Station to Station

May 12, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

If its defunct right-leaning editorial series, The Point With Mark Hyman, or its refusal to broadcast Nightline’s 2004 tribute to the Iraq war dead are any indication, Sinclair Broadcast Group isn’t coy about its conservative tendencies.

Still, when we happe...Read More

May 9, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

NBC Local Media president John Wallace says the station group's on-air newscasts will remain vital even as NBC Universal reengineers the station group to distribute content on a wider range of platforms, not just the evening or late news. "It's an evolution," he says. "It's not that their roles are less important. We're asking them to change their roles and do more than newscasts--it's an expansion of their duties." 

He says NBC is ultra-committed to instilling its new philosophy, crystallized in a staff meeting with WNBC earlier this week, in staffers. "It's easy to say you're a multiplatform entity," he says. "But you have to be committed to changing the process and walking the walk...We'll be changing the whole work environment."

WNBC's 24/7 news channel is slated to debut on the station's digital tier in November.
Industries: Local TV

May 9, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Reporters at NBC affiliate WCNC used Twitter to report on the North Carolina primary earlier this week, reports Lost Remote and others. Calling itself a "microblogging service," Twitter allows people to communicate short messages via instant messenging and SMS.

Watch this page through election night for the latest updates from our team of reporters, anchors and producers covering the primary from all angles," it said on WCNC.com. Their brief updates will be filed here throughout the night, via micro-blogging service Twitter.

A crew of reporters filed rapid-fire, real-time Twitter updates from the field. 

"Senator Clinton speaking right now in Indianapolis... crowd chanting Hillar...Read More

May 8, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Believing Sinclair's stock price undermines its performance, Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO David Smith said the company has discussed going private. Smith's revelations occured on a conference call discussing the company's first quarter results, which saw broadcast revenues up 8.5%. 

"Anybody that's looking at the Sinclair stock today would have to say there's a tremendous amount of value," Smith told investors. "[But] for whatever reason, the valuations just don't show up from a market standpoint in our equity." 

MediaPost has more on Smith's musings [registration required].  

May 7, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The New York Times has more detail on NBC restructuring operations in New York and debuting a 24-hour news channel in the fall. According to Bill Carter, there will be neither hirings nor firings at NBC (three separate New York offices, not including the 30 Rock headquarters, will be consolidated in a new facility), though there will be extensive training to get everyone up to speed on cross-platform content creation and distribution. 

Producers, for example, whose previous focus has been “getting the show on the air at the assigned time,” will be re-trained to produce video segments instead of shows, aiming to spread the segments across the various local NBC platforms.

The Times also has the name of the new cable channel: New York's Newschannel...Read More