NEW YORK — There will be no “great affiliation swaps” for Gray Television-owned stations presently affiliated with CBS.
The Atlanta-based broadcast TV station owner has entered into a new agreement with Paramount Global that renews all of Gray’s existing CBS network affiliations, encompassing seven markets acquired from Meredith Corporation and 47 legacy markets.
As part of the agreement, Gray’s CBS affiliates will continue to be available locally to subscribers on Paramount+ and widely distributed across all traditional and virtual MVPD platforms.
“At a time when local news is more valued than ever – and under greater pressure than ever – Gray is very pleased to have reached an agreement that builds upon the decades-long relationship with CBS in dozens of markets, large and small,” said Pat LaPlatney, Co-CEO of Gray Television. “With this renewal, we intend to continue to invest in local news, weather and sports reporting, while bringing CBS’ premium programming to our local communities.”
Gray is the largest independent owner of CBS affiliates in the country, covering nearly 18% of the U.S. television households and nearly 22 million households.
Nearly all of Gray’s CBS affiliates have been broadcasting CBS network programming from their very first days on the air. And, in less than two years since Gray acquired Meredith and Quincy Media in the second half of 2021, the company says it has approved capital investments exceeding $74 million for those stations, including more than $40 million between WANF-46, the CBS affiliate in Atlanta; and KMOV-4, the CBS affiliate in St. Louis.
Across just the seven former Meredith CBS markets, Gray has launched local news bureaus, added state of the art equipment, created more than 100 hours of additional locally produced news programming each week, and added 154 full-time local journalists and other station employees, Gray boasts.
And, Gray is now recruiting to fill an additional 74 open positions in those seven CBS markets. These investments in local news, Gray notes, come at a time when “hundreds of local news outlets nationwide have shut down or been forced to sharply reduce their newsroom staffs.”
— With reporting by Adam R Jacobson
