Now that NBC has completed an agreement to sell KUTV-Ch. 2 to CBS, local viewers can look forward to seeing some of their favorite programs on different channels sometime next year.
But only network programming will be making the switch.CBS and NBC concluded the transaction that was first rumored back in August: As part of a complex deal involving the sale or trade of five stations in four cities, KUTV will become a CBS-owned station sometime early in 1995.
At the same time, KSL-Ch. 5 confirmed that it is negotiating to become an NBC affiliate.
A partnership of CBS and Westinghouse's Group W will acquire the 88 percent of KUTV that NBC is in the process of buying for $124 million in cash and assumption of debt. (CBS and Group W linked in July, with Group W controlling 51 percent and CBS 49 percent of the partnership.)
The George Hatch family will retain its 12 percent interest in KUTV.
CBS also is getting the NBC-owned station in Denver - and $30 million. NBC gets CBS' Philadelphia station, and the two networks will swap channels and broadcast towers - but not call letters and staff - in Miami.
"I feel kind of like the pretty girl at the dance that everyone is interested in," said KUTV President Jeffrey Hatch, who has seen not one but two major networks buy his station in a little over three months. "I'm very flattered, but obviously we've had a longtime relationship with NBC that meant a lot to us."
Channel 2 became an NBC affiliate in 1962.
KSL vice president and general manager Al Henderson voiced similar feelings toward CBS.
"It's a little bittersweet with CBS, but it's onward and upward from here," said KSL's Henderson, whose station has been a CBS affiliate for 44 years.
KSL has been quietly negotiating withNBC for months. Henderson said those negotiations are going "quite well."
"They've been very positive so far," he said. "There's always the possibility that something could go wrong, but I feel confident and positive that things will work out."
While NBC is in need of a strong Utah affiliate - its only other options are weak UHF stations KJZZ-Ch. 14 and KOOG-Ch. 30 - KSL also stands to benefit from maintaining a network affiliation. Its only other option would be to become an independent, and that's highly unlikely.
The affiliation switches won't happen until after CBS/Group W's purchase of KUTV is completed - probably no sooner than March. At this point, NBC has not yet finalized its purchase of Ch. 2. Approval from the Federal Com-mu-ni-ca-tions Commission is expected soon, at which point the sale to CBS gets under way.
And it will take no less than three months to complete that transaction, which must again be approved by the FCC.
When the switch does come, only network programming will be affected.
The "Late Show with David Letterman" and "60 Minutes" will go to Ch. 2, while "Frasier" and "ER" will go to Ch. 5. But Dick Nourse and the Eyewitness News team will remain on KSL and Terry Wood and Utah's news team will remain on KUTV.
"As far as news is concerned, we've always been programming to the Utah marketplace," Hatch said. "That won't change. In terms of news resources, obviously any network is a major resource for news."
The two local stations will see a big change in national sports packages, with KUTV losing the NFL, NBA, major-league baseball and the 1996 Summer Olympics to KSL. KUTV gains the 1998 Winter Olympics and the NCAA basketball tournament.
Syndicated programming - everything from daytime talk shows to "Entertainment Tonight" to "M.A.S.H." - will also be unaffected. One particular syndicated show, weekly broadcasts of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, will also remain on KSL.
Radio broadcasts of the choir will remain on the CBS radio network. The TV broadcasts are syndicated by KSL's owner, Bon-ne-ville International.
Both KUTV and KSL anticipate some damage - however temporary - to their ratings because of viewer confusion. That has been the case in cities like Kansas City and Phoenix, where similar affiliation changes have taken place.
"Any time there's so much dramatic change, the people with stability will come out ahead," said Steve Carlston, general manager of Fox-owned KSTU-Ch. 13. "I'm sure in the long run both of those stations will be fine. But in the short run . . . the stations that are stable are the ones where the ratings go up."
The station that may stand to benefit the most from the "channel churn" is ABC affiliate KTVX-Ch. 4.
"I do think for us it's a benefit because it will create instability," said KTVX general manager Peter Mathes. "That will put us in a very good position because there will be some confusion in the minds of viewers as to where they can find programming."
That's something even KUTV's Hatch acknowledges. In its October issue, AdNews said that "Hatch could see the No. 3-ranked ABC news program moving into the No. 1 spot."
"Although lead-in programming doesn't determine the success of the 10 o'clock news in this market, I feel that a trade between the networks would still drastically affect the news programs' ratings," Hatch said.
Even after CBS has purchased KUTV and KSL works out an agreement with NBC, more change may be in the wind. Both CBS and NBC are reportedly in the midst of negotiations that could see one or both networks sold in the next few months.
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Additional Information
S.L.'s station-switch timeline
May: Fox announces a partnership with New World Communications that results in 12 major-market TV network affiliates - eight CBS, three NBC and one ABC - switching to Fox. The announcement sets off a scramble among the networks to both gain and retain affiliates.
July: CBS and Group W announce a deal in which Group W's stations will become CBS affiliates - and the partnership will actively seek to buy new stations. Under terms of the deal, Group W's station in Philadelphia, KYW, will switch from NBC to CBS and CBS will sell or trade WCAU, the station it owns in that city. August: NBC purchases 88 percent of KUTV-Ch. 2. (The George Hatch family retains its 12 percent interest.) Reports surface almost immediately that KUTV may be part of a trade between NBC and CBS that involves WCAU in Philadelphia.
September: CBS, which lost its affiliate in Dallas to Fox, makes it clear it plans to secure a new affiliate in that city in a deal that includes switching to a different station in Seattle. KSL's owner, Bonneville International - faced with the loss of its CBS affiliation in Seattle - announces the sale of KIRO to the Belo Corp.
November: The networks announce CBS will acquire NBC's Salt Lake station, KUTV-Ch. 2, as part of a deal involving WCAU in Philadelphia, the NBC-owned station in Denver and the CBS and NBC-owned stations in Miami. KSL-Ch. 5 confirms that it is negotiating to become an NBC affiliate.