# WHDH Boston and NBC in Dispute Over New Leno Show



## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

Ed Ansin, owner of the parent group of WHDH told The Boston Globe he did not believe Leno’s new show would be successful. He said the station would do better financially with a news show that competes with Fox-affiliated WFXT-TV’s highly rated 10 p.m. newscast.

This prompted NBC Network President John Eckto state that "WHDH would be in blatant violation" of their contract and threatened to strip the affiliate of Network status.


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## cj9788 (May 14, 2003)

Ansin's Ch 7 In Miami lost NBC pretty much the same way in 1989 or 1990. Back then NBC had value, and he fought to try and keep it and lost. So NBC moved to Ch 4 which was a CBS station, then CBS moved to ch 6 which was independent. ABC stayed on ch 10 then ch 7 became FOX. Then to add to the confusion Ch 4 and ch 6 traded frequencies a couple of years later, so NBC became ch 6 but it was still WTVJ, and CBS became ch 4 WFOR. Before the switch they were WCIX. Miami tv history is pretty interesting, at least to me it is.

I wouldnt be surprised if Ansin starts to pre empt network programs in boston for breaking local news. If it went out on a police scanner a ch 7 news van was not far behind to break in and give us the dirty laundry.


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## DCSholtis (Aug 7, 2002)

http://www.variety.com/VR1118002085.html


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

I dont know why it wouldnt be successful. Jay Leno has a much better following then Conan. I think its stupid to change the name of the shows and the time slot. Whats the point really? They are both going to do what they do but with a new show name. I just dont get it.


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## Italia (Dec 8, 2008)

I think this concept will be very popular at first...just like "who wants to be a millionaire". Folks will watch. Then...I feel it will die down, just like "who wants to be a millionaire". By then, there will be multiple primetime talk shows at different times. Watch....that's just the history of television. Something works, copy it.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

...and part of Leno's local popularity is that he's from the area. Perhaps Ansin, not being local, doesn't know that.


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## bicker1 (Oct 21, 2007)

In response to WHDH's intention, NBC says that such an action would violate affiliate agreements. WHDH says, in response, that their affiliate agreement allows them to do what they suggest, and NBC has not yet said that it doesn't.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

DJLong beat me to it but yes, Mr. Leno hails from Andover, MA. 

I think this is a chest-beating exercise and really, more than anything shows how weak NBC programming is overall that a key affiliate would try this.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

Mr. Ecks at NBC was Very specific, that their contract does NOT allow this to happen.



bicker1 said:


> In response to WHDH's intention, NBC says that such an action would violate affiliate agreements. WHDH says, in response, that their affiliate agreement allows them to do what they suggest, and NBC has not yet said that it doesn't.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Boston is the #8 television market, so naturally NBC will enforce the contract.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Let's see. NBC eliminates an hour of expensive scripted programming for financial reasons. According to the Variety article: "Sunbeam chief Ed Ansin, who owns WHDH, told the Boston Globe that he decided to replace Leno with news because 'it fundamentally is a better financial plan for us.'"

This raises interesting questions. How much is NBC charging for another hour of night talk show? Unlike primetime hour programs, those late-night talk shows are full of local ad spots. But NBC is likely to maintain the primetime advertising to be predominantly national ads even if it is Leno.

Obviously, it's revenue producing to move the local news from that 35 minute slot that NBC affiliates have now to an hour followed by syndicated shows like Fox affiliates. The local station gets 100% of ad sales for an hour and 35 minutes a night.

I'm not so sure NBC has a clean contract case here.


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## bicker1 (Oct 21, 2007)

LarryFlowers said:


> Mr. Ecks at NBC was Very specific, that their contract does NOT allow this to happen.


Time will tell who's correct.


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## Geronimo (Mar 23, 2002)

I have not read the contract but this practice certainly used to be fairly common.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Ummm.. NBC isn't charging WHDH. Networks PAY the local affiliates to air their programs (with a few exceptions)


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## mreposter (Jul 29, 2006)

If the Boston station succeeds and gets better ratings and ad revenue from news than from Leno, look for a bunch of other stations to do the same. That's probably what NBC is most afraid of - losing control of the 10pm slot. And who wants to sit through 90 minutes of local news to wait for Conan to show up?


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## bicker1 (Oct 21, 2007)

mreposter said:


> If the Boston station succeeds and gets better ratings and ad revenue from news than from Leno...


There wouldn't be any practical way to objectively prove that, either true or false. All they need to do is get better ratings from their 10PM newscast next season than they get from their news at 11PM now, and they can claim victory.


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## Pete K. (Apr 23, 2002)

Which would you rather sit through? 1) "Coming up, breaking news, "Did you watch the ER finale? We'll go live to a local watering hole... Plus a 7 exclusive, are you getting ripped off by your hairdresser? All that and we'll tell you when its going to rain..." 
2) Leno monologue
3) Something on CBS


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

djlong said:


> Ummm.. NBC isn't charging WHDH. Networks PAY the local affiliates to air their programs (with a few exceptions)


Actually, things have changed though no details have ever been made public. From a TV Week story dated July 8, 2008:


> For television stations affiliated with NBC, it's not whether they'll have to pay up to stay in the relationship, it's how much.
> 
> The reverse-compensation shoe has dropped for NBC affiliates....
> 
> ...


After that, some station owners started pushing back and rumor had it there were some heavy negotiations. But that was done behind closed doors so we don't know how much things changed.


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## rnbmusicfan (Jul 19, 2005)

NBC obviously doesnt want WHDH to do this because it would begin a bad precedent for NBC affiliates power over the NBC network. NBC can probably find in its contracts that NBC primetime is still 8-11 ET, so WHDH can't do this. It's understood the Leno show won't bring high numbers like a scripted series that NBC had 10-15 years ago did, and even NBC knows this. So, stations would want the 10pm hour for news to compete against FOX. However, its WHDH that is trying to have NBC's cake and eat it too. 

That is, WHDH wants NBC affiliation for the Today show, which is still #1, the weekend programming which is better filler over the alternative, that is infomercials, the 8-10 primetime hour, live pro sports like NFL, but be able reschedule the last primetime hour of network NBC, that is Leno, to later to fit the wants of running local news earlier instead, because NBC network tv isn't as strong as it once was. 

One smart thing Ed Ansin did was buy out WLVI from Tribune. It prevented NBC from easily buying that station and moving the NBC over to WLVI, like how NBC did in San Francisco, that is move NBC affiliation from a much smaller station of WB/CW to it.

I think it's just a negotiation ploy of some sort and Leno will debut at 10 on WHDH.

If NBC and WHDH can't agree, NBC should say dump WHDH/Ed Ansin. Letting WHDH get away with it, sets a precedent of being run over, and it dilutes the entire Leno contract. For a new affiliate, affiliate with WMUR for New Hampshire coverage, while start up a new Boston NBC on either WSBK (assuming they can buy from CBS at a good deal), WMFP, or WNEU. To placate ABC, Hearst can change affiliations at KSBW in Monterey, CA to ABC, giving ABC OTA coverage in a market as a gain to WMUR loss.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

What I'm wondering is about the financial arrangements. You have to remember that "Law & Order", "Law & Order:SVU", and "ER" pulled in acceptable audiences in the 10-11 slot that makes money for everyone and provides an OK lead into the local news. But Leno in the 10-11 slot 5 days a week? That's a potential financial disaster for the local stations.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

Law & Order, Law & Order SVU and ER cost NBC a fortune per hour... Leno costs next to nothing in comparison, that's their incentive and i suspect that there hope is that he will draw his Tonight Show audience as well as a "new" audience at the earlier hour that doesn't stay up late... and that that will carry over to local news operations.

Quite possibly NBC is living in a fantasy world. For me this is the equivalent of reducing themselves to "Fox Network" status with only 2 hours of prime time programming per night... they have moved the "Tonight Show" to 10PM ET, moved Conan's show to the Tonight Show slot, all too meet their contactual obligation to Conan and NOT allow anyone other network to create a Jay Leno show.

It has been a while since NBC made much in the way of sound decisions about programming, so I hope this works better than I think it will.



phrelin said:


> What I'm wondering is about the financial arrangements. You have to remember that "Law & Order", "Law & Order:SVU", and "ER" pulled in acceptable audiences in the 10-11 slot that makes money for everyone and provides an OK lead into the local news. But Leno in the 10-11 slot 5 days a week? That's a potential financial disaster for the local stations.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

I suspect that on day one of the new Leno timeslot, they'll be a tea party in Boston.


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## bicker1 (Oct 21, 2007)

Fox seems to be doing very well with a two-hour prime time schedule. They seem little inclined to expand to three hours per night. Perhaps you've hit upon the one reason why NBC's Leno move is a smart idea.


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## oldschoolecw (Jan 25, 2007)

I could careless about this story because I don’t care for Leno, but I do find it interesting in the fact that NBC will win this battle either by getting a new channel picked up here in Boston or staying with WHDH 7


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## trainman (Jan 9, 2008)

oldschoolecw said:


> I could careless about this story because I don't care for Leno, but I do find it interesting in the fact that NBC will win this battle either by getting a new channel picked up here in Boston or staying with WHDH 7


The other possibility is that Leno (and Leno only) could air on a different channel, although that's a fairly remote possiblity, because NBC wouldn't want their prime-time lineup fragmented among two channels every weeknight.

If an affiliate doesn't want to carry a network show, the network is free to shop the show around to the other stations in the market. It's very rare for that to happen with prime-time programming, although I seem to recall it happening in the first couple seasons of "NYPD Blue" in a few markets (the ABC affiliate felt it violated their standards, but an independent station was happy to pick it up).


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

From TV Week:


> "Given NBC's track record of late, it could get worse," Craig Allison, general manager of NBC's Kansas City affiliate, KSHB, said. Mr. Allison said he hopes for the best in terms of NBC affiliates and the Leno gamble, but understands that by going with news instead of Leno, a local station would get to keeps the entire ad inventory. Depending on the 10 p.m. news in the market, that could make a significant viewership grab.
> 
> "It's almost a no-brainer. The only thing you have at stake is the relationship you have with the network," Mr. Allison said. Other general managers agreed....


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

WHDH has capitulated... Leno will air in Boston.


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