Since when is this allowed?

[DanOregon]

Fisher Broadcasting owns the CBS affiliate in Eugene and buys a rival (NBC) station in Eugene, they are in turn about to be bought up by Sinclair but it hasn't gone through yet. So apparently when all is said and done, Sinclair will be producing three of the four local broadcast news programs in the area (the CBS station also produces the Fox affiliate's green-screened news). And yes, efficiencies are already underway with the gutting of the NBC station, their top anchor team (the longest tenured in the area) were axed as were most of the staff, but the anchors will start at the ABC station this week.

Is this the fallout of the Murdoch ruling that allowed duopolies? I've never heard of one involving two of the big four before. A big four and a CW station maybe..

 

[Versatile]

I think there are several situations like this because of Gannett Co.'s recent purchase of Belo's TV stations.

 

[Captain Obvious]

The CBS, FOX, and NBC affiliates in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre share production for news.

 

[ColdCat]

in Jacksonville NBC and ABC are the same company as are FOX and CBS

 

[apeman33]

Local Marketing Agreements (LMA) are the most common thing when it comes to two or more stations being run by the same group. There are four over-the-air full-power network affiliates in the Joplin-Pittsburg market, each owned by a different company but operated by only two. Saga owns the CBS station and has an LMA to run the Fox affiliate. Nexstar owns the NBC station and has an LMA to run the ABC affiliate. Nextar uses two entirely different staffs for their station's newscasts but Saga has only different lead anchors and uses the same weather and sports people on both its stations.

From what I could tell from Saga's website, they operate almost every station in the Victoria, Texas, market (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Univision and Telemundo).

 

[Jake_Taylor]

Charlottesville, Va., a similar market to Eugene, has an NBC station and the "Newsplex" which is ABC, CBS and Fox.

 

[PeterGibbons]

Local Marketing Agreements (LMA) are the most common thing when it comes to two or more stations being run by the same group. There are four over-the-air full-power network affiliates in the Joplin-Pittsburg market, each owned by a different company but operated by only two. Saga owns the CBS station and has an LMA to run the Fox affiliate. Nexstar owns the NBC station and has an LMA to run the ABC affiliate. Nextar uses two entirely different staffs for their station's newscasts but Saga has only different lead anchors and uses the same weather and sports people on both its stations.

From what I could tell from Saga's website, they operate almost every station in the Victoria, Texas, market (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Univision and Telemundo).

Not sure what market you're in by the Nexstar station here (Mission Broadcasting is the other "company" that allegedly owns the other affiliate), but both stations use pretty much the same video, sports and weather (which is taped in another city 150 miles away). The only difference are the talking heads reading the news. Many times you can flip back and forth and see almost the same video, minute for minute in the A block.

 

[apeman33]

Local Marketing Agreements (LMA) are the most common thing when it comes to two or more stations being run by the same group. There are four over-the-air full-power network affiliates in the Joplin-Pittsburg market, each owned by a different company but operated by only two. Saga owns the CBS station and has an LMA to run the Fox affiliate. Nexstar owns the NBC station and has an LMA to run the ABC affiliate. Nextar uses two entirely different staffs for their station's newscasts but Saga has only different lead anchors and uses the same weather and sports people on both its stations.

From what I could tell from Saga's website, they operate almost every station in the Victoria, Texas, market (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Univision and Telemundo).

Not sure what market you're in by the Nexstar station here (Mission Broadcasting is the other "company" that allegedly owns the other affiliate), but both stations use pretty much the same video, sports and weather (which is taped in another city 150 miles away). The only difference are the talking heads reading the news. Many times you can flip back and forth and see almost the same video, minute for minute in the A block.

I'm in the Joplin market. What you describe is pretty much what Saga does here. The only difference 90 percent of the time is that the newscast anchors are different people. Otherwise, as I said, they use the same reporters, weathermen and sports anchors.

The Nextstar combo here maintains separate identities for its newscasts, going through the bother of having different meterologists and sports anchors. There will be occasional use of the same video, but that's usually only used for stuff that the anchor voices over himself.

KSNF (Nextstar) and KODE (Mission) operate out of the same building and use the same website (fourstateshomepage.com) and will run common promos but make an effort to keep the news staffs from mixing together (The stations are both operated by Nexstar). KOAM (Saga) and KFJX (Surtsey Media, operated by Saga) have separate websites and, I believe, even have separate general managers, but other than that make no effort to make their stations unique from each other. KOAM uses a blue color scheme and KFJX uses red. That's about it.

 

[murphyc]

Fisher Broadcasting owns the CBS affiliate in Eugene and buys a rival (NBC) station in Eugene, they are in turn about to be bought up by Sinclair but it hasn't gone through yet. So apparently when all is said and done, Sinclair will be producing three of the four local broadcast news programs in the area (the CBS station also produces the Fox affiliate's green-screened news). And yes, efficiencies are already underway with the gutting of the NBC station, their top anchor team (the longest tenured in the area) were axed as were most of the staff, but the anchors will start at the ABC station this week.

Is this the fallout of the Murdoch ruling that allowed duopolies? I've never heard of one involving two of the big four before. A big four and a CW station maybe..

The situation at the Eugene NBC station was brutal. Some 90 percent of the staff at the station got laid off. The local ABC station scooped up the veteran main anchors (who have been together more than a decade and have a loyal following) and put them on the air this week.