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Weigel is launching MeTV Plus


CircleSeven

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I guess this is their answer to Nexstar's Rewind TV......

 

From Feder, Weigel is launching MeTV Plus beginning May 15.

 

The programming will be very similar to the parent MeTV, but it will include late night repeat of the "Toon In" morning show.

 

As Feder explained:

Quote

Weekday programming will consist mainly of sitcoms and cop shows, with evenings featuring “Vega$,” “Hawaii Five-0” and “Mission: Impossible.” Late nights will include a rebroadcast of MeTV’s “Toon In with Me” (the morning cartoon show hosted by Bill Leff) at 11 p.m. followed by “Comedy Classics” (The Three Stooges, Laurel & Hardy and The Little Rascals) at midnight.

 

The new diginet will replace Bounce TV on WCIU 26.5 (and likely WMLW 49.2 as well).

 

Sad they can't call it this for obvious reasons.........

WMEU-CA_Logo.png

 

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I wonder how Laff will fare when MeTV Plus and Rewind TV are both up and running.  Laff seems to be more limited than ever with its slate, some of which seems to be heading to the new Rewind.

 

I think Me just wants to keep itself from losing out to Antenna.  The two seem to be the top channels among subchannels nationwide.

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It's obvious Weigel is launching MeTV+ to try to take the shine off of Rewind TV. There is no other reason why they're doing it. And I don't think they needed to - since MeTV is #1 of its kind, and they already have Decades to air other shows (that is if Weigel and CBS haven't forgotten about it already; they might as well disband it).

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Surprised it won’t be on all the Weigel stations at launch, as opposed to adding later, as they’re planning to do. They just launched stations in Dallas and Houston for instance and this would be a good addition. 

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1 hour ago, Action Newsroom said:

It's obvious Weigel is launching MeTV+ to try to take the shine off of Rewind TV. There is no other reason why they're doing it. And I don't think they needed to - since MeTV is #1 of its kind, and they already have Decades to air other shows (that is if Weigel and CBS haven't forgotten about it already; they might as well disband it).

They're been trying to get it off the ground for years, and now that they're building a station base, why not? At least now I know what'll be replacing Bounce in Milwaukee (since it went to WTMJ and WPXE...thus it's been on three channels the last month).

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Weigel's dominance could be in question if station owners opt to choose their own in-house options over their programming. This is especially the case with many Nexstar stations that acquired MeTV under prior owners (mostly Media General).  In many places, Weigel starting their own stations is helping, but the diginets coming under ownership of the channels that run them could hurt Weigel in the long run.

 

Also, stations are literally maxed out with diginets, unless they get carved up even more, resulting in worse picture quality.  It's almost like some of them have to go OTT to serve areas they can't get OTA clearance.  Sinclair is already doing this, and Scripps (Katz) is headed this way.   As for Nexstar................

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2 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

They're been trying to get it off the ground for years, and now that they're building a station base, why not?

But to officially announce it so soon after its competitor announces a similar network? Thats incredibly suspect. You just can't call it  a coincidence.

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3 minutes ago, Action Newsroom said:

But to officially announce it so soon after its competitor announces a similar network? Thats incredibly suspect. You just can't call it  a coincidence.

A little, certainly. But Weigel's known since mid-January their stations would be losing Bounce and something had to be put on in its place.

 

I don't know how long WITI's Antenna affiliation will last yet, but soon Nexstar is going to need a home in Milwaukee for that network when FTS adds their subs to WITI and Weigel has to take advantage of that instability. Don't forget that the channel 49 license was bought by Weigel specifically to use main-channel coverage of MeTV to make Retro TV a  public-domain joke when WITI took it.

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2 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

A little, certainly. But Weigel's known since mid-January their stations would be losing Bounce and something had to be put on in its place.

I did not. Maybe that's it. 

 

5 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

I don't know how long WITI's Antenna affiliation will last yet, but soon Nexstar is going to need a home in Milwaukee for that network when FTS adds their subs to WITI and Weigel has to take advantage of that instability. Don't forget that the channel 49 license was bought by Weigel specifically to use main-channel coverage of MeTV to make Retro TV a  public-domain joke when WITI took it.

Don't know what you mean by that, but okay.

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4 hours ago, Megatron81 said:

I could see WLLA would pick it up since they have MeTV as .2 and no one else in this market would pick it up.

I imagine WPLG over here will scoop it up since it already has MeTV. They'll just move H&I down the order. 

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10 minutes ago, KS-IL-IA said:

Chicago locks it in place, bouncing Bounce.

 

https://t.co/eZNinMaC6o?amp=1

 

Which was established in the first post.

 

But really, it'll expand beyond Chicago and Phoenix, if it's a success. Until then, no need to speculate on where MeTV Plus will land in other markets. That could be months, or even years away.

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11 hours ago, johnothy said:

Hearst stations could pick it up as a .3 channel.  Most of their stations don't carry any other subchannels but MeTV on .2 currently.

WPTV currently carries MeTV on 5.2, and it is in a market with a Hearst station for a rival, WPBF, carrying EstrellaTV on 25.2 and True Crime on 25.3. WPTV, meanwhile, could replace Laff on 5.3 with MeTV Plus. Needless to say Laff also airs on WPXP 67.4

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52 minutes ago, nbc4ne said:

WPTV currently carries MeTV on 5.2, and it is in a market with a Hearst station for a rival, WPBF, carrying EstrellaTV on 25.2 and True Crime on 25.3. WPTV, meanwhile, could replace Laff on 5.3 with MeTV Plus. Needless to say Laff also airs on WPXP 67.4

Yeah...that'll make sense. And I imagine the other Scripps owned digitnets moves over to make some room for other non-Scripps diginets on WPTV.

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