WGN No More?

[Bricklayer]

Looks like the move to the Score will be made in the next few weeks.

 

http://www.robertfeder.com/2015/10/22/cu...the-score/

 

 

 

Although the Cubs season ended short of a National League Championship Series victory Wednesday, the popularity of the club proved a ratings bonanza to WBBM Newsradio, which is expected to widen its first-place lead in the market when Nielsen Audio figures for October are released.

 

Who would have thought that was going to happen?  

[funkster]

Sox officially gone now I presume?

[Kid]

They signed earlier in the season with WLS-AM

[funkster]

Ah, yeah forgot.  

[rok]

They will be regularly sandwiched in between Limbaugh and Hannity over there. That's a shit sandwich.

[1060Ivy]

They will be regularly sandwiched in between Limbaugh and Hannity over there. That's a shit sandwich.

 

Sox fans should feel at home

[rok]

In any other case this would just be typical carriage deal negotiation posturing, but this is WGN. I can honestly see it being permanently dropped from DISH due to nonexistent ratings.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- DISH reported today that Tribune Broadcasting Company chose to black out DISH customers' access to 42 local channels in 33 markets across 34 states and the District of Columbia, intentionally harming and exploiting millions of innocent consumers in an effort to raise carriage rates and gain negotiating leverage for an unrelated cable channel with declining viewership, WGN America.


While DISH works to reach an agreement, the company is offering "over-the-air" antennas at no cost so that customers in affected markets can watch Tribune's local broadcast channels for free.


"Tribune is demanding an unreasonable rate increase for channels that are available for free over the air," said Warren Schlichting, DISH executive vice president of Programming. "Actions like Tribune's are what drive price increases and feed customer frustration for our industry. With DISH's free antenna, customers will continue to receive Tribune channels for free over the air, along with dozens of other broadcast channels not normally available to pay-TV customers."

FORCED BUNDLING AT ISSUE


In addition to asking for significant price increases for local channels, Tribune is attempting to "force bundle" an unrelated and low-performing cable channel, WGN America, with the media conglomerate's local broadcast stations.

"By attempting to force bundle its cable channel with its local broadcast stations, Tribune is using local viewers as leverage to raise rates for WGN America - a channel that is in decline," said Schlichting. "Tribune is seeking a significant rate increase despite decreasing viewership and recently losing access to Cubs baseball."


DISH viewership data reveals that viewership on WGN America is down on average more than 20 percent since the channel's launch as a cable network. Many of the shows available on WGN America are available on other channels carried by DISH.


"Consumers shouldn't have to pay twice for the same programming," said Schlichting.

DISH OFFER OF EXTENSION, TRUE-UP REJECTED


DISH was hopeful that it would come to a mutual agreement with Tribune to renew carriage of the media conglomerate's local stations. In that spirit, DISH offered a short-term contract extension to Tribune that would include a retroactive true-up when new rates were agreed upon, and would preserve the ability of DISH customers to access the Tribune local stations while negotiations continued. The true-up would ensure that Tribune was made whole at the new rates for the period of any contract extension.


"With DISH willing to grant an extension and a retroactive true-up on rates, Tribune had nothing to lose and consumers had everything to gain by leaving the channels up," said Schlichting. "Instead, Tribune chose to turn its back on its public interest obligations and use innocent consumers as bargaining chips."

[Kid]

Was it ever determined whether WGN had to pay more in rights fees to the Cubs (and other teams) if they showed games on WGN America?  Because I still don't get how it made sense for them to stop showing sports on the superstation.

[rok]

That's a good question. I don't recall whether the contracts between all the other Chicago teams and local WGN also expired at the end of 2014. I know their deal with the Cubs did, and that factored into their decision to stop broadcasting sports on the superstation as well. Tribune balked at even maintaining the same rates of the old deal thru 2019. I'm sure their ratings from Salem and Manhattan are blowing the doors off compared to baseball.

[jstraw]

I think the all "Law and Order" format for the superstation was genius.

[MrSheps]

Was it ever determined whether WGN had to pay more in rights fees to the Cubs (and other teams) if they showed games on WGN America?  Because I still don't get how it made sense for them to stop showing sports on the superstation.

It's both boring and complicated, but WGN America is no longer a supestation (by FCC standards), it was converted to a basic cable channel.  With that it meant the dropping of local sports for various reasons including blackout issues and rebroadcast rights fees increases.  At the time the WGN brass claimed sports advertising was not making them much money outside of designated market area (Chicago in this case), so it was no great loss.  But yes, it would be a separate deal / fee if they wanted to show sports without their superstation designation.  

 

Interestingly (or perhaps not) the Chicago area feed, WGN-TV, I assume taking advantage of a grandfather clause, has been offered for satellite re-transmission in recent years.  If someone has licensed it and rebroadcast it out of DMA, it is now technically a superstation. 

 

I don't know much about what went into the decision making with WGN's conversion specifically, but the FCC (or at least those influencing it) does not seem to want superstations (local over the air channels being re-broadcast out of designated market area via satellite) in today's day and age, so I assume changes in rules has been part of what has led to the demise of superstations. 

[jstraw]

I had no idea that "superstation" was a meaningful designation and not merely a term of art.

[rok]

I'm still confused. What changes officially marked the end the superstation? Local WGN and WGN America stopped airing any of the same programming aside from sports and nightly news back in the early 2000's, so I think this superstation designation was bullshit to begin with.

[MrSheps]

I had no idea that "superstation" was a meaningful designation and not merely a term of art.

Yeah, it has FCC rules attached.  But at the same time they allow it to be used as a marketing term as well.  There aren't a lot of actual superstations left, the only one I know of off hand is KTLA because I happen to be in LA.  Tribune also owns it.  I'm sure there's a list somewhere, and I would bet Tribune owns a few of them.

 

 

I'm still confused. What changes officially marked the end the superstation? Local WGN and WGN America stopped airing any of the same programming aside from sports and nightly news back in the early 2000's, so I think this superstation designation was bullshit to begin with.

Well, in short, or kind of short, and I warn you, it's boring...  The two channels/feeds likely started as a result of issues with syndicated programing blackouts.  This was like late 80s, early 90s, when the FCC put in some new rules.  If you were a true superstation by earliest definition (local station over the air in a specific market, being rebroadcasted outside the market on sat or cable) and say you bought and were showing reruns of Gunsmoke or a first run syndicated show like a daytime talk show, and someone else in the DMA where you were being carried via cable was showing the same syndicated program and had exclusive rights for their DMA, your feed would be blacked out.  By splitting into to 2 feeds, one with over the air, one totally not, you avoid these blackout rules with the totally not feed. 

 

The changes in the last couple of years are about WGN going to a basic cable designation (specifically expanded basic I'd guess) that allows them to receive fees directly from cable and satellite companies for carrying the channel via carriage agreements. This is known as being "re-transmission consent".  Before the change in designation a year back or so they didn't get fees directly through carriage agreements, the sat or cable companies would pay royalties fees to the US copyright office, not Tribune, and WGN/Tribune would rely on ads.  Now they can get money for both ads and carriage fees. Disagreements over the cost to carry is likely what has led to the current blackout on Dish I'd imagine. (I haven't looked into it, but that's always the reason.)  To get to the basic cable designation, you typically need no cross programming between networks and a certain amount of original scripted programming, as opposed to just syndicated. When exactly the two WGNs had totally separate programming I don't know, but I bet it was more recent, and I would guess baseball would be part of that.  The increase in original scripted programing we're seeing now.  Or perhaps not seeing, no clue what the ratings are like.  

[Kid]

I don't know anything about this stuff, so I am fully willing to be educated/proven wrong, but I believe the split in feeds happened something like 10-15 years before WGN dropped sports.  When WGN became a WB affiliate when the WB launched in like 1995, WB programming was shown on the superstation.  Years later (I'm thinking sometime in the late 90s or early 00s, but before WB and UPN merged to become the CW and WGN became a CW affiliate), they stopped showing WB programming on the superstation.  So unless there was something else to stop being the superstation, I don't know if the split in feeds does that.