Quote Originally Posted by ljbab728 View Post
I understand why the local channels would do that. My point was about how NBC feels about directing their viewers to another station that NBC will get no ad revenue from.
The networks do it to the local stations, too. How should Ch. 4 feel about MSNBC? Or how should Ch. 5 feel about the relationship between ABC and ESPN? The reality is that television revenue has dropped WAY off from where it used to be before cable and the internet so there is a need to wring every penny out of investments. A news department is VERY expensive to maintain. There's really only two ways to increase your revenue. You can attract more viewers so that you can raise your ad rates for your newscast or you can increase the number of outlets for your product. Stations try to do both, but creating more outlets for your news product is a much safer bet because you KNOW you'll make something off of the deal, whereas a station might make a huge investment in trying to raise a newscast from #2 to #1 and come away with nothing to show for their efforts.