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CBS affiliation moving to Tribune's WTTV

The Frog

By The Frog
in General TV

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Samantha Station Group CEO

Samantha 2876

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Mostly wrong. CBS returning to KIRO was caused by Gaylord selling KSTW to Cox and then a mess of mergers and ownership swaps between Cox, Belo, and Viacom/Paramount Stations Group. KSTW getting the CBS affiliation was part of the deal when Gaylord agreed to take on the CBS affiliation on KTVT in Dallas/Ft. Worth.

 

I know all of that. Here's the section from the piece I did on Seattle:

 

 

Sensing that CBS was going to be departing from their Seattle station, days before KSTW and CBS officially announced an affiliation, Bonneville International, the broadcasting arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced a sale of KIRO to the Belo Corporation. Belo had never really owned an independent like KIRO was going to be (then again, news-heavy independents like KIRO and KTVK, which Belo would later own, really weren’t a reality prior to 1994), but it planned to operate one in Seattle, sharing Bonneville’s view that CBS wasn’t likely to remain with channel 7.

 

The relationship, however, never quite worked out. Besides the 11pm news, KSTW’s other newscasts fluctuated in terms of time slots, settling at 6am, 11am and 4pm. Financial results for KSTW were disappointing, disappointing enough to prompt Gaylord to put KSTW on the market in October 1996. Meanwhile, KIRO’s news continued to enjoy the level of success it had as a CBS affiliate.

 

Cox announced its $160 million purchase of KSTW in January 1997, with promises to expand the station’s news output, but channel 11 was not the only station for sale in the market. Belo Corporation had merged with the Providence Journal Company, owner of NBC affiliate KING, which was king of the market. Belo put KIRO up for sale around the same time KSTW went to market, as it could not hang on to both outlets.

The difference in the way that KSTW and KIRO rated was such that the network wanted back with the more successful station since Gaylord was no longer involved.

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TVNewsLover Station Group CEO

TVNewsLover 727

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I know all of that. Here's the section from the piece I did on Seattle:

 

 

The difference in the way that KSTW and KIRO rated was such that the network wanted back with the more successful station since Gaylord was no longer involved.

 

Obviously, CBS's first choice would be to stay with KIRO. If Fox buys it, then they are forced to move. This new hypothetical is different from the situation back in the 90s.
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TVNewsLover Station Group CEO

TVNewsLover 727

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I think Fox would probably trade a market where Tribune doesn't have any stations. Orlando, Tampa, Minneapolis and Detroit are the ones that stick out to me as equivalent to Seattle.

 

Fox's point in wanting in Seattle is because it is an NFC market. All those cities you mention are NFC markets (Orlando is a secondary market for Bucs I believe) so it would defeat the purpose of the trade.
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mvcg66b3r Managing Editor

mvcg66b3r 97

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Okay, I don't know much about the Indianapolis market but how is possible for Tribune to own both the CBS and FOX stations? Aren't their duopoly rules?

 

WXIN was in the Top 4, WTTV was 5th (?), so the FCC let Tribune buy it.

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Samantha Station Group CEO

Samantha 2876

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WXIN was in the Top 4, WTTV was 5th (?), so the FCC let Tribune buy it.

 

You can build a two-Top Four, legal duopoly in several ways:

 

#1. Station was a UPN or WB or CW affiliate. See: Jacksonville (WTEV), Indianapolis (WTTV).

#2. Station was a Big Four outlet already but not high enough in the ratings. This may occur if a Univision outlet does well in the market or if station is new. See: Fresno (Nexstar KGPE and KSEE), Jacksonville (WJXX), Raleigh (WRAZ though Capitol already was operating the station).

#3. Creative intellectual property swapping. See: Honolulu (KGMB).

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mvcg66b3r Managing Editor

mvcg66b3r 97

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You can build a two-Big Four, legal duopoly in several ways:

 

#1. Station was a UPN or WB or CW affiliate. See: Jacksonville (WTEV), Indianapolis (WTTV).

#2. Station was a Big Four outlet already but not high enough in the ratings. This may occur if a Spanish outlet does well in the market or if station is new. See: Fresno (Nexstar KGPE and KSEE), Jacksonville (WJXX), Raleigh (WRAZ though Capitol already was operating the station).

#3. Creative intellectual property swapping. See: Honolulu (KGMB).

 

Fixed.

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Samantha Station Group CEO

Samantha 2876

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Fixed.

 

While certainly it can be genericized, it's far more likely that the interloper is Univision than anything else. Miami, where WSCV was also up there and which almost had WPLG buying WTVJ, probably had that happening as well, but given Miami itself Telemundo and all Spanish stations are pretty strong.

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Thundershock MN News Director

Thundershock MN 169

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I didn't know you could cross-map. If that's the case, then I agree with everything except using the ".2". If I remember correctly, WOIO's translator and main signal are both 19-1's. I would make both of them 4.1 and you can grab whichever 4.1 comes in the best.

First, don't quote me on this but, I'm 99% sure digital translators are required to use the same Virtual Channel/Mapping as the "parent" channel. Translators effectively act as a "pass-through" for the "parent" channel. So, to the best of my understanding I believe the digital translators are simply "passing-through" the PSIP data of the "parent" channel along with the exact same programming...just on a different frequency. Therefore it they both should have the same PSIP Transport Stream ID...this is important I'll elaborate below. That's what you are seeing with WOIO.

 

That said it's generally a generally a good idea to avoid "PSIP Conflicts". WTTV and WTTK are each full power stations in there own right that simulcast the same programming (even though as "satellite stations" they don't have to...but, that's another story.) Therefore, they each have there own unique PSIP Transport Stream ID. If both were mapping to "4.1" a good chunk of the ASTC tuners out there would start to do all sorts of wonky things. For example, if you were a viewer on the very northern fringe of WTTV's signal and were running a scan you might have issues. What would likely happen is the ATSC tuner would pick up and store the data from WTTK first due to it being on RF29. Then, if you happen to be receiving a marginal enough signal from WTTV on RF48 to get a lock the tuner would likely overwrite the stored data it just picked up from WTTK due to them having different PSIP Transport Stream IDs. So, this hypothetical viewer wouldn't see two "4.1's", they would only have one...the marginal signal from WTTV as that is what the ATSC tuner stored...not good.

 

Hopefully, this makes sense. I tried to explain it as succinctly as possible but, I think that explains things. On a selfish sidenote, I wish TripInVA (aka Trip Ericson of RabbitEars.info fame) still posted here at TVNT. There is a good chance he'd be able to explain this a little better then I can and, he could fill in any important points I might be missing. Plus, he'd be a massive source of knowledge for us on the upcoming Incentive Auction...He's working at the FCC now and writing the "TV Study" software that will be used for the repacking.

 

Obviously you haven't seen how KSTP and KSTC in Minneapolis handle it.

 

The digital signal of KSTP contains one subchannel, while that of KSTC contains five. Through the use of virtual channels, KSTC's subchannels are associated with channel 5.

5.1 KSTP-TV ABC

5.2 KSTC-TV independent

5.3 Me-TV

5.4 Antenna TV

5.6 This TV

5.7 Live Well Network

 

5.1's real channel number is 35.1 and is the only one with that number. The rest are all subchannels of PSIP 45.

 

BTW, the KSTP/KSTC arrangement is messy. Don't know what's wrong with 5.1 for KSTP and 45.1-45.5 for the others...

Just to clarify what is coming from each transmitter.

 

KSTP (RF35):

  • 5.1 ABC - HD
  • 5.7 LiveWell -SD
  • 2.1 KTCA/PBS - M/H Mobile
  • 5.1 ABC - M/H Mobile
  • 5.2 Ind. "45 TV" - M/H Mobile
  • 5.6 This TV - M/H Mobile

KSTC (RF45):

  • 5.2 Ind. "45 TV" - HD
  • 5.3 Me TV - SD
  • 5.4 Antenna TV - SD
  • 5.6 This TV - SD

The OCD in me still wishes they mapped KSTC's main channel to 45.1. But, I've gotten used to it. And, now I've got all three duopolies in the market doing the same thing and "neighborhooding" their channels. If you think what KSTP/KTSC is confusing...good luck understanding what KMSP/WFTC is doing now. Let's just say this if your watching "Fox 9" OTA on 9.1 here...your NOT watching a signal coming from KMSP's transmitter.

 

I think their reasoning is that they want to prioritize ABC HD programming so they don't have to compress their HD signal. 5.2 an HD feed of Independent digital KSTC channel 45.2 but virtual channel 5.2. Virtual channels 5.3-7 are SD.

 

Fox NY duopolies kind of do a similar operation but this time the Fox affiliate WNYW is simulcasts an SD feed of MyNetwork affiliate WWOR, likewise WWOR carry an SD feed of WNYW. Fox's logic was that way they could assure that viewers could receive both stations in the event that they could not receive the second. Their logic makes sense until you realize that both stations broadcast from the Empire State Building and god forbid something happened their where the signal was lost they would have no backup but if they had two separate towers their actions would be reasonable.

Nah...KSTP has plenty coming from it's transmitter...1-HD, 1-SD and 4-Mobile. They compress their HD signal a ton...man if you ran into any "HD Snobs" around here (or on the web) they'd tell you ABC is junk it's so compressed. They do use variable bit rates on everything coming from both KSTP & KSTC. But, get this the main HD channel on KSTC (aka 5.2 "45 TV") has a higher bit rate then ABC on KSTP...seriously. :huh: The logic over at Hubbard is they want to give viewers more choices...as they feel that's what the viewers want.

 

WRT, the Fox stations. KMSP/WFTC did the same thing "cross-mapping" their channels up until about a month ago. But, the reason KMSP/WFTC had "cross-mapped" was due to KMSP being on VHF and WFTC being on UHF. I never understood why the New York stations were doing it as they are both on UHF.

 

Anyway, I felt compelled to answer/reply to these posts or clarify items. But, I suppose if we want to continue all this discussion it might be best in a new thread lest this one get "thread-jacked".

 

Will LIN/Media General do well with an independent WISH? Belo and Post-Newsweek/Graham were/are, unlike Young, actual competent station operators devoid of delusions of grandeur, and Media General will - if the merger goes through - be under LIN's management...

LIN'S Management team will be running the "new" Media General post LIN/MG merger.

 

Because of the timing I really thing it would be wise for networks to try to switch affiliates in September prior to the new seasons starting up so home viewer won't be confused by changing of stations mid season. The reason why I state this is simply the number of people who time shift viewing will have to manually reset their season passes on their DVRs (or maybe it's just my TiVo and Comcast box where the series are linked to a channel) considering CBS has been pushing for Live + 7 day ratings which could cause a dip locally.

 

The second reason why I think they should switch in September (ideally they should be notified of the change a year before the switch) is because that is when the new syndication seasons / deals start. Just CBS giving WISH a little over three and a half months was a screwy move because they will be scrambling to fill 13.5 hours during the week days (I'm including one and a half hours of Up To The Minute / CBS Morning News - but they could easily rerun syndicated fair overnight). As you stated they will be struggling to find quality programs and usually some series cannot be replayed more than a certain amount of time in the day.

 

This was just a screwball move by them when LIN was negotiating in good faith. It's not like LIN called off negotiations over so,etching trivial.

First, this isn't directed at you but is more a "general commentary" and I'm using your post as the springboard.

 

Anyway, I've seen this a few times in the thread now but, I fail to see how people think CBS wasn't negotiating in good faith. Just because the parties don't agree and reach an impasse doesn't mean they aren't negotiating in good faith. Let's try this another way and say you are attempting to negotiate a raise (and/or employment agreement renewal) with your employer. They may be willing to negotiate with you in good faith so, you go in and lay out what you are looking for. They rebut with what you feel is a "lowball" offer. You go back and forth but, they refuse to come off their "lowball" position. The employer still thinks it's a fair offer and thinks you're unlikely to leave as you've been with the company for quite some time. You realize they are unlikely to come off their position anytime soon so you decide to test the waters elsewhere as you feel you are worth more. You then find a new employer that is willing to give you what you are looking for so, you leave.

 

How, is that example really any different than what CBS did? Lin was dragging their feet thinking they held all the cards and could "lowball" CBS. Lin likely thought that CBS had no other options and would never leave. Turns out they were wrong. That's the price you pay when negotiating deals that don't have a right of first refusal or aren't in an exclusive negotiating window...the other party could get up and walk away. Most of the time negotiations on new affiliation agreements start a year prior to expiration. Lin knew their deal with CBS was up (on most of their CBS Affiliates) on December 31, 2014...yet they thought would still be fine...only 4+ months from expiration. At some point if CBS feels they aren't making headway they have to look out for their interests and explore moving on. Well, Tribune just happened to be in the final year of their deal with CBS. So, they sit down to start negotiating deal and Tribune being willing to pay what CBS is looking for has Indianapolis fall into their lap.

 

The folks at Lin misjudged their hand big time and lost...that's the price of playing poker.

 

Portland is a slightly bigger market than Indianapolis (#22 vs #26).

 

As I mentioned in Speculatron 9000, KOIN is an LIN CBS affiliate, and KRCW is a Tribune CW affiliate. Hmm...

KOIN's affiliation agreement doesn't expire until September 18, 2016.
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DirtyHarry News Director

DirtyHarry 718

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That said it's generally a generally a good idea to avoid "PSIP Conflicts". WTTV and WTTK are each full power stations in there own right that simulcast the same programming (in accordance with whatever "satellite station" waiver they have.) Therefore, they each have there own unique PSIP Transport Stream ID. If both were mapping to "4.1" a good chunk of the ASTC tuners out there would start to do all sorts of wonky things.

 

I think the spacing of virtual channel 4 should be okay. Indy, Detroit, St. Louis, Columbus and Pittsburgh are all channel 4's in the region and they are all about a 3 hour drive apart. Likewise with the Channel 6's in Indy, Paduchah, Lansing and Columbus, and the 13's in Toledo, Indy, Rockford and Huntington.

 

 

 

 

 

That said it's generally a generally a good idea to avoid "PSIP Conflicts". WTTV and WTTK are each full power stations in there own right that simulcast the same programming (in accordance with whatever "satellite station" waiver they have.) Therefore, they each have there own unique PSIP Transport Stream ID. If both were mapping to "4.1" a good chunk of the ASTC tuners out there would start to do all sorts of wonky things. For example, if you were a viewer on the very northern fringe of WTTV's signal and were running a scan you might have issues. What would likely happen is the ATSC tuner would pick up and store the data from WTTK first due to it being on RF29. Then, if you happen to be receiving a marginal enough signal from WTTV on RF48 to get a lock the tuner would likely overwrite the stored data it just picked up from WTTK due to them having different PSIP Transport Stream IDs. So, this hypothetical viewer wouldn't see two "4.1's", they would only have one...the marginal signal from WTTV as that is what the ATSC tuner stored...not good.

 

 

 

In my experience, that hasn't been true. When WSYX flipped over from RF 13 to RF 48, they ran both channels concurrently for a time and both channels were showing up on my tuner as channel 6-1 without any problem. I would flip from the old 6-1 to the new 6-1 and the turner handled things just fine. I have a Samsung HDTV and a Zenith converter box for my analog TV's. Here's what was playing on the old 6-1:

 

 

Also: I believe WPTD's HD channel (PBS in Dayton) also runs the HD stream on the .2 channel. They moved the WPTO, Oxford stick to Cincinnati and run a different set of programs from that signal. They also took over the operations of WCET in Cincinnati, not to mention all the Kentucky PBS signals. Lots of PBS in the Cincinnati area.

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Thundershock MN News Director

Thundershock MN 169

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In my experience, that hasn't been true. When WSYX flipped over from RF 13 to RF 48, they ran both channels concurrently for a time and both channels were showing up on my tuner as channel 6-1 without any problem. I would flip from the old 6-1 to the new 6-1 and the turner handled things just fine. I have a Samsung HDTV and a Zenith converter box for my analog TV's. Here's what was playing on the old 6-1:

 

There was no conflict. WSYX was operating similar to WOIO in the previous post. I believe they were allowed to operate the new transmitter on RF48 while they transitioned under a STA granted by the FCC. Like a translator, the PID is the same. The tuner should just add it to the tables. You would likely then end up seeing two "6.1's" one from each RF. KTVT did the same thing for three years while they transitioned from RF11 to RF19. WTTV/WTTK have different PID's. So, if they were both to map to "4.1" it's likely a lot of tuners would have issues as they wouldn't know what to do with the data since they have conflicting PID's. It's the reason I have a "9.1" and "9.9" here instead of two "9.1's"...there is 0% chance that a viewer would encounter an issue with their tuner. Hopefully, that makes sense.

 

All that said I actually think this will be a pretty smooth affiliation change.

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rkolsen Station Group CEO

rkolsen 1675

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Just to clarify what is coming from each transmitter.

KSTP (RF35):

 

  • 5.1 ABC - HD
  • 5.7 LiveWell -SD
  • 2.1 KTCA/PBS - M/H Mobile
  • 5.1 ABC - M/H Mobile
  • 5.2 Ind. "45 TV" - M/H Mobile
  • 5.6 This TV - M/H Mobile

KSTC (RF45):

  • 5.2 Ind. "45 TV" - HD
  • 5.3 Me TV - SD
  • 5.4 Antenna TV - SD
  • 5.6 This TV - SD

The OCD in me still wishes they mapped KSTC's main channel to 45.1. But, I've gotten used to it. And, now I've got all three duopolies in the market doing the same thing and "neighborhooding" their channels. If you think what KSTP/KTSC is confusing...good luck understanding what KMSP/WFTC is doing now. Let's just say this if your watching "Fox 9" OTA on 9.1 here...your NOT watching a signal coming from KMSP's transmitter.

 

 

Nah...KSTP has plenty coming from it's transmitter...1-HD, 1-SD and 4-Mobile. They compress their HD signal a ton...man if you ran into any "HD Snobs" around here (or on the web) they'd tell you ABC is junk it's so compressed. They do use variable bit rates on everything coming from both KSTP & KSTC. But, get this the main HD channel on KSTC (aka 5.2 "45 TV") has a higher bit rate then ABC on KSTP...seriously. :huh: The logic over at Hubbard is they want to give viewers more choices...as they feel that's what the viewers want.

 

....

 

Anyway, I've seen this a few times in the thread now but, I fail to see how people think CBS wasn't negotiating in good faith. Just because the parties don't agree and reach an impasse doesn't mean they aren't negotiating in good faith. Let's try this another way and say you are attempting to negotiate a raise (and/or employment agreement renewal) with your employer. They may be willing to negotiate with you in good faith so, you go in and lay out what you are looking for. They rebut with what you feel is a "lowball" offer. You go back and forth but, they refuse to come off their "lowball" position. The employer still thinks it's a fair offer and thinks you're unlikely to leave as you've been with the company for quite some time. You realize they are unlikely to come off their position anytime soon so you decide to test the waters elsewhere as you feel you are worth more. You then find a new employer that is willing to give you what you are looking for so, you leave.

 

How, is that example really any different than what CBS did? Lin was dragging their feet thinking they held all the cards and could "lowball" CBS. Lin likely thought that CBS had no other options and would never leave. Turns out they were wrong. That's the price you pay when negotiating deals that don't have a right of first refusal or aren't in an exclusive negotiating window...the other party could get up and walk away. Most of the time negotiations on new affiliation agreements start a year prior to expiration. Lin knew their deal with CBS was up (on most of their CBS Affiliates) on December 31, 2014...yet they thought would still be fine...only 4+ months from expiration. At some point if CBS feels they aren't making headway they have to look out for their interests and explore moving on. Well, Tribune just happened to be in the final year of their deal with CBS. So, they sit down to start negotiating deal and Tribune being willing to pay what CBS is looking for has Indianapolis fall into their lap.

 

The folks at Lin misjudged their hand big time and lost...that's the price of playing poker.

 

 

KOIN's affiliation agreement doesn't expire until September 18, 2016.

Your right about the bitrate - ABC's primetime picture quality sucks but I attributed that to the lower resolution and the fact that WMAR's local programming here looks like crap and summed it was a crappy encoder.

 

KTRK's ABC bit rate ranges from 7.7-8.7 Mbps well below the minimums that are recommended. KSTC ranges from 9.5-11.5 Mbps.

 

Your right I didn't think of the negotiations that way and thank you for bringing it up.

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The Frog Managing Editor

The Frog 392

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LIN has put together a team to figure out what to do with WISH.

 

 

 

"We look at WISH as an opportunity to work a different model," Sandusky said during a conference call today in which he and Media General CEO George Mahoney updated investors on the merger of their two companies. "One thing is for certain: We absolutely continue to be committed to the community and we continue to be committed to localism, which is a core part of our values and strategies."

 

Sandusky said the new model is a work in progress, but offered no specifics. "It is a little early right now.... We have assembled a strategic team that has experience in running unaffiliated television stations and we’re currently putting our heads together."

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/78618/lin-studying-programming-options-for-wish

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nickp Managing Editor

nickp 294

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Vince Sandusky said that he preferred not to discuss reverse comp or "retrans splits" with the networks given that LIN is still in discussions with CBS regarding affiliational renewals.

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NewsMaster News Director

NewsMaster 226

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It appears that WTTV will be rebranded, tentatively and maybe not surprisingly, as CBS4, according to this job posting.

 

http://fox59.com/2014/09/23/cinema-4d-animator/

 

Also they have many on-air and off-air positions available (and have been for a couple of weeks.)

 

http://fox59.com/jobs-at-fox59/

 

They better have a killer logo. CBS 4 is as bland of a branding as one can come up with.

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