vs some or all as video with some motion.


    Three potential reasons for this:

    1) The open is being generated live out of Ross. Like a Viz, there needs to be dedicated system resources for playback, and any video save for MP4 or the platform's preferred codec would be an enormous resource hog.

    2) Video probably makes the whole canvas look too busy with everything else going on around the main frame.

    3) Licensed stock stills are less expensive than video 🙃

    • Like 4
  4. $25 a month.

    I get they carry three teams, but that barely makes sense as an in-season price!

     

    Woof. Sports is going to break *all* the pay-TV models eventually.

    • Like 1
    • Thought-Provoking 1
  5. 12 hours ago, bmasters1 said:

    And one other thing-- not once in all of Jim Gardner's time there (or Rob Jennings, or any other anchor [morning, noon, night or weekend]) did we ever hear Jefferson Kaye or Charlie Van Dyke bill the newscast as anything but Action News (no time of day qualifiers or anything else); it may have been visually billed on a title slide as Action News at 4 pm at one time, but other than that, the auditory billing was unchanged for the longest time (outside of billing the anchors at any one particular time per the time of day).

     

    Not true! When the 4p and 10p launched they announced the times in that show only.

     

    Anyway, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal, Jim's last show got a 79 share in Philly and 540,000 OTA viewers.   The Eagles Super Bowl when they won got an 81.

     

    https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2022/12/22/jim-gardners-historic-action-news-swan-song.html

     

     

    • Like 5
  6. 10 hours ago, TheRobSka said:

    I beg to differ. There are no notable buildings in Philadelphia. In New York, there's the Empire State Building. In California, there's literally every building there. In Chicago, there is the Sears-Willis tower. In Philadelphia, there's nothing. You might as well put a Philly Cheese steak in the background and everyone will think, "look, it's Philadelphia."


    Don’t worry guys - my friend (and his friend) and I will take care of him.

     

    Ice Hockey GIF by NHL

    • Like 3
  7. 58 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

    What's taking them so long?  Trying to sell the station again?  Bueller? Bueller?


    Almost as if there's a global pandemic still raging in other parts of the world and supply chains are still disrupted...

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1
  8. 39 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

    It does beg the question if whoever comes in could change the music?  Or will they hold their ground against Tegna and take the side of the viewers who may revolt if such a change is ever made? 

     

     

    I suspect they'll bring in someone who will toe the corporate line. I say let 'em. The resulting TalkBack 16s will be legendary.

    • Haha 2
  9. 3 hours ago, 24994J said:

     

    There hasn't technically been any confirmation of this, outside of some suspect corporate speak in the press release.

     

     

    It's definitely happening. They're hiring staff for it.

  10. 1 hour ago, DENDude said:

    I Was looking at some ratings info the other day, and man--"The News with Shepard Smith" was way down on the list.   I have a hard time seeing the program lasting unless the ratings improve.  

     

    Numbers on CNBC generally are pretty low and niche - it caters almost exclusively to businesspeople. I wouldn't read much into it.

    • Like 5
  11. There's one really big reason to keep weather coverage local - because local weather is the reason most people watch local news.

     

    The Weather Channel is still an OK resource for a quick check of things - it could be even better if the local opt-outs were more than just Intellistar and an on-screen crawl during severe weather. I'm old enough to remember when they did not GAF and ran warnings full screen.

     

    I imagine NBC had eyes toward a hybrid model utilizing the O&Os when they purchased The Weather Channel. Certainly few could have prognosticated a global pandemic when it was sold (I don't say none because a few scientists have said we were overdue for a while) but pandemics aren't permanent - and what may make sense for a single year won't otherwise.

     

    So the question becomes, do the savings realized from centralizing weather outweigh any loss from the overall product of local news not having a local WX presence? For the FOX stations, it might - I don't know many O&Os currently that have an enormous investment in WX save for maybe Tampa. But for other stations and other owned groups who have firm stakes in weather - and the talent and tech to back it - that decision is much more difficult.

  12. 49 minutes ago, HulkieD said:

    Also wanted to note: the use of "COUNT ON IT" has increased fairly dramatically in the last few weeks or so.  It's now part of the reporter outcue.

     

    .......I'm never gonna be able to change my forum description, am I?

     

    I wouldn't......





     

     

     

     

     

     

     







     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    ....Count On It.

    • Haha 9
  13. 15 hours ago, PhillyWatch said:

    Caught a commercial promoting a new digital-only hour of Action News mornings from 7-8.  The spot was mainly pushing their new smart TV device apps as a means of watching it but I’m guessing it’ll be available through their website as well. 

     

    Wonder if they shopped it to PHL 17 given the 10PM news success and they (unwisely) wanted to do their own thing instead.

  14. 15 minutes ago, 8Viewer said:

     

    I've never seen that particular set before. Did CBS just use that for "CBS Morning News" or did it have other uses? 

     

    You've seen it before, you just haven't realized it.

     

    That set is the "fishbowl" - the main newsroom and headquarters of CBS News in New York, used from Dan Rather in the 90s up until Scott Pelley and the Evening News moved into the current CBS This Morning studio next door.

    It's still their newsroom - but it got a remodel and is only sparingly used on air.

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