MIAMI — For longtime South Florida television viewers, the “Great Affiliation Switch” isn’t so much of a distant memory. On New Year’s Day 1989, the Fox, NBC and CBS affiliations all shifted in Miami. Now, after nearly 69 years, WPLG-10 will be parting ways with the network today owned by The Walt Disney Co.
It’s going to a digital multicast signal for a station owned by the company founded by the late Ed Ansin.
The shocking news that WPLG would be ending its relationship with ABC came Thursday during a mandatory staff meeting at the station’s studios and offices in south Broward County, where the BH Media station’s President/CEO, Bert Medina, broke the news.
In a report shared by WPLG, which brands itself as “LOCAL 10,” the station effectively controlled by Warren Buffett said that after months of negotiations between the Berkshire Hathaway-owned television station and the network, the two parties could not reach an agreement to extend the affiliation agreement.
As a result, “ABC will pull its programming” from WPLG-10, effective August 4.
“We made a generous offer to ABC, but it became clear the two sides were not going to agree to a new deal,” Medina said.
Explaining the reasoning behind the decision, Medina continued, “Broadcast television stations across the country have announced massive layoffs in recent years. WPLG is proud we’ve not had layoffs, but it became clear that if we accepted the deal ABC was proposing, we too would have been forced to lay off employees in order to pay the hefty price the network was demanding … Our job is to serve this community with news and local programming, that’s why we have an FCC license. If we agreed to the ABC terms, that mission would have suffered.”
Immediately, market rumormongers turned their attention to The E.W. Scripps Co., which owns an unaffiliated broadcast TV station in Miami, WSFL-39, that has attracted fans of the 2024 Stanley Cup Champions, the Florida Panthers, as part of the company’s local sports initiative.
By 3:30pm Eastern, those rumors were rapidly extinguished by a second Category 5-level announcement.
SUNBEAM’S SHINY NEW ERA
In New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit, Los Angeles and Buffalo, ABC is synonymous with older viewers with “Channel 7.”
Now, South Florida will soon be tuning to ABC programming on Channel 7. Sort of.
In an official announcement, Disney Entertainment and WSVN owner Sunbeam Television Corporation announced a new affiliation agreement that will bring ABC to WSVN-7.2, complementing a FOX-affiliated station that for 36 years has been “7 News.”
Before that, WSVN was an embattled NBC affiliate, with Sunbeam owner Ansin regularly squabbling with NBC and its owner, General Electric.
Under the terms of the new, multi-year agreement, “7 NEWS” will continue as WSVN-7.2 becomes “ABC Miami.” At present, WSVN-7.2 is home to “365BLK,” a Jonathan Katz-led Free TV Networks digital multicast offering. In the past, it has been the Miami home of Estrella TV, now on WGEN-8 as an owned property.
On Comcast systems, WSVN-7.2 is on Channel 220.
“We are incredibly excited to join forces with Sunbeam Television in South Florida moving forward as they not only share Disney’s enduring commitment to serving local communities, but they also recognize the value of ABC’s esteemed brand and the significant investments we’re making to our world-class network content,” said Susi D’Ambra Coplan, SVP of Affiliate Relations for Disney Entertainment. “We would also like to thank Berkshire Hathaway Media and everyone at WPLG Local 10 for their partnership — we are very proud to have brought some of the most compelling programming to our highly-valued, mutual viewers over the years.”
Paul Magnes, who serves as co-President of Sunbeam Television Corp. and has been on RBR+TVBR’s Top Local TV Leaders rankings for his leadership of WSVN in Miami and both WHDH and WSBK in Boston, added, “When the opportunity to affiliate with ABC became available, we knew that our combined resources would allow us to develop an extremely strong partnership. Sunbeam Television Corporation has a proven track record as a competitive broadcaster. Adding ABC programming to our stations’ portfolio will only strengthen our footprint. As a family-owned company, we have been embedded in this community for nearly 70 years, with a commitment to local news and supporting non-profit organizations across South Florida.”
A HARBINGER OF LOCAL TV’S FUTURE?
It has been suggested that in the coming years, network affiliation agreements will be as useful as a compact disc player. Thanks to streaming and platforms including Disney+ and Hulu + Live TV, viewing ABC network programming has become easier and accessible across multiple platforms. As such, just how valuable is a network affiliation, and who would be the first to balk at a network’s terms?
It turns out that Warren Buffett has made a move just a handful of others have done, including the late Ed Ansin, whose Sunbeam Television famously thumbed its nose at NBC and went independent with WHDH-7 in Boston.
WPLG head Medina commented, “The network television model has changed dramatically in recent years and it is declining more and more each year. The programming we get from ABC is no longer the same as it has been in years past. Exclusivity, which is the core to our relationship, is disappearing. Even when ABC airs high quality programming, like the Oscars, ABC airs that same programming on other platforms. We no longer feel we are getting what we pay for.”
As such, he added, “Instead of sending our money to New York, we will keep it in our community and use that money to finance a massive expansion in local news and other local programming. We are Local 10. Local is in our name. A majority of our staff grew up here. We are excited for the future of Local 10. Just watch us. We are about to serve this community in an even bigger and better way.”
That said, WSVN’s shift to a local news-heavy program schedule came in 1989, when demographics and viewing habits in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Key West were vastly different than today. As such, how “LOCAL 10” moves on from ABC will be incumbent on viewers in the Florida Keys, Broward County and a highly competitive English-speaking community in Miami-Dade County that is more bilingual and bicultural than ever.
