I was contemplating how I was going to do this post. In the end, I figured it all out. So, in this post, we’re just gonna talk about nothing but CBS’ owned-and-operated stations because there have been huge moves involving local newscasts across its station group over the past two months.
For the record here, not EVERY station or duopoly is involved with this, so keep that in mind while you are reading this.
I’ve landed in one of my all-time favorite cities and markets… Boston. I just love this city so much. I’m glad I can stop by here for a minute and explain what’s happened here while I was away.
FIRST ON THE BLOG: A small change to report from the Boston market.
So CBS has been launching local 24/7 news channels lately across the country. It first started in New York with WCBS/WLNY and then in Los Angeles with KCBS/KCAL. Now, it has arrived in Boston at WBZ/WSBK.
There are six 10:00pm newscasts in Boston and when there’s that many, one has to be given up. That one is low-rated WBZ’s 10:00pm news on WSBK. That’s why they will move it up to an earlier slot during primetime.
FIRST ON THE BLOG: WBZ’s 10:00 p.m. newscast on WSBK hasn’t found much success in the crowded 10:00 p.m. news race in the Greater Boston Metro Area, however, because others have it on weekends as well, WBZ’s 10:00 p.m. newscast will do the same.
Starting Saturday August 29th, 2015, WBZ 4’s hour-long WBZ News at 10:00 will expand to weekends on its sister station, WSBK 38 (MyTV). The newscast will be an expansion to the already weeknight hour-long 10:00 p.m. newscast that WBZ 4 has provided on WSBK 38, since the station received the My Network TV affiliation in 2011.
This will become the fourth such newscast on at 10:00 p.m. on weekends in the Greater Boston area, including the long-time established WFXT 25 (FOX)’s FOX 25 News at 10:00 (hour-long), WLVI 56 (CW)’s 7 News at 10:00 (hour-long) and Manchester, NH-based WBIN 50 (Ind.)’s NH1 News TONIGHT at 10:00 (half-hour). The other 10:00 p.m. newscast in the area, also Manchester, NH-based WMUR 9 (ABC), only airs it on weeknights on its digital subchannel, WMUR-DT 9.2, which is known as Me-TV New Hampshire, plus its the ONLY half-hour newscast at 10:00 p.m. in the area. Only WCVB 5 (ABC) doesn’t produce a primetime newscast in any way, whatsoever.
The newscast will be anchored by Kate Merrill on Saturdays with Liam Martin joining Kate on Sundays. WBZ AccuWeather forecasts will come from long-time station veteran and AMS/Sealed Meteorologist Barry Burbank (who’s been at WBZ 4 since March 1978).
So even more local primetime news in Boston and more choices on weekends, thanks to WBZ 4 on WSBK 38.
FIRST ON THE BLOG (other than New England One at NewEnglandOne.com): It looks like there are now 4 stations in the Boston – Manchester market to air an hour-long newscast at 10:00 p.m. on weeknights. Here’s why.
Back on September 29th, WBZ-TV 4 expanded the 10:00 p.m. newscast on WSBK 38 to an hour. The newscast is anchored by Jonathan Elias (who succeed Jack Williams as main anchor at WBZ-TV 4) and Paula Ebben (WBZ-TV 4 veteran who anchored with Jack on his final newscast after 37 years, just weeks ago). The new expanded newscast now competes entirely with 3 other stations in the market…
Unlike WFXT and WLVI, but like WBIN, WBZ’s 10:00 p.m. newscast is just weeknights ONLY as it still doesn’t offer a weekend newscast at 10:00 p.m. In fact, the weeknight-only 10:00 p.m. newscast on WSBK is the station’s only newscast. I didn’t mention WMUR’s 10:00 p.m. newscast on Me-TV New Hampshire because it’s now the ONLY station in the Boston – Manchester market with a half-hour weeknight 10:00 p.m. newscast. If you count WMUR for news at 10:00 p.m. though, then it’s 5 stations in the market doing 10:00 p.m. news on weeknights and that’s more than the Top 6 markets, before Boston: #1 N.Y.C. (2 stations), #2 L.A. (3 stations), #3 Chicago (2 stations), #4 Philadelphia (4 stations), #5 DFW (2 stations) and #6 San Francisco (2 stations)
Did viewers started tuning in more or they just wanna compete with the rest? Hmm… we’ll find out soon enough.
changingnewscasts.wordpress.com 