• by Wayne Friedman , March 3, 2006

Following on the heels of its archrival CW's affiliate deals on Wednesday, News Corp.'s MyNetworkTV released some deals of its own--in fact, it has come up with some stations of its own.

MyNetworkTV has signed up 17 stations from the Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group in markets Tampa, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Nashville, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Greenville, San Antonio, Birmingham, Norfolk, Buffalo, Greensboro, Las Vegas, Mobile, Charleston, Paducah, and Syracuse.

For MyNetworkTV, this adds 12 percent in U.S. TV household coverage, bringing the network's total to 36 percent. Nine of News Corp.'s Fox-owned stations, representing 24 percent of U.S. TV households, have already committed to the network. These are soon to be former UPN network affiliates. Of the 17 stations MyNetworkTV has picked up, 10 are current WB affiliates, 6 are UPN affiliates, and one--WFGX in Mobile, Ala.--is an independent station.

The CW gains were more modest, adding five stations and grabbing an additional 3 percent.

But in the race to grab affiliates for these new networks, the CW has had a better head start: 49 percent of its U.S. TV household coverage came through deals with CBS and Tribune-owned stations when the network announced its plans for a September launch last month.

MyNetworkTV says its network has a "pro-station" strategy. This comes in giving stations a huge amount of local advertising time--9 minutes per hour. The CW offers stations three minutes an hour in prime time, and four minutes an hour in daytime, as well as asking for yearly fees from stations--so-called reverse compensation.

Overall, Sinclair has 58 television stations in 36 markets, reaching approximately 22 percent of U.S. television households. It has station affiliations with all the major networks.