Fox Television Stations

Fox Television Stations, Inc.
Fox Television Stations Group, Inc.

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Broadcast television
Predecessor	Metromedia New World Communications United Television BHC Communications
Founded	April 1986 (1986-04)
Founder	Rupert Murdoch Barry Diller
Headquarters	New York City, USA
Area served	United States Canada
Key people	Jack Abernethy, CEO
Owner	Fox Entertainment Group
Parent	21st Century Fox
Divisions	28 stations Fox Television Stations Productions Movies! MyNetworkTV
Website	21st Century Fox

Fox Television Stations, Inc. (FTS; alternately Fox Television Stations Group, Inc.), is a group of television stations located within the United States which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Entertainment Group, part of 21st Century Fox. Until it moved to Spike in the 2013-14 season, FTS produced the first 25 seasons of Fox's program COPS (through Fox Television Stations Productions [FTSP]), and also oversees the MyNetworkTV service and a half-interest in the Movies! digital subchannel network, which is shared with Weigel Broadcasting.

History

FTS was formed in April 1986 after the acquisition of the Metromedia-owned independent stations by the 20th Century Fox film studio, at the time jointly owned by Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, and Denver-based billionaire Marvin Davis. These stations would later become the basis of the Fox television network, which launched in October 1986. Not long after the Metromedia deal was made, Murdoch purchased Davis's shares and News Corporation assumed complete control of 20th Century Fox.

Initially, FTS was a semi-autonomous unit in which News Corporation owned over 99 percent of the equity but only 24 percent of the voting power; the balance was held personally by Murdoch.^[1] Federal Communications Commission regulations of that era prohibited foreign interests or non-American citizens from controlling more than 25 percent of an FCC-licensed broadcast station. Though News Corporation was still based in Australia, Murdoch had become a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1985, and the nominal transfer of a majority voting interest to Murdoch was sufficient to get around this hurdle. The quirk was removed permanently when News Corporation reincorporated in the U.S. in 2004.^[2] The Fox network itself and affiliated cable channels were not affected by these regulations.

Starting with the original six stations, FTS gained the bulk of its group through two large transactions: the 1997 purchase of New World Communications, succeeding a 1994 business deal between the two companies which led to all of New World's stations switching from other networks to Fox during 1994–95;^[3] and the 2000 acquisition of the Chris-Craft/United group, which gave Fox ownership of several stations then affiliated with the UPN network, and also created several duopolies (two stations in the same market owned by the same company).^[4] A significant factor that resulted in Fox's affiliation with, and later purchase of, New World Communications was Fox acquiring TV rights to the National Football League (NFL), primarily covering games involving teams in the National Football Conference (NFC).^[3]

The Fox-owned UPN affiliates were not included in the UPN/WB merger (The CW), which was announced on January 23, 2006. Soon after, these stations removed references to UPN from their on-air branding and websites. On February 22, 2006, FTS announced that all nine of their non-Fox outlets will be charter affiliates of a new service known as MyNetworkTV, which commenced operations on September 5, 2006 with telenovela programming that were original to be syndicated.^[5] On May 23, 2016, it was announced that one of the Fox owned former UPN affiliates that were left out of the initial negotiations for CW affiliation a decade earlier, MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated WPWR in Chicago, will be taking over the market's affiliation with the network from rival WGN-TV in September of that year. No announcement was made on whether or not MyNetworkTV will remain on WPWR in an out of pattern timeslot once The CW moves to the station.

On December 21, 2007, FTS announced that it would sell nine of its stations to Local TV, LLC, a division of Oak Hill Capital Partners.^[6] Six of the stations that were sold are ex-New World stations. 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.^[7]

On January 28, 2013, FTS announced that 17 of their stations would be affiliating with new subchannel network, Movies!, which is a joint venture between FTS and Weigel Broadcasting, on their subchannels.^[8] That same day, the company announced it would be acquiring the Charlotte duopoly of CW affiliate WJZY and MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYT-TV from Capitol Broadcasting Company.^[9] The deal was approved by the FCC on March 11^[10] and completed on April 17.^[11][12] As part of the deal, WJZY became a Fox owned-and-operated station on July 1. The station community believed that the Charlotte station's purchase by FTS is proof that Fox is interested in owning a TV station in NFL markets (specifically those with NFC teams, as Charlotte is) to up the station groups' "bargaining power in retransmission consent negotiations with cable, satellite and telco operators." ^[13]

As part of the restructuring that stemmed from the News Corporation/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.^[14]

On June 24, 2014, FTS announced it would acquire its existing San Francisco Bay Area affiliate KTVU, along with its duopoly partner KICU-TV, from Cox Media Group in exchange for WFXT in Boston and WHBQ-TV in Memphis.^[15][16][17] The station sale/trade was completed on October 8, 2014.^[18] Fox's motivation for acquiring KTVU was that it was another NFL market with an NFC team.^[15]

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;^[13] 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;^[19] the purchase, submitted for FCC approval on October 3,^[20][21] was described as a "strategic option" for Fox by an insider.^[22] 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.^[23] Fox's application to acquire KBCB was dismissed by the FCC on November 20, 2014.^[24]

On January 20, 2015, Deadline.com announced that FTS's stations will carry the new digital multicast network Buzzr TV, a joint venture of FremantleMedia and Debmar-Mercury. Buzzr TV will carry classic game show content and will debut on Monday, June 1.^[25] Fox TV Stations in expanding its relationship with Weigel Broadcasting beyond Movies! by adding the Heroes & Icons network to 11 major market stations in the fourth quarter 2015.^[26]

Units

• 28 stations
• Fox Television Stations Productions
• MyNetworkTV
• Movies! (JV with Weigel Broadcasting)

Stations

Stations are arranged alphabetically by state and city of license.

Current

Notes:

• (**) – Indicates an original Fox-owned station from the network's inception in 1986.
• (++) – Indicates a station owned by New World Communications prior to its acquisition by News Corporation in 1997.
• (¤¤) – Indicates a station owned by Chris-Craft Industries/BHC prior to its acquisition by News Corporation in 2001.

Former

Other Notes:

• WCVB-TV was included in the original sale of the Metromedia stations to News Corporation, but was spun off in a separate, concurrent deal to the Hearst Corporation as part of a right of first refusal related to that station's 1982 acquisition by Metromedia.
• On a side note, in between the events of Fox acquiring its original charter affiliates and the New World affiliation agreement, only WTXF, KTVU, WFXT, KDVR, WOFL, KSTU and WOGX were already affiliated with Fox when they were acquired by Fox in future acquisitions.

References

External links

• Official Website