Nexstar Media Group will move the CW Network affiliation to new television stations in three markets later this year, the company affirmed on Wednesday.
The stations are located in the San Francisco, Tampa and Philadelphia markets, all areas where the current CW Network is affiliated with a television outlet owned by Paramount Global. Paramount announced in May that it will drop the CW Network from those three stations and five others, less than a year after Nexstar acquired a 75 percent stake in the network.
In San Francisco, the CW Network will move to KRON-TV (Channel 4), an independent station acquired by Nexstar in 2016. WTTA (Channel 38) in Tampa will also onboard CW Network programming, as will WPHL (Channel 17) in Philadelphia.
All three stations are independents that currently offer programs distributed by Fox Corporation’s MyNetwork, which was considered a broadcast network until 2009.
“These stations in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Tampa have deep relationships with their viewers, advertisers, and the communities they serve,” Dennis Miller, the president of the CW Network, said in a statement. “They are a great addition to the CW family and will help us better shape the future of the network.”
Nexstar still needs to find homes for the CW Network in five other markets, where Paramount is slated to drop its affiliation by September. That includes Sacramento, where current affiliate KMAX (Channel 31) recently changed its branding to remove any mention of the network (it now uses it call letters in on-air identification during syndicated programming).
In Detroit, Nexstar is likely to move the CW Network affiliation to WADL (Channel 38), a station that was recently acquired by Nexstar-controlled Mission Broadcasting. In that market, the CW Network is currently offered on Paramount-owned WKBD (Channel 50).
