ABC-7 Viewpoint: News In Duplicate
You?ll see a lot of the same stories when you switch channels between KTSM and KDBC at 10 p.m. The anchors are different ? but you?ll often see identical reports produced and fronted by the same people. It?s an odd arrangement where the stations compete for viewers but the news gathering is produced at the same location with management and staff sharing the same news content and resources.
The same kind of sharing takes place in dozens of other cities across the country.
The Missouri based company that owns KVIA has a similar shared services agreement involving our station and another separately owned station in Idaho Falls. The loss of an independent news gathering voice draws critics. But, in many cases the weaker of the two station?s news gathering operations would go dark entirely without these partnerships.
KTSM and KDBC have separate ownership. KDBC?s news operation was a big money loser until its investor group owners, Titan Broadcast Management, contracted with KTSM?s ownership, Communications Corporation of America, to preserve at least a semblance of a local CBS affiliate newscast. KDBC closed its doors on Wyoming street and is a shell of its once proud self operated by another property inside the KTSM studio near downtown. KDBC and KTSM sales reps sell advertising for both stations.
Master control and production resources are also shared. Revenue is shared as well. I asked KTSM general manager Gary Sotir for a comment about his shared service agreement via email and never heard back. These agreements are now attracting the attention of federal regulators. The Federal Communications Commission does not know how many of these agreements exist between stations. An article in Media & Advertising notes that a University of Delaware study last year found versions of shared agreements in at least 83 of the nation?s 210 television markets. Some of these shared arrangements have even shown up in bigger markets like Denver and Honolulu.
They started to become more common after the recession when stations suffered and reduced their news staffs.
TV news has to be profitable in our free market society or it won?t exist. Unless the government steps in, you are likely to see more strong news operations continue to swallow the weak.
