Berkshire Hathaway owned Miami station WPLG is dropping its ABC affiliation after nearly 69 years.
WPLG CEO and president E.R. Bert Medina announced the news Thursday during an all hands meeting at the station.
“We made a generous offer to ABC, but it became clear the two sides were not going to agree to a new deal,” said Medina.
The station said that after months of negotiations between the station and the network, the two parties could not reach an agreement to extend the affiliation agreement. As a result, ABC will pull its programming effective August 4.
Medina said that renewing the affiliation would have cost many folks at the station their jobs due to the cost.
“Broadcast television stations across the country have announced massive layoffs in recent years. WPLG is proud we’ve not had layoffs, but it became clear that if we accepted the deal ABC was proposing, we too would have been forced to lay off employees in order to pay the hefty price the network was demanding,” said Medina. “Our job is to serve this community with news and local programming, that’s why we have an FCC license. If we agreed to the ABC terms, that mission would have suffered.”
The new ABC affiliate will be Sunbeam owned station WSVN. Under the terms of the new, multi-year agreement, the new ABC affiliate will begin broadcasting as ABC Miami on channel 7.2 over-the-air teh same day WPLG drops its affiliation.
To ensure a smooth transition, Disney Entertainment will continue to provide WPLG with uninterrupted access to its ABC network programming until that date.
“We are incredibly excited to join forces with Sunbeam Television in South Florida moving forward as they not only share Disney’s enduring commitment to serving local communities, but they also recognize the value of ABC’s esteemed brand and the significant investments we’re making to our world-class network content,” said Susi D’Ambra Coplan, SVP of affiliate relations, Disney Entertainment. “We would also like to thank Berkshire Hathaway Media and everyone at WPLG Local 10 for their partnership – we are very proud to have brought some of the most compelling programming to our highly-valued, mutual viewers over the years.”
“When the opportunity to affiliate with ABC became available, we knew that our combined resources would allow us to develop an extremely strong partnership. Sunbeam Television Corporation has a proven track record as a competitive broadcaster. Adding ABC programming to our stations’ portfolio will only strengthen our footprint. As a family-owned company, we have been embedded in this community for nearly 70 years, with a commitment to local news and supporting non-profit organizations across South Florida, “ says Paul Magnes, co-president of Sunbeam Television Corporation.
