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New CBS O&O Look Coming Soon?


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4 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

Thus, I expect the network to pressure the major chains—Gray, Nexstar, Cox, Sinclair, Tegna** and Scripps—to adopt these branding conventions on their CBS affiliates wholesale, which will set up an interesting confrontation between the groups and the network that @Weetershas been predicting on the discord for awhile. (“Why should we have to brand our stations as ‘CBS’ and act like the network owns us when we can fall back on NewsNation, the CW and Antenna?”)

 

** Fate of said company still TBD.

Just curious, in what ways could a network pressure its affiliates to that extent without completely alienating the station groups? Granted, the station groups need the networks more than the networks need them, but given that many CBS affiliates are part of duopolies (ex: KGMB, WTOL, KPHO), I’m not even sure CBS would want to go that far.

 

That said, unified branding somewhat remedies the 1994 switch that still affects CBS and its stations today. As you said, it’s the norm in nearly every other country, and it makes sense in a world that prioritizes streaming. Nobody looks for “channel 2” on YouTube TV or online; they look for CBS.

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There's a rumble in them there Rockies...

 

https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/cbs-news-colorado-announces-new-community-journalism-initiative

 

KCNC CBS News Colorado is:

 

* Shifting to the community journalism model (as is being implemented in Detroit and hinted at in New York)

* Adding a 9am and a 4pm news hour (the 9am is a half-hour on TV plus an extra streaming half-hour)

* Starting September 12

 

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/cbs-news-colorado-announces-new-initiative-additional-newscasts/?fbclid=IwAR1fZUYQHbzc1nUCY5vuxQqHsJiPJmpCvUTeEAaDL8qg5mPbYRydlSgM2sk

Edited by Samantha
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18 minutes ago, Samantha said:

There's a rumble in them there Rockies...

 

https://www.tvtechnology.com/news/cbs-news-colorado-announces-new-community-journalism-initiative

 

KCNC CBS News Colorado is:

 

* Shifting to the community journalism model (as is being implemented in Detroit and hinted at in New York)

* Adding a 9am and a 4pm news hour

* Starting September 12

itshappening.gif

image.thumb.png.c3661708e3649b8f204f51fbe3e73004.png

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11 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

Or “CBS (name of city/region)”. The way CBS is pushing this across the chain, I expect them to push the non-owned affiliates to go in the same direction, either as “CBS” or “CBS (city/region)”.

 

It’s something that I’ve debated @channel2 on in the discord as she values the brand integrity of the affiliates and the legacy brands of the O&Os, which I totally get. At the same time, harmonization is not new, from the time ABC had their O&Os all adopt the same Circle 7 in 1962, to when NBC pushed the same news sets throughout their chain in the 1970s to when CBS had their affiliates use Rockwell as their CG typeface in the 1980s.

 

The only difference here is the presumed excising of the channel number and retiring of call letters as brands in favor of a unified approach. It’s revolutionary in US broadcasting but is so commonplace elsewhere. Moreover, CBS has a clear and obvious brand issue with KDKA, WBZ, KPIX, WCCO and to a lesser extent KYW as stations that have to share a branding with their onetime radio sisters. It’s in theory not bad unless the radio station gets bad publicity a la Wendy Bell flaming out at KDKA 1020 and KDKA-TV has to issue statements that they had nothing to do with Wendy’s employment. It’s an awkward licensing agreement between Audacy, iHeart and Beasley Les Moonves made that never should have happened (but at the same time everyone would be grousing at KDKA 1020, the fabled “first radio station”, being forced to change their call sign. Look at the awkwardness of KOMO 1000 being forced to rename itself KNWN).

 

Moreover, CBS going with a unified “CBS” branding solves issues with brand awareness that have dogged the network since 1994, especially in Detroit. It’s also why I see them pushing the renaming before “CBS News Detroit” launches, to help get the marketing campaign underway and help to better promote the news service. It also helps the O&O chain’s laggards—WFOR, KTVT, WBBM and WCBS—a chance to start anew, they literally have nothing to lose. The chain’s successful stations—WCCO, KCNC, WJZ, KDKA and to an extent WBZ—will handle it in a transitional way, but the viewers will adapt. I highly doubt anyone in Pittsburgh proper is going to be no longer watching KDKA simply because they no longer call themselves “KDKA-TV 2”.

 

Thus, I expect the network to pressure the major chains—Gray, Nexstar, Cox, Sinclair, Tegna** and Scripps—to adopt these branding conventions on their CBS affiliates wholesale, which will set up an interesting confrontation between the groups and the network that @Weetershas been predicting on the discord for awhile. (“Why should we have to brand our stations as ‘CBS’ and act like the network owns us when we can fall back on NewsNation, the CW and Antenna?”)

 

** Fate of said company still TBD.

 

KCNC has been calling itself "CBS 4" since 2003 (and switched from "News 4" to "CBS 4 News" in 2005), so it's not that big a leap. It wouldn't be the first time they had to adapt to a longstanding part of their identity being dropped (they had to drop the KOA calls because GE let Belo keep them for the radio station).

 

But I do think trying to force the major affiliate groups to drop, in some cases, decades' worth of brand recognition and give up at least the appearance of an autonomous newsroom potentially problematic. There are a lot of people who are still, almost 20 years later, distrustful towards CBS News (rightly or not) over their handling of the Killian documents. Plus if CBS News gets into hot water again, why make it harder to distance yourself from the network? The O&Os have every reason to align themselves with the network, being owned by them and aggressively branded with the Eyemark and "CBS" visually or verbally. But if your newsroom is independent from the network, why act like it's not? Wasn't the longstanding "A CBS AFFILIATE" marker meant to indicate exactly that?

 

Also, it sounds eerily similar to NBC's failed gambit to make Young sell KRON to them at a loss. "Call yourself 'NBC 4' and pay us $10 million a year or we're pulling our affiliation."

 

The alignment of the O&Os with the network also serves another purpose I haven't seen theorized: It helps CBS News look like it's "in touch" with large swathes of the country. Over the last decade or so, the national news media seems to have retrenched into a handful of large metropolitan strongholds: New York, LA, San Francisco, Washington, maybe Chicago. Touting a presence in places like Detroit or Pittsburgh or Baltimore or Denver is huge, especially considering the national media's disinvestment in the Rust Belt and general ignorance of the Intermountain West.

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1 hour ago, channel2 said:

But I do think trying to force the major affiliate groups to drop, in some cases, decades' worth of brand recognition and give up at least the appearance of an autonomous newsroom potentially problematic. There are a lot of people who are still, almost 20 years later, distrustful towards CBS News (rightly or not) over their handling of the Killian documents. Plus if CBS News gets into hot water again, why make it harder to distance yourself from the network? The O&Os have every reason to align themselves with the network, being owned by them and aggressively branded with the Eyemark and "CBS" visually or verbally. But if your newsroom is independent from the network, why act like it's not? Wasn't the longstanding "A CBS AFFILIATE" marker meant to indicate exactly that?

While there are potential problems, it may be worth the risk given that the more successful O&Os are exceptions, not the rule. Also, CBS has changed significantly since the Killian fiasco. CBS and Dan Rather have had nothing to do with each other for nearly 20 years. If CBS News gets into hot water again on the national level, there will always be people who harass their local CBS affiliate over something the national network did, regardless of station branding.
 

Also as you alluded to, KCNC’s identity has been that of a standard CBS O&O since 2003, and they no longer have any real local identity to speak of anyway. This really isn’t much of a change on their end.

1 hour ago, channel2 said:

Also, it sounds eerily similar to NBC's failed gambit to make Young sell KRON to them at a loss. "Call yourself 'NBC 4' and pay us $10 million a year or we're pulling our affiliation."

IIRC, that had more to do with KRON’s habit of preempting shows than a branding issue.

1 hour ago, channel2 said:

The alignment of the O&Os with the network also serves another purpose I haven't seen theorized: It helps CBS News look like it's "in touch" with large swathes of the country. Over the last decade or so, the national news media seems to have retrenched into a handful of large metropolitan strongholds: New York, LA, San Francisco, Washington, maybe Chicago. Touting a presence in places like Detroit or Pittsburgh or Baltimore or Denver is huge, especially considering the national media's disinvestment in the Rust Belt and general ignorance of the Intermountain West.

I mentioned this in the “WBZ Rebranding Newscasts” thread, but that’s a big component of this. Even if some of CBS’ more successful stations in medium-size markets (ex: Baltimore, Pittsburgh) lose their local identities, they will make the national network more relevant in those markets. You mentioned the difference in viewer trust between CBS News and the local affiliates, and CBS is well aware of this. Unifying national and local brands can be a small step in remedying that issue. The CBS O&Os can add value to the national news operation, and if the CBS News brand is more ubiquitous, more viewers might begin to trust the national network in the same way they trust their local station.

 

It should be noted that WCCO appears to be launching the new look with their own local branding, although that’s more than likely a transitional thing.

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On 8/29/2022 at 6:11 PM, nycnewsjunkie said:

I wish I snapped a picture, but I’m in Philly right now and I saw a KYW talent promo w/ Ukee Washington after tonight’s Evening News. It ends with the “CBS3” and “CBS News Philadelphia” logos, with no mention of Eyewitness News. They’re going full send on brand standardization.

 

I didn’t think they’d actually do this at first either, and I’m very much in favor of local identities being kept. That said, on many levels, this makes sense. As many others here have pointed out better than I ever could, most CBS-owned stations in large markets do not stand out. WCBS and KPIX already look bland, KYW and WBBM have been mismanaged into instability, and KCBS… need I say more? I don’t think a unified branding will make those stations ratings powerhouses or anything, but it would at least tie them to the network’s news division.

 

Also, to answer your question, there is no longer any need to differentiate between the network and streaming. That’s the whole point. If CBS wants to really prioritize streaming, a great way to do that is to unify both linear and streaming brands.

Agreed on all points.  Considering the latest figures on measurements of who gets their TV via cable or satellite and who by Internet streaming,  it's about even.  It's probably not worth bothering with for anchors to say "... and also streaming on CBS News (market location)

 

Aren't the KYW and KPIX "Eyewitness News" brandings half-century-old holdovers from their Westinghouse ownership?  I'm in California so I am familiar with the latter,  and I'm amazed that it keeps its old Westinghouse "5" logo.  

KPIX has just made a seismic anchor shift, by they way, and local media pundits say it's for the better.    Agreed about KCBS and KCAL,  and maybe it's not so much bungled as simply shrunk. The staff is a skeleton crew.

 

I always preface my comments here with "I'm just a viewer and not in the biz"  but I could not agree more about the idea that local branding is still important,  and , at least, a channel number to connect people to their local station,  a button to put a finger on the remote.  Or maybe that's archaic in the era of YouTube TV and Hulu, where you just choose the show you want.

 

 

 

 

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17 hours ago, Nick said:

KPIX has just made a seismic anchor shift, by they way, and local media pundits say it's for the better.

Not sure if I’m going to like these solo anchor shows at 3, 6, 7 and 11pm

 

they really need to hire another weather person. 3 main full time personal isn’t enough especially if one is out on vacation or sick. 
 

the weekend weather anchor already has to do double duty 6 and 7am then 5, 6 and 11pm

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2 hours ago, Briella said:

That's wild, they must loan it out to other stations. WWL (which is a Tegna CBS affiliate) has used eyewitness news for decades.

KYW in Cleveland (now WKYC) was the first station to use the EWN name in 1959, so Westinghouse had the first-use service mark. To keep it active, they might bury it in KYW station promos not unlike what WAGA has done for decades under Fox ownership. (“Be an Eyewitness to News on CBS News Philadelphia!”)

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22 minutes ago, Ryan said:

I'm just wondering who will be the first station to debut the new graphics and when?


Likely WCCO. They’re debuting a new 4pm newscast on Monday and it looks like it’s using the prospective new graphics.

Edited by Georgie56
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13 hours ago, Georgie56 said:

I saw that in a previous comment but I wasn't sure. I thought WCCO had a 4pm newscast? But ok, I'll actually watch on their Livestream and see what I think, but I think we all will be watching.
Likely WCCO. They’re debuting a new 4pm newscast on Monday and it looks like it’s using the prospective new graphics.

 

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13 hours ago, Georgie56 said:


Likely WCCO. They’re debuting a new 4pm newscast on Monday and it looks like it’s using the prospective new graphics.

The 4pm has been running since last Thursday from the State Fair (big deal up here!). Tuesday should originate from the studio.

 

To make the case for CCO possibly not being the first, the stations are so preoccupied with their State Fair studios I wonder how much time they have to work on anything else over the 12 day run?

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2 hours ago, GodfreyGR said:

The 4pm has been running since last Thursday from the State Fair (big deal up here!). Tuesday should originate from the studio.

 

They've made clear that the temporary 4pm show they have now is not a newscast. It's an hour-long show devoted to the State Fair and nothing else. 

 

The actual newscast launches Monday, Sept. 5. You can see in this full promo the use of TT Norms and glimpses of the prospective new graphics on their set's video walls that look nothing like the outgoing package. Also, notice how there is a lack of channel number in the title of the show.

 


Also, if you look here, you’ll see that WCCO has no newscasts scheduled at their State Fair studios for it’s last day on Sept. 5.

Edited by Georgie56
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13 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

And WWJ-TV has gone all-in as "CBS Detroit" (h/t @DetroitTVNews)

CBS Detroit 2022 Logo.png

wwj_dr_phil.jpg

Maybe it’s me, but this version of the logo looks a bit awkward. IMO they should’ve kept the logo horizontal and made it much smaller, kind of like how CBS Sports does with their logo placements. That’s a nitpick though; most people won’t (and shouldn’t) care and I’m sure they’ll make adjustments as time goes on.

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On 8/30/2022 at 9:37 AM, Myron Falwell said:

Or “CBS (name of city/region)”. The way CBS is pushing this across the chain, I expect them to push the non-owned affiliates to go in the same direction, either as “CBS” or “CBS (city/region)”.

 

It’s something that I’ve debated @channel2 on in the discord as she values the brand integrity of the affiliates and the legacy brands of the O&Os, which I totally get. At the same time, harmonization is not new, from the time ABC had their O&Os all adopt the same Circle 7 in 1962, to when NBC pushed the same news sets throughout their chain in the 1970s to when CBS had their affiliates use Rockwell as their CG typeface in the 1980s.

 

The only difference here is the presumed excising of the channel number and retiring of call letters as brands in favor of a unified approach. It’s revolutionary in US broadcasting but is so commonplace elsewhere. Moreover, CBS has a clear and obvious brand issue with KDKA, WBZ, KPIX, WCCO and to a lesser extent KYW as stations that have to share a branding with their onetime radio sisters. It’s in theory not bad unless the radio station gets bad publicity a la Wendy Bell flaming out at KDKA 1020 and KDKA-TV has to issue statements that they had nothing to do with Wendy’s employment. It’s an awkward licensing agreement between Audacy, iHeart and Beasley Les Moonves made that never should have happened (but at the same time everyone would be grousing at KDKA 1020, the fabled “first radio station”, being forced to change their call sign. Look at the awkwardness of KOMO 1000 being forced to rename itself KNWN).

 

Moreover, CBS going with a unified “CBS” branding solves issues with brand awareness that have dogged the network since 1994, especially in Detroit. It’s also why I see them pushing the renaming before “CBS News Detroit” launches, to help get the marketing campaign underway and help to better promote the news service. It also helps the O&O chain’s laggards—WFOR, KTVT, WBBM and WCBS—a chance to start anew, they literally have nothing to lose. The chain’s successful stations—WCCO, KCNC, WJZ, KDKA and to an extent WBZ—will handle it in a transitional way, but the viewers will adapt. I highly doubt anyone in Pittsburgh proper is going to be no longer watching KDKA simply because they no longer call themselves “KDKA-TV 2”.

 

Thus, I expect the network to pressure the major chains—Gray, Nexstar, Cox, Sinclair, Tegna** and Scripps—to adopt these branding conventions on their CBS affiliates wholesale, which will set up an interesting confrontation between the groups and the network that @Weetershas been predicting on the discord for awhile. (“Why should we have to brand our stations as ‘CBS’ and act like the network owns us when we can fall back on NewsNation, the CW and Antenna?”)

 

** Fate of said company still TBD.

The only Gray Media station that can EASILY fit the new Branding conventions is KMOV in STL, gives them their "O&O goodness" full time back to that station for the first time since '86 when they've became KMOV from KMOX.

 

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3 hours ago, groupwfan said:

The only Gray Media station that can EASILY fit the new Branding conventions is KMOV in STL, gives them their "O&O goodness" full time back to that station for the first time since '86 when they've became KMOV from KMOX.

 

 

When it comes to CBS affiliates beyond the 14 O&O markets, the number of markets (excluding same-market satellites) owned or controlled by company:

 

Gray - 55

Nexstar - 43

Sinclair - 23

Tegna - 15

Scripps - 11

Allen - 5

NP&G - 5

Morgan Murphy - 4

Others - 35 (none with more than three each)

 

Can they really blackmail them that much?

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With a station like KCNC, that really hasn’t had a stable brand, there’s really nothing to lose with CBS’ latest branding scheme. But for a station with stability and a known local brand, it doesn’t. I know there some that think KDKA isn’t special, but there is a joke about the visitor to Pittsburgh who asks who “Katie Kaye” is because they keeping hearing Katie Kaye (KDKA) said…

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46 minutes ago, jd285 said:

The YouTube channel “Mike” has posted a video of what seems to be the the new CBS O&O graphics. Largely mirrors the CBS News Streaming look. 

 

That could easily be used on some non-O&Os. (especially WDJT in Milwaukee/Green Bay; as they're the only Weigel owned station to use the current O&O GFX) 

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