It will air on a subchannel of WJHL, its CBS affiliate in the Tennessee-Virginia market. The network had been on Holston Valley Broadcasting's WKPT.
DMA 97
Media General Lands Tri-Cities ABC Affiliation
The ABC affiliation in Tri-Cities, Tenn.-Va. (DMA 97), is moving on Feb. 1 from Holston Valley Broadcasting’s WKPT to a subchannel of Media General’s CBS affiliate in the market, WJHL.
George DeVault, president of Holston Valley Broadcasting, said: “ABC presented to us a proposal that would have had us paying the network at least $15 million over the next five years. Although we ultimately agreed to meet the network’s terms, ABC told us a few days ago that it had decided to explore other options in the market.”
“ABC has been a great partner over the years and we are pleased to expand our portfolio with the launch of ABC Tri-Cities, which adds to our already strong lineup in that market,” said Vincent L. Sadusky, Media General’s president-CEO.
Media General currently operates 12 ABC affiliates, including WTNH Hartford-New Haven, Conn.; WKRN Nashville; WOTV Grand Rapids, Mich.; WHTM Harrisburg, Pa.; WRIC Richmond, Va.; WTEN Albany, N.Y.; WATE Knoxville, Tenn.; WBAY Green Bay, Wis.; WJBF Augusta, Ga.; WLAJ Lansing, Mich.; WYTV Youngstown, Ohio; and KTKA Topeka, Kan.
Comments (7)
Manuel Morales says:
January 5, 2016 at 7:36 am
In guess that makes Vince et al feel better after the fiasco in Indianapolis a few years back. Pretty sobering development for Mom and Pop operators.
Trudy Handel says:
January 5, 2016 at 10:31 am
No kidding. Agree to pay the money and still have the affiliation yanked out from under you.
Wagner Pereira says:
January 5, 2016 at 1:14 pm
I can tell you that ABC tried to move affiliation to a HD-2 of a bigger Company than Media General circa 2009-2010 in some markets MUCH bigger than the Tri-Cities. The Group decided not to do it (even though they would have liked to) as they felt it would set a bad precedent that might end up biting them during Affiliate Negotiations in the future if it was done by a competitor of theirs.
Andrea Rader says:
January 5, 2016 at 3:10 pm
Considering the situation with NBComcast in Boston, clearly nothing is sacred anymore.
kathleen renck says:
January 5, 2016 at 2:23 pm
Interesting situation. They have one 6 mHz channel. ABC is 720P so it will compress pretty well. CBS is 1080i so it won’t compress as well. You can just put them both in the encoder, set the parameters and let them fight for bits but there is no way they will look as good as they do on separate channels. Does anybody care about quality?
Andrea Rader says:
January 5, 2016 at 2:56 pm
These bandwidth issues will become less relevant with ATSC 3.0.
Wagner Pereira says:
January 5, 2016 at 2:58 pm
Unfortunately no. Viewers proved that by wanting more channels instead of better HD on MVPDs. Even FiOS had to abandon their 2 channels per QAM stance as people wanted more selection. Of course this is comical when they then complain about higher rates.