Paramount Global selling large portion of CW Network
August 15, 2022Variety reported Monday, Nexstar is acquiring 75% of the CW Network from Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery.
If you’re confused by those names, you should be. Warner Bros. Discovery is the result of a recent merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery. Paramount, meanwhile, rebranded from ViacomCBS. Both companies have owned “The CW” (“C” from CBS and “W” from Warner Brothers) since 2006 when WB and UPN merged. These two owners will each retain a 12.5% ownership and will continue to produce content until the time of the sale which is expected to happen before the end of September.
The move is a natural one as Nexstar has produced some of the network programming seen on CW. Nexstar is also the owner of nearly 200 TV stations across the country. That includes WGN in Chicago where they have relaunched and expanded WGN America into News Nation on basic cable. This move may bring News Nation to their owned and operated CW stations and eventually to other affiliates who carry the network.
Within PBRTV’s coverage area, Nexstar owns WTRF (7) Wheeling, WJET (24) Erie – where they also have an LMA with Mission Broadcasting to supply programming for WFXP (66), and WTAJ (10) Altoona. At the current time, it appears none of those stations have any affiliation with CW as most are affiliated with one of “The Big 3.”
Meanwhile in Pittsburgh, Paramount owns KDKA-TV (2) and WPCW (19 Jeannette). It appears unlikely that there will be any ownership changes as a result in Pittsburgh.
Not surprised by this as it had been reported for a while now. I do look for Nexstar to move into Pittsburgh in the not-too-distant future as it is the only market where they don’t have a station in PA. WPXI might be a prime candidate as Cox is shedding stations related to partner Apollo Global Management financing the takeover of Tegna, and this has included stations in Memphis and Tulsa. Although, telling you from experience watching Nexstar local news in Youngstown (WKBN-TV/WYTV), Columbus (WCMH-TV), Harrisburg (WHTM), and Las Vegas (KLAS-TV), expect a very cheap news product if Nexstar ever comes to Western PA.
You really want WPXI to be sold don’t you? I doubt Nexstar would take them over. And Tenga has no presence in the market either so it would seem likely that Cox would NOT have to dump WPXI for that reason. Nexstar has plenty of properties surrounding the market that it may not make sense for them to own in the city proper.
No, I don’t want to see WPXI, or anyone, being sold. Cox is dumping stations in markets where Tegna doesn’t have a station, like Tulsa. (They did briefly overlap in Memphis–coincidentally because of Nexstar.) I think–and Pittsburgh won’t be impacted by this–it will lead to an affiliation shift of CW stations to a Nexstar property, most likely on a subchannel as I don’t see someone like WTRF or WTAJ dropping CBS on its main feed. Now Philadelphia where they own WPHL I could see them picking up the affiliation on its main feed since nobody cares about MyNetworkTV anymore–even Fox, who owns them–but I could see WTRF or WTAJ–or WKBN–adding the CW to a subchannel at the expense of WJAC and WFMJ. (The CW currently doesn’t have an OTA presence in Wheeling/Steubenville so WTOV wouldn’t even be affected.)
With the major networks also focusing on streaming I could also see down the road the U.S. having more of a Canadian broadcasting model if the FCC loosens up restrictions and having majority O&O’s with few affiliates–think Sinclair owning Fox, or Hearst owning ABC or NBC. The CW might be the first step in that direction.
Would not be surprised to see an affiliation change in Harrisburg, where CW runs on Sinclair’s WHP 21.3 (when the carriage agreement expires). Nexstar has WHTM 27, with. a weaker line-up of subchannels. Also, Sinclair runs The National Desk on 21.3; expect to see NewsNation appearing alongside CW. NewsNation is not thriving as a stand-alone cable channel.