KTVU - News Operation

News Operation

The station has been well known in the Bay Area for its locally-produced news, public affairs and children's programming, especially The Ten O'Clock News, which for years had been the only television news broadcast in the Bay Area at that hour; the newscast first made its debut on the same date the station went on the air, March 3, 1958. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s (decade), The Ten O'Clock News was often referred to as "the number one prime time newscast in the country", which was true based on the number of viewers at that hour. KTVU's 10 p.m. newscast was such a force to be reckoned with that KBWB cancelled its own 10 p.m. news in 2002 after having no luck competing with KTVU. KBCW has since debuted a primetime newscast produced by KPIX in March 2008, however, that newscast is only 30 minutes long instead of one hour.

When KRON-TV became an independent station, it also scheduled its new prime time newscast at 9 p.m. so as to not compete directly with KTVU. In the early 1990s, KRON, along with KPIX (throughout the 1990s), did have 10 p.m. newscasts, which have since been moved back up to the 11 p.m. time slot. During the period, KTVU branded its late newscast as The Original Ten O'Clock News. The retirement of KTVU's long-time news director Fred Zehnder brought changes to the newsroom but in 2000 it was ranked as the highest quality local newscast in the nation by the Project for Excellence in Journalism under his immediate successor, Andrew Finlayson, while maintaining number one ratings at ten and throughout the noon and morning newscasts. Varying prime time numbers and improvements at competitors have since lead to a decline in the once dominant news operation's ratings.

The Ten O'Clock News is also one of the few syndicated local newscasts in the United States. It also airs on co-owned Fox affiliate KRXI-TV in Reno, Nevada, and also airs on MyNetworkTV affiliate KRVU-LD in the Chico/Redding market, and MyNetworkTV affiliate KEMY in the Eureka/Arcata market. KRVU and KEMY are not owned by KTVU parent company Cox. Some of the stations also carry KTVU's earlier newscasts and Mornings on 2. KTVU had used the "KTVU News Theme" by Michael Randall as its news theme starting in 1987, until it was replaced on June 23, 2010 by a new music package called "Icon News Music Package", produced by 615 Music. KTVU was the last Bay Area news station at one point not to use a news helicopter; In the 2000s (decade), the station began to utilize a news helicopter, which is branded News Chopper 2.

Before its current station status, KTVU had only the 10 p.m. newscast; this was common of most independent-turned Fox affiliates back then to have more syndicated programming and children's programming than it did news. That changed when the station decided to go head-to-head with competitors KRON, KPIX, KGO-TV and KNTV by leaning more towards a news-intensive format which took years to take effect. The noon newscast, originally called 2 at Noon, was added in 1986, displacing syndicated game shows. The original morning newscast, Mornings on 2, debuted in January 1991 in the 7 to 9 a.m. slot. Fox has not had any national network newscasts and continues not to have any to this day, but it still motivated its affiliates, including KTVU, to air more local news. An additional morning newscast was added in 1996 (which would later expand to two hours from one hour), then a 6 p.m. newscast was added in 2000 (a previous newscast aired in that timeslot ran for a time during the late 1980s and early 1990s), and finally in 2005, an hour-long 5 p.m. newscast.

On October 10, 2006, KTVU became the first station in the Bay Area to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition and debuted a new state-of-the-art studio designed for HD newscast production. This follows sister stations WSB-TV/Atlanta and WFTV/Orlando, which were already producing their newscasts in high definition. Remote and field equipment was still limited to 480p standard definition following the transition.

Today, KTVU currently broadcasts a total of 47 hours of local newscasts each week (eight hours on weekdays and 3½ hours on Saturdays and Sundays), second only to MyNetworkTV affiliate KRON-TV for the most hours of local news in the San Francisco Bay Area; the station now has newscasts at noon, 5 and 6 p.m., in addition its morning and 10 p.m. broadcasts (however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, KTVU's Saturday 6 p.m. and Sunday 5 p.m. newscasts are subject to preemption or delay due to sports coverage from Fox). KTVU however is the largest Fox station not owned by the network without a newscast in the traditional 11 p.m. timeslot, and the fifth-largest Fox station in the United States without an 11 p.m. newscast. KTVU also produces Bay Area News at 7 for sister station KICU, presented by Gasia Mikaelian, weeknights at 7 p.m., and a rebroadcast of The Ten O'Clock News is shown at KICU at 11:30 p.m.

On January 22, 2011, KTVU launched two-hour weekend morning newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays from 7 to 9 a.m., making KTVU the largest Fox affiliate and the second-largest Fox station – behind Fox-owned KDFW in Dallas-Ft. Worth – to carry a weekend morning newscast, with Mike Mibach and Claudine Wong as anchors. On January 24, KTVU expanded its weekday morning newscast to 4½ hours, with a half-hour extension of the newscast at 4:30 a.m. The additions expanded KTVU's weekly newscast output to 47 hours of local newscasts each week, with eight hours on weekdays and 3½ hours on weekends.