NYC Bloody Promo Wars Part II
As if the politician mudslinging New York has been privy to the last few weeks hasn’t been enough, the promo battle between WNYW and WNBC over the latter launching a lifestyle show in place of its 5p news this week took another turn yesterday.
Actually, maybe battle isn’t the best term, as one side (WNYW, a Fox O&O) is taking shots and the other (WNBC, an NBC O&O) is not.
Recently, WNYW unveiled a promo showing a detective at a crime scene, looking for clues as to why WNBC “killed” its newscast.
The one I saw yesterday showed plastic being yanked over a control board.
“One station is shutting down news at 5 p.m.,” says the voiceover. “They say you don’t want news anymore. But at Fox5 news, we think they’re dead wrong.”
The promo then shows the lively Fox5 newsroom–control board lit up like a Christmas tree, newsroom people doing newsroom things.
“That’s why we’re breaking news–not taking a break,” concludes the v.o.
What’s interesting is that the two stations are partners–essentially founding partners–in the content sharing program called Local News Service in New York. Perhaps that’s why WNYW doesn’t call out WNBC by name.
Ted Faraone commented:
Both 5 pm programs are, ahem, ratings challenged. If things keep going the way they are, the question may be to which corpse do we send the flowers.