8 CBS owned Stations To End Their The CW Affiliation In September 2023 (1 Viewer)

[Garysb]

Eight CBS-Owned Stations to Drop CW Affiliation in September

Eight CBS-owned TV stations will be dropping their affiliation with The CW and becoming independent stations as of September.

variety.com

The stations are: WPSG Philadelphia (DMA #4), WUPA Atlanta (DMA #6), KBCW San Francisco (DMA #10), KSTW Seattle (DMA #12), WTOG Tampa-St. Petersburg (DMA #13), WKBD Detroit (DMA #14), KMAX Sacramento (DMA #20), and WPCW Pittsburgh (DMA #26).

The station will become independent showing sports, locally produced programs, and shows owned by Paramount Global.

Nexstar says they were aware that CBS could end affiliations when they purchased 75% of The CW and that they are confident that the CW will continue to be available in 100% of the US.

 

[Malcolm R]

Don't really blame them, as Nexstar seems intent on turning the CW into a trashy reality network. I think they've cancelled most of their original scripted shows (EDIT: I guess they haven't actually axed many, but some are in their announced final season and there seems to be only one definitive renewal at this point, for All American).

I'm not sure why CBS-owned stations wouldn't be CBS affiliates? Are there already other CBS affiliated stations in those markets?

 

[Harry-N]

Aren't they mostly all former UPN stations that migrated to CW?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I'm not sure why CBS-owned stations wouldn't be CBS affiliates? Are there already other CBS affiliated stations in those markets?

Can't speak for the other markets, but in Detroit there is already a CBS affiliate -- WWJ-TV on channel 62. The CW station (WKBD channel 50) was a long time independent station here until UPN came along.

 

[Garysb]

I'm not sure why CBS-owned stations wouldn't be CBS affiliates? Are there already other CBS affiliated stations in those markets?

Station owners can own more than one station in a market, In NYC area Fox owns WNYW Ch 5 , a Fox Owned and Operated station and WWOR Ch 9 a My Network affiliate. CBS owns WCBS Ch 2 and WLNY-TV Ch 10/55, an independent station. I imagine it is the same in the markets losing their The CW affiliate. If Nexstar can not find a local station to become their new affiliate it is possible they can make an arrangement to be carried by a local cable company. They do this in some small markets where they don't have a local affiliate.

 

[NICKP91]

I can't see any way KTXL drops FOX despite Nexstar Media owning the station

 

[Chip_HT]

This could be interesting with a lot of the RSNs going through financial issues. These independent stations could become the new TV homes for a lot of baseball, basketball, and/or hockey teams.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

This could be interesting with a lot of the RSNs going through financial issues. These independent stations could become the new TV homes for a lot of baseball, basketball, and/or hockey teams.

That's the way it was, at least in the Detroit area, before the regional sports networks. When WKBD here was an independent, they carried Detroit Pistons games. Another independent, channel 20, carried Red Wings games.

 

[NICKP91]

It will be interesting to see if CBS will drop WANF affiliation when their contract ends

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This makes it less likely that the remaining CBS-produced shows on The CW will get picked up for another season. Most of these markets are large enough that there is another station without Big Four affiliation that would be interested in picking them up if their programming lineup represents an improvement over what they've programmed themselves.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I'm not sure why CBS-owned stations wouldn't be CBS affiliates? Are there already other CBS affiliated stations in those markets?

Yes, CBS Corp has O&Os in five of the eight markets listed.

 

[Lord Dalek]

I can't see any way KTXL drops FOX despite Nexstar Media owning the station

Same with KOIN and WJET.

 

[Garysb]

On the other hand when Fox was relatively new back in 1994 they grabbed 12 big market stations whose previous affiliations were ABC, CBS and NBC. It was a bit different with Fox making a deal with a station owner to switch his stations to Fox from their previous affiliates rather then Fox buying the stations and then switching the affiliates.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/05/24/fox-nabs-12-affiliates-from-rivals/54f8d655-f904-4090-ab7b-fbcc06deb45c/