
Washington, Atlanta and Detroit Are Leading the summer rollout of the CTV service from the group’s 14 other stations.
Syndication, While Challenged, Remains Essential To TV Stations

Station groups and syndicators are looking to collaborate more in an effort to make new shows work for everyone.

FTS to distribute its local news content across Amazon devices.

Fox Television Stations and writers and producers for its WNYW New York have struck a new four-year contract, according to the Writers Guild of America East, which represents those employees.

TMZ is teaming with parent company Fox on a four-week trial run of game show Who the Bleep Is That?, hosted by comedian Jeff Dye. The show will premiere on Fox Television Stations in 12 markets — New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Houston, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Detroit, Orlando and Milwaukee — on Monday, March 6.
Nadia Khan, Emily Stone, Hannah Barnhardt Named TVN’s Technology Women To Watch

LTN’s Nadia Khan (center), Fox Television Stations’ Emily Stone (r) and TMT Insights’ Hannah Barnhardt (l) are building new technology brands, leading live streaming news on FAST without a net and developing cutting-edge operational strategies. They’ll receive their awards recognizing them as TVNewsCheck’s Technology Women to Watch at the NAB Show in Las Vegas on April 18 at 6 p.m.

Industry leaders from Fox Television Stations, Debmar-Mercury, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair Broadcast Group and Sony Pictures Television will unpack business challenges and programming opportunities in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s Programming Everywhere event at the NAB Show on April 16. Register here.

He succeeds the retiring David Keneipp in overseeing all the group’s legal functions.
Station Groups Look To Fill A NATPE-Sized Hole With Summit

Last week, Fox Television Stations convened station groups and syndicators for a press- and deals-free ideas exchange in Los Angeles. Attendees said it could become an annual event. (Fox Television Stations photo)

Warner Bros. Discovery’s freshman talker tops ratings charts and scores a renewal from Fox Television Stations, Hearst and others.

The freshman talker hosted by actress, comedian and Daytime Emmy-winning co-host of The View, Sherri Shepherd, gains a long-term extension from its anchor station group.
With New Tech, Stations Are Finding Creative, Different Paths To Generate More Content

TV stations are amping up their news sharing, collaboration and archive-mining to fill the ever-growing need for more content, and executives from Scripps, Gray Television, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Fox Television Stations and Dalet shared their most effective methods for doing so in a NewsTECHForum panel on Tuesday. Above, l-r: FTS’ Emily Stone, Dalet’s Stephane Guez, Scripps’ Vanessa Strouse-Kenney, Gray’s Lisa Allen and Sinclair’s Ernie Ensign (Alyssa Wesley photo). Read a full report here and/or watch the video above.

Executives from Sinclair, Fox Television Stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, TAG Video Systems and Imagine Communications told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week that live production at volume in the public cloud may finally come to pass next year, noting the growing adoption of enabling technologies like low-latency JPEG-XS compression.
Fox’s Abernethy: Expanding News Must Avoid The ‘Ron Burgundy Shuffle’

With a 10 p.m. primetime hand back hanging over broadcast, Fox Television Stations CEO Jack Abernethy says producing more of the same local news will have diminishing returns for the whole industry. In a wide-ranging Executive Session interview, Abernethy weighs in on programming challenges and their pressures on newsrooms, streaming opportunities and his outlook for syndication, measurement, auto’s resurgence in spot and broadcast’s ability to compete against the big streamers.

Leaders from Fox News, WPVI Philadalphia, Fox Television Stations and LiveU discuss how technologists and technology facilitating this effort to produce more content for more outlets while allowing creators to work from anywhere in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum event at the New York Hilton on Dec. 13. Register here.

He will be recognized at a gala award ceremony and fundraiser to be held March 6, 2023, at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

Executives from Gray Television, Fox Television Stations, E.W. Scripps, Sinclair and Dalet will discuss how hubbing, news sharing and collaboration, AI, the cloud and cutting-edge video acquisition strategies are enhancing the ability of content creation teams to expand their productivity in a panel at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTECHForum event at the New York Hilton on Dec. 13. Register here.

Tech executives from Sinclair, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Fox Television Stations, Imagine and TAG Video Systems will offer predictions for the most important trends in the coming year including building IP networks, cloud production and playout, cybersecurity and streaming technology in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar on Dec. 1. Register here.

The veteran broadcaster and former KNBC GM is succeeding Bill Lamb as head of the Fox Los Angeles duopoly.

TVNewsCheck’s Michael Depp talks with Paul McGonagle, VP and news director of Fox-owned WTTG Washington, about two new shows that will bring the station up to over 80 hours of original weekly programming, how they manage that volume and hacks for hiring quality people in a tough market. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

The two syndicated entertainment shows will air on the Fox O&Os through the 2024-25 season.

Comscore said that it made a deal with Fox Television Stations in which the stations will use Comscore-based currency to transact advanced audience advertising deals. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The veteran head of Fox’s Los Angeles duopoly will step down on Oct. 3 after a career of 50 years in television.

The four-week preview of the new weekday half-hour game show hosted by Melissa Peterman begins on Aug. 8 in nine markets.
For News Streamers, Content And Workflow Challenges Are The Next Frontier

Executives from E.W. Scripps, Fox Television Stations, NBCUniversal Local and Cox Media Group told a TVNewsCheck webinar last week that hiring challenges are frustrating their efforts to swiftly build out robust streaming channels, but forays into automation and hub-and-spoke models are easing some of the pressure.

Executives from Estrella Media, NBCUniversal, Scripps Networks, Gray Television, Fox Television Stations and Allen Media will share how they’re maximizing their OTT sales opportunities and cultivating innovative strategies for audience development in part two of a TVNewsCheck webinar event slated for Aug. 25. Register here.

Fox Television Stations is reporting that its digital properties finished May 2022 as the top-performing O&O station group in total minutes, unique visitors and total views, according to Comscore Media-Metrix data cited by the station group. FTS closed out the month reaching 1.67 billion total minutes, 403 million total views and 54 million unique visitors.

TVNewsCheck’s Streaming News 2022 kicks off as a two-part webinar event on July 21 focusing on news programming for OTT and how its production can smoothly integrate into newsroom workflows. Executives from Cox Media Group, NBCUniversal Local, E.W. Scripps and Fox Television Stations will discuss how they’re tackling the platform. Register here.
Fox Television Stations have reported strong growth in its digital properties in April, with 42 million unique viewers, up 6.7% from a year earlier, 685 million total minutes (up 43%) and 251 million total views (up 23%), citing data from Comscore Media-Metrix.

The Jerry O’Connell-hosted strip will debut in national syndication in fall 2022.
For Fox Weather’s Sharri Berg, It’s All About The Larger Puzzle

Sharri Berg, president of Fox Weather, COO of news and operations for Fox Television Stations and one of this year’s TVNewsCheck Women in Technology Leadership Award winners, has been piecing together emerging technology and talented personnel throughout her 34 years at the company. Along the way, she’s built her own reputation as an irrepressible innovator, a generous mentor and a prescient trendspotter in TV technology. Above: Sharri Berg at 2 minutes and 3 seconds before the launch of Fox Weather on Oct. 25, 2021.
Local TV Content Still The ‘Best Stuff,’ But Only If Investments Are Made In Its Producers

Executives from Fox Television Stations, E.W. Scripps, Tegna, Gray and Blackbird said in a TVNewsCheck webinar Thursday that local content is becoming increasingly crucial in a world of shrinking syndication options, but to pull it off more resources need to be invested in local people and the technology to support them.

Executives from Fox Television Stations, Gray Television, Tegna, Blackbird and E.W. Scripps will discuss how they’re diversifying local programming to replace syndicated content and create new options for their linear and streaming channels, all while containing costs, in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch Webinar on April 14 at 1 p.m. ET. Register here.

Joining Fox Television Stations for the one-hour daytime talk show launch is Hearst Television, along with additional station groups representing more than 60% of the U.S.

The New York-based daily talk show with Sherri Shepherd, the actress, comedian, best-selling author and daytime Emmy winner as longtime co-host of The View, will take over the Fox O&O time slots currently held by Debmar-Mercury’s The Wendy Williams Show.

Fox Weather will be available to viewers on Fox Television Stations’ subchannels in 17 markets and select simulcast hours on Fox-owned duopoly stations across the country. It will also be available on YouTube TV, Amazon News, The Roku Channel, fuboTV and Xumo.

The Fox veteran will oversee all engineering, operations and technology functions for the station group, succeeding Richard Friedel, who retired last December.

Vendors say broadcasters are increasingly looking to expand virtualization of their operations across the whole chain, and they’re also seeking to take that virtualization off-premises, either in their own master control hubs or the public cloud.

With the possibility of several of its key syndicated shows ending after this season, Fox Television Stations has both influence and flexibility headed into 2022.