Fox Television Stations

The CEO of Fox Television Stations and co-president of Fox News Channel joins David Smith of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Perry Sook of Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Pat LaPlatney of Raycom Media on a CEO panel at TVNewsCheck’s TV2020: Monetizing ATSC 3.0 conference in New York on Nov. 9-10.

The Fox veteran will oversee all initiatives and talent development for news programs at the station group. In addition, she will retain her current responsibilities at the Fox News Channel.

The upcoming syndicated offering will be hosted by John Fugelsang and contributing editors will include Mario Cantone, Bevy Smith, Elizabeth Wagmeister and Carlos Greer. The show from Endemol Shine North America begins a three-week test on Fox stations in seven cities on July 18.

The entertainment magazines syndicated by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution will continue until the 2019-20 season.

More and more TV stations and other news producers are turning to Facebook’s Live and Instant Articles features to deliver their content directly on Facebook’s platform and tap into its huge mobile audience. However, that means ceding a lot of control to Facebook, starting with letting original content live natively on its platform. And it remains to be seen how much ad money publishers will get from the arrangement.

The broadcaster credited with discovering Oprah and staggering the summer and winter Olympics and noted for having worked for each of the Big Four station groups quietly stepped down last week, Fox Television Stations confirmed. He was unavailable for comment.

The station group is prepping for the rollout of five trial runs this month and next. The shows vary greatly — from locally produced fare to two shows being eyed for possible national syndication. Why all the action? According to Frank Cicha, SVP of programming (above): “There’s a lot of shelf space. I think it would be erroneous for us to sit back and think we can wait for syndication to save us.”

The new gossip show will air on Fox’s WNYW New York, KTTV Los Angeles, WTXF Philadelphia, KDFW Dallas, WAGA Atlanta, WJBK Detroit and WTVT Tampa, Fla., beginning July 18.

So-Me, a panel show highlighting “trending news topics,” will run for four weeks starting July 11 on WNYW and WWOR New York, KTTV and KCOP Los Angeles, WDCA Washington, KTVU San Francisco, KSAZ Phoenix and KMSP Minneapolis.

The five-day-a-week, one-hour strip hosted by Jason Matheson, entertainment news anchor at Fox-owned KMSP Minneapolis, will get a four-week tryout on KTTV Los Angeles, KDFW Dallas and KSAZ Phoenix.

With the Fox Television Stations as its anchor, the syndicated millennials-focused news show will also air on some Media General and Sinclair stations for four weeks.

1. FOX TELEVISION STATIONS, New York 2015 Revenue: $1.646 billion  Stations: 28 in 17 markets Coverage: 37.2%  Ownership: 21st Century Fox (Nasdaq: FOXA)  Key Executives: Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman, 21st Century Fox;  Lachlan […]

The half-hour syndicated strip based on the New York Post’s long-running gossip feature will be produced by Endemol Shine North America. It will get a three-week run beginning July 18.

The new daily panel talk show with four ministers from Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution will be executive produced by Bill Geddie, the co-creator and longtime former executive producer of The View. The three-week summer run on select Fox-owned stations debuts July 11.

Lakana is enhancing its digital publishing platform by interfacing with the Fresco user-generated content app and service. With Fresco, stations can assign citizen journalists to cover events and then pay for the content — $50 per video, $20 per still.

After a successful test at WTXF Philadelphia, Fox is rolling out the Fresco app in 10 other markets. With the app, stations will be able to quickly recruit citizen journalists to shoot  pictures at news scenes for them. The shooters not only get the pleasure of seeing their work on air, but also a payday — $50 for a video and $20 for a still. Above, Fresco founder-CEO John Meyer (l) with WTXF’s Mike Jerrick.

The long-running syndicated courtroom series has gotten the green light through 2019.

In addition to weeknight appearances on the programming service, the classic Fox show has also been cleared for weekend syndication on the Fox Television Stations.

With the support of Fox Television Stations, Media General agrees to a sophomore season for its syndicated entertainment news strip. Garcelle Beauvais becomes its fourth co-host.

Frank Cicha, senior VP of programming for Fox Television Stations, is one of the most influential players in the syndication business. He’s a 25-year Fox veteran who started out at the Twentieth Television distribution arm before moving to the station group in 1997. Here, he weighs in on the challenges facing the first-run sector and steps that station owners and distributors can take to help boost its fortunes.

Dish Nation, the nationally syndicated entertainment news program, today nameed Da Brat as co-host on the Atlanta-based team, announced Stephen Brown, EVP of programming and development, Fox Television Stations. Da […]

Joseph M. Di Scipio represents the station group before the FCC and also negotiates retransmission consent agreements for the stations.

South of Wilshire comes from TMZ’s Harvey Levin and will get an eight-week tryout beginning in January.

The move renews the programming service for its 11th and 12th seasons.

Sources say that Fox wants to trade its WOFL Orlando, Fla., to get WVUE in New Orleans, which is owned by Louisiana Media Co., but run by Raycom. Fox wants to own the Fox station in the Big Easy, home to the NFL New Orleans Saints, a strategy it’s followed before.

Fox Television Stations have relaunched their websites in responsive design, Diana Marszalek reports, having moved off of the Worldnow content management system to Lakana. The shift, which is aimed at being more mobile-friendly and better integrated with Facebook, also comes with a rebranding of most Fox sites, which will drop the “My Fox” moniker in favor of the stations’ numbers.

The summer talker landed a 1.0 household rating and 3 share, up 25% from its year-ago time periods but down 29% from its lead in, based on ratings in 11 markets.

A Fox spokesperson confirmed Adams, GM of the Charlotte, N.C., duo of WJZY-WMYT, has been named VPof corporate initiatives for the group. A search is underway for her replacement.

The daily hour-long entertainment news and variety show from Media General’s BiteSize TV, which got a summer test run last year, returns to weekday syndication on Sept. 14 on Fox and Media General stations.

A variety-talk show with American Idol judge Harry Connick Jr. from NBCUniversal tops the shows being developed for first-run syndication for fall 2016, according to sources. Warner Bros. is prepping the return of Love Connection and a talk show with personal finance wiz Suze Orman. Fox will be testing two or three show this summer, while Debmar-Mercury and partner Gannett work on an interactive show.

Stations from groups including  Fox O&Os, Sinclair, Hearst, Cox and others will air the new show from NBCUniversal Domestic Television Distribution this fall. The show will be co-hosted by WNBC New York contributor Ben Aaron and Bad Girls Club reality star Tanisha Thomas.

The hour-long program will air on select Fox-owned stations in several markets this summer, including New York and Los Angeles. The couple currently appears in BET’s The Real Husbands of Hollywood.

Joseph Dorrego, who has been serving as VP of investor relations for 21st Century Fox, will be Fox Television Stations’ new CFO/SVP, it was announced this afternoon.  Dorrego replaces Betsy Swanson, who announced Monday that she will be retiring after 30 years with the group.

The syndicated entertainment news program is extended for two years through 2016-2017 season. Its total viewers grow 10% over a year ago.

Fox, Tribune Media, and Univision are among the founders of NewCoin, which aims to fix measurement deficiencies in local television markets. Dallas will be the beta test site.

Joe Oulvey, EVP, Fox Stations Sales: “By adding LiveRail to our digital video programmatic solution, the Fox TV Stations Group extends our existing platform to better enable advertisers to target desired consumers of our video content in the credible and brand-safe environment.”

It’s paying Venture Technologies Group $10 million for KBCB Bellingham, which now airs ShopHQ and Estrella programming. The move follows last month’s notice that it is ending the Fox affiliation of Tribune’s KCPQ.

New deals with Doubleclick Ad Exchange and Vindico mean wider exposure for the stations’ digital ad platforms.