FIRST ON THE BLOG: FOX’s owned and operated stations have rebranded two of its MyNetworkTV stations to be named after the main FOX station. But there will now be a third.
Starting Monday, KSAZ 10 in Phoenix will be rebranding its sister station, KUTP 45, from My 45 to FOX 10 Xtra. Yes, named after its sister station KSAZ 10. Not only that, it will also adopt two hours of local news.
Also starting Monday, the station will air a two-hour block of KSAZ 10’s online news service, FOX 10 News NOW. The service airs on YouTube and online at FOX10Phoenix.com on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. Arizona time. On television at the newly named FOX 10 Xtra (KUTP 45), it will offer a two-hour simulcast on weekdays from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. This will give the Phoenix area with the ONLY source for local news and weather at 10:00 a.m. and will allow it to compete against KNXV 15 (ABC)’s hour-long midday newscast at 11:00 a.m.
The service usually has various on-air news anchors and meteorologists appear during the 12-hour block. No word as to who’ll appear during those two hours on KUTP 45. By the way, this will be the very first time that FOX 10 News NOW will be seen on television since the service was launched in 2015.
This will be the third rebrand that FOX O&O has done to its sister stations. The first one actually wasn’t MyTV but to an Independent station… KTVU 2 in Oakland rebranding KICU 36 in San Jose as KTVU Plus last year and added 10:00 a.m. morning news and expanded the 7:00 p.m. news to a full hour. And just last month, WTTG 5 in D.C. rebranded WDCA 20, the MyTV affiliate, as FOX 5 Plus which added an 8:00 p.m. newscast, a half-hour on weeknights and an hour-long on weekends. The other MyTV O&O stations will continue to use the MyTV branding for the time being.
So there you go Phoenix. Changes are abound coming Monday with a new name and a new rolling news block, coming from online to the area’s television sets.
changingnewscasts.wordpress.com 
A couple other Fox O&O duopoly markets could prove interesting. With San Francisco, DC, and Phoenix doing Fox Plus and Fox Xtra brandings to their MyNetworkTV affiliates. I could see Dallas, Houston, and Orlando going this route. Not sure about NYC and LA.
LikeLike
Remember, KICU is Ind., not MyTV.
LikeLike
KCOP and WWOR in LA and NYC used to have local news until KTTV and WNYW bought them. I think they could add news back on those stations again like what KICU, WDCA, and KSAZ did. I think WWOR and KCOP could add news at 10:00a or 11:00a with FOX plus news. Both KCOP and WWOR are MY TV affilates.
LikeLike