Fox Television Stations Group
The
Fox Television Stations Group (FTSG) is a group of
television stations located throughout the
United States which are
owned-and-operated by the
Fox Broadcasting Company. FTSG also produces the Fox program
Cops.
Fox Television Stations was formed in April
1986 after the acquisition of the
Metromedia-owned independent stations by the
20th Century Fox film studio, at the time jointly owned by
Australian media mogul
Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation, and
Denver-based billionaire
Marvin Davis. These stations would later go on to form the seeds of the newly formed Fox television network. Not long after the Metromedia deal was made, Murdoch purchased Davis's shares and News Corporation assumed complete control of 20th Century Fox.
Starting with the original six stations, Fox Television Stations gained the bulk of its group through two large transactions: the 1997 purchase of
New World Communications, succeeding a 1993 business deal between the two companies which led to all of New World's stations switching from other networks to Fox during 1994-95; and the 2001 acquisition of the
Chris-Craft/United group, which gave Fox ownership of several stations affiliated with the
UPN network, and also created several
duopolies (two stations in the same market owned by the same company).
Currently, a total of 35 stations, consisting of 25 Fox stations, one independent station and nine UPN stations.
The Fox-owned UPN affiliates that are listed here are not included in the
UPN/WB merger, and these stations have already removed references to UPN from their on-air branding and websites. On
February 22,
2006, Fox Television Stations announced that all of their non-Fox outlets (the nine UPN affiliates and one independent) will be charter affiliates of a new service known as
My Network TV [
1]. The new network will tentatively debut on September 5, 2006.
Note: **Indicates original Fox-owned stations from the network's inception in 1986.
Former Fox-owned stations
*
Atlanta: WATL-TV 36 -- A charter Fox affiliate which was bought by the network in 1993. A year later, after New World (then the owners of WAGA-TV) announced its partnership with Fox, WATL was sold to Qwest Broadcasting, which was controlled by musician
Quincy Jones. It is currently a WB affiliate owned by the
Gannett Company, and will become a
My Network TV affiliate in fall 2006.
*
Boston: WCVB-TV 5 -- The seventh Metromedia station was included in the original sale of the Metromedia television group to News Corporation in 1986. However, News Corp. spun off the station immediately to the
Hearst Corporation, honoring a promise Metromedia made to Hearst in 1982 (after Metromedia sold
KMBC-TV in Kansas City to Hearst), giving the latter company a right-of-first-refusal opportunity to purchase WCVB if the station ever again went up for sale.
*
Dallas-Fort Worth: KDAF 33 -- One of six original Fox O&Os. After the Fox/New World alliance saw KDFW-TV pick up the Fox affiliation, KDAF would be sold to Renaissance Broadcasting and become a
WB affiliate. It is currently owned by Tribune Broadcasting and will become the Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate of the CW in fall 2006.
*
Portland, Oregon: KPTV 12 -- A charter Fox affiliate (1986-88) that was a UPN station when Fox bought out Chris-Craft, then was traded to the
Meredith Corporation for WOFL Orlando and WOGX Gainesville in 2001. Ironically, KPTV would swap affiliations with new sister station
KPDX two years later.
*
Salt Lake City: KTVX 4 -- ABC affiliate owned by Chris-Craft/United. As Fox already owned KSTU, KTVX could not be retained (the Salt Lake City market could not support such a duopoly under current FCC rules, which prohibit one company from owning two of the four largest stations in a single market), so KTVX was packaged along with KMOL-TV to Clear Channel (see below).
*
San Antonio: WOAI-TV 4 -- NBC affiliate owned by Chris-Craft/United. When Chris-Craft sold its stations to Fox, the then-KMOL-TV (along with KTVX) was traded to San Antonio-based
Clear Channel Communications for Minneapolis-St. Paul's WFTC, then a Fox outlet. Clear Channel, which has owned
WOAI radio since 1975, changed this station's calls back to the original WOAI-TV. WFTC would then trade affiliations with KMSP and become a UPN station.
*
San Francisco: KBCW 44 -- UPN station acquired through the Chris-Craft purchase, previously known as KBHK-TV. With Fox already committed to
KTVU as its Bay Area station through a long-term deal, KBHK was traded to
Viacom (whose broadcasting properties were spun off as part of
CBS Corporation in 2006) for KTXH and WDCA-TV in 2002. It was alleged that Fox tried to buy KTVU, but was repeatedly turned down by
Cox Enterprises, who owns the station.
*
Official listing of FTSG stations
