Here’s another twist on TV station cost cutting.
Denver FOX affiliate KDVR, until recently a Newscorp station but owned by Local TV Stations LLC is moving in with Tribune-owned KWGN, a CW affiliate.
The two stations will combine their facilities, news operations, share programming (!) and offer advertisers an easier way to buy advertising at both stations.
The two companies are doing the same in St. Louis. Combining KPLR, CW station owned by Tribune with KTVI, a FOX station owned by Local TV LLC.
KTVI is moving into KPLR’s facilities and both stations will produce 9-hours of news daily “with no overlap”.
“These arrangements enable us to create efficiencies between the FOX and CW affiliates in each market to serve the local community like never before,” said Ed Wilson, president of Tribune Broadcast. “On top of that, we can provide advertisers the ease and efficiency of one-stop shopping, delivering even greater reach.”
Tribune and Local TV have been running some administrative, corporate and engineering functions via a broadcast management company since December 2007.
Locally Tribune only has CW, there are no Local TV-owned stations in Miami. For now, the closest to sharing we’ve come is WSVN and WPLG sharing choppers during refueling and building a new broadcast tower together. Of course the WTVJ-WPLG merger is still pending.
/via Lostremote/
MediaWeek: Tribune and Local TV Holdings Combine Denver, St. Louis Stations
