News 9 Now and News on 6 Now are

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

regional

digital broadcast Digital broadcasting is the practice of using digital signals rather than analogue signals for broadcasting over radio frequency bands. Digital television broadcasting (especially satellite television) is widespread. Digital audio broadcasting i ...

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid ...

s that are owned by

Griffin Media Griffin Media is an American media company based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The company began as a subsidiary of Muskogee-based Griffin Foods, which produces a line of pancake and waffle syrups and other foods. It owns Oklahoma's two large CBS ...

. The channels simulcast and rebroadcast local news programming seen on Griffin-owned

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliates In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or ...

KWTV-DT KWTV-DT (channel 9) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is the flagship broadcast property of locally based Griffin Media, and is co-owned with MyNetworkTV affiliate KSBI (channel 52). ...

(channel 9) in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

and KOTV-DT (channel 6) in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...

in their respective markets, along with select other programs. News 9 Now is broadcast on KWTV digital subchannel 9.2 in the Oklahoma City market, while News on 6 Now is broadcast on KOTV digital subchannel 6.3 in the Tulsa market. On

cable Cable may refer to: Mechanical * Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof * Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...

, the individual channels are available on

Cox Communications Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable) is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services. It i ...

channel 53 in their respective markets. The services were developed out of News Now 53, a regional

cable news Cable news channels are television networks devoted to television news broadcasts, with the name deriving from the proliferation of such networks during the 1980s with the advent of cable television. In the United States, the first nationwide ca ...

channel that operated from December 1996 to April 2011, which was operated by Cox Communications Oklahoma in conjunction with Griffin Communications, and was carried on cable systems within Cox's

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

service area.

Background

News Now 53

The concept of the channel dates back to the August 1993 extension of a

retransmission consent Retransmission consent is a provision of the 1992 United States Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act that requires cable operators and other multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) to obtain permission from commer ...

agreement made between KWTV and Oklahoma City area cable providers Cox Cable (which rebranded as Cox Communications in 1996) and Multimedia Cablevision (whose systems in suburban areas of the city were acquired by Cox in 2000) to continue carriage of the station's signal; as part of the deal, KWTV announced that it would create a locally originated cable channel providing news, sports and weather information for the two providers. The service, which was named News Now 53, first launched on December 3, 1996 exclusively on Cox's systems in Oklahoma City and certain inner suburbs; it aired both live airings and rebroadcasts of KWTV's daily local news programs as well as occasional specials produced by the station's news department. Following Griffin's 2000 acquisition of KOTV from the

Belo Corporation Belo Corporation was a Dallas-based media company that owned 20 commercial broadcasting television stations and three regional 24-hour cable news television channels. The company was previously known as A. H. Belo Corporation after one of the ...

, News Now 53 expanded to Cox's Tulsa service area, carrying live daily newscasts and news replays from KOTV.

Until the mid-2000s, News Now 53 carried live telecasts of KWTV – and later KOTV's newscasts – in the event that either station was unable to air its regularly scheduled evening newscasts due to CBS sports telecasts that run into that timeslot. In 2008, the channel underwent a graphical revamp, with the introduction of a new logo and the implementation of a new "L" bar (which was an expansion to the graphical display that featured only the current time and temperature as well as notifications regarding the newscast that was being rebroadcast at that time), displaying five-day forecasts for the respective markets, along with banner advertisements for Cox Communications and local area businesses. This "L" bar – which evolved into its current format displaying current conditions and 24-hour forecasts for various weather observation sites around Oklahoma on the lower portion of the screen with banner ads remaining on the right-hand portion – only appears during rebroadcasts of KWTV/KOTV newscasts and is removed for commercial breaks and live broadcasts – though technical errors occasionally result in the "L" bar display not appearing during some news rebroadcasts.

Relaunch as News 9 Now and News on 6 Now

On April 1, 2011, Griffin Communications took over the operations of News Now 53 from Cox Communications, and both the Oklahoma City and Tulsa area feeds of News Now 53 were reformatted into two separate services: News 9 Now and News on 6 Now; along with the existing cable coverage, both feeds began to be broadcast over-the-air for the first time as multicast channels of KWTV and KOTV's digital signals, and allowed cable providers in the state outside of Cox Communications to carry the channel. In the Tulsa area, the launch of News on 6 Now on KOTV digital channel 6.3, resulted in the movie-oriented digital broadcast network

This TV This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally f ...

to be relocated to digital channel 19.2 of KOTV's CW-affiliated

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

KQCW-DT KQCW-DT (channel 19) is a television station licensed to Muskogee, Oklahoma, United States, serving the Tulsa area as an affiliate of The CW. It is owned by Griffin Media alongside CBS affiliate KOTV-DT (channel 6) and radio stations KTSB (1170 ...

.KWTV to repurpose News Now 53
/ref> The channels broadcast KOTV and KWTV's newscasts in 16:9

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...

, as both KWTV and KOTV broadcast their newscasts in that format (both stations broadcast their news programming in high definition, with KOTV upgrading from enhanced definition to HD in January 2013,Griffin Going Green With New Tulsa Digs
''TVNewsCheck'', October 25, 2012. although the two channels broadcast programming in downconverted

480i 480i is the video mode used for standard-definition digital television in the Caribbean, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Laos, Western Sahara, and most of the Americas (with the exception of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay). T ...

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

); however, news rebroadcasts on News 9 Now are shown in a stretched center cut 4:3 display. On April 12, 2011, Cox restricted the channels to its digital service; this required customers in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa markets with analog-only cable service to rent a

CableCARD CableCARD is a special-use PC Card device that allows consumers in the United States to view and record digital cable television channels on digital video recorders, personal computers and television sets on equipment such as a set-top box not pr ...

or digital cable converter, or purchase a television set with a

digital cable Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previ ...

-ready

QAM Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is the name of a family of digital modulation methods and a related family of analog modulation methods widely used in modern telecommunications to transmit information. It conveys two analog message signa ...

tuner to continue to receive News 9 Now and News on 6 Now programming.

Programming

With the relaunch of News Now 53 as two individually-branded services, plans originally called for KWTV and KOTV to use the channels to provide additional coverage during severe weather events; however in such cases, the channels instead take on the responsibility of broadcasting CBS network and syndicated programs normally seen on the main channel during extended breaking news and severe weather coverage. (although it's expected to eventually be discontinued as Griffin purchased Oklahoma City's

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

affiliate

KSBI KSBI (channel 52) is a television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, affiliated with MyNetworkTV. It is owned by locally based Griffin Media alongside CBS affiliate and company flagship KWTV-DT (channel 9). Both stations share ...

with KSBI taking over responsibilities in airing CBS Programing when KWTV is unable to do so). Although News 9 and News on 6 Now are intended to operate as news rebroadcast channels, the two services also carry a three-hour block of children's programs on Saturday mornings, in order to comply with

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

educational programming Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. ...

rules that require digital subchannels to carry additional educational programming, regardless of the subchannel's intended format. News 9 Now also broadcasts ''

CBS This Morning Saturday ''CBS Saturday Morning'' is a Saturday morning television program that broadcasts on the American television network, CBS. It is currently anchored by Michelle Miller, Dana Jacobson and Jeff Glor. Although the program's name has changed sever ...

'' in lieu of KWTV and ''

Face the Nation ''Face the Nation'' is a weekly news and morning public affairs program airing Sundays on the CBS radio and television network. Created by Frank Stanton in 1954, ''Face the Nation'' is one of the longest-running news programs in the history ...

'' in its entirety as KWTV does not broadcast the second half-hour of the program live from the CBS network feed (the first half-hour airs on Sunday mornings in tandem with News 9 Now's broadcast of the program, while KWTV's main channel airs the second half of the program on a tape delay on Sunday nights/early Monday mornings).

References

External links

News9.com
- KWTV official website (Oklahoma City)
NewsOn6.com
- KOTV official website (Tulsa) {{DEFAULTSORT:News 9 Now News on 6 Now Griffin Media Television stations in Oklahoma City Television stations in Tulsa, Oklahoma Television channels and stations established in 1996 24-hour television news channels in the United States