• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, October 22, 2010

An NBC station in a top-40 market will begin producing newscasts for the competing Fox station. In West Palm Beach, E.W. Scripps' WPTV will craft 17 hours of news a week for the Fox affiliate WFLX, which is owned by Raycom.

The deal takes effect Jan. 1 and covers the 10 p.m. nightly newscast on the Fox outlet and its morning show from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. weekdays. The NBC outlet leads the news race in the country's 38th-largest market.

"We're energized by the prospects of extending our reach into this market's homes by up to three additional hours each day," stated Steve Wasserman, WPTV's vice president and general manager.

At E.W. Scripps -- which owns 10 stations, including network affiliates in Phoenix, Tampa, Cleveland and Kansas City -- the agreement is its first attempt at producing a newscast for a station it doesn't own.

In West Palm Beach, E.W. Scripps will hire more than a dozen staffers and produce the Fox broadcasts on a different set. The late news on the Fox station runs an hour nightly.

Raycom owns 47 stations, including a duopoly in Cleveland, the CBS affiliate in Charlotte and the NBC station in Memphis.