The Fox Television Center in
New York City
was opened by
DuMont
in 1954 as the DuMont Tele-Centre.
The
Fox Broadcasting Company
's foundations were laid in March 1985 through
News Corporation
's $255 million purchase of a 50% interest in
TCF Holdings
, the parent company of the 20th Century Fox film studio. In May 1985, News Corporation, a media company owned by
Australian
publishing magnate
Rupert Murdoch
that had mainly served as a
newspaper
publisher at the time of the TCF Holdings deal, agreed to pay $2.55 billion to acquire
independent television stations
in six major U.S. cities from the
John Kluge
-run broadcasting company
Metromedia
: WNEW-TV (now
WNYW
) in
New York City
,
WTTG
in
Washington, D.C.
,
KTTV
in
Los Angeles
,
KRIV
in
Houston
,
WFLD
in
Chicago
, and KRLD-TV (now
KDAF
) in
Dallas
. A seventh station, ABC affiliate
WCVB-TV
in
Boston
, was part of the original transaction but was spun off to the
Hearst Broadcasting
subsidiary of the
Hearst Corporation
in a separate, concurrent deal as part of a
right of first refusal
related to that station's 1982 sale to Metromedia.
[1]
[2]
[3]
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.
[4]
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,
[5]
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.
[6]
On October 5, 1994, Fox announced it would exercise the purchase option;
[7]
it retook control of WFXT on July 7, 1995.
[8]
In 1990, FTS bought
KSTU
in Salt Lake City, making it the first network-owned station in Utah.
New World Communications deal
edit
The New World Communications deal affected
WAGA-TV
in
Atlanta
, which switched to Fox after a longtime affiliation with
CBS
.
FTS gained a bulk of stations through 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.
[9]
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).
[9]
Because NFL games generate high ratings, owning these stations outright allows FTS to also collect the local advertising revenue, as well as use them as leverage during retransmission consent negotiations with cable and satellite providers.
[10]
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
.
[11]
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.
[12]
[13]
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.
[14]
[15]
[16]
FTS also acquired
WHBQ-TV
in
Memphis
in an unrelated deal on August 18, 1994.
[17]
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
.
The studios for
KRIV
and
KTXH
in
Houston
, one of the duopolies FTS created after the Chris-Craft acquisition and its subsequent trades
FTS gained stations through the 2000 acquisition of the
Chris-Craft/United
group, which gave Fox ownership of several stations then affiliated with the
UPN
network (which had been a partnership between Chris-Craft and
Viacom
(
Paramount
's subsidiary) until March 2000 when the latter company bought the former's stake), and also created several
duopolies
(two stations in the same market owned by the same company).
[18]
When the deal was finalized in 2001, this immediately created
duopolies
(two stations in the same market owned by the same company) between Fox and former Chris-Craft stations in markets such as Phoenix (KSAZ and
KUTP
), Los Angeles (KTTV and
KCOP-TV
) and New York City (WNYW and
WWOR-TV
).
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.
[19]
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.
The studios for
KDFW
and
KDFI
in
Dallas
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 was original to be syndicated.
[20]
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 station
WPWR
in
Chicago
, would be taking over the market's affiliation with the network from rival
WGN-TV
in September of that year. MyNetworkTV remained on WPWR as a secondary affiliation until 2019, when the CW affiliation transferred to
WCIU-TV
.
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
.
[21]
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.
[22]
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
.
[23]
[24]
On May 6, 2013, the FCC granted its approval of WUTB to Deerfield Media, which was formally consummated on June 1.
[25]
Expansion into more NFL markets
edit
Longtime Fox affiliate KTVU in the
San Francisco Bay Area
was one of the several stations in NFL markets that FTS acquired during the 2010s.
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.
[26]
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
.
[27]
The deal was approved by the FCC on March 11
[28]
and completed on April 17.
[29]
[30]
As part of the deal, WJZY became a Fox owned-and-operated station on July 1.
[
citation needed
]
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."
[10]
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
.
[31]
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.
[32]
[33]
[34]
The station sale/trade was completed on October 8, 2014.
[35]
Fox's motivation for acquiring KTVU was that it was another NFL market with
an NFC team
.
[32]
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;
[10]
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;
[36]
the purchase, submitted for FCC approval on October 3,
[37]
[38]
was described as a "strategic option" for Fox by an insider.
[39]
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.
[40]
Fox's application to acquire KBCB was dismissed by the FCC on November 20, 2014.
[41]
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
game shows
, which launched that June.
[42]
Later in the year, FTS also agreed to carry
Weigel Broadcasting
's
Heroes & Icons
network on subchannels of 11 major market stations.
[43]
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
.
[44]
[45]
On May 7, 2017, it was reported that
Sinclair Broadcast Group
was nearing a deal to purchase Tribune Media,
[46]
[47]
and that 21st Century Fox had dropped its bid for the company.
[48]
[49]
The deal was officially announced the next day.
[50]
(However, on August 9, 2018, Tribune canceled the Sinclair deal.)
[51]
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.
[52]
[53]
[54]
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.
[55]
[56]
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
.
[57]
[58]
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.
Fox Corporation subsidiary
edit
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.
[59]
The deal was completed on March 20, 2019.
[60]
With the loss of
Twentieth Television
in the deal, Fox Stations set up its own syndication arm, Fox First Run,
[61]
despite some of their syndicated shows being distributed in conjunction with
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
.
[62]
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.
[63]
On January 13, 2020, FTS launched
Fox Soul
, a
free ad-supported streaming television
(FAST) channel targeting the African American community.
[64]
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.
[65]
[66]