Product Code Database
Fox Television Stations, LLC ( FTS) is a group of television stations in the United States owned-and-operated by Fox Corporation. It owns LiveNOW from Fox, Fox Local, and Fox Soul. It also oversees the MyNetworkTV syndication service and has a half-interest in the Movies! digital sub-channel network, which is shared with Weigel Broadcasting.
Because Metromedia, originally known as Metropolitan Broadcasting at its founding, was spun off from the failed DuMont Television Network, radio personality Clarke Ingram has suggested that the Fox network is a revival or at least a linear descendant of DuMont. The former Metromedia stations WNEW-TV (originally known as WABD) and WTTG were two of the three original owned-and-operated stations of the DuMont network, and the former base of DuMont's operations, the DuMont Tele-Centre in Manhattan, eventually became the present-day Fox Television Center.
On December 31, 1986, WXNE-TV in Boston (later renamed WFXT on January 19, 1987), became the seventh Fox-owned property, and the first to be acquired separately from News Corporation's 1986 purchase of Metromedia's six television stations. However, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prohibited the common ownership of a television station and a newspaper in the same market, News Corporation had to apply for and was granted a temporary waiver in order to retain WFXT and the newspaper it had also published, the Boston Herald. In 1989, Fox placed WFXT in a trust company; the following year, it sold the station to the Boston Celtics' ownership group. News Corporation then later sold the Boston Herald in February 1994, eliminating the potential regulatory conflict with reacquiring WFXT. On October 5, 1994, Fox announced it would exercise the purchase option; (preview of subscription content) it retook control of WFXT on July 7, 1995. (preview of subscription content)
In 1990, FTS bought KSTU in Salt Lake City, making it the first network-owned station in Utah. In 1995, Fox transferred its production subsidiary, Fox Television Stations Productions, itself a successor to Metromedia's in-house production unit, to 20th Television, and it was renamed to Fox Lab.
The original 1994 affiliation deal with New World also triggered a chain of affiliation changes across the country and other multi-station affiliation deals for the next couple of years. Renaissance Broadcasting had previously sold WATL to FTS in 1993 to become a Fox owned-and-operated station, the first network-owned station in Atlanta. FTS was in the planning stages for a news department at the station, and WATL had even gone as far as hiring a news director. However, when the New World affiliation deal was signed, it was agreed that New World's and Atlanta's longtime CBS affiliate WAGA-TV switch to the Fox network. As a result, Fox cancelled the plans for a newscast on WATL and put the station up for sale.
Renaissance Broadcasting had also sold KDVR in Denver, along with its satellite station KFCT in Fort Collins, Colorado, to FTS on November 15, 1994, in exchange for acquiring KDAF in Dallas. One of original core stations that FTS acquired from Metromedia, it was set to lose Fox programming to that market's longtime CBS affiliate, New World's KDFW.
New World was also expanded its own broadcasting holdings in 1994 by buying other stations groups, but its combined purchases ran afoul with the FCC's media ownership rules at the time prohibiting a single company from owning more than twelve television stations nationwide. New World thus established a trust company in preparation for its sale of WGHP in High Point, North Carolina and WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama, which it would place the stations into in September and October 1994 respectively. Under the arrangement, New World owned the licenses of WBRC and WGHP, while its previous owner Citicasters continued to control their operations under outsourcing agreements.
In April 1995, Citicasters transferred the operations of WBRC and WGHP to the FTS, which assumed operational control through time brokerage agreements with New World. Both stations were sold directly to Fox three months later on July 22, 1995.
FTS also acquired WHBQ-TV in Memphis in an unrelated deal on August 18, 1994.
Among the other affiliation changes, most notable was Westinghouse Broadcasting's affiliation deal with CBS in 1995. This set off a complex trade of Philadelphia stations between CBS/Westinghouse and NBC; FTS instead independently bought its own Philadelphia station, WTXF-TV.
When New World's sale to Fox closed in 1997, ten stations became Fox owned-and-operated stations: KSAZ-TV in Phoenix; WTVT in Tampa, Florida; WAGA-TV in Atlanta; WJBK in Detroit; KTBC in Austin, Texas; KDFW in Dallas; WDAF-TV in Kansas City, Missouri; KTVI in St. Louis; WJW in Cleveland; and WITI in Milwaukee.
Although former Chris-Craft station KTVX would have also created a duopoly with Fox station KSTU in Salt Lake City, FCC regulations at the time prohibited one company from owning two of the four highest-rated stations in a single market. FTS thus traded both KTVX and the former Chris-Craft station KMOL (now WOAI-TV) in San Antonio to Clear Channel Communications in 2001 in exchange for WFTC in Minneapolis, creating a duopoly for FTS with former Chris-Craft station KMSP-TV. Because KMSP had the stronger signal due to being a VHF station, while WFTC was a UHF station, FTS decided to switch the affiliations in 2002, with Fox programming going to KMSP and WFTC taking over the UPN affiliation.
FTS then bought KDFI in Dallas in 2000 and WPWR-TV in Chicago in 2002 to create duopolies with Fox-owned stations, KDFW and WFLD, respectively. FTS also made two other trades in 2002 to create more duopolies. Former Chris-Craft station KPTV in Portland, Oregon was traded to the Meredith Corporation in exchange for WOFL in Orlando, Florida, creating a duopoly with former Chris-Craft station WRBW. FTS then traded former Chris-Craft station KBHK (now KPYX) in San Francisco to Viacom for UPN stations KTXH in Houston and WDCA in Washington, D.C., creating duopolies with original Fox-owned stations KRIV and WTTG, receptively. WUTB in Baltimore was the only acquired Chris-Craft station during this time that FTS did not trade away or create a duopoly with.
On December 21, 2007, FTS announced that it would sell eight smaller-market stations to Local TV, LLC, a division of Oak Hill Capital Partners. Six of the stations that were sold were ex-New World stations, including the two stations that were first acquired by FTS directly in 1995 (WGHP in High Point, North Carolina and WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama) and four via the 1997 merger (WDAF-TV in Kansas City, Missouri; KTVI in St. Louis; WJW in Cleveland; and WITI in Milwaukee. The other three were KSTU in Salt Lake City, and KDVR in Denver and with its satellite station KFCT in Fort Collins, Colorado. The transaction was completed in 2008.
In January 2009, NBC Owned Television Stations and FTS set up the first Local News Service with their Philadelphia stations after testing since the summer 2008. Fox and NBC then added other markets where they both own stations.
On May 15, 2012, as part of a five-year affiliation agreement extension between Fox and Sinclair Broadcast Group's 19 Fox affiliates (including company flagship WBFF) that will run through 2017, Fox included an option for Sinclair to purchase WUTB, exercisable from July 1, 2012, to March 31, 2013. On November 29, 2012, Sinclair exercised its option to purchase WUTB through Deerfield Media. On May 6, 2013, the FCC granted its approval of WUTB to Deerfield Media, which was formally consummated on June 1.
As part of the restructuring that stemmed from the /21st Century Fox split, it was announced on July 8, 2013, that 20th Television, which was until that time under FTS, will operate under the management of 20th Century Fox Television.
On June 24, 2014, FTS announced it would acquire its existing San Francisco Bay Area affiliate KTVU, along with its duopoly sister independent station KICU-TV, from Cox Media Group in exchange for WFXT in Boston and WHBQ-TV in Memphis. The station sale/trade was completed on October 8, 2014. Fox's motivation for acquiring KTVU was that it was another NFL market with an NFC team.
In addition to FTS's aforementioned purchases of Charlotte's WJZY in 2013 and the San Francisco Bay Area's KTVU in 2014, Variety reported that Fox is also interested in acquiring stations in the following other NFL markets: Seattle and St. Louis (the latter's KTVI had previously been owned by Fox, but was included in the 2007 sale to Local TV; with the St. Louis Rams relocating to Los Angeles starting with the 2016 NFL season, there is no word as to whether or not FTS' pursuit of a station in the St. Louis market has diminished). While discussions with Seattle's Fox affiliate KCPQ and its owner Tribune Broadcasting remained ongoing, Fox struck a deal on September 19, 2014, to buy KBCB, a station in nearby Bellingham, for $10 million; the purchase, submitted for FCC approval on October 3, was described as a "strategic option" for Fox by an insider. Tribune then agreed on October 17 to extend its affiliation agreement for KCPQ through July 2018, and pay increased reverse compensation fees to Fox for the broadcasting of the network's programming beginning in January 2015. Fox's application to acquire KBCB was dismissed by the FCC on November 20, 2014.
On January 20, 2015, it was announced that Fox Television Stations would be a charter launch partner for Buzzr, a new digital multicast network from Debmar-Mercury and FremantleMedia North America devoted to classic , which launched that June. Later in the year, FTS also agreed to carry Weigel Broadcasting's Heroes & Icons network on subchannels of 11 major market stations.
On April 30, 2017, it was reported that 21st Century Fox was in talks to purchase Tribune Media in a joint venture with the Blackstone Group. On May 7, 2017, it was reported that Sinclair Broadcast Group was nearing a deal to purchase Tribune Media, and that 21st Century Fox had dropped its bid for the company. The deal was officially announced the next day. (However, on August 9, 2018, Tribune canceled the Sinclair deal.) On August 2, 2017, it was reported that 21st Century Fox was in talks to form a similar joint venture with Ion Media in an effort to counter Sinclair and displace Fox affiliations from their stations; analysts felt that the proposed partnership was meant as a bargaining ploy against Sinclair, as it would have to make significant investments into the acquired stations to make them profitable and capable of producing local news programming (Ion stations have historically had few employees or local infrastructure), and that Fox risked losing viewers through these transitions.
In January 2018, the Financial Times reported that FTS was finalizing a deal to acquire as many as 10 Fox affiliates from Sinclair, as part of an effort to reach FCC approval of its proposed acquisition of Tribune Media. The deal would likely include Seattle's KCPQ (as Sinclair already owns ABC affiliate KOMO-TV there), KOKH-TV in Oklahoma City (Tribune already owns KFOR-TV), KSTU-TV in Salt Lake City (Sinclair already owns KUTV), KTVI in St. Louis (Sinclair owns KDNL) and Tribune's Fox/CW duopoly of KDVR and KWGN in Denver. This deal would bring several former O&Os previously divested to Local TV, LLC (which was acquired by Tribune) back under Fox ownership.
On May 9, 2018, Fox announced it would purchase KCPQ, KDVR, KSTU, KTXL in Sacramento, KSWB-TV in San Diego, WJW in Cleveland and WSFL-TV, the CW affiliate for Miami-Fort Lauderdale. The move would give Fox stations in the home markets for the Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns and Miami Dolphins as the network takes over the Thursday Night Football package from CBS and NBC. After Tribune terminated its merger agreement with Sinclair on August 9, 2018, however, the sale of the seven aforementioned stations to FTS was likewise nullified.
With the loss of Twentieth Television in the deal, Fox Stations set up its own syndication arm, Fox First Run, despite some of their syndicated shows being distributed in conjunction with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution and Dish Nation has barter sales with Trifecta Entertainment and Media.
On November 5, 2019, Nexstar Media Group announced an agreement to sell WITI in Milwaukee (effectively a re-purchase) and KCPQ and KZJO in Seattle to Fox Television Stations, and would purchase from Fox WJZY and WMYT-TV in Charlotte. This gives Fox additional two bigger NFL team market stations in the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks while losing the Carolina Panthers market.
Also in 2020, FTS launched LiveNOW from Fox, a streaming news channel jointly operated by KSAZ, KTTV, and WOFL. The channel carries live coverage of breaking news events throughout the day as directed by a small crew of digital journalists, leveraging resources and raw footage from Fox's local news departments. The service originated from a Fox 10 News Now webcast that had been run by KSAZ; amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the channel soft launched a national expansion by becoming "CoronavirusNow" (with contributions from the national Fox News and Fox Business networks), before adopting its current name later that year.
In May 2023, FTS launched a new streaming platform known as Fox Local; the app primarily carries video content from Fox-owned stations, including local news programming, as well as the LiveNow, Fox Weather, and Fox Soul channels.
Fox Corporation subsidiary
On December 14, 2017, after rumors of such a sale, The Walt Disney Company announced that it would purchase FTS's parent company, 21st Century Fox for $52.4 billion, plus the assumption of $13.7 billion in debt by Fox, subject to government approval. FTS, along with several other assets was spun off into Fox Corporation, a company owned by the Murdoch family. The deal was completed on March 20, 2019.
Streaming
On January 13, 2020, FTS launched Fox Soul, a free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel targeting the African American community.
Units
Stations
Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and city of license.
Current
+ List of stations currently owned by Fox
! scope="col" Media market
! scope="col" State/Dist.
! scope="col" Station
! scope="col" Channel
! scope="col" Purchased
! scope="col" Affiliation
! scope="col" class="unsortable" Notes Phoenix Arizona
! KSAZ-TV 10 1997 Fox Los Angeles California
! KTTV ** 11 1986 Fox San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose
! KTVU 2 2014 Fox Washington, D.C. District of Columbia
! WTTG ** 5 1986 Fox Ocala–Gainesville Florida
! WOGX 51 2002 Fox Orlando–Daytona Beach
! WOFL 35 2002 Fox Tampa–St. Petersburg
! WTVT 13 1997 Fox Atlanta Georgia
! WAGA-TV 5 1997 Fox Chicago Illinois
! WFLD ** 32 1986 Fox Detroit Michigan
! WJBK 2 1997 Fox Minneapolis–St. Paul Minnesota
! KMSP-TV 9 2001 Fox New York New York
! WNYW ** 5 1986 Fox Philadelphia Pennsylvania
! WTXF-TV 29 1995 Fox Austin Texas
! KTBC 7 1997 Fox Dallas–Fort Worth
! KDFW 4 1997 Fox Houston
! KRIV ** 26 1986 Fox Tacoma–Seattle Washington
! KCPQ 13 2020 Fox Milwaukee Wisconsin
! WITI 6 2020 Fox
Former
Birmingham Alabama
! WBRC 6 1995 2008 San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose California
! KPYX 44 2001 2002 Denver Colorado
! KDVR 31 1995 2008 Fort Collins
! KFCT 22 1995 2008 Atlanta Georgia
! WATL 36 1993 1995 Baltimore Maryland
! WUTB 24 2001 2013 Boston Massachusetts
! WCVB-TV ** 5 1986 1995 2014 Kansas City Missouri
! WDAF-TV 4 1997 2008 St. Louis
! KTVI 2 1997 2008 Charlotte North Carolina
! WJZY 46 2013 2020 High Point–Greensboro–Winston-Salem
! WGHP 8 1995 2008 Cleveland Ohio
! WJW-TV 8 1999 2008 Portland Oregon
! KPTV 12 2001 2002 Memphis Tennessee
! WHBQ-TV 13 1995 2014 Austin Texas
! K13VC 13 1997 2003 Dallas–Fort Worth
! KDAF ** 33 1986 1995 San Antonio
! WOAI-TV 4 2001 Salt Lake City Utah
! KSTU 13 1990 2008
External links
Categories: Fox-television-stations : Official Website, American Companies Established In 1986, Mass Media Companies Established In 1986, Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox Corporation Subsidiaries, Metromedia, Television Broadcasting Companies Of The United States, Owned-and-operated Television Stations In The United States
|
|
