CBS Television Stations

CBS Television Stations

Type	Division
Industry	Television
Predecessor	Westinghouse Broadcasting Paramount Stations Group
Founded	May 24, 2000
Headquarters	New York City, USA
Key people	Peter Dunn (President) Anton Guitano (COO, CBS Local Media) Ezra Kucharz (president, CBS Local Digital Media)[1]
Revenue	$1.6 billion (2014[1])
Parent	CBS Corporation (National Amusements)
Website	Website

The CBS Television Stations is division of CBS Corporation that owns and operates a group of American television stations. As of December 2014, CBS Corporation owns thirty stations, broken down as follows: sixteen are the key stations of the CBS Television Network; eight are aligned with the CW Television Network, which is co-owned by CBS with Time Warner; four independent stations; two stations affiliated with MyNetworkTV.

History

The group was founded on May 24, 2000, after the merger of Viacom and the previous CBS Corporation, as the Viacom Television Stations Group; it was a merger of the Paramount Stations Group with CBS's owned-and-operated stations division. It was rebranded to its current name on January 3, 2006, after Viacom split itself into two publicly traded companies. However, both companies are still controlled by National Amusements.

In 2009 and 2010, three of WCBS managers were named CBS TV Stations executives while continuing to manage at the station. Station manager Peter Dunn was named CBS Television Stations President in 2009. Station creative services director Bruce Erik Brauer was named in June 2010 senior vice president of creative services for the group. WCBS news director David Friend added senior vice president of news in August 2010.^[2]

On October 21, 2014, CBS and Weigel Broadcasting announced the launch of a new digital subchannel service called Decades, scheduled to launch on all CBS owned and operated stations in May 2015.^[3][1] The channel will be co-owned by CBS and Weigel, with Weigel being responsible for distribution to stations outside CBS Television Stations. It will air programs from the extensive library of CBS Television Distribution, including archival footage from CBS News.^[3]

The station group made a couple of content agreements in 2014 and 2015. The stations agreed in December 2014 for its content to be shown on Curb's Taxi TV.^[1] In November 2015, the station group agreed to allow Health Media Network air local news reports on its network in doctor’s waiting rooms.^[4]

Stations

Currently many of CBSTS' stations, especially CBS outlets, use a common look in branding. One example is so-called "CBS Mandate" involving most CBS stations calling themselves "CBS [Channel number]" (e.g. WCBS-TV, CBSTS' flagship station on channel 2, brands itself as "CBS 2"). This is the same practice as many other O&O groups across the U.S. Only five CBS-owned stations do not use such a branding convention.

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.

Current

Notes:

**) indicates WCBS-TV as the only station built and signed-on by CBS;

++) indicate a station that was owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting prior to its acquisition of CBS in 1995;

¤¤) indicate a station that was owned by Gaylord Broadcasting prior to its sale to CBS in 1999;

##) indicate a station that was owned by the original Viacom prior to its acquisition of CBS in 2000.

Former

Note: This list also contains stations that were owned and operated by CBS prior to the founding of CBS Television Stations in 2000.

1. ) Co-owned with the Los Angeles Times in a joint venture (49% owned by CBS, 51% owned by the Times).
2. ) Co-owned with the Washington Post in a joint venture (45% owned by CBS, 55% owned by the Post).
3. ) Operated by the original Viacom through its Paramount Stations Group via local marketing agreement (LMA) from 1997 until Viacom/CBS acquired the station outright in 2001.

See also

• TVX Broadcast Group
• Paramount Stations Group

References

External links

• CBS Corporation: CBS Television Stations