The little DMA of Victoria TX is close enough to the larger DMA of San Antonio that many of the latter market’s biggest network affiliates were able to garner significant viewing from Victoria-area residents. But Saga successfully argued before the FCC that this is no longer the case and asked that its right to non-duplication of network programs be enforced.
It is possible for more than one station to carry network programming in a given market if the alien station meets certain baseline off-air viewing requirements. It must receive, plus or minus, at least a 3% share of total viewing hours and a 25% net weekly circulation benchmark.
Saga wished to evict CBS KENS, owned by Belo, ABC KSAT, owned by Post-Newsweek, and NBC WOAI, owned by High Plains and operated by Newport.
It followed the FCC letter of the law in demonstrating that despite the possibility that at one time these stations received the requisite viewing in the Victoria DMA, it is no longer the case. The FCC said the Nielsen survey results submitted by Saga were sufficient to prove its case.
Saga is the company to beat in Victoria – it owns ABC KAVU and has and LMA with Fox KVCT. In addition to that, it has low power stations bringing in programming from NBC, CBS, Univision and Telemundo.
RBR-TVBR observation: Before you indulge in an image of a buckskin-clad Ed Christian astride the parapet of a battered fort, his ammunition spent, swinging the butt-end of a musket at a horde of invading corporate lawyers flooding in from San Antonio, we have to note that the Saga petition was unopposed.
So we guess that instead of using the word duel in the headline, we probably should have used “duel” since it takes two to produce an actual duel.
