My Network TV
Encyclopedia : M : MY : MYN : My Network TV
My Network TV (sometimes written MyNetworkTV, and unofficially abbreviated "MNT" or "MNTV") is an upcoming television network in the United States, owned by News Corporation, which is scheduled to launch on September 5 2006. The network plans an all-telenovela lineup for its first season. My Network TV intends to secure coverage primarily on the former affiliates of The WB and UPN that will not be joining The CW. News Corp announced the network's creation on February 22 2006.
It will be a sister network to FOX. Roger Ailes will oversee the network in his capacity as chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group, which will—as opposed to the management of FOX—have direct responsibility over the new network.
Origins
My Network TV arose as a result of the announcement of The CW, which will essentially merge The WB and UPN. Fox Television Stations Group owned several UPN affiliates, including WWOR in New York, New York; KCOP in Los Angeles, California; and WPWR-TV in Chicago, Illinois, the three biggest stations in the network. Fox had bought most of them after acquiring most of the television holdings of Chris-Craft Industries, cofounder of UPN along with Paramount Pictures (which was acquired by Viacom around the time of UPN's founding). Despite concerns about UPN's future at the time of Fox's purchase of the three stations, UPN renewed its affiliation deals with the stations in 2003 for three seasons. That agreement, and some others', pending expiration in 2006 gave UPN parent CBS Corporation and The WB parent Warner Bros. a rare opportunity to merge the two networks.The CW included no Fox-owned stations; the New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago affiliations all went to stations owned by The WB's co-owner, Tribune Broadcasting. In response, Fox scrubbed all UPN references from its UPN affiliates' logos and promotions, and stopped promoting the network's programs.
Media reports speculated that the Fox-owned UPN affiliates would all become independent, or join with the other UPN and The WB affiliates The CW left out to form another network. Fox parent News Corp chose the latter course, and announced My Network TV on February 22, less than a month after CBS and Warner Bros. announced The CW on January 24. News Corp may have chosen the name My Network TV for synergistic means, as it also owns MySpace.
Programming
Programming will air from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (Eastern/Pacific time) every night of the week except Sunday. Unlike the existing major broadcast networks, My Network TV plans to air primarily-original programming throughout the year, including the summer.Initial series will include the telenovelas Desire and Secret Obsessions, each airing Monday to Friday with one-hour recaps on Saturdays. As telenovelas, these shows will air in continuous cycles of thirteen-week seasons; when one story ends, another, unrelated story should begin the next week. The Desire and Secret Obsessions names will apparently remain constant. The Desire stories planned for 2006-07 are titled "Table for Three," "Art of Betrayal," "Rules of Deception," and "Friends & Enemies"; the Secret Obsessions titles are "Fashion House," "Watch Over Me," "A Dangerous Love," and "To Love & Die."
Given that My Network TV will air two programs six days a week produced by 20th Television (Fox's syndication unit), its programming is more akin to a syndication model, such as the Prime Time Entertainment Network, Operation Primetime, or The Disney Afternoon, than the existing major broadcast networks. Indeed, Fox had aimed Desire for syndication prior to the My Network TV announcement.
The announcement of the new network also stated that additional unscripted and current-affairs programming were in development. These include Catwalk, where three supermodels judge who will be the next cover girl (essentially an ensemble version of America's Next Top Model); On Scene, a news magazine produced by Fox News (also headed by Ailes), focusing on crime-related stories; America's Brainiest, an American version of Celador's Britain's Brainiest quiz show; and an American version of the ITV series Celebrity Love Island, where six single celebrities and six of their fans attempt to find romance.
However, should the telenovelas become successful and continue to air back-to-back, the nature of their format may preclude any other shows from airing on My Network TV during prime time. The network does not plan to air anything other than telenovelas until September 2007 at the earliest, and there is no further word on the progress, if any, of the series in development noted above.
The manager of the My Network TV affiliate in Roanoke, Virginia has stated that the network will launch a national morning show similar to Fox News’ Fox & Friends.[link] The network has not indicated any plans for network children's programming or any other programming outside of prime time.
Affiliation
As of July 12 2006 160 stations are affiliated with the new network, reaching over 101.6 million households and covering 92.2% of the US. Ironically, these affiliates include six stations owned by companies involved in the founding of the CW, three owned by Tribune Broadcasting (located in Atlanta, Georgia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington), and three owned by CBS Corporation; however, Gannett purchased the Atlanta Tribune station (pending regulatory approval) shortly after Fox confirmed it as a My Network TV affiliate.
On March 6 2006, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that 17 of its stations, mostly affiliates of The WB but also a few from UPN and some independent stations, would become My Network TV affiliates in September 2006. This occurred despite the widespread presumption that affiliation with The CW, which at this point was still available in most markets, would be more valuable; however, Sinclair implied that My Network TV was more financially attractive for the company. Some of the markets the 17 Sinclair stations occupy include Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Tampa, Florida; Cincinnati, Ohio; San Antonio, Texas; Birmingham, Alabama; Raleigh, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
On March 9, KSMO-TV was announced as Kansas City's station for My Network TV, and branded My KSMO TV. The station is owned and managed by Meredith Corporation's CBS affiliate, KCTV-5.
One of the stations named in a April 26 2006 announcement of My Network TV affiliates was KNVA Austin, Texas, which The CW had added to its list of confirmed affiliates a week previously. On May 1 KWKB Iowa City, Iowa, another previously-confirmed affiliate of The CW, signed on to carry My Network TV. Currently, these two stations are the only in the US to be aligned with both new networks, leaving unclear how they will brand themselves in the months to come.
On July 12th 2006, MNTV added affiliates in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, WBFS market 17, KTVD Denver, market 18, WSYX in Columbus, Ohio, market 32, WTCN in West Palm Beach, Fla, market 38, WHP-TV in Harrisburg, Pa, market 41, WUPL in New Orleans, market 43, and WAWS in Jacksonville, Fla, market 52. WBFS, WTCN, and WUPL are owned by CBS corportation, KTVD is owned by Gannett, WHP,and WAWS is owned by Clear Channel, and WSYX is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. WSYX, WHP, and WAWS are digital sub-channel stations. [link][link] This brings MNTV coverage to 160 affiliates and 92.2% coverage. The deal with CBS to affiliate their non-CW stations with MNTV came as a surprise to everyone in the broadcasting industry, especially after the icy reception between CBS and News Corp that began after the CW and MNTV came into the picture.
Currently, the five largest markets without a My Network TV affiliate are Boston, Massachusetts, the fifth-largest, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, forty-fifth largest, Providence, Rhode Island, ranked fifty-first, Dayton, Ohio, ranked fifty-ninth, and Toledo, Ohio, ranked seventieth. (By contrast, the highest-ranking market without an affiliate of The CW is Honolulu, Hawaii (#72).)
In Boston, Fox has stated that its owned-and-operated WFXT would carry the network from 1pm-3pm if My Network TV does not find an affiliate. [link] If this happens, WFXT would be one of five stations to affiliate with both FOX and My Network TV, the others being WMQF, WOHL, WNTZ, and KWKT. In Oklahoma City, the CW will be seen on Sinclair Broadcast Group's WB affiliate KOCB, the only Sinclair-owned CW affiliate not in the same market as a Sinclair- or Fox-owned My Network TV affiliate. The local UPN affiliate is KAUT, recently purchased by the New York Times Company from CBS Corporation. KAUT, which at the time had just been sold off by CBS, was briefly listed as a CW affiliate on the press release announcing the network. There are no signs that NYT is leaning towards My Network TV affiliation or away from it, and currently, there is no My Network TV affiliate in Oklahoma City. Providence had a joint UPN/WB affiliate owned by CBS (WLWC), which then joined the CW.
Due to the availability of "instant duopoly" digital subchannels, that will likely be easily available on cable and satellite, and the overall lack of a need to settle for a secondary affiliation with shows aired in problematic timeslots, both the CW and MNTV will be launching with far greater national coverage than that enjoyed by UPN and the WB when they started in 1995. UPN for several years had gaps in the top 30 markets, and by 2005 managed to reach only 85% of the population. This resulted in secondary affiliations with other networks and the resulting dilluted ratings when programs were shown out of their intended timeslots, or the lack of the program airing at all (experienced by several Star Trek fans with Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise).
In Canada, Toronto, Ontario television station CKXT "Sun TV" will show MNTV programs in the late afternoon.
Branding
Many Fox owned-and-operated stations are likely to brand local programming with the My moniker. An example is My9 and My9 News for WWOR.Several stations have already changed their on-air identities to accommodate for the upcoming network, including all of the Fox Television Stations Group-owned stations, plus WMYT, the only station so far that has changed both its callsign and its branding. Affiliates have begun to show promotions for the network featuring the theme of "Entertainment you can call your own."
The station name changes are going ahead despite one potential hurdle: There is at least one station that already uses the "My TV" moniker. WZMY Derry, New Hampshire filed a trademark for the "myTV" name in the summer of 2005, and may file a lawsuit against Fox for "My Network TV." [link]
See also
External links
- [My Network TV website]
- [My Network TV affiliate site]
- [My Network TV female-centric launch promo posted on MySpace (Flash video)]
- [My Network TV male-centric launch promo posted on MySpace (Flash video)]
| Broadcast television networks in the United States | |
|---|---|
|
English: ABC | CBS | Fox | NBC | PBS | UPN | The WB | The CW (replaces UPN and The WB as of Sept. 2006) | My Network TV (as of Sept. 2006) Spanish: Azteca América | TeleFutura | Telemundo | Univision | |
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