News Operation
WMTW has traditionally been a distant third place in the Portland market, behind WCSH and WGME. Compared with the area's two other main stations, newscasts on WMTW tend to air in a more fast-paced format. The station promotes each of its shows as having the top stories of the day and a complete weather forecast in the first eight minutes before a commercial break.
Despite not making much of a dent in the ratings, WMTW does operate an award winning news department. In summer 2008, it received a "New England Emmy Award for Outstanding Newscast", the "Edward R. Murrow Award for Continuing News Coverage", and the "Associated Press Station of the Year Honor". WMTW added The Local AccuWeather Channel on August 30, 2007 after launching a new second digital subchannel. This competed with a similar national service, NBC Weather Plus, provided locally by WCSH until December 31, 2008. That station continues offering a continuous loop of local news headlines and weather forecast segments on its second digital subchannel.
In the past through an exclusive partnership with Time Warner Cable, WMTW operated a 24-hour cable news station throughout the Portland market. Known on-air as "WMTW All News Channel", this service repeated local newscasts as seen on the main channel. It did not simulcast live broadcasts that aired on the main station. Instead, the cable channel put up a slide directing viewers to the main station. "WMTW All News Channel" was originally on analog channel 9 but relocated to digital channel 156 on May 5, 2009. Eventually, this service was dropped due to the presence of "News 8 NOW" on WMTW-DT2.
In a more recent attempt to take on WCSH and WGME in order to become more competitive, WMTW has been adapting its news operation to appeal to change in viewer habits. It added a weekend morning show on January 2, 2010 offering an alternative to WCSH. Prior to this addition, the station only aired local weather cut-ins during the weekend edition of Good Morning America. Declining viewership of its weekday midday show resulted in its cancellation and replacement by infomercials. The time period has since been filled by Access Hollywood Live and the The Steve Harvey Show (2012 TV series).
The station subsequently reduced its sports department and now only airs a regular sports report during its weeknight newscast at 6. During the high school football season, a second report is added at 11. On September 18, 2012, WMTW upgraded its broadcasts to 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen. WCSH and WGME broadcast their local news in high definition.
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Famous quotes containing the words news and/or operation:
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—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)