List of My Network TV Affiliates - History

History

MyNetworkTV launched on September 5, 2006, with a reach of 96 percent of the United States. The network was created by Fox Television Stations Group to fill the void left on their UPN affiliates after the WB and UPN merged to form The CW Television Network on January 24, 2006. A month later, the MNTV formation was announced on February 22.

MyNetworkTV is based around nine UPN affiliates and one independent station owned by FTSG (a division of News Corporation). From March 1, 2006 to present, 157 affiliates came to an agreement to carry it, bringing MyNetworkTV's total distribution to 167 stations. The largest of these additional affiliate groups is the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which has committed broadcast stations in 17 markets in which it operates. On May 15, 2006, Tribune Company announced that it would commit three WB stations in markets where a CBS Corporation-owned UPN station took CW affiliation, to MyNetworkTV. All of Tribune's other WB stations had already joined The CW—since Tribune held a minority stake in The WB Television Network. Also, Univision, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the United States, committed its only English-language station, KUVI-TV in Bakersfield, California.

These two stations were once dual affiliates of both The CW and MyNetwork TV since their 2006 debuts: KWKB in Iowa City, Iowa, owned by KM Communications, which carried both The CW (as a primary) and MyNetworkTV (as a secondary), but will drop MyNetwork in September 2011; KNVA in Austin, Texas, owned by LIN Television, was the other, until it dropped the network on October 20, 2009. In addition, WTVY in Dothan, Alabama, a CBS affiliate owned by Gray Television, now carries MyNetworkTV on a digital subchannel which was previously affiliated with UPN, and also added a third digital subchannel for The CW. WTOK-TV in Meridian, Mississippi, also owned by Gray, has added a secondary MyNetworkTV affiliation to its then-Fox-affiliated digital subchannel and added another digital subchannel for The CW, in addition to ABC on its main channel.

On July 12, 2006, the network announced the affiliation of CBS Corporation-owned UPN affiliates WBFS in Miami, Florida and WUPL in New Orleans, Louisiana (the latter has since been sold to Belo) and WB affiliate WTCN-CA in West Palm Beach, Florida (now owned by Sinclair). This agreement is surprising considering that MyNetworkTV came to be as a retaliatory move to the merger of UPN and The WB into The CW. Also announced on the same day were affiliation agreements in four additional markets, including Denver's KTVD, a Gannett-owned station. In late July, MNTV added WZMY (now WBIN-TV) in Derry, New Hampshire (Boston-Manchester area), ending the long search for an affiliate in the Boston market; however, WBIN dropped the network and reverted to independent status on September 19, 2011, with the programming service moving to CBS-owned WSBK-TV (which had shunned MyNetworkTV at its formation in 2006).

On August 11, 2006, MNTV announced on its affiliates' website the addition of four new stations—WNAC (which has since moved MyNetworkTV to their DT2 subchannel after carrying the programming service as secondary to its primary Fox affiliation), WNGT-LP (now WMNT-CA), WEPX/WPXU, and KMMF (now defunct).

On August 22, 2006, UPN station KAUT of Oklahoma City (previously owned by CBS Corporation, and owned by The New York Times Company at the time of MyNetworkTV's launch, now owned by Local TV), which was erroneously announced in the original CW press release as an affiliate for that network, was listed on MyNetworkTV's site as an affiliate. Shortly thereafter, an email from the station confirmed the same, and two days later MyNetworkTV confirmed it in the industry press. This officially gave the network full distribution in the top 50 markets. MyNetworkTV now had broadcast or cable affiliation in all of the top 100 markets; ironically, The CW was still missing three markets in the top 100 (see List of CW affiliates).

Though KFDF-CA (UPN) had previously been announced as the MyNetworkTV affiliate for the Fort Smith, Arkansas market (and is still listed as such on the MyNetworkTV website), its sister station KPBI-CA, which is losing its Fox affiliation, will assume the MyNetworkTV affiliation instead; KFDF-CA will instead join Retro Television Network. (Due to the ownership change at KPBI, KFSM has picked up My Network for 5.2 as of Oct 1,2009. KFSM's owner, Local TV, closed on its purchase of full-power KPBI on January 5, 2012 through a "failing station" waiver and changed its call letters to KXNW; on that date KXNW's primary channel began simulcasting KFSM-DT2 (which also took on a secondary affiliation with Antenna TV in addition to its primary MyNetworkTV affiliation) and its DT2 subchannel began simulcasting KFSM's primary channel to expand the digital coverage of both stations to the entire Fort Smith–Fayetteville market.)

In the summer of 2009 as the network converted to a syndicated programming service, the network lost several affiliates due to two factors. The first was the aftermath of the digital transition of June 12 and the Equity Media Holdings bankruptcy, where several stations which had not completed their digital facilities ended broadcasting and had also been purchased at auction by the religious broadcaster Daystar Television Network. Those stations which were low-power and unaffected by the transition were quickly converted to Daystar or sold by Daystar to a second party, with the remainder to follow once the digital facilities were built. Several also went off the air completely upon not being sold.

The network also nullified all affiliation agreements to convert to a programming service, leading Ion Media Networks to end their carriage of the service on September 28, 2009 on three stations and resume carrying Ion Television fulltime (those stations had been owned by another party which agreed to carry the network at the time of MyNetworkTV's launch, although they were managed by Ion directly). This led to MyNetworkTV's first agreement with CW affiliate WLMT in Memphis, Tennessee where that station would only air WWE SmackDown and disregard the other four nights of their schedule in order to keep that program airing in one of WWE's strongest markets. Additionally, Pappas Telecasting-owned KDMI in Des Moines, Iowa also dropped MyNetworkTV and became a full-time This TV affiliate; sister station KCWI-TV, the market's CW affiliate, then began airing SmackDown in a similar arrangement to WLMT. The arrangements ended in October 2010 when the show moved to cable channel Syfy; thereafter, WLMT's Retro Television Network (RTV)-affiliated second digital subchannel picked up the entire MyNetworkTV lineup as a secondary affiliation. KDMI has since rejoined MyNetworkTV as a secondary affiliation.

Sinclair-owned KMYS in San Antonio, Texas swapped affiliations with former CW affiliate KCWX, becoming the first known instance of an affiliation swap between a CW affiliate and a MyNetworkTV affiliate in the same market since the formation of both "networks" in 2006.

For more information about the affiliation process, refer to the main network article.