WFLA might create PAX newscast

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By ERIC DEGGANS

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 21, 2000

They're not happy with the circumstances, but executives at WFLA-Ch. 8 say they probably will move ahead with plans to develop a 7 p.m. local newscast for area PAX network affiliate WXPX-Ch. 66 this summer.

The decision follows news that PAX will air repeats of NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw at 7:30 p.m. weekdays for one month in May. The two networks will gauge the effectiveness of such rebroadcasts, with plans to continue the reruns in the fall if all goes well.

WFLA officials had been talking with WXPX for months about developing a newscast for their station, prompted by news last year that NBC had purchased a 32 percent stake in PAX.

But WFLA general manager Rick Rogala says he learned of the Nightly News reruns by reading news stories on the deal; no one from NBC or PAX bothered to tell the affiliates.

"(It) was one of those days where I was saying, "I can't believe I'm reading this as it's happening,' " Rogala said. "I guess all the networks, especially NBC, have slipped on communicating with the networks. I'm trying to be as charitable as I can about the situation."

Industry experts say the arrangement is part of a continuing reversal of the traditional network/affiliate relationship, in which networks once paid millions of dollars to affiliates annually to carry their programming.

Now, networks are "repurposing" their shows by providing reruns to cable channels and broadcasting partners, raising fears among affiliates that viewers will flock elsewhere to catch up with favorite shows.

Still, WFLA executives see the PAX deal as an opportunity to spread their brand to a new spot on the TV dial. So they hope to develop a half-hour newscast for WXPX that would include stories from the early evening newscasts for August.

"You'd be crazy not to take advantage of it," says Dan Bradley, vice president of news at WFLA. "But when they browbeat and drop it on you like this, you can't help but feel like they're taking programing from you."

Already, PAX airs reruns of NBC's low-rated game show Twenty-One on Saturdays, and some made-for-TV movies have aired there as well.

NBC station WTVJ-TV in Miami began airing its late news on PAX affiliate WPXM-TV this month.

Next month, 11 NBC stations owned by the network also will rebroadcast their early and late news shows at 7 and 11:30 p.m. on PAX affiliates, creating an hourlong block of early evening news (WFLA, which like the Tampa Tribune is owned by Media General, will not participate).

All PAX stations also will air highlights from the U.S. Olympic Team trial coverage in June that will previously air on NBC.

"To a large degree, we're creating a new business model," says Laurel Whitcomb, a spokeswoman for West Palm Beach-based PAX, owned by Home Shopping Network co-founder Lowell "Bud" Paxson. "As a company, we've chosen to embrace this."