[opendtv] Re: News: Northwest Station Pulls Signal In Retransmission Battle

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 09:33:44 -0500

At 9:13 AM -0800 1/6/07, John Willkie wrote:

 > -----Original Message-----

 From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

 I suspect that this is a major factor in the "deal" between WESH and
 NBC. Taking it a step further, all "local" TV news is moving to a
 regional basis as viewership declines and costs continue to increase.

 The same thing that happened to newspapers is now happening to TV
 news. There's simply not enough audience to support three or four
 local news operations.


Pshaw on both counts.

I'll let you know when San Diego/Tijuana local news is served out of Los
Angeles (120 miles away), and/or when LA local news is served out of San
Diego/Tijuana.
Apples and oranges. San Diego is a huge market (#27). What I am talking about is the trrend to consolidate news operations around smaller markets - e.g importing news from Jacksonville and Orlando to serve the Gainesville market. That being said. the issue of loss of audience and too many news operations is affecting ALL markets. It is likely that San Diego will have one of two local news operations for many years to come. But the 3rd, 4th and smaller operations are going to disappear in the next decade. 


The newspaper situation isn't informative or relevant.  First, TV was free
and readily available in the afternoons and evening, the former prime market
of PM papers.  PM papers also had their issues with suburbanization,
automobility and the traffic patterns when they were distributing to
'newsboys' and rack-boxes.

All except the very largest cities always had more TV stations than
newspapers.

You are right about there not being audience to support three or four local
news operations.

Here are the San Diego/Tijuana local TV news operations (non-duplicated)

TV
XETV Fox 4 hours daily
KNSD (NBC operated but not fully owned) 3.5 hours daily
KFMB-TV (-AM, -FM) CBS 3 or more hours daily
KUSI (Independent) News briefs each hour of the day, and about 5 hours
daily, plus plans to have an all-news virtual channel in short order
KGTV / etc (ABC in English/Azteca America in espanol) about 3.5 hours daily
in English, and about 1.5 in Spanish
KPBS-TV (PBS) 1/2 hour m-f
XEWT Televisa (same owner as XEWT; non duplicated news) 4 hours daily

Newspapers
San Diego-Union Tribune
Frontera (Tijuana)
El Mexican (Tijuana)

Union-Tribune's circulation is flat or declining for a decade, something
like 250,000.  Frontera is less than a decade old, and I can't remember all
the TJ dailies.  However, total newspaper circulation in TJ is something
like 50,000 (city of 2.5 million) 
That's just local news.  There are more local newscasts south of the border,
but I think they're duplicated.

Maybe, just maybe, your area -- or is it the whole state of Florida -- is
just lagging )-:
maybe the situation in your area is somewhat unique, as you are combining TV operations from two countries, not just two adjacent markets. And MAYBE it has something to do with the huge Spanish language audience in your area. What i said stands. Half of the stations on your list will be out of the news business within a decade. 

Regards
Craig


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