In a continuing sign that media competition in the Valley has changed, a source has confirmed that a third local television station has joined a pact to share stories with one another. The action means a majority of commercial news stations in Phoenix have agreed to pool their resources to cover local stories, ending a previously strict division between competing outlets.
The CBS affiliate, KPHO-TV (Channel 5), agreed to enter into the pact in recent days, a source familiar with the deal told Heat City today. The station joins the local ABC and Fox stations, which announced last week they were launching a so-named “Local News Service” to cover daily news stories. The addition of KPHO has not yet been announced officially, possibly even to the staffs of the stations involved.
The three stations will now rely on just one crew to go out and cover what they deem “routine news events” such as press conferences and sporting events, according to last week’s announcement. The single crew will then send footage from the event to each station, meaning viewers will soon be able to tune into any of the three channels and likely see the same footage in certain stories.
“In previous years it may have been unimaginable to consider sharing resources and video with a direct competitor,” wrote Brian Lawlor, the head of television for the E.W. Scripps Company, which owns the local ABC affiliate, in an email to staffers last week. “It is clearly a new day.”
A similar news service was also launched between Scripps- and News Corp.-owned affiliates in Tampa, Fla. and Detroit.
In Phoenix, KPNX-TV (Channel 12) and KTVK-TV (Channel 3) remain the only holdouts from the news sharing agreement.