The new agreement extends affiliations of all of Tribune’s CW outlets except WGN Chicago, which moves to Fox-owned WPWR. The deal covers 28 million television households across 25% of the U.S.
CW, Tribune Renew 12 Of 13 Affiliations
Ending months of contentious negotiations, Tribune Media and The CW Network announced today that they had reached “long-term” affiliation renewals covering 12 of Tribune’s current 13 CW affiliates.
The notable exception is in Chicago. There, the CW affiliation will move to Fox Television Stations’ WPWR and Tribune flagship WGN will become an independent beginning in September.
Tribune is, by far, the CW’s most important affiliate.The 12 markets renewed cover 25% of the U.S. and serve more than 28 million TV households.
The original affiliation agreements, signed 10 years ago at the launch of the CW, were set to expire this August. The talks were not easy or without public posturing. At one point, CW floated the idea of moving to an OTT platform.
“As The CW continues to build on its current ratings momentum and full schedule of high-quality programming, we are thrilled to continue our successful partnership with Tribune and their affiliated stations for many years to come,” said Mark Pedowitz, president of The CW Network.
“We are extremely pleased to continue our strong relationship with The CW Network,” said Tribune Media CEO Peter Liguori. “The primetime entertainment programming offered by The CW drives a passionate and loyal audience to our stations and we are looking forward to a lot of success.”
BRAND CONNECTIONS
Tribune spun the lost of the affiliation in Chicago as a plus, saying it would give the station more flexibility to air local sports — the MLB’s Cubs and White Sox, the NBA’s Bulls and the NHL’s Blackhawks.The station has to rights to 150 such games, but has had to move as many as 30 to another station so as not to preempt CW programming, the company said.
Frank Cicha, SVP of programming of Fox Television Stations,said he was happy to have the CW, “We love high quality, big budget first-run prime and we love having more original programming. But most of all, we love moving to The CW the same time as Supergirl.”
The stations extending their affiliation agreements are WPIX New York; KTLA Los Angeles; KDAF Dallas; WDCW Washington; KIAH Houston; WSFL Miami; KWGN Denver; KPLR St. Louis; KRCW Portland, Ore.; WCCT Hartford, Conn.; WGNT Norfolk, Va.; and WNOL New Orleans.
Comments (0)