 | |
| Type | Terrestrialtelevision network |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Affiliates | List of affiliates |
| Headquarters | Cadillac, Michigan |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Picture format | 720p (HDTV,widescreen) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Bridge Media Networks |
| Parent | Bridge News,LLC |
| Key people |
|
| Sister channels | Sports News Highlights |
| History | |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Launched | January 1, 2019 (2019-01-01) |
| Founder | Eric Wotila |
| Closed | August 2, 2024 (2024-08-02) (5 years, 7 months and 1 day) |
| Links | |
| Webcast | www |
| Website | www |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Service(s) | FuboTV,LocalBTV |
NewsNet (stylized asNEWSnet) was an Americannews-orientedfree-to-airtelevision network andnewscastproduction company owned by Bridge News, LLC, which itself is owned byManoj Bhargava's Bridge Media Networks.[1] The network was structured to broadcast a tightly-formatted 30-minute newswheel 24 hours a day, incorporating freshly-updated information that covers various areas of interest (such as national news, sports, entertainment, weather and business). Breaking news stories were updated constantly as they developed and new information became available.
In addition to being carried ondigital subchannels of affiliatedtelevision stations, NewsNet also distributed its programming through a livestream that is available on its website, as well as its mobile app in areas where it did not have a terrestrial TV affiliate. The network also provided an optional turnkey local news production service (Custom Newsroom Solutions) for stations that did not maintain their own local news departments to produce local news capsule segments or full-length newscasts. NewsNet's primary studio facilities (which also houses master control operations of the network'sflagship stationWMNN-LD [channel 26] and dualMyNetworkTV/Cozi TV affiliateWXII-LD [channel 12]) were located on West 13th Street and 3rd Avenue inCadillac, while its secondary studio facilities were located on Haggerty Road inFarmington Hills, Michigan.
On September 28, 2017, Eric Wotila – who foundedlow-power all-news stationWMNN-LD in Cadillac, Michigan and oversaw the studio design and construction forNews Channel Nebraska, aNorfolk, Nebraska-based quasi-state network of five low-power stations that also maintained an all-news programming format – started acrowdfunding campaign onKickstarter to fund the launch of a 24-hour national news channel – under theworking title, the Local News Network (LNN) – intended for broadcast, online and mobile distribution.[2][3][4][5]
Citing favorable opinions from viewers about the "straight-to-the-facts, no-nonsense and commentary-free" coverage provided by WMNN-LD, the Local News Network proposed to offer a news wheel format (similar in structure to the 1982–2005 format ofHLN, and the formats of defunct all-news networks such asAll News Channel andSatellite News Channel) that would eschew the often-politically focused panel discussion programs that have populated the afternoon, nighttime and weekend schedules ofcable news channels (particularlyCNN,MSNBC andFox News Channel) since the early 2000s. The project called for LNN to be based out of WMNN's Cadillac studio facility, with the hope of eventually opening bureaus elsewhere around the United States. The project failed to reach its funding goal of $100,000 needed to develop LNN – which would have been used to pay for equipment and staffing necessary to handle the national broadcasts – by the closure of the 50-day campaign on November 17, 2017, raising only $8,012 from 78 public backers. Wotila subsequently sought to obtain backing from investors to fund the venture.[2][3][4][5]
On March 15, 2018, Wotila and other partners involved in the LNN project announced the launch of NewsNet, which would maintain the concept originally developed prior to the commencement of the Kickstarter campaign.[6][7][8]
NewsNet signed on for the first time on January 1, 2019 at 7:00 p.m.Eastern Time, withEvening Edition serving as the network's inaugural program. On May 8, 2019, ground was broken on new studios. The facility will consist of three studios, each with their own control rooms and a new, state-of-the-art master control room overseeing the operations of NewsNet,WMNN-LD andWXII-LP. The new studio debuted on-air at 4:00 a.m. ET on December 9.[9]
Because of Wotila's involvement with News Channel Nebraska, NewsNetdoes not compete with NCN and has no affiliates in that state.
In 2020, NewsNet picked up agreements from Coastal Television'sABC &FOX stations in Anchorage andFairbanks, Alaska to start producing newscasts for them due to the economic impact of COVID 19. Coastal would further expand the agreement to include their stations inCasper andCheyenne, Wyoming. Coastal ended the agreements in early 2022 upon purchase of theNewsHub from Waypoint Media.Marquee Broadcasting signed an agreement in 2022 for their Georgia stations inMacon andToccoa for production of a 9 PM newscast calledGeorgia's News at Nine. The Macon station ended the agreement upon the sale from Marquee toGray Television and production for the Macon newscast was shifted over toWANF-TV. Production for Toccoa ended in 2023 after the partnership dissolved.
On January 13, 2022, NewsNet and the rest of Freelancer Television Broadcasting's portfolio, including WMNN-LD and WXII-LD, were sold to investorManoj Bhargava, with Eric Wotila retaining 10% ownership in the new company Bridge News, LLC.[10] Under the terms of the deal, Bridge News would operate the stations via atime brokerage agreement with Freelancer Television Broadcasting.[11] The sale was consummated on March 24. Bhargava conceived the purchase as a means of advertising 5-hour Energy direct to the consumer and bypassing an increasingly cost-ineffective advertising market.[12]
On April 18, 2022, at exactly noon ET, NewsNet debuted a new logo, graphics package and slogan,News... as it used to be. A week later, on April 25, the network hired Phillip Hendrix, former senior producer at theBlack News Channel, to serve as its news director, replacing Remington Hernandez (who will remain as the network's primary news anchor).[13] Hendrix was succeeded in July by Peter Ziemelis (a longtime executive producer atABC affiliateWJRT-TV [channel 12] inFlint).
On May 16, 2022, NewsNet officially debuted a secondary studio facility in Farmington Hills and made several additions to its on-air team, including Detroit local news veterans Jill Washburn (formerly ofCBS O&OWWJ-TV [channel 62] andFox O&OWJBK [channel 2]) and Glenn Ray (formerly ofWKBD-TV [channel 50]). Also on the same date, the network implemented major changes to its schedule:Mornings moved to a later timeslot at 6:00 a.m. ET, while the weekday edition ofContinuing Coverage reduced its running time from four hours to two (albeit remaining at the 4:00 p.m. ET slot). The weekday broadcasts ofEvening Edition, on the other hand, expanded to six hours beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET, andNightside Edition (which airs at midnight ET) also expanded to six hours with the addition of a two-hour block at 4:00 a.m. ET. The running times ofMidday Edition (which airs at noon ET) and the weekend broadcasts ofContinuing Coverage andEvening Edition would remain unchanged.
On August 6, 2022, NewsNet debutedWeekend Edition, an all-weekend rolling news block that compiles the biggest headlines of the past week but retaining the network's signature newswheel format (over time, it evolved to a traditional format). The new program replaced the weekend broadcasts ofMornings,Midday Edition,Continuing Coverage,Evening Edition, andNightside Edition.
In the 4th week of September 2022, Bridge Media Networks announced it would acquire several LPTV stations in Las Vegas (KDNU-LD),[14] South Florida (WDGT-LD, WHMR-LD and WKIZ-LD)[15] and Detroit (WHNE-LD).[16] Upon the completion of the transactions, the company will convert these stations into NewsNet O&Os.
In August 2023, Bhargava announced that NewsNet parent company Bridge Media Networks would be merging withRoss Levinsohn's The Arena Group, publisher ofSports Illustrated, and owner ofMen's Fitness,Men's Journal and other publications, with Bhargava as the majority investor.[17] Bhargava's plans to integrateSports Illustrated content onto NewsNet and Sports News Highlights were foiled when the magazine's trademark holder revoked The Arena Group's license and granted it to a competitor, Minute Media; the legal dispute was unresolved at the time of the television networks' closure.[12]
On the morning of August 2, 2024, the network abruptly laid off its entire staff of 80 workers and shut down, stating that nobody was watching the channels: "We believed people would want to watch a clean, non-bias news network, but we were wrong."[18] Following the layoffs, the streaming services for the network continued to run, airing a mix of up-to-date automated ticker content combined withreruns of the networks' most recent broadcasts, until it was removed a few days later.[12]
The national NewsNet service operated two separate broadcast feeds at the time of its closure:
NewsNet's programming was structured around a rolling news wheel format, providing up-to-date information on the top national and international stories in just 30 minutes.
Each half-hour of the wheel format began with the "A" block, which featured a nearly 12-minute rundown of the latest news headlines (with updated details provided when breaking news developed).
The remainder of each half-hour included a national weather forecast summary (at 12 and 42 minutes past the hour; branded asWeather Report), the latest sports highlights and scores (at 17 and 47 minutes past the hour; primarily utilizing talent from its sister network, Sports News Highlights), and topical news segments focusing on health, business, entertainment, and other subjects (at 24 and 54 minutes past the hour).[19]
As of April 2023[update], NewsNet has current and pending full-time affiliation agreements with 59 television stations in 49 television markets encompassing 24 states, covering 27.21% of the United States.[20] The majority of NewsNet affiliates arelow-power stations that are within the geographic boundaries of a particular TV market, but do not cover the entirety of the market.
In addition to allowing affiliates to sell local advertising (offering four minutes of local commercial time per hour to prospective stations), NewsNet provides the option for its broadcast affiliates to pre-empt the national weather segment to allow to carry their own local weather cut-ins (either produced by the network or by affiliate stations themselves), as well as feature segments at the end of each half hour to allow to carry a five-minute-long local headline "capsule", providing news and other timely information focusing on the local viewing area.[19][21][6][7][8]
| City of license/market | Station | Channel | Primary affiliation | Owner | Date of affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchorage, AK | KDMD | 33.5 | Ion Television | Bridge Media Networks | 2024 |
| Auburn–Columbus, GA | W04DN-D | 4 | — | 2023 | |
| Cusseta–Columbus, GA | WQMK-LD | 18.3 | Retro TV | Ben Jordan Communications Corporation | 2019 |
| Dothan, AL | WJJN-LD | 49.2 | Retro TV | Wilson Broadcasting Company, Inc. | |
| Montevallo–Birmingham, AL | WOTM-LD | 19[a] | Independent | Joseph Earley | |
| Phoenix, AZ | KVPA-LD | 42 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| Cathedral City–Palm Springs, CA | KRET-CD | 45 | — | ||
| Los Angeles, CA | KFLA-LD | 8 | — | 2019 | |
| Reedley–Fresno–Visalia, CA | KVBC-LP | 13.9 | MeTV | Ventura Broadcasting Company | |
| Ridgecrest–Bakersfield, CA | KZGN-LD | 21.2 | Heartland | Wiknich Broadcasting Corporation | |
| Sacramento, CA | KSAO-LD | 49 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| San Diego, CA | KSDX-LD | 9 | — | ||
| Grand Junction, CO | KLML | 20.14 | Court TV | Ventura Broadcasting Company | |
| Jacksonville, FL | WWRJ-LD | 27 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| Jupiter–West Palm Beach, FL | WEWF-LD | 47 | — | ||
| Key West–Miami–Fort Lauderdale, FL | WKIZ-LD | 49 | — | ||
| Miami–Fort Lauderdale, FL | WDGT-LD | 24 | — | ||
| Ocala–Orlando, FL | WQFT-LD | 17 | — | ||
| St. Augustine–Jacksonville, FL | WQXT-CD | 22.6 | Retro TV | A1A TV, Inc. | 2019 |
| Parkersburg, WV | WVMY-LD | 8 | — | Marquee Broadcasting | |
| Vero Beach, FL | WVWW-LD | 30 | — | Our Veterans Voice, LLC | |
| Orlando, FL | WOFT-LD | 8 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| Athens–Atlanta, GA | WZVC-LD | 15 | — | ||
| Augusta, GA | W16EE-D | 16 | — | ||
| Columbus, GA | WRDP-LD | 26 | — | ||
| Cumming–Atlanta, GA | WLVO-LD | 21.6 | Religious Ind. | United Media Network, LLC | 2019 |
| Dalton–Chattanooga, TN | WDNN-CD | 49.3 | Independent | North Georgia Television | |
| Savannah, GA | WHDS-LD | 32.5 | — | Carolina Christian Broadcasting | |
| Valdosta–Albany, GA | WSWG | 44.5 | CBS | Marquee Broadcasting | |
| Pocatello–Idaho Falls, ID | KPIF | 15.13 | Grit | Ventura Broadcasting Company | |
| Twin Falls, ID | KYTL-LD | 17.2 | Real America's Voice | Karlo Maalouf | 2023 |
| Alton, IL | W36EX-D | 36 | — | Bridge Media Networks | |
| Arlington Heights–Chicago, IL | WRJK-LD | 22.8[b] | DiyaTV | Major Market Broadcasting | 2020 |
| Oakwood Hills–Chicago, IL | WCHU-LD | 3 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| Quincy, IL | W17EH-D | 17 | — | ||
| Jeffersonville, IN–Louisville, KY | WJYL-CD | 16 | — | ||
| Marion–Indianapolis, IN | WNDY-TV | 23.3 | MyNetworkTV | Circle City Broadcasting | 2020 |
| Kansas City, KS | KCKS-LD | 25.2 | Buzzr | Heartland Broadcasting, LLC | 2019 |
| Sublette–Wichita–Hutchinson, KS | KDGL-LD | 23.5 | Cozi TV | High Plains Broadcasting, LLC | |
| Topeka, KS | WROB-LD | 25.2 | Buzzr | Heartland Broadcasting, LLC | |
| Wichita, KS | KCTU-LD | 5.8 | This TV/AMGTV | River City Broadcasters, Inc. | |
| Lafayette, LA | KXKW-LD | 32 | — | Delta Media Corporation | 2021 |
| Winchendon, MA–Providence, RI | WVMA-CD | 17.2 | Antenna TV | Vision Communications | |
| Cedar–Traverse City–Cadillac, MI | WXII-LD | 12.2 | MyNetworkTV/Cozi TV | Bridge Media Networks | 2021 |
| Detroit, MI | WHNE-LD | 3.9 | TheGrio | 2019 | |
| Lake City–Traverse City–Cadillac, MI | WMNN-LD[c] | 26 | — | ||
| St. Cloud–Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN | K26PF-D | 26 | — | 2023 | |
| Holly Springs, MS–Memphis, TN | WBII-CD | 20.4 | Sonlife Broadcasting | Mid-South Broadcasting | 2019 |
| Columbia, MO | K06PT-D | 6 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| Las Vegas, NV | KDNU-LD | 7 | — | 2022 | |
| Mesquite–Las Vegas, NV | KMSQ-LD | 15 | — | ||
| Sparks–Reno, NV | KGLR-LD | 35.3 | — | ||
| Westmoreland, NH–Boston, MA | WWOO-LD | 17.3 | Catchy Comedy | Jeffrey Winemiller | |
| Westmoreland, NH–Boston, MA | WVCC-LD | 49 | — | ||
| Buffalo, NY | WBXZ-LD | 56 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2018 |
| Cobleskill–Albany–Schenectady–Troy, NY | WYBN-LD | 14.8 | Buzzr | Cable Ad Net New York | 2019 |
| Syracuse, NY | WONO-CD | 11.3 | Independent | Craig Fox | 2021 |
| New York, NY | WHTV-LD | 18 | — | Bridge Media Networks | November 2023 |
| Utica, NY | WVVC-LD | 40.6 | Antenna TV | Northeast Gospel Broadcasting, Inc. | 2019 |
| Westvale–Syracuse, NY | WVOA-LD | 6.3 | Independent | Craig Fox | |
| Rockfish, NC–Myrtle Beach–Florence, SC | WTNG-CD | 7.3 | Religious independent | Bridge Media Networks | 2019 |
| Tarboro–Raleigh–Durham–Fayetteville, NC | WNCR-LD | 41.2 | Youtoo America | WNCR Media Group, Inc. | |
| Bismarck, ND | KNDB | 26[a] | — | BEK Communications Cooperative | |
| Grand Forks–Fargo, ND | KNGF-DT | 27.4 | BEK Sports | 2023 | |
| Minot, ND | KNDM | 24[a] | — | 2019 | |
| Valley City–Fargo–Grand Forks, ND | KRDK-TV | 4[a] | — | Major Market Broadcasting | |
| Akron–Cleveland, OH | WIVX-LD | 39.4 | This TV | Image Video Teleproductions | 2021 |
| Canton, OH | WIVM-LD | 39.4 | This TV | ||
| Cottage Grove–Eugene, OR | K42HK-D | 39 | — | South Lane Television, Inc. | 2019 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | WBPA-LD | 12.12 | Rev'n | Venture Technologies Group | |
| WPTG-CD | 69.8 | This TV | Fifth Street Enterprises | 2019 | |
| WBYD-CD | 39 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 | |
| Florence, SC | W15DC-D | 15 | — | ||
| Myrtle Beach, SC | WMBE-LD | 5.2 | Ace TV | ||
| Sioux Falls, SD | K06QJ-D | 6 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| Nashville, TN | WIIW-LD | 14 | — | ||
| Austin, TX | KADF-LD | 20 | Ace TV | ||
| College Station–Bryan, TX | K03IJ-D | 3 | — | ||
| Dallas–Fort Worth, TX | KLEG-CD | 44.4 | NTD TV | DV Broadcasting, LLC | 2020 |
| Kerrville–San Antonio, TX | KVHC-LD | 11 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| Lufkin–Nacogdoches, TX | KLNM-LD | 42 | — | Miller Media | |
| Midland–Odessa, TX | KEOO-LD | 23 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| Wolfforth–Lubbock, TX | KJTV-CD | 32 | — | SagamoreHill Broadcasting[d] | |
| Logan, UT | KCVB-LD | 26 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| Ogden–Salt Lake City, UT | KSVN-CD | 25 | — | ||
| Manchester, VT–Hartford, CT | WHNH-CD | 2.3 | This TV | Vision Communications | |
| Cheaspeake, VA | WJGN-CD | 38 | — | Bridge Media Networks | 2023 |
| Seattle, WA | KYMU-LD | 6.3 | Cozi TV | Seattle 6 Broadcasting LLC | 2019 |
| Yakima, WA | KWYT-LD | 36.7 | Heartland | Hispanavision |
| City of license/market | Station | Channel[20] | Primary affiliation | Owner | Years of affiliation | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baton Rouge, LA | WLFT-CD | 30.3 | Sonlife | Family Worship Center | 2019–2023 | Taken dark shortly after Family Worship Center assumed control of station |
| Buffalo, NY | WBXZ-LD | 56.11 | Cozi TV | Steven D. Ritchie | 2019–2022 | Replaced by Real America's Voice |
| Denver, CO | KCDO | 3.3 | Independent | E. W. Scripps Company | 2020–2021 | Replaced by a simulcast ofKMGH |
| Middletown, NJ–New York, NY | WJLP | 33.8 | MeTV | PMCM TV | 2019–2022 | Contract nullified upon sale of station toWeigel Broadcasting |