WGN-TV owner Nexstar ends live streaming of local news and programs

Cites loyalty to cable and satellite providers

(Editor’s Note: It appears this order does not affect WGN-TV and a few big-market Nexstar stations. The last paragraph of this story – relating to the city delaying scanner information a half-hour – was deleted as it is no longer relevant to this story. Updated as of August 3. – T.H.) 

In an unusual move in today’s media climate, Nexstar Media Group has ended free live streams for its newscasts and local programming on their websites and other platforms retroactive to January 12 and instead, will make those broadcasts available two hours after airtime. 

The order affects every Nexstar station with a news operation, including WGN-TV in Chicago who airs eleven-and-a-half hours of newscasts every weekday, including their popular WGN Morning News program.

According to Nexstar, the decision was made to protect cable and satellite operators, who pay their stations massive amounts in retransmission fees. Recently, Nexstar and Comcast were involved in a retransmission spat that nearly saw the Irving, tex.-based company take their channels off the nation’s largest cable provider. It’s not known if the new deal struck by both parties included language on streaming newscasts, but given a statement Nexstar released on the matter, this could be the case. 

“[We did this] to fulfill our obligations to our cable, satellite and telecom partners.”, Nexstar said. “We also continue to make highlights of our newscasts available through video clips and other coverage after the live broadcast. Breaking news and important weather updates will continue to be offered on the stations websites as they occur, and on our mobile apps and social media platforms.” FTV Live first reported this story December 22, and sources say the edict came from Nexstar CEO Perry Sook himself. 

Viewers of course, can also continue to access live broadcasts for free using an over-the-air antenna, or download the WGN Plus app, available on Roku, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV (Nexstar’s Los Angeles and San Francisco stations also have downloadable apps.)

The removal of live newscasts by Nexstar from streaming is unusual, as other station groups are livestreaming their news content on numerous platforms. The network owned-and-operated stations in the markets where Nexstar competes with offer live streaming newscasts on dedicated 24/7 local news and content channels such as CBS 2 (WBBM-TV) and ABC 7 (WLS-TV), including live newscasts not airing on their linear channels. Others such as Scripps have fully embraced streaming content, as it has a national streaming news channel (Scripps News, formerly Newsy) in addition to numerous 24/7 local streaming channels on various platforms. Fox-owned stations also have newscasts available on Fox’s Tubi platform, as does other station groups and a live streaming news channel (Live Now from Fox) operated by the station group.