Looks like VMars is sitting pretty as are the girls gilmore
the new Network will reach 95% of the country
also looks like WB's upper management was shown the door and UPN's Dawn O given the top job
but this is going to leave a lot of stations in the major markets (which pretty mucy all had wb and UPN stations) without a network affiliate and scrambling for content. Now this is really interesting because the syndicated action show market dried up because there weren't any stations around with good slots to offer - now virtually all the top markets are going to have a station sitting there begging for shows to air - could this cause the revival of syndi's? Will JW jump on this to launch a syndicated spike? star trek going to revive a new hour actioner or even a new xena/herc spin off? all the top markets are going to have a station looking for something to offer other than old movies and friends repeats - this could be great for reviving the syndicated market for action shows
from NYTimes
UPN and WB to Combine, Forming New TV Network
By BILL CARTER
Published: January 24, 2006
Two part-time broadcast networks moved to become a combined larger one today as CBS and the Warner Brothers studio announced they were joining forces to form a new network, called the CW, out of the pieces of the UPN and WB networks.
The new venture will cherry-pick the best programs off the two decade-old mini-networks, each of which has struggled to turn a profit. The owners, each of which will take a 50 percent stake in the new venture, expressed the hope that an expanded fifth network - which will program 30 hours a week, including prime-time and some daytime shows - will succeed where a fifth and sixth in competition with each other could not.
Both the WB and UPN will continue operate independently until September, when they will be formally shut down. The new network - whose name, CW, is meant to be a combination of CBS and Warner - will commence operations on a new lineup of stations made up of the UPN group owned by CBS and those owned by the WB's station partner, Tribune Broadcasting.
Those stations will reach about 48 percent of the United States, and the new network has agreements with other affiliates to extend its distribution to 95 percent of the country.
For many of the biggest cities, the move will leave a station without network programming. In New York, the new network will be broadcast on Channel 11, which has been the WB station, with Channel 9, which has been the UPN station, dropped from the network.
Leslie Moonves, the chairman of the CBS Corporation, and Barry Meyer, the chairman of Warner Brothers Entertainment, a unit of Time Warner, made the announcement jointly at a news conference. Each executive said that the agreement to dissolve the two networks and start up the new one had been driven by the timing of affiliation agreements.
Both CBS's deal with UPN stations owned by the News Corporation and Warner Brothers deal with the Tribune stations were due to expire in September. "If we didn't come together now, we were going to be locked out for a long time," Mr. Moonves said.
The most significant advantage of bringing the two networks together will be the opportunity to build a prime-time schedule made up of the best shows from each of the two networks. "It's a scheduler's dream," Mr. Moonves said.
The shows highlighted in the presentation today included "America's Top Model," "Veronica Mars," and "Everybody Hates Chris" from UPN and "Gilmore Girls," "Smallville," and "Beauty and the Geek" from the WB.
The move is a further consolidation of broadcast power under Mr. Moonves, who earlier this month gained full executive control over the CBS Corporation, under the agreement that divided Viacom's media assets in half. The CW will likely perform far better than UPN, Mr. Moonves's previous secondary network, ever did.
In probably the most significant executive announcement tied to the new network, Mr. Moonves's lieutenant at UPN, Dawn Ostroff, was named the president of entertainment for the new network. Both top executives at the WB, Garth Ancier and David Janollari, were not given positions at the new network, though Mr. Meyer thanked them for their efforts at the WB.
The new network will aim to reach an audience of younger adults, those aged 18 to 34, who are especially sought by many advertisers. Mr. Meyer noted that Warner Brothers film division is a heavy advertiser, trying to reach that group.
and
http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/24/commentary/mediabiz/
[There are some clear losers to the merger, however. In markets where both the UPN and WB are available, one of those affiliate stations will be suddenly faced with a big programming void to fill come September. This could hurt companies ranging from media titans like News Corp (Research)., which in addition to owning Fox also owns some local UPN stations, to smaller independent station owners such as Sinclair Broadcasting (Research).
The CW, which will be co-owned 50/50 by CBS and Time Warner, will air on the 16 WB affiliates owned by newspaper firm Tribune (Research), 12 CBS-owned UPN stations and a mix of other current UPN and WB affiliates throughout the rest of the country.
Schwartz said he doubts that another major media company would try and launch a sixth network to fill the programming gap, which means that many local affiliates will have to come up with content on their own.
"It's very hard to build a network. I expect affiliates to look at developing local programming. Syndication is also a viable alternative," he said.
And Rash predicted a return to what many affiliates did before the WB and UPN were launched in 1995: host a hodge-podge of various different types of programming.
"This could recreate the classic independent television station that runs everything from Jerry Springer in the daytime to John Wayne movies in prime time," Rash said.]
