Miami television viewers will soon have to switch to another channel to watch ABC programming — the first change for the network in that market in nearly 70 years.
On Thursday, the network’s current affiliate, WPLG (Channel 10), said its parent company Berkshire Hathaway was unable to reach a new agreement with the Walt Disney Company to continue offering national programming from ABC.
As a result, WPLG will stop offering ABC programming on August 4, a spokesperson for the station said.
“We made a generous offer to ABC, but it became clear the two sides were not going to agree to a new deal,” E. R. Bert Medina, the President and CEO of WPLG, said in a statement.
The amount of money Disney demanded for continued carriage of ABC networks would have forced WPLG to lay off employees in order to balance its books, something the station has not had to do in recent years, even as other broadcasters have, Medina noted.
“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,” Medina added.
Consumers have a number of options to receive ABC programming, Medina said, and the quality of shows offered by the network “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,” Medina complained. “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.”
A source familiar with the situation between Disney and WPLG said the station’s claim that ABC was pulling its network programming was false, and noted that the two sides had been working for months toward a new agreement, to no avail.
The source, who provided the information to The Desk on background, said Disney will continue to make its network programming available through WPLG until August 4, even though its contract with Berkshire Hathaway expired at the end of 2024.
From that day forward, ABC shows will have a new home on WSVN (Channel 7), Miami’s Fox affiliate owned by Sunbeam Television. The station will continue offering Fox programming on its main network signal, with ABC shows moving to digital Channel 7.2 for viewers who watch over the air.
“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,” Paul Manges, the co-President of Sunbeam Television, said on Thursday. “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.”
Manges did not say whether WSVN would be carried on cable or satellite, but a source familiar with the deal confirmed ABC programming will be offered to pay TV subscribers in the Miami area when the affiliation changes in August. The exact channel on cable and satellite systems is still being worked out, the source said.
“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, the Senior Vice President of Affiliate Relations at 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.”
The situation involving WPLG and Disney appear to confirm concerns raised by Brendan Carr, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, that the entertainment giant was demanding more money from its current affiliates in exchange for continued rights to its ABC network programming.
In a letter sent to Disney CEO Bob Iger last year, Carr — who was not chairman at the time, but who was already promised the position by then-President Elect Donald Trump — wrote that his office had received complaints that Disney was “attempting to extract onerous financial and operational concessions from local broadcast TV stations under the threat of terminating long-held affiliations.”
“The [FCC] has long been concerned about the balance of power between networks and affiliates, and has recently noted that the upward trend in reverse compensation is evidence of growing national network power over the local affiliates,” Carr complained. “Reported restrictions on negotiating carriage on streaming platforms and provisions that restrict a station’s ability to compete for local sports rights are further evidence of this growing imbalance…it calls into question the extent to which some national programming networks are able to influence station operations, and whether the various terms of network affiliation agreements could unduly inhibit the ability of local broadcast TV stations to make programming decision that best reflect the needs and interest of their communities.”
For its part, WPLG says it will focus on providing local programming to Miami viewers when it converts from an ABC affiliate into a full-time independent later this year.
—
Editor’s note: This story was updated late Thursday afternoon with additional information about when WPLG’s contract with Disney to carry ABC programming ended, its discussion with Disney in the weeks afterward, and to affirm that ABC programming will be offered on pay TV platforms in the Miami area when the affiliation moves to WSVN in August.
