Kor37 9 Posted January 24, 2006 The WB and UPN to Cease Operations in September 2006 NEW YORK, Jan. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment today announced their intent to form a new 5th network, The CW, to be launched in the fall of 2006. The new broadcasting network will be a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corporation, with each company owning 50%. In an important strategic move that secures major market distribution for The CW, it was announced that Tribune Broadcasting and the CBS Corporation's UPN affiliates have agreed separately to sign 10-year affiliation agreements with the new network. The announcement for the new network was made today in New York by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer of CBS Corporation and Barry Meyer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Warner Bros. Entertainment. The Tribune Broadcasting affiliation agreements were announced by Dennis FitzSimons, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tribune Company. At the same time, it was announced that CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment will cease operations of their respective networks -- UPN and The WB. The WB and UPN will continue to broadcast their respective network schedules independently until the fall. The combination of Tribune's 16 major market stations and the 12 CBS-owned UPN major market affiliates give The CW instant coverage in 48% of the country. The remainder of the network's distribution system will be a combination of selected current UPN and The WB stations. The full distribution of the new network is expected to exceed 95% of the country. Dawn Ostroff, currently President of UPN, will become President of Entertainment and John Maatta, currently Chief Operating Officer of The WB, will become Chief Operating Officer of The CW. "This new network will serve the public with high-quality programming and maintain our ongoing commitment to our diverse audience," said Moonves. "It will clearly be greater than the sum of its parts, delivering excellent demographics to advertisers, and building a strong new affiliate body. Additionally, The CW will be able to draw from the creative talent and production resources from the top two television production studios in the business, while also seeking programming from all sources -- independent producers or other studios. With this move, we will be creating a viable entity, one well-equipped to compete, thrive and serve all our many publics in this multi-channel media universe. I'd like to thank Dawn Ostroff and all the talented people at UPN who have worked so hard. For many years UPN had financial losses, but under CBS's guidance, UPN has been able to effect a dramatic creative turnaround in a short period of time." "This new network makes sound business and creative sense at every level -- for our viewers, advertisers, affiliates and for the shareholders of our companies," said Meyer. "Every key constituency of the network will now greatly benefit from this combination by being part of a highly rated, competitive, 5th broadcast network that is financially sound. As we form this new joint venture, we are also very pleased that in Dawn and John we have a management team of great creative vision and business acumen, one that will help to guide it successfully forward." "This is a very exciting day for Time Warner and its shareholders in the creation of what we believe will be a very strong and viable 5th broadcast television network," said Jeff Bewkes, President & Chief Operating Officer of Time Warner. "This new network will have all the strategic asset value as an outlet for our programming that The WB presented us, but with a much firmer and more secure financial present and future. The credit goes to Barry Meyer, who continues to have tremendous vision and extraordinary business acumen as the long time leader of Warner Bros. Entertainment, a company that we are proud to say continues to be number one in its class." "This is a great day for Tribune and its shareholders, and we are pleased to be the lead affiliate group of what will be a strong network," said FitzSimons. "We could not have had a better partner than Warner Bros. and Barry Meyer since we together launched The WB 11 years ago. Now, with the ownership role of CBS Corporation and the leadership of Leslie Moonves added to the mix, Tribune's viewers and advertisers will benefit from an even stronger programming lineup." The 16 Tribune affiliated stations will include New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Houston, Miami, Denver, St. Louis, Portland, Indianapolis, San Diego, Hartford, New Orleans and Albany. The 12 CBS Station Group television markets will include Philadelphia, San Francisco, Atlanta, Detroit, Tampa, Seattle, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, West Palm Beach, Norfolk, Oklahoma City and Providence. Together, these top two station groups cover the top 13 television markets, 20 of the top 25 television markets and have a total coverage area of more than 48% of the country. The CW will incorporate The WB's current scheduling model, which consists of a 6 night-13 hour primetime lineup including Monday through Friday nights from 8-10 (EST/PST); Sundays from 7-10 (EST/PST); Sunday from 5-7 (EST/PST) outside of primetime as well as a Monday thru Friday afternoon block from 3-5 (EST/PST) and a 5-hour Saturday morning animation block. Together, the network will program 30 hours a week over seven days for its affiliated stations. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt_Picard 0 Posted January 24, 2006 I like that UPN is getting what it should for what it did to Star Trek, but I fear that Smallville might be lost in this move. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Itchygomba69 0 Posted January 24, 2006 I doubt Smallville would be lost, he gets good ratings Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stvoyagerfan 1 Posted January 25, 2006 i was shocked when i heard this. it also got me thinking what if. what if cbs hadn't gotten control of star trek last year. what if they came up with the cw network last year? would enterprise have been saved? there was so much that came to mind when i heard this. i'm looking forward to see how things work out. tm Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Angela 1 Posted January 25, 2006 Kiss goodbye to any and all scif fi and fantasy and wave hello to reality tv! Moonvres has killed so many sci fi and fantasy show sover the years that it will be no surprise to see him kill the ones showing one each respective network. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
youbroughtheryouRiker 2 Posted January 25, 2006 UA makes a great point. I agree about UPN getting what it deserves though. WB should keep going, though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Odie 0 Posted January 25, 2006 I am not sure if Enterprise would have made the cut or not. It might have a good chance based on the numbers it has gotten at the end of the season. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Data 0 Posted January 25, 2006 (edited) I like that UPN is getting what it should for what it did to Star Trek, but I fear that Smallville might be lost in this move. Smallville could be picked up on another station. Presently, the reruns are shown on ABC Family. Edited January 25, 2006 by Data Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Odie 0 Posted January 25, 2006 (edited) I am glad to hear UP will go under after what they had done to Enterprise. I will miss WB. They do have good programming. Edited January 25, 2006 by Odie Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LoveMalePecs1 0 Posted January 26, 2006 (edited) Is the New Network CW going to be airing the New Aqua Man t.v series? (formerly the WB)? Edited January 26, 2006 by LoveMalePecs1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kor37 9 Posted January 26, 2006 Is the New Network CW going to be airing the New Aqua Man t.v series? (formerly the WB)? New Aquaman series??? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Takara_Soong 4 Posted January 26, 2006 (edited) Is the New Network CW going to be airing the New Aqua Man t.v series? (formerly the WB)? Most likely. They haven't made any announcements regarding their schedule yet but speculation is that it will survive. As for those worrying about Smallville, apparently it was mentioned specifically in Les Moonves' announcement so it won't be going anywhere. New Aquaman series??? The creators of Smallville have been developing an Aquaman series for WB. Kiss goodbye to any and all scif fi and fantasy and wave hello to reality tv! Moonvres has killed so many sci fi and fantasy show sover the years that it will be no surprise to see him kill the ones showing one each respective network. As I said there hasn't been a formal announcement on which series will be staying but there won't be a major shift away from scripted series of the new network. Series specifically mentioned by Les Moonves in the announcement were the WB series Smallville, Gilmore Girls, Reba, Beauty and the Geek and Supernatural and the UPN series Veronica Mars, America's Next Top Model, Everybody Hates Chris and Girlfriends. It's pretty safe to say all of those series are staying on the new network. You all seem to have made an assumption that this announcement means UPN has gone under or failed. This is a merger that will now put programming that is currently seen on UPN in twice as many homes as it was before. According to the announcement, the current president of UPN, Dawn Ostroff, will be the president of CW. I think things would have been different regarding Enterprise if this had happened earlier because I think it would have helped the series. But this merger does not mean that UPN or WB failed or went under any more than the merger of Viacom and CBS did a few years ago. Edited January 26, 2006 by Takara_Soong Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Angela 1 Posted January 26, 2006 The only assumption I have made is that Sci-fi will go the way of the dinosaurs under Moonvres, and as each one gets 'old' , there won't be a genre replacement. This is going by track record, and you know, buisness people in television land LIE big honking huge LIARS. So don't put your money on smallvilles sticking about for another 2 years. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
youbroughtheryouRiker 2 Posted January 27, 2006 New Aquaman series??? The creators of Smallville have been developing an Aquaman series for WB. Dolphins, help me!! I'm tangled in a tuna net!! Help m--QUIT LAUGHING AND HELP ME, DAMMIT!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt_Picard 0 Posted January 27, 2006 New Aquaman series??? The creators of Smallville have been developing an Aquaman series for WB. Dolphins, help me!! I'm tangled in a tuna net!! Help m--QUIT LAUGHING AND HELP ME, DAMMIT!!! Nice... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
