CBS Television Stations

* Anton Guitano (COO, CBS Local Media)

**CBS Television Stations** is a division of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of ViacomCBS that owns and operates a group of American television stations. As of January 2020[update]Template:Dated maintenance category, ViacomCBS owns 29 stations, broken down as follows: fifteen are the core stations of the CBS Television Network; eight are aligned with The CW Television Network, which is co-owned by CBS with WarnerMedia; one Start TV affiliate and five independent stations, two of which carry the MyNetworkTV programming service in primetime.

## History

The group was founded on May 24, 2000, after the merger of Viacom and CBS Corporation, as the **Viacom Television Stations Group**; it was a merger of the Paramount Stations Group with CBS's owned-and-operated stations division. It was rebranded to its current name on January 3, 2006, after Viacom split itself into two publicly traded companies. Both the second incarnations of CBS Corporation and Viacom, which remained controlled by National Amusements, merged for the second time, forming ViacomCBS, on December 4, 2019.

In 2009 and 2010, three managers at its New York City station, WCBS-TV, were named CBS Television Stations executives while continuing to manage at the station. Station manager Peter Dunn was named CBS Television Stations President in November 2009. Station creative services director Bruce Erik Brauer was named in June 2010 senior vice president of creative services for the group. WCBS news director David Friend became the group's senior vice president of news in August 2010.

On October 21, 2014, CBS and Weigel Broadcasting announced the launch of a new digital subchannel service called Decades, scheduled to launch on all CBS owned and operated stations in May 2015. The channel is co-owned by CBS and Weigel, with Weigel being responsible for distribution to stations outside CBS Television Stations. It airs programs from the extensive library of CBS Television Distribution, including archival footage from CBS News. On July 18, 2018, CBS and Weigel announced that another new subchannel service, Start TV, would launch on September 4; the new service replaced Decades on the CBS-owned stations. An additional CBS-owned subchannel service, Dabl, launched on September 9, 2019; this service, although carried on the CBS Television Stations, is run by CBS Television Distribution.

The station group made a couple of content agreements in 2014 and 2015. The stations agreed in December 2014 for its content to be shown on Curb's Taxi TV. In November 2015, the station group agreed to allow Health Media Network to air local news reports on its network in doctor’s waiting rooms.

On August 1, 2018, CBS Television Stations and CBS Interactive announced plans to launch CBSN Local, a group of streaming news channels modeled on the national CBSN service. The first of these services, CBSN New York, launched on December 13, 2018, with the remaining services launching during 2019 and 2020.

## Stations

Currently many of CBSTS' stations, especially CBS outlets, use a common look in branding. Most of the group's CBS stations brand themselves under the "*CBS [Channel number]*" format (e.g. WCBS-TV, CBSTS' flagship station on channel 2, brands itself as "*CBS 2*"). This is the same practice as many other O&O groups across the U.S. Only five CBS-owned stations do not use such a branding convention.

Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license.

### Current

*Notes:*

* (**\*\***) - *indicates a station that was built and signed-on by CBS.*
* (**++**) - *indicates a station that was owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting prior to its acquisition of CBS in 1995.*
* (**§§**) - *indicates a station that was affected by a 1995 ownership swap between CBS/Westinghouse and NBC.*
* (**¤¤**) - *indicates a station that was owned by Gaylord Broadcasting prior to its sale to CBS in 1999.*
* (**##**) - *indicates a station that was owned by the original Viacom prior to its acquisition of CBS in 2000.*

### Former

*Note: This list also contains stations that were owned and operated by CBS prior to the founding of CBS Television Stations in 2000.*

**Other Notes:**

* 1 Co-owned with the *Los Angeles Times* in a joint venture (49% owned by CBS, 51% owned by the *Times*).
* 2 Co-owned with the *Washington Post* in a joint venture (45% owned by CBS, 55% owned by the *Post*).
* 3 Operated by the original Viacom through its Paramount Stations Group via local marketing agreement (LMA) from 1997 until Viacom/CBS acquired the station outright in 2001.

## See also

* TVX Broadcast Group
* Paramount Stations Group
* Westinghouse Broadcasting

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Status Quo Rules Top 30 Station Groups", *TVNewsCheck*, NewsCheckMedia LLC (June 3, 2015), p. 2. Retrieved on October 26, 2016.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Viacom merges CBS, UPN TV stations", *MarketWatch* (May 24, 2000). Retrieved on November 24, 2018.
3. ↑ Template:Cite press release
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Dunn to run CBS stations" (in en-us), *Broadcasting & Cable* (November 9, 2009). Retrieved on December 4, 2019.
5. ↑ "CBS and Viacom Complete Merger: ‘It’s Been a Long and Winding Road to Get Here’" (in en), *Variety* (December 4, 2019). Retrieved on December 4, 2019.
6. ↑ "Friend Named Head of News at CBS Owned Stations", *Broadcasting & Cable*, NewBay Media, LLC (August 10, 2010). Retrieved on October 26, 2016.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "CBS Stations, Weigel Partner on Oldies Digi-Net Decades", *Broadcasting & Cable*, NewBay Media, LLC (October 21, 2014). Retrieved on October 26, 2016.
8. ↑ Robert Feder (July 19, 2018). "Weigel to launch Start TV digital network with CBS Television Stations". https://www.robertfeder.com/2018/07/19/weigel-launch-start-tv-digital-network-cbs-television-stations/. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
9. ↑ "CBS to Launch DABL Digital Lifestyle Channel in September" (in en), *Variety* (June 17, 2019). Retrieved on December 4, 2019.
10. ↑ "CBS Television Stations Partner With Digital Health Network", *Ad Week* (November 3, 2015). Retrieved on October 26, 2016.
11. ↑ "CBS Plans To Launch Local Streaming Portfolio Modeled On CBSN" (in en), *Deadline* (August 1, 2018). Retrieved on December 5, 2019.
12. ↑ "CBS Television Stations Launch CBSN New York" (in en-us), *Broadcasting & Cable* (December 13, 2018). Retrieved on December 5, 2019.
13. ↑ "All CBSN Local Launches to Happen By Early 2020" (in en-us), *Broadcasting & Cable* (August 8, 2019). Retrieved on December 5, 2019.
14. ↑ "CBS Will Bring News And HD To Its Second NYC Station", *Deadline*, Penske Business Media, LLC (April 2, 2012). Retrieved on October 26, 2016.

## External links

* ViacomCBS: CBS Television Stations

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