Nexstar Media Group is moving on from its relationship with Fox News Edge, the news wire service supported by Fox News Media that provides live broadcasts, video-based news stories and web articles for Fox affiliates.
The move will impact Fox affiliates in major cities like Denver, San Diego, Sacramento, Indianapolis, Albuquerque, Honolulu and Toledo. Nexstar owns 40 primary Fox affiliates across the country and operates more than a dozen that are owned on paper by other broadcast companies.
Starting in September, affected Nexstar-owned or operated Fox affiliates will rely almost exclusively on news packages and live video feeds produced by the company’s cable news outlet NewsNation, according to internal e-mails and messages viewed by The Desk.
The decision to sever ties from Fox News Edge comes several weeks after Nexstar’s CBS affiliates ended their use of a similar service called CBS NewsPath. By the end of the year, Nexstar’s ABC affiliates are expected to end their use of that network’s service called ABC NewsOne, sources told The Desk.
Nexstar is hoping to prop up NewsNation by having its local TV stations rely more on the channel’s content for their local newscasts when reporting national or global stories. The broadcaster negotiates carriage of NewsNation with cable, satellite and streaming cable-like providers as a condition of distributing its ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox-affiliated local TV stations on those platforms.
Several years ago, Nexstar stopped using resources from CNN, including news video and live feeds sent from its affiliate service CNN Newsource, in an effort to concentrate more of its focus on NewsNation.
