RK
Thought I would bump this thread that aside from NBC yanking WHDH's affiliation in Boston and WHAG's* affiliation in Hagerstown there is an affiliation switch happening in the Raleigh, NC between WRAL and WNCN on Monday 29 February.
WRAL the family and locally owned market leader (by ratings and technology**) serving the Raleigh; Durham; Chapel Hill; Fayetteville, NC market decided to switch to NBC during their renegotiation with CBS. Apparently CBS was demanding more money from the station to carry their programming. After a certain amount of time when they were able to start negotiating with NBC (ABC is an owned station and WRAL's sister station is Fox) and they quickly struck a deal favorable to them. The station state that NBC is committed to local ownership and their affiliates and essentially offered them a deal they couldn't refuse. CBS then struck a deal by default with WNCN, which is owned by Media General who has 24 CBS stations. The stations will air their first network's programming at 7AM where WRAL and WNCN will air Today and CBS This Morning, respectively.
*An interesting note about WHAG's affiliation is that their ownership, Nexstar, who renegotiated their affiliation agreements for their NBC stations for multiple years while WHAG was only until the end of July 2016. Reports indicate that because (for some odd reason) the Washington, DMA includes Hagerstown, MD that NBC Owned station WRC will be piped in by cable for much of the market. While WBAL in Baltimore will likely pick up two of WHAG's eastern counties. I never understood why this market was a hyphenate because there's a mountain blocking Washington and Hagerstown. This is the reason why WHAG is there in the first place. WHAG's coverage area includes parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. WHAG has announced that they will become an independent affiliate carrying 20 more hours of news and lifestyle programming in addition to the 30 hours of news they already offer. A few people over at TVNewsTalk have speculated that Nextar may be looking to cash out when the upcoming spectrum auction occurs. They stand to make decent payout for their valuable spectrum near Washington.
**WRAL was the first station in the nation to have an experimental HD channel in 1996 (they moved to their official pre DTV switchover in 2000); airing the first live sports program in HD in 1997; started airing regular programming that was available in HD in 1999; the worlds first all HD newscast at the state fair in October 2000; a few months later in January 2001 they converted their workflow back in the studio to all digital where they began to air the worlds first daily HD newscast. With their January 2001 newscasts the station produced news from the field and air in HD. The only items in their newscasts in SD were weather (because the vendors weren't close to offering it) and outside sources from CBS/CNN which were still SD based.
Here are some videos/promos from WRAL about the switch:
Here's a video from WNCN on having to let go an employee:
Sorry : For the long post. Thought some context and interesting background info would be somewhat useful for international members. I had to edit the most multiple times because some of the URL codes were initially not working despite being initially coded correctly.
WRAL the family and locally owned market leader (by ratings and technology**) serving the Raleigh; Durham; Chapel Hill; Fayetteville, NC market decided to switch to NBC during their renegotiation with CBS. Apparently CBS was demanding more money from the station to carry their programming. After a certain amount of time when they were able to start negotiating with NBC (ABC is an owned station and WRAL's sister station is Fox) and they quickly struck a deal favorable to them. The station state that NBC is committed to local ownership and their affiliates and essentially offered them a deal they couldn't refuse. CBS then struck a deal by default with WNCN, which is owned by Media General who has 24 CBS stations. The stations will air their first network's programming at 7AM where WRAL and WNCN will air Today and CBS This Morning, respectively.
*An interesting note about WHAG's affiliation is that their ownership, Nexstar, who renegotiated their affiliation agreements for their NBC stations for multiple years while WHAG was only until the end of July 2016. Reports indicate that because (for some odd reason) the Washington, DMA includes Hagerstown, MD that NBC Owned station WRC will be piped in by cable for much of the market. While WBAL in Baltimore will likely pick up two of WHAG's eastern counties. I never understood why this market was a hyphenate because there's a mountain blocking Washington and Hagerstown. This is the reason why WHAG is there in the first place. WHAG's coverage area includes parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. WHAG has announced that they will become an independent affiliate carrying 20 more hours of news and lifestyle programming in addition to the 30 hours of news they already offer. A few people over at TVNewsTalk have speculated that Nextar may be looking to cash out when the upcoming spectrum auction occurs. They stand to make decent payout for their valuable spectrum near Washington.
**WRAL was the first station in the nation to have an experimental HD channel in 1996 (they moved to their official pre DTV switchover in 2000); airing the first live sports program in HD in 1997; started airing regular programming that was available in HD in 1999; the worlds first all HD newscast at the state fair in October 2000; a few months later in January 2001 they converted their workflow back in the studio to all digital where they began to air the worlds first daily HD newscast. With their January 2001 newscasts the station produced news from the field and air in HD. The only items in their newscasts in SD were weather (because the vendors weren't close to offering it) and outside sources from CBS/CNN which were still SD based.
Here are some videos/promos from WRAL about the switch:
Here's a video from WNCN on having to let go an employee:
Sorry : For the long post. Thought some context and interesting background info would be somewhat useful for international members. I had to edit the most multiple times because some of the URL codes were initially not working despite being initially coded correctly.
Last edited by Rkolsen on 28 February 2016 3:19pm - 7 times in total
MO
The network swap in North Carolina occurred.
http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/02/wral-wncn.jpg
http://www.adweek.com/tvspy/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2016/02/wral-wncn.jpg
MO
Here is the set up NBC is using for the Super Tuesday Coverage. Seems cramped. They shoved some tables on the risers behind the plexiglass star shaped anchor desk
BA
The ABC News online stream is great - live shots of people voting/not being able to work out the vote acceptor machines to very bombastic music.
EDIT: The ABC Online coverage is featuring none other than Dick Bacon. This is probably the closest we'll get to a The Big Breakfast revival.
EDIT: The ABC Online coverage is featuring none other than Dick Bacon. This is probably the closest we'll get to a The Big Breakfast revival.
Last edited by bilky asko on 2 March 2016 12:04am
JK
2014:
http://www.newscaststudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/mtp1.png
2016:
It looks quite nice on camera, though - as you can't see how close the people are to the back wall.
They've made some big changes since the mid-terms, when the same set was empty apart from the star desk, with a wraparound view of Rockefeller Plaza on all the screens.
They've made some big changes since the mid-terms, when the same set was empty apart from the star desk, with a wraparound view of Rockefeller Plaza on all the screens.
2014:
http://www.newscaststudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/mtp1.png
2016:
RK
To be honest the mid terms don't really require the amount of man power needed for a presidential election. They do have a separate room for their election team to analyze the votes free from outside sources to avoid undue influence. Likely those people there are producers used for the immediate show elements given the fluidity to election night. They did the same thing with the risers during the 2012 election to speak with their pollsters even though they were broadcasting from a set outside on the plazza.
It looks quite nice on camera, though - as you can't see how close the people are to the back wall.
They've made some big changes since the mid-terms, when the same set was empty apart from the star desk, with a wraparound view of Rockefeller Plaza on all the screens.
They've made some big changes since the mid-terms, when the same set was empty apart from the star desk, with a wraparound view of Rockefeller Plaza on all the screens.
To be honest the mid terms don't really require the amount of man power needed for a presidential election. They do have a separate room for their election team to analyze the votes free from outside sources to avoid undue influence. Likely those people there are producers used for the immediate show elements given the fluidity to election night. They did the same thing with the risers during the 2012 election to speak with their pollsters even though they were broadcasting from a set outside on the plazza.
RK
I really like what MSNBC did with their studio compared to 2014 where they had another RP screen like the one on the left. The LED video wall looks great and doesn't look pixelated unless they zoom up close to it. Their graphics are the same/similar but they switched systems to VizRT where there's better animation of the graphs and stuff. Nothing too over the top but more features will definitely be rolled out by November.
MA
mark
Founding member
MSNBC's coverage looked (and was) great last night.
I love the fact that they still use the 2004 NBC election theme music, which the network itself replaced in 2012. It's probably one of my favourite news themes of all time.
On a separate note (seeing as this thread is about ABC too), ABC's hour-long network specials came from the Good Morning America studio with extra red, white and blue, like their mid-term coverage. It looked quite good.
But, as they used the usual Times Square camera as the main backdrop, the 10pm west coast edition (1am ET) looked a bit odd, as they kept switching between live segments (empty Times Square) and ones recycled from the east coast edition (square full of people).
I love the fact that they still use the 2004 NBC election theme music, which the network itself replaced in 2012. It's probably one of my favourite news themes of all time.
On a separate note (seeing as this thread is about ABC too), ABC's hour-long network specials came from the Good Morning America studio with extra red, white and blue, like their mid-term coverage. It looked quite good.
But, as they used the usual Times Square camera as the main backdrop, the 10pm west coast edition (1am ET) looked a bit odd, as they kept switching between live segments (empty Times Square) and ones recycled from the east coast edition (square full of people).
GL
I LOVE that NBC desk. So clean and modern. US News is finally entering the 21st century. I also think the MSNBC coverage was great. The channel doesn't get the credit it deserves, largely because much of the commentary of it focuses on its centre-left bias.
MO
Graphics wise the network broadcasts were very very restrained and simple. I loved them all. Strange to say that.
NBC used a clean package. Serious, darker animations with a muted flag background. interesting font used. Slightly less graphics than those one MSNBC. But similar nonetheless.
CBS used a simple white package with flat graphics on a plain white background. SImple animations with a slight shadow on parts.
ABC was simple and flat but they were slightly over sized and larger than needed. Too many unneeded animations.
AJAM had a pretty package. White backgrounds. They graphics was mostly of circles and pie chart type things. Nice simple animations. Almost similar to CBS
CNN was a mess. Complete graphics overload. Too much of everything. Starting to look like an Indian news channel.
FOX was by far the worst of the bunch. Too many fonts too much animating. But thats usual for them. No surprise there. Horrific. The centre of bad tv news graphics.
NBC used a clean package. Serious, darker animations with a muted flag background. interesting font used. Slightly less graphics than those one MSNBC. But similar nonetheless.
CBS used a simple white package with flat graphics on a plain white background. SImple animations with a slight shadow on parts.
ABC was simple and flat but they were slightly over sized and larger than needed. Too many unneeded animations.
AJAM had a pretty package. White backgrounds. They graphics was mostly of circles and pie chart type things. Nice simple animations. Almost similar to CBS
CNN was a mess. Complete graphics overload. Too much of everything. Starting to look like an Indian news channel.
FOX was by far the worst of the bunch. Too many fonts too much animating. But thats usual for them. No surprise there. Horrific. The centre of bad tv news graphics.