The CW

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CW Television Network
TypeBroadcast television network
Country
United States
AvailabilityNational
OwnerCBS Corporation (50%) / Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (Time Warner) (50%)
Key people
Dawn Ostroff
John Maatta
Johnathon Emerald
Matthew Charles
Launch date
September 4, 2006

The CW Television Network, or more casually The CW, is a new television network in the United States set to launch for the 2006-07 television season. It will feature a mixture of programming from both UPN and The WB television networks, which will both cease independent operations on Monday, September 4, 2006 (Labor Day). The network will be a joint venture between CBS Corporation, owner of UPN, and Warner Bros. Entertainment, a subsidiary of Time Warner, majority owner of The WB.

The CW will air programming targeted to younger audiences — a demographic that had been targeted by both The WB and UPN. CBS and Warner Bros. hope that by combining their networks' schedules and station lineups, the CW will strengthen into a fifth "major" broadcast network, competing at the same level as ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox — a stature neither UPN nor The WB has been able to achieve. But unlike the "Big Four" broadcast networks, The CW does not appear to have any current plans to offer news or sports programming to their affiliates.

CBS chairman Les Moonves explained that the name of the new network is an amalgamation of the first initials of CBS and Warner Bros. Moonves joked "we couldn't call it the WC for obvious reasons." [1] However, an increasing number of network executives and other insiders have privately expressed displeasure with the "CW" name, and have said there is a possibility that the name will change before the planned September launch. [2] [3] [4] On March 15, Moonves stated that there was “zero chance” the name would change, citing research claiming 48% of the target demographic is already aware of the "CW" name. However, Moonves did reveal that the network was in the process of creating a new logo to replace the blue-white rectangular logo first unveiled at the network's January 2006 launch announcement. [5]

Stations

The CW will initially be based around 16 The WB stations owned by the Tribune Company (which will be relinquishing its investment in The WB) and 11 UPN stations owned by CBS. These stations combine to reach 48 percent of the United States. The initial 27 stations have signed 10 year affiliation agreements with the CW. It is estimated that the new network will eventually reach 95 percent of the United States.

In markets where both UPN and The WB affiliates operate, only one station will become a CW affiliate. Executives are on record as preferring the "strongest" stations among existing The WB and UPN affiliates, however, due to the structure of the deal, the new network must negotiate with individual stations. Hence it is conceivable that, in some markets, the CW affiliate may be a different station than either the existing The WB and UPN stations. In Helena, Montana, i affiliate KMTF will become a CW station. Also, the network has affiliated with some digital broadcast channels that do not yet exist in markets where there was no in-market The WB/UPN affiliate.

On March 1, five affiliates (four WB/one UPN) were the first outside the CBS/Tribune core to sign CW affiliate deals. [6] These were five separate stations from around the country which were expected to become CW affiliates because of strong ratings, though, and until KCWE in Kansas City signed up on March 7, no station whose chances of signing CW deals were contested were affiliated with the network. [7] [8] [9] As of April 24, 2006, 153 stations have become affiliates of the CW, reaching 93.8 million households and covering 85.1% of the country (the latter two figures excluding the future CW stations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands). One of its biggest slate of announced affiliations in a single day was on March 28, 2006, which includes UPN affiliate KUVI-TV Bakersfield, California, the only English language television station owned and operated by Univision, the leading Spanish language broadcaster in the country.

Most smaller markets - i.e. Nielsen DMAs with rankings of 100 and lower - are served by a locally-branded WB-affiliated cable channel that is part of The WB 100+ Station Group, as well as a UPN affiliate which may be either an over-the-air television station (often at low-power), digital subchannel, or local cable channel, or some combination thereof. Under the new network, a new service titled The CW Plus [10] will serve a similar role to WB 100+. However, as with larger markets, the network's affiliations are determined by negotiation, and those announced so far have been a mixture of existing The WB and UPN affiliates, as well as some stations (or digital subchannels) not presently affiliated with either network.

As of April 8, 2006, the only top-30 markets without a signed affiliate are Minneapolis-St. Paul, Baltimore, Raleigh-Durham, and Nashville. In all of these markets, the local UPN affiliate is controlled by Fox Television Stations Group or Sinclair Broadcast Group and is already committed to My Network TV, while The WB affiliate is controlled by Sinclair. The CW has reportedly demanded reverse compensation ([11]), which Sinclair has hinted it is unwilling to provide. On May 2, 2006, Sinclair announced their remaining WB and UPN stations, including KMWB in Minneapolis and KFBT in Las Vegas, have officially become CW affiliates.

While WGN-TV Chicago will be part of the new network, it is presently assumed that its out-of-market Superstation WGN feed, which does not currently air WB programming, will similarly not air programs from the CW network.

Programming

The new network will adopt The WB's present 30-hour programming schedule. It will provide 13 hours of prime-time programming to the newly affiliated stations, 8–10pm Monday to Friday (all times ET/PT) and 7–10pm on Sunday. Programming will also be provided between 5–7pm Sundays (the Easy View repeat block), 3–5pm weekday afternoons (currently off-network repeats under the Daytime WB banner), and a five-hour Saturday morning animation block (currently known as Kids' WB, to be rebranded as Kids' WB on The CW at the network's launch in September [12]).

After a CW presentation to advertisers on March 15, 2006, reports mentioned that CW executives declined to specify which shows would come over from UPN and The WB. However, the website TVWeek.com claimed that 13 shows were picked up for the CW fall schedule, but the article proved to be premature and was eventually removed from the web site.

Below are the shows expected to make the transition from their former networks to the new CW. The official announcement of the CW fall schedule will take place on May 18.

Officially renewed

From UPN

From The WB

Likely renewals

From UPN

From The WB

Other candidates

Everwood, One Tree Hill, and Pepper Dennis, all currently on The WB, are still being considered, although their ratings performance makes them far from sure things.

CW Pilots

The following pilots are currently in development for the CW Network:

Dramas

Comedies

Note: Any pilots picked up by the CW Network will be a joint production of both the CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

Notes

The WB's Charmed will not move over to the CW Network -- on March 3, 2006, it was formally announced that the series won't be renewed for a ninth season, and the final episode will air on May 21, 2006. Likewise, What I Like About You has also been cancelled.

7th Heaven (which like Charmed is produced by Aaron Spelling), traditionally The WB's highest-rated show, has also recently been cancelled, with the finale scheduled to air on May 8, 2006; however, talks are reportedly ongoing among CW executives and Spelling Television which may either reverse that cancellation, or green-light a spinoff that features the "younger and less expensive" stars. [13]

Around Valentine's Day 2006, there were rumors that Joss Whedon's Firefly would be picked up by The CW. Whedon downplayed the rumors, but did not rule out the possibility of a TV movie or miniseries.

On April 6 2006, it was announced that Michael Roberts would transition from The WB to The CW[14]. He will keep his title as executive VP of current programming. The effect of this announcement on The CW's 2006 programming slate is currently unknown, though it might provide a boost for potential WB holdovers.

On April 21 2006, it was announced that Betsy McGowen had joined network-to-be The CW as senior VP and general manager of Kids WB! on The CW[15].

On April 27 2006, it was announced that Rick Mater, senior VP, broadcast standards, for The WB, will assume the same post at The CW. Also, Eric Cardinal, senior VP, research, at UPN since 1999 will take that post at The CW[16].

Repercussions of the merger

The launch of the CW will most likely cause the largest single shakeup of U.S. broadcast television since the Fox / New World Communications alliance of 1994 and the subsequent launch of UPN and The WB themselves the following year. While it may affect more markets, it is unlikely to cause the same degree of viewer confusion as, it appears, no affiliates of the four major networks will be dropping those affiliations. However, some small-market "Big Four" affiliates have signed up to carry the CW via digital subchannels.

In those media markets where there were separate The WB and UPN stations, one local station will be left out in the merger, and will become an independent station, unless it chooses (or has chosen) to affiliate with another network such as My Network TV. In some of the smallest markets only one network is present, or both networks' programming are found on a single station, in which case the transition should be relatively straightforward, but results so far have shown this is not guaranteed. In other cases, excluding markets served by the Tribune and CBS stations, the affiliation will likely be determined by negotiation.

It is immediately clear that the Fox Television Stations Group, which purchased several UPN affiliates from Chris-Craft Industries (ownership partner of UPN with Paramount Pictures/Viacom from 1995-2000) in 2002, will be impacted. Its UPN affiliates in New York (WWOR), Los Angeles (KCOP), Chicago (WPWR) and elsewhere will not be affiliated with The CW, and Fox made it clear it would not even seek the affiliation for its stations in markets such as Minneapolis (WFTC), Orlando (WRBW), and Phoenix (KUTP) (the existing The WB affiliates have since signed on in the latter two markets). Fox has already removed all UPN logos and most network references from their stations.

On February 22, 2006, Fox announced that it was starting My Network TV, a programming service meant to fill the two nightly prime-time hours that will open on its UPN-affiliated stations after the start of CW. Fox will also offer the service to other stations. [17]

Tentatively slated for independent status are Tribune stations in Philadelphia (WPHL), Atlanta (WATL) and Seattle (KTWB) and CBS-owned stations such as those in Boston (WSBK), Miami (WBFS) and Dallas (KTXA).

Tribune will no longer have an ownership stake in the combined network, thus they are no longer responsible for any of the CW's losses. A company representative stated during a conference call the day of the merger announcement that they have no intention of selling their non-CW stations. Tribune also indicated that they would be interested in Fox-developed programming blocks such as My Network TV.

Other stations, especially those already known to be disaffiliating, have reportedly already begun to search for new programming to fill empty timeslots, likely to further boost the fortunes of the syndication industry. On January 26, 2006, La Crosse, Wisconsin UPN affiliate KQEG announced that they would cease to be a network affiliate at the end of the programming week, becoming the first known station to drop an affiliation due to the merger.

The disappearance of The WB and UPN will be the first time a major television network has vanished since the collapse of the DuMont Television Network in 1955, but other small broadcast television networks have also ceased operations over the years.

Granite Broadcasting had previously reached an agreement to sell their WB-affiliated stations in San Francisco and Detroit (KBWB and WDWB, respectively) to AM Media, a unit of private equity firm Acon Investments. With the dissolution of The WB, and with CBS owning UPN stations in both cities already announced as joining the CW, the Granite-AM Media deal was put in jeopardy, and as of February 15, Granite has been freed to shop the stations to other interested parties. [18]

See also

Sources

Press Releases

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