NBC leaving WHDH for WNEU?

[mvcg66b3r]

Beantown Breakup - NBC Actually Leaving WHDH?

Speculation that NBC would yank its affiliation with WHDH has been going on for months, with a 2016 deadline looming. And NBC has made no secret that it would love an owned and operated NBC affiliate in Boston.

Sources have told New England One that preparations are being made to move the NBC affiliation away from an Ed Ansin-owned WHDH-TV. Additionally, a source inside WHDH has told New England One that NBC has decided not to renew its agreement with WHDH.

At this point, NBC holds all the cards in the affiliation switch. It already owns New England Cable News as well as WNEU-TV, Telemundo Boston. Of course the best outcome for NBC would be in forcing Ansin to sell WHDH, but that isn't very likely as the station already has a contingency plan in place to swap the CW affiliation over to WHDH if they lose NBC.

So what is likely?

While it is speculation at this point, and is not confirmed, NBC would move the NBC affiliation to WNEU-TV 60 which is now the home of Telemundo Boston, and could easily move Telemundo to a digital sub-channel. The downside of this is reception... the WNEU transmitter is located in Goffstown, NH and the signal is not strong in the entire Boston market. However, most people watch TV via cable, so this not might affect a lot of people.

NBC is already quietly building its news team for the new station.

Pete Bouchard, who resigned from WHDH-TV on Tuesday, would be a part of that new team.

Also unconfirmed, we've been told from various sources that Maria Stephanos has been hired to be the main anchor and face of NBC Boston. However, Maria's agent Lisa Hall tells New England One that she has not yet "made any decisions about where she is going next. For now, she is enjoying her time off with her family."

http://www.newenglandone.com/news/l...antown-breakup-nbc-actually-leaving-whdh.html

Here's WNEU's coverage map:
http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=616149&map=Y

WNEU does have a translator in Boston, but it's analog only.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTMU-LP

 

[localclassictvfan]

http://www.newenglandone.com/news/l...antown-breakup-nbc-actually-leaving-whdh.html

Here's WNEU's coverage map:
http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=616149&map=Y

WNEU does have a translator in Boston, but it's analog only.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WTMU-LP

WHDH GM Chris Wayland fully expects the Company to renew the NBC affiliation. Meredith seems interested as much as NBC Universal so that would open the door for a cozi subchannel

 

[Mr Tony]

WHDH GM Chris Wayland fully expects the Company to renew the NBC affiliation. Meredith seems interested as much as NBC Universal so that would open the door for a cozi subchannel

Cozi is already on in Boston via WMFP 62 (RF18)...as a -1 no less (but it pre-empts stuff. The -2 is the full Cozi)

 

[Mr Tony]

The downside of this is reception... the WNEU transmitter is located in Goffstown, NH and the signal is not strong in the entire Boston market. However, most people watch TV via cable, so this not might affect a lot of people.

What a crock of monkey sh*t. More and more people are dropping cable to go OTA only. So yeah lets put a major network on a station that barely covers the main town. That would be like KPXM in Minneapolis (actually they are 60 miles away in Big Lake) dropping Ion and getting the ABC feed.

 

[Trip]

What a crock of monkey sh*t. More and more people are dropping cable to go OTA only. So yeah lets put a major network on a station that barely covers the main town. That would be like KPXM in Minneapolis (actually they are 60 miles away in Big Lake) dropping Ion and getting the ABC feed.

It's a little bit different in that WJAR overlaps with a large amount of the area that would be "lost" by WNEU. Given that Boston is one of the most heavily cabled markets in the US, assuming viewers will only really care about the loss of NBC programming, it may not be quite so bad if this comes to pass.

And, as Mr. Woods mentions, WTMU-LP (once converted to digital) could fill in Boston proper. WTMU-LP's CP: http://www.rabbitears.info/contour.php?appid=1328843&map=Y NBC would probably have to buy it from ZGS though. And they could probably pick up a handful of other LPTV signals cheaply from Daystar if they really wanted, though I'm not sure they really want to.

- Trip

 

[Peter Parker]

Boston has seen several affiliation suiffles over the years. WBZ wasa Westinghouse owned NBC affiliate for many years. WNAC (now WHDH ) was a CBS affiliate adn the list goes on and on. People always compalin about the change but they will get used to it if it happens.

 

[localclassictvfan]

Cozi is already on in Boston via WMFP 62 (RF18)...as a -1 no less (but it pre-empts stuff. The -2 is the full Cozi)

Thanks, I had forgotten about that station......and it's Bostons works and comet affiliate too....owned by Titan...Those 3 subs aint going nowhere, thanks for the update ice...

 

[Mr Tony]

Thanks, I had forgotten about that station......and it's Bostons works and comet affiliate too....owned by Titan...Those 3 subs aint going nowhere, thanks for the update ice...

no problem
What stinks for the Boston satellite subs is 62-1 is carried since its a -1. But they pre-empt so much of it with paid programming and local shows that they only get a smidge of Cozi programming

 

[jegrant]

What a crock of monkey sh*t. More and more people are dropping cable to go OTA only. So yeah lets put a major network on a station that barely covers the main town. That would be like KPXM in Minneapolis (actually they are 60 miles away in Big Lake) dropping Ion and getting the ABC feed.

And then when the FCC auctions off a bunch of quality UHF channels and forces DTV onto VHF, it will cause a similar problem. A lot of the OTA only cord cutters will probably need bigger and/or outdoor antennas.

 

[ejb1980]

Would we lose Telemundo in HD on satellite?

 

[localclassictvfan]

Well maybe the starter of this topic was right after all and I was wrong....

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/link/90863/nbcu-prepping-for-affiliate-move-in-boston/

Also in this article IF this goes through Sunbeam plans to move the CW from WLVI to WHDH. As for WHDH subchannel This and WLVI's Buzzr if they stay put on the current channels remains to be seen.

 

[Mr Tony]

oh god lord....it wont happen until 2017??????

Why are we worrying about it NOW?????

 

[Mr Tony]

The story from the owner of WHDH

To Channel 7 owner, NBC’s offer is $300m too little

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business...gotiations/o9giEDI4eYIoPeuzRbw8DN/story.html?

Ask Ed Ansin, the billionaire owner of WHDH-TV (Channel 7), about what’s going on between him and NBC and he’ll tell you.

“They are trying to steal our station,” Ansin said in his first interview about negotiations with the network.


It’s widely known that NBC wants to own and operate a station in Boston. Ansin said NBC officials told him in September that they would not extend his affiliation agreement, which expires at the end of 2016. Without shows like “The Voice” and “Saturday Night Live,” WHDH’s value would drop substantially, but Ansin was told the peacock network would buy his license and broadcast facility for about $200 million.

Ansin said NBC is threatening to move its programming to another area station it owns, WNEU-TV, which currently broadcasts Telemundo. NBC would house its local news operation at New England Cable News, which is expanding its studio in Newton. Cable giant Comcast owns both NBC and NECN.

The 79-year-old media mogul, however, balked at NBC’s offer. He said he wouldn’t consider selling unless the network ponies up more than $500 million and WLVI-TV (Channel 56), another Boston station he owns, is included in the deal.


“It’s not that I want to sell,” Ansin said by telephone from Miami. But given NBC’s hardball tactics, he would look at an offer if the price is right. “Would I consider it? I guess I would have to.”

 

[Mr Tony]

there is more at the link I provided.

So basically he wants 500 million for both WHDH AND WVLI or no deal.

 

[localclassictvfan]

I guess we'll see what happens at the end of next year......

 

[Mr Tony]

yup pretty much

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Will be fun to watch, as everyone loves a good public pissing match.

 

[Mr Tony]

yeah but usually its a station against a cable company/sat co. Not a network against an affiliate

 

[Mr Tony]

Sunbeam suing Comcast
http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/93008/whdh-suing-comcast-over-loss-of-affiliation

Sunbeam Television, owner of WHDH Boston, today filed suit against Comcast in federal court in Boston over NBC’s January announcement that it intends to terminate its 22-year affiliation with WHDH at the end of 2016. NBC is a unit of Comcast.


NBC plans to create an O&Os in the market, using WNEU, which now airs NBC's Telemundo..

WHDH says that WNEU’s signal does not reach nearly four million greater Boston residents who currently receive WHDH’s signal, including residents in primarily minority communities such as Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and Brockton. Most of those residents, WHDH claims, would have to purchase cable service from Comcast if they want to keep receiving NBC programming.


WHDH says that when Comcast bought NBC in 2011, “there was widespread concern about the impact this unprecedented accumulation of power in the television industry would have on viewers and other market participants.


"Particularly in markets like Boston, where Comcast is the dominant cable provider, citizen groups, industry participants and government agencies expressed concern that Comcast would seek to leverage its cable holdings and in the process degrade its broadcasting presence and diminish the important public service role that broadcast television stations historically have played.”


To address those concerns, Comcast promised its NBC affiliates (including WHDH) that it would negotiate affiliate extensions in good faith such that over the air access would be maintained, and cable interests would not influence those negotiations. As part of the FCC’s approval of Comcast’s acquisition of NBC, the FCC adopted these same conditions in order to protect the public interest.

 

[Peter Parker]

Maybe WHAG can join in.