PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – After nearly 69 years, WPLG-TV and the ABC television network are breaking up.
WPLG CEO & President E.R. Bert Medina announced the news Thursday during an all hands meeting at the station.
After months of negotiations between the Berkshire Hathaway-owned television station and the network, the two parties could not reach an agreement to extend the affiliation agreement and, as a result, ABC will pull its programming effective Aug. 4.
“We made a generous offer to ABC, but it became clear the two sides were not going to agree to a new deal,” said WPLG’s Medina.
“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.
“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,” added Medina.
“The network television model has changed dramatically in recent years and it is declining more and more each year. The programming we get from ABC is no longer the same as it has been in years past. Exclusivity, which is the core to our relationship, is disappearing. Even when ABC airs high quality programming, like the Oscars, ABC airs that same programming on other platforms. We no longer feel we are getting what we pay for.
“Instead of sending our money to New York, we will keep it in our community and use that money to finance a massive expansion in local news and other local programming,” Medina continued.
“We are Local 10. Local is in our name. A majority of our staff grew up here. We are excited for the future of Local 10. Just watch us. We are about to serve this community in an even bigger and better way,” Medina concluded.