WKBD-TV - Out-of-market Cable Coverage

Out-of-market Cable Coverage

WKBD is available on many cable systems in Southeast Michigan, Southwestern Ontario, and Northwest Ohio. Outside of the Detroit area, however, most programming on WKBD is subject to Syndex territorial restrictions placed on cable systems by the local TV rights holders. During the affected programming, cable systems either switch to another channel, or place a text notice on the screen that says something like: "This channel is being blacked out due to FCC regulations."

In 1994, when Fox switched in Detroit from WKBD to WJBK, many Michigan cable systems outside the Detroit area replaced WKBD with WGKI from Cadillac, in order to keep Fox available in the Upper Peninsula. However, in areas where Fox was already available locally, mainly in the southern and central Michigan markets (especially the Tri-Cities), much of WGKI's programming was blacked out. In 1996, some systems that dropped WKBD for WGKI brought WKBD back.

Following the launch of The CW, WKBD began to be dropped from cable systems outside of the Detroit market, in favor of local or nearest CW or MyNetworkTV affiliates. Coverage on cable systems outside the Detroit / Windsor market may be subject to SyndEx and network blackouts in the United States.