Days after the CW unveiled to advertisers its 2016-17 lineup last Thursday, the network has closed a new deal with its biggest affiliate group, Tribune. The down-to-the wire new agreement assures that the CW will continue to be carried by the Tribune stations in 25% of the country, including the top two markets — New York and Los Angeles. Meanwhile in the No. 3 market, Chicago, the CW affiliation will switch from Tribune’s WGN-TV to the Fox Television Stations-owned WPWR, beginning on September 1.
WGN, which will now become independent, is very sports-focused. It has a slate of more than 150 live Cubs, Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks games. That has led to a slew of pre-emptions of the CW while WGN has had to move as many as 30 games a year to another local station in Chicago.
“As an independent television station, we’ll have the opportunity to bring more primetime baseball, basketball and hockey games Tribune Media logoto Chicago sports fans on weeknights, add some popular syndicated programming, expand our weekend morning news, and take control of all of WGN- TV’s primetime advertising inventory,” said Larry Wert, President of Broadcast Media for Tribune Broadcasting. “Importantly, we’ll also avoid having to move any games off of WGN-TV to accommodate network programming.”
In a rare change of network affiliations in Chicago, the CW Network will move this fall from Tribune Media WGN-Channel 9 to Fox-owned WPWR-Channel 50, sources said Sunday. The switch, expected to be announced Monday, will return “Chicago’s Very Own” to an independent station with a strictly local programming lineup, starting in September. Tribune Media still owns CW affiliates in 12 other markets, including New York and Los Angeles. Formed in 2006 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS, the network includes such primetime shows as “The Flash” and “Jane The Virgin.” In addition to two hours in primetime each weeknight, CW also programs five hours of children’s programming on Saturday mornings. Sources said the move to WPWR, low-rated sister station of WFLD-Channel 32, is expected to mean a shift of less than $4 million in revenue.
KTLA and PIX (LA and NY) are in SD only on Shaw Direct. So this will have a big impact on Shaw Direct customers, since WGN, the current CW station, is the only one of the superstations carried in HD, on the Shaw Direct system. Shaw Direct customers will now be putting pressure on Shaw to carry the other 2 CW channels in High Def. sooner than they originally planned.
Well if you record CW programming on WGN9 you better shift to the NYC or LA channel (or if you are on Rogers cable and get WNLO, then Buffalo as well but SD only).
WGN9 is promoting they are going to boost their sports programming. So expect to see more Cubs, Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls games on WGN9.
I would imagine that Canadian BDU's will still be permitted to carry WGN. It has continued through National superstation status, WB affiliation, and CW affiliation. I am sure that independent status won't change a thing as far as the CRTC is concerned.
WPCH is independent now (remember they dropped the simulcast of TBS Superstation - although it wasn't a full 24 hrs simulcast. HERE is the old thread) and remains on most systems in Canada as part of the old "super stations" package.
The only super station that never seemed to get any penetration was KWGN out of Denver, which is on the authorized list and no one seems to have it. Ironically, they are keeping their CW affiliation.
Yes, only a handful of BDUs carry WWOR in Canada and they are mostly the small regional ones. However, Rogers, Bell, Shaw and Videotron do not and they are the big players. With KWGN not one BDU has it as far as I know.
Yes, WWOR is only available on Source Cable and Telus. It was on Access Regina for a number of years but it hasn't been available for awhile. I'd imagine, WWOR will probably be dropped from Source Cable when they complete the transition over to Rogers.
No All games that air on WGN9 can be seen in Canada, even if a Canadian team is playing vs. the Chicago team as its a different feed so they cannot simsub.
You know what I wish they would do? Give us the darn CW HD channel instead of putting it with the TMN/HBO packages. No way am I going to pay $22 a month more just to watch The CW in HD, when the SD version of the channel is free with even the basic channels.
I'm getting sick of watching Whose Line Is It Anyway in SD.
I contacted ShawDirect and it doesn't seem there are plans to add either WPIX or KTLA in HD anytime soon. To urge ShawDirect to get moving on this so we have a CW HD feed available by fall (as many other providers have had available for years), please complete the ShawDirect Channel Request form. Here's a link:
The channel request form is useless. If they actually followed it, more channels would be carried. It is rather amusing that the only provider with a channel request form is the one with the least amount of channels. Go figure?
I've said this a thousand times over the years. Shaw doesn't need their customers to tell them what to add. The market research has already been done by companies like Numeris.
Actually, Shaw Direct has as many channels as any cable provider, just different ones. I get every single Canadian broadcast channel (from BC to Newfoundland), how many people with cable can say that? With a few exceptions, most specially channels are also on Shaw Direct. The difference we are talking about here, is the fact that they have fewer of the former super-channels in HD, but they are available in standard definition. Filling out the form cannot hurt; Shaw Direct already has plans to offer the channels in HD in the next couple of years, maybe we can encourage them to offer them sooner, especially as more satellite transponders become available as Canadian channels disappear from lack of interest.
WGN will no longer be a CW station starting Sept. 5, 2016.
Will Shaw (and others) be replacing WGN with another CW station? I ask because for out West WGN is a CW time-shifted digital CW program provider, and will therefore be greatly missed.
CW-WPIX New York on channel 67. This would be the other digital time-shifted (eastern time zone) CW channel available.
CW-WPIX New York is not available in HD at this time but we do assume there will be more demand for the HD channel after the changes with CW-WGN Chicago. The more demand we receive, the more likely we will get the HD channel if available. If you would like to contribute to that demand and let us know just how much an HD version of the CW-WPIX New York is needed, please take a few minutes to fill out our Channel Request form at https://community.shaw.ca/docs/DOC-5553 . The information from this survey goes directly to our Planning Team.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums
1.7M posts
114.9K members
Since 2001
A forum community dedicated to Canadian TV, computing and home theatre owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about home audio/video, displays, troubleshooting, styles, projects, DIY’s, product reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!