Leave it to market TWENTY to have a station going HD!
According to Roger Simmons WFTV-9 in Orlando is starting their High Definition broadcast on June 29th, just in time for July sweeps.
WFTV will be only the 10th news station in the country to go in full HD format. They’re also building a new studio as well as a graphics package (probably done by Giant Octopus) specifically created for HD broadcasting. Even their doppler radar will be high definion.
I am so jelaous! Now back to watching my upnconverted super-compressed news for this morning
Roger Simmons
Eyewitness news Going HD
Kudos to WFTV for raising the bar. SoFla stations in general should be shamed by their excuses for not providing more HD content.
Hopefully, this means WFTV will be getting a new set. With the excpetion of the weather set, the WFTV set is really lame.
completely unrelated…but did you remove your contact box? where we could just click and send you an e-mail?? i was going to ask you if you know about wsvn.com’s new webcasting…i know that they’ve been doing it forever, but it seems much clearer and faster now…
Frank, no I haven’t
But thanks for bringing it up, I’ll put it back in. I forgot about it after I updated the back-end of the site 🙂
The feed quality to me at least seems the same as before. I’m watching the feed now from the front-page link and the sound is aweful!
WHDH are using the WorldNow format for archived stories and have video window that pops up with lots of stories. The video quality is superb!
My guess it’s what WSVN would add to their site soon, hopefully and not drop the live feed!
Yeah, WSVN also took out the option to pick between dailup and broudlband streaming on there site, by changing the Video Button to 7-News Live.
Wow that is not fair about the HD. What market number is Miami?
WFTV, Channel 9 will be going HD on June 29th..also look for new graphics/opening, and theme music. I am told they are going with the same music package as NY’s WABC. Also from then on they will be known as ABC 9 instead of Channel 9.
Miami is market 17
I could be completely wrong, and Sean could be completely right, but I’m VERY skeptical of WFTV being rebranded as ABC-9. Cox has never embraced this style of branding, and I don’t know of anything that’s changed to alter that. Cox has stations in bigger and smaller markets and I can’t think of a single one that uses the awful [insert network – insert channel number] branding. The only worse branding is [Local- insert channel number].
Bottome line — WFTV is a dominant station with a solid identity and has no reason to change.
So far, 6 Gannett O&O stations, 1 ABC O&O, 1 FOX O&O, 1 Fisher O&O, and 1 Cox O&O are now producing newscasts in HD.
KOMO (Seattle-Tacoma, WA)… May, 1999. Owned by Fisher.
WJW (Cleveland, OH)… Early 2004. Owned by FOX.
KUSA (Denver, CO)… April, 2004. Owned by Gannett.
WUSA (Washington, DC)… May 2, 2005. Owned by Gannett.
WXIA (Atlanta, GA)… February 2, 2006. Owned by Gannett.
KABC (Los Angeles, CA)… February 5, 2006. Owned by ABC.
KSDK (St. Louis, MO)… February 6, 2006. Owned by Gannett.
KARE (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN)… April, 2006. Owned by Gannett.
WKYC (Cleveland, OH)… May, 2006. Owned by Gannett.
WFTV/WRDQ (Orlando, FL)… June 29, 2006. Owned by Cox.
The stations I believe could and might be next to begin producing news in HD…
Gannett’s WTSP (Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL), KXTV (Sacramento, CA), and KPNX (Phoenix, AZ).
Cox’s WSB (Atlanta, GA), WSOC/WAXN (Charlotte, NC), WPXI (Pittsburgh, PA), KIRO (Seattle-Tacoma, WA), and KTVU (San Fransisco, CA).
NBC O&O’s… My guess is that WNBC and/or KNBC will likely be first. Other NBC O&O’s will likely follow, including Miami’s WTVJ “NBC 6”.
CBS O&O’s… My guess is that WCBS and/or KCBS/KCAL will likely be first. Other CBS O&O’s will likely follow, including Miami’s WFOR/WBFS “CBS 4” and soon-to-be “WBFS 33”.
FOX O&O’s… With WJW being the first FOX O&O, I’m guessing that WNYW, KTTV, WFLD, WTTG, and/or KRIV (The original FOX O&O stations) will be next, and other FOX O&O stations may eventually follow.
ABC O&O’s… With KABC being the first ABC O&O, I’m guessing that WABC will be next, and other ABC O&O stations may eventually follow.
Just some thoughts.
You forgot one…WRAL in Raleigh, which is HD not only in the studio, but out in the field as well.
WRAL/WRAZ (Raleigh-Durham, NC)… January, 2001. Owned by Capitol Broadcasting.
1 Capitol Broadcasting O&O offering news in HD. All in all, 11 stations/duopolies producing news in HD.