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New CBS O&O Look Coming Soon?


24994J

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On 2/16/2023 at 7:11 PM, ATLNewsExpert said:

Also they could have at least done CBS News North Texas

 

On 2/16/2023 at 7:21 PM, ABC 7 Denver said:

Calling KTVT CBS News Texas makes even less sense. CBS doesn't have enough resources to cover all of Texas. Should have stuck with CBS News DFW.


This isn’t the first time DFW stations used just “Texas”:

 

WBAP: The Texas News (Pre KXAS)

WFAA was “The Spirit of Texas” (not North Texas) - though not in the title of their newscasts

KXAS: The Texas News Channel

KDFW: News 4 Texas

KXAS: Texas News 5


Now is’s 11’s turn to use Texas.

 

But IMHO, streaming on the FAST systems (Pluto, Xumo, Roku, etc.) is probably why - pick up a few eyeballs outside of DFW for additional ad $$…

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3 minutes ago, compubit said:

But IMHO, streaming on the FAST systems (Pluto, Xumo, Roku, etc.) is probably why - pick up a few eyeballs outside of DFW for additional ad $$…

 

This thread went insanely off the rails today, but honestly, THIS is likely the only real reason reason. Could it set them up for other coverage opportunities down the road (figuratively AND literally)? Sure. Is it a simpler, more straight-forward branding route than Dallas-Ft. Worth or DFW? Absolutely. Really, this doesn't feel much deeper than wanting to be a singular, instantly-identifiable source for news in TEXAS.

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16 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

CBS News has already been merged into the O&Os and vice versa; they are in the process of assimilating into each other.

 

More like engaged vs married.

 

Wendy isn’t playing along in the #2 market and their likely largest audience market LA.

 

Full on KCAL branding as the lead horse, marginalizing CBS. And interesting the KCAL set is the most traditional- big desk - and format / talent most consistent vs the throw spaghetti at KPIX. It looks and acts like a lot like a WABC or KABC, and gets to play at 10 for the audience that likes that authoritative feel.

 

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/kcal-news-rebrand-cbs2-los-angeles-1235479093/amp/

 

She knows CBS News isn’t the brand its inflated egos think it is…not taking that gamble in LA wiping out KCBS.

Edited by sfomspphl
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51 minutes ago, sfomspphl said:

 

More like engaged vs married.

 

Wendy isn’t playing along in the #2 market and their likely largest audience market LA.

 

Full on KCAL branding as the lead horse, marginalizing CBS. And interesting the KCAL set is the most traditional- big desk - and format / talent most consistent vs the throw spaghetti at KPIX. It looks and acts like a lot like a WABC or KABC, and gets to play at 10 for the audience that likes that authoritative feel.

 

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/kcal-news-rebrand-cbs2-los-angeles-1235479093/amp/

 

She knows CBS News isn’t the brand its inflated egos think it is…not taking that gamble in LA wiping out KCBS.

KCAL is a temporary situation; Wendy explained outright it was a much stronger brand than “CBS 2” ever was and they had to reconcile both brands (which prior regimes never did) before starting the process of streamlining everything. Odds are impressively high that “CBS Los Angeles” will ultimately subsume the KCAL brand in less than a year, and KCAL itself becomes “CBS Los Angeles+”.

 

It’s like everyone in this thread is just trying to grab a straw at something—the temporary KCAL branding anomaly, the colors in the KDKA newsroom, the temporary usage of WBZ’s full logo in the temporary box logo—just trying to find some exception to this massive rebrand when it was fully laid out to the general public by Wendy herself well over a year ago. And she’s going to wave a magic wand and carve out exceptions to this effort she herself initiated? Please.

 

Next there’s probably going to be something WCCO does that’ll be slightly different from the other stations and people will go, “a ha! Channel numbers and call letters are still alive and well in Paris!” But in the real world, time marches on.

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40 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

KCAL is a temporary situation; Wendy explained outright it was a much stronger brand than “CBS 2” ever was and they had to reconcile both brands (which prior regimes never did) before starting the process of streamlining everything. Odds are impressively high that “CBS Los Angeles” will ultimately subsume the KCAL brand in less than a year, and KCAL itself becomes “CBS Los Angeles+”.

 

I cannot imagine the plan right now is to *temporarily* rename KCBS as KCAL just to drop KCAL less than a year later. The only way this is temporarily is if it is seen to be a failure and they change their minds, or new management comes in and changes course.

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12 minutes ago, Geoffrey said:

 

I cannot imagine the plan right now is to *temporarily* rename KCBS as KCAL just to drop KCAL less than a year later. The only way this is temporarily is if it is seen to be a failure and they change their minds, or new management comes in and changes course.

There was no way WJW was going to keep “ei8ht IS NEWS” for any longer than a year; even if Fox didn’t buy New World, it was always going to become “Fox 8”. (The 1996 news set with the original Fox searchlight duratrans and Fox logos everywhere was obviously designed months before Fox made the purchase, it wasn’t like it came out of thin air!) Ditto with WITI and “SIX IS NEWS”, which only lasted half a year… it was destined to become “Fox 6” but they needed to remove the last traces of Storer-era branding. Which is also what WJW did with “ei8ht IS NEWS”.

 

The plan has always been to make the combined news operation “CBS News Los Angeles”, no ifs, and or buts. “Failure” would be a total reverting to “CBS 2” and “KCAL 9”, and the likelihood that happens is imperceptible.

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1 hour ago, Myron Falwell said:

KCAL is a temporary situation; Wendy explained outright it was a much stronger brand than “CBS 2” ever was and they had to reconcile both brands (which prior regimes never did) before starting the process of streamlining everything. Odds are impressively high that “CBS Los Angeles” will ultimately subsume the KCAL brand in less than a year, and KCAL itself becomes “CBS Los Angeles+”.

 

It’s like everyone in this thread is just trying to grab a straw at something—the temporary KCAL branding anomaly, the colors in the KDKA newsroom, the temporary usage of WBZ’s full logo in the temporary box logo—just trying to find some exception to this massive rebrand when it was fully laid out to the general public by Wendy herself well over a year ago. And she’s going to wave a magic wand and carve out exceptions to this effort she herself initiated? Please.

 

Next there’s probably going to be something WCCO does that’ll be slightly different from the other stations and people will go, “a ha! Channel numbers and call letters are still alive and well in Paris!” But in the real world, time marches on.

Not to belabor this topic, but this is a terrible hot take. KCAL is the dominant, more recognizable brand in LA, compared to KCBS/CBS 2. I live in the market. Not sure why KCAL would fade into the background in a year or so in favor of the less recognizable CBS Los Angeles brand. KCAL is synonomous with car chases, breaking news coverage and Pat Harvey. From where I sit, KCAL is doing a great job with their rebranding and I hope they have a new resurgence in the ratings.

Edited by FiveNews
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23 minutes ago, FiveNews said:

Not to belabor this topic, but this is a terrible hot take. KCAL is the dominant, more recognizable brand in LA, compared to KCBS/CBS 2. I live in the market. Not sure why KCAL would fade into the background in a year or so in favor of the less recognizable CBS Los Angeles brand.

Which is why they took the "KCAL" brand and ran with it for the transitional phase to "CBS News Los Angeles". In due time, they will be marketing "CBS" and "KCAL" as one and the same, then all they literally need to do is swap out "KCAL" with "CBS" on the set on the set and in the graphics system. These things are literally not set in stone and meant to be immovable, as evidenced by KYW tacking on "CBS News Philadelphia" onto their dying 2016 graphics package.

 

In what feels like a point that's being belabored, I don't think much of anyone will be confused when "KCAL News Los Angeles" becomes "CBS News Los Angeles". It'll probably make it easier for people to find online, especially when KCAL's online stream already shows both "CBS" and "KCAL" branding.

 

That's not a hot take. That's reality. 

23 minutes ago, FiveNews said:

KCAL is synonomous with car chases, breaking news coverage and Pat Harvey.

Pat Harvey is an industry legend and a pillar for the station. Car chases can be seen on practically every other station in the market because apparently that's what viewers like to see.

27 minutes ago, FiveNews said:

From where I sit, KCAL is doing a great job with their rebranding and I hope they have a new resurgence in the ratings.

Do traditional ratings really matter anymore in the burgeoning era of streaming? Not even executives think so.

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41 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

Which is why they took the "KCAL" brand and ran with it for the transitional phase to "CBS News Los Angeles". In due time, they will be marketing "CBS" and "KCAL" as one and the same, then all they literally need to do is swap out "KCAL" with "CBS" on the set on the set and in the graphics system.

 

Other than pure speculation, is there any evidence to indicate that the KCAL branding is transitional?

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1 hour ago, bostonmediaguy said:

Other than pure speculation, is there any evidence to indicate that the KCAL branding is transitional?

Where's the evidence that it ISN'T transitional? If it wasn't transitional, they would have renamed the streaming side as "KCAL News Los Angeles" and dispensed with the "CBS" part entirely! You wouldn't have disparate brands between on-air and streaming!

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36 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

Where's the evidence that it ISN'T transitional? If it wasn't transitional, they would have renamed the streaming side as "KCAL News Los Angeles" and dispensed with the "CBS" part entirely! You wouldn't have disparate brands between on-air and streaming!

 

CBS and Paramount+

NBC and Peacock

Fox and Tubi

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News branding aside, it'd be incredibly shocking if they were to completely dissolve KCAL's identity. Look at all the FOX duopolies- the sister stations each took the name of (all together now...) the more dominant brand. 

 

However, we each know about as much as the next person regarding the situation, which is to say- we know nothing, aside from what we're independently inferring from articles. None of us know, for sure, which O&O is relaunching next. KCBS/KCAL could absolutely swap out logos and VO's in a year's time (though the concept of "transitional mic flags" seems a bit far fetched). What I know since moving here nearly two years ago is I developed a preference for KCBS, I love that they finally combined newscasts instead of having separate branding, and Pat Harvey is an absolute legend.

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1 hour ago, Myron Falwell said:

Where's the evidence that it ISN'T transitional?

 

I respect the hell out of your opinions and insight, but that's not fair, and you know it. The average observer sees new mic flags, new graphics, and hell, even new jackets, caps, etc. That looks "permanent" enough, no? It's not the duty of said observer to prove that the station will pivot again, so soon. To me, phasing out KCAL in 2023 would be silly, and lasting into 2025 would have made this a permanent change, in my view, as it will have lasted way longer than less significant/more "permanent" rebrands.

 

Let's see what happens in 2024, at the earliest.

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42 minutes ago, PhillyWatch said:

News branding aside, it'd be incredibly shocking if they were to completely dissolve KCAL's identity. Look at all the FOX duopolies- the sister stations each took the name of (all together now...) the more dominant brand.

None of the news departments at the Chris-Craft stations were going to survive because Fox’s intent was to eliminate competitors in their existing O&O markets, the lone exception being KMSP, and they flipped that station from UPN to Fox. Those stations became little more than shells and wastes of spectrum.

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KCAL might honestly be the only one where the "transitional" branding can function long-term. I do think it's just a matter of time until the "CBS News" portion gets put back into the OTA broadcasts.

 

The rest of them, though? There's no way something like the WCBS and WJZ lockups, with the current logo in the box next to "CBS News New York/Baltimore," are viable long-term. The "channel number logo" gets shoved into a small box in the corner, dominated by "CBS News (location)". Two distinct logos advertising the same product. Same goes for the call signs. They accomplish very little, simply existing to reinforce the fact that this is the local news and not the visually identical network news. They're not even following the way the stations currently use their call signs, if the KDKA image is any indication... They want you to "Expect More from KDKA-TV News" for a reason. KDKA will keep that call sign box until the day someone on KDKA radio decides to say something controversial again. Some of these call signs aren't viable long-term because CBS management made a huge mistake not requiring call sign changes on the majority of the former radio cluster.

 

As for stations buying stuff with the logo, KPIX is still using mic flags with the CBS 5/CBSN Bay Area branding on them. Just think of how good that square "KPIX" box would look on a mic flag... But maybe there's a reason they haven't bothered to order new ones yet? Waiting until they can get away with simply putting "CBS News Bay Area" on them? Perhaps.

 

Why do I think the "call sign box" is a transitional brand? It looks and plays the part. It's one size fits most, grafted onto a different logo in an uninspired manner. It's also not universal, and only seems to be rolling out at stations that have some kind of long-term branding history using their call sign. 

 

@ChesapeakeTVrecently shared a news article in the Discord that had some interesting numbers in it.

 

Quote

In a picture of how people get their news, 58% said online, 31% said television, 7% said radio and 3% mentioned printed newspapers or magazines.

For members of Gen Z, aged 18- to 25-years-old, 88% said they got their news online, the survey found.

CBS knows that people by and large (over half of all people, at this point!) are moving away from over-the-air television being how they primarily consume local news. This is why Detroit was launched as a "streaming first" operation. If this company truly felt that call signs and channel numbers were still relevant to today's consumers, we'd be seeing them on WWJ CBS 62 News Detroit.

 

Those boxes are transitional. This is a fact. The question is, how long will this transition last? At this rate, what relevance will channel numbers or call signs have in three years? Five years? Ten? The digital renascence is here, folks. 

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2 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

Where's the evidence that it ISN'T transitional? If it wasn't transitional, they would have renamed the streaming side as "KCAL News Los Angeles" and dispensed with the "CBS" part entirely! You wouldn't have disparate brands between on-air and streaming!

 

The CBS News Los Angeles brand already exists right now. Yes, not as the primary brand for KCAL, but through streaming and its digital coverage on the website. 

 

As for on-air, as I stated before, the call letters and the channel numbers are gonna vary based on location through CBS Brand research. 

 

We have research in each and every one of our markets,” said McMahon. “We’ve tested this to a place where we feel we make a decision that’s most aligned with our audiences and our viewers.”

 

“In some markets, viewers may see channel numbers remain while in others – such as at KPIX in San Francisco – stations will lean into call letters as the primary moniker alongside the location name.” 

 

That's according to the specific source of unknown name. So, if they did the research, why would they reverse it now, or in a year's time for one station? Now, I'm not the manager at KCAL News, so you never know, but based on what they want to do now....maybe this is it. 

8 minutes ago, Weeters said:

 

@ChesapeakeTV

Those boxes are transitional. This is a fact. The question is, how long will this transition last? At this rate, what relevance will channel numbers or call signs have in three years? Five years? Ten? The digital renascence is here, folks. 

 

Agreed. 

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Expanding my thoughts on this entire CBS News Local rebrand. 

 

Even though this entire thing of rebranding all newscasts from random names, like CBS (Number) News, Eyewitness News, (Call letters) News, to a simple CBS News Local is a good thing to me, I now think it may not be good enough. 

 

To me, I now think that if you are doing this entire rebrand with the goal of having a local to national approach, I think the local newscast should be able to match the national newscast. 

 

For example, the local news organization brand should remain CBS News Local. But for example in New York in the mornings, the newscast should be called "CBS New York Mornings," just like the national "CBS Mornings," and in the evening, like at 6:00pm, it should be called "CBS New York Evening News," like the CBS Evening News, or to be short "CBS New York Evenings." 

 

And not only have it renamed, the local newscasts should also have the same quality production as the national. I'm not saying change the set, or change the way reports are done. But rather try to make it feel more like I'm watching a national newscast in the local segway, instead of being the cheap quality that people have been used to for so many long years. 

 

It feels smart to do that as not only you'll help unify your local to national approach even more, but it can also be like a smooth transition and segway to the national newscast as well. 

 

I'm sure as alot of people can tell, they're not doing that. I'm probably sure that some are gonna say, so you want it to be the way that BBC News or Global News does it. Well, why not? 

 

Give me a bit of international flare into my newscast. Give me something fresh and new to watch in my newscast, and not just the same boring, out of order, un-unified approach. 

 

The way that the current roll-out of the new brand is working may be good. But I feel like there could be so much more than just calling the local newscast based on your news organization all the time, and having the same graphics system, the same music, etc. 

Edited by NewEgg00
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On 2/18/2023 at 10:35 AM, Myron Falwell said:
On 2/18/2023 at 9:49 AM, sfomspphl said:

KCAL is a temporary situation; Wendy explained outright it was a much stronger brand than “CBS 2” ever was and they had to reconcile both brands (which prior regimes never did) before starting the process of streamlining everything. Odds are impressively high that “CBS Los Angeles” will ultimately subsume the KCAL brand in less than a year, and KCAL itself becomes “CBS Los Angeles+”.


That’s to confusing for viewers you’re factoring CBS, KCAL, and the streaming app, and network news. KCAL News or KCAL News on CBS Los Angeles would sound better.

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On 2/18/2023 at 1:28 PM, 24994J said:

 

I respect the hell out of your opinions and insight, but that's not fair, and you know it. The average observer sees new mic flags, new graphics, and hell, even new jackets, caps, etc. That looks "permanent" enough, no? It's not the duty of said observer to prove that the station will pivot again, so soon. To me, phasing out KCAL in 2023 would be silly, and lasting into 2025 would have made this a permanent change, in my view, as it will have lasted way longer than less significant/more "permanent" rebrands.

 

Let's see what happens in 2024, at the earliest.

 

Yes less than a year is unlikely and they even redirected the @CBSLA youtube to @KCAL. They pulled out the likeness of Jerry Dunphy not Cronkite and Rather for the launch. 

 

I think KCAL is a part of LA insider lexicon like “LAX.” It’s also unique as a two syllable brand. Much easier to repeat to others when talking than say KTLA or CBS LA (over twice as many syllables).

 

We’re all human and those factors are first principles. 

 

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, CircleWXYZ said:

I wonder what’s next.

 

 

I would refer to this topic:

 

Why? Because, it's already been known what stations are rebranded as. All of them are known as CBS Local. 

 

It's just up to them if they want to keep the call letters or or numbers on top of it, and that all will be rebranded by Spring. 

 

The transition started last year, when the stations refreshed the website with the new names. You'll see the new station names on there. 

 

So I don't think it's necessary to guess when we already have the answer right in front of us. 

 

Tidbit: CBS Local is not a name I made up, by the way:

https://www.cbsnews.com/cbslocal/

 

Edited by NewEgg00
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On 2/10/2023 at 10:16 AM, CircleWXYZ said:

Sorry, I tried to make this my own comment but I wasn't able to. Anyway, I wanna know why isn't there a time and temperature bug?

 

 

Yes, we wanna know! I'm actually looking forward to th

Sorry, I tried to make this my own comment but I wasn't able to. Anyway, I wanna know why isn't there a time and temperature bug?

 

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