Chicago NBC Station Simulcasting Cable Bulls, Blackhawks Games

[Mark Jeffries]

Tomorrow night, NBC-owned WMAQ will pre-empt the network's Friday night lineup of a new episode of the game show "The Wall," which hasn't been in production for well over a year, and "Dateline" for a simulcast with the cable channel NBC Sports Chicago of a Bulls game, the first Bulls telecast on OTA television outside of ABC network games since 2019, when WGN's contracts with the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks all ran out together--WMAQ will also simulcast a Bulls game on Nov. 17 and two Blackhawks games on two Fridays in December:

https://www.nexttv.com/news/wmaq-tv-to-simulcast-four-bulls-and-blackhawks-games

Outside of appealing to cord cutters that have sent the audiences for regional sports channels like NBC Sports Chicago plummeting in recent years, it is a statement of how weak NBC's Friday night lineup is in that they are deciding to pre-empt it for the only somewhat-guaranteed audience-getter for linear TV (doesn't always work--ask Fox about their World Series ratings)--the prime time lineup will air at 1:35 a.m. where reruns of Kelly and "Access Live" usually air.

[Tom Wolper]

The big story seems to be NBC letting WMAQ preempt network programming. Local stations carried live sports in prime time until the networks cut it out and sent the teams to regional sports channels.

It’s unfair to compare local teams’ games to the World Series for ratings. Local teams draw well. The World Series was broadcast to a national audience.

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[Kevin M.]

When I was beginning my career in TV, affiliates were transitioning from dictating to the networks to being dictated to by the networks. And as broadcast TV is twilighting (if that is a gerund), the affiliates who are unsatisfied with ad revenues are starting to dictate to networks again. 

I’ve been binge-watching “The Morning Show” on Apple the last couple weeks, and although much of the show is frankly a fairy tale, it does feature a genuine dialogue about the pending collapse of broadcast media. 

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