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My Network TV is an upcoming Television Network in the United States , owned by Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation , which is scheduled to launch on Tuesday, September 5 , 2006 . The network intends to secure coverage primarily on the former affiliates of The WB and UPN that '''will not''' be joining the new CW Network , including ten Fox-owned stations — nine currently affiliated with UPN, plus one Independent Station . The network was announced on February 22 . It will be a sister network to the Fox Network . The network will be overseen by Roger Ailes in his capacity as chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group , which will have direct responsibility over the new network (as opposed to the management of the Fox network). ORIGINS My Network TV arose as a result of the announcement of The CW, which will essentially be a merger of The WB and UPN. In a strange twist, Fox owned several UPN affiliates, including the three biggest stations in the network-- WWOR-TV in Secaucus New Jersey (near New York City ), KCOP-TV in Los Angeles and WPWR-TV in Chicago . Most of them had been acquired after Fox bought most of the television holdings of Chris-Craft Industries , cofounder of UPN along with Paramount Pictures (which was acquired by Viacom around the time of UPN's founding). Despite concerns about UPN's future, UPN signed an affiliation deal with its Fox-owned stations. The CW announcement came just a few months after Fox and UPN agreed to a new eight-year affiliation deal for the Fox-owned UPN affiliates, which by this time had grown to nine. None of the Fox-owned stations were included in the new network--in fact, the coveted roles of overall flagship, Central Time Zone flagship and West Coast flagship all went to stations owned by The WB's co-owner, Tribune Company . In response, Fox scrubbed all UPN references from its UPN affiliates' logos and promotions. It also stopped promoting all UPN programming. Speculation abounded that the Fox-owned UPN affiliates would all go Independent , or join with the other WB and UPN affiliates left out of The CW to form another network. Fox chose the latter course, and My Network TV was announced on February 22, almost a month after the announcement of The CW. PLANNED PROGRAMMING Programming will air between 8:00 to 10:00pm (Eastern/Pacific time), every night of the week, except Sunday. Unlike the existing major networks, My Network TV plans to air primarily original programming throughout the year. Initial series will include the Telenovela s '' Desire '' and '' Secret Obsessions '', each airing Monday to Friday with one-hour recaps on Saturdays. Telenovelas will air in continuous cycles of thirteen-week seasons - when one story ends, another, unrelated story should begin the next week. In April 2006, MNTV announced additional telenovelas; contrary to some prior expectations these will have different titles — '' A Dangerous Love '', '' Watch Over Me '' (sic) and '' Art Of Betrayal ''. {Link without Title} Additional unscripted and current affairs programming is already in development. These programs includes the program '' Catwalk '', where three supermodels judge who will be the next cover girl (essentially an ensemble version of '' America's Next Top Model )''; '' On Scene '', a news magazine program produced by Fox News (also headed by Ailes), focusing on crime-related stories; ''America's Brainiest'', an American version of Celador 's '' Britain's Brainiest '' quiz show; and an American version of the ITV series '' Celebrity Love Island '', where six single celebrities and six of their fans attempt to find romance. My Network also indicated at the time of the announcement it was negotiating with FremantleMedia on an "international format". Nevertheless, should these telenovelas become successful and continue to air back-to-back, the nature of the telenovela format may preclude any other series from airing on My Network TV. The network has not indicated any plans for network Children's Programming or indeed any programming outside of primetime. However, many My Network TV affiliates may carry 4Kids TV from the Fox network. AFFILIATION On March 6, 2006, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that 17 of their stations, mostly WB but also a few UPN and independents, would be carrying the My Network TV affiliation in September 2006. This came despite the widespread presumption that the CW affiliation, which at this point was still available in most markets, would be more valuable; however Sinclair implied that My Network provided a better financial option for the company. Some of the markets occupied by the 17 Sinclair stations include Pittsburgh , Tampa , Cincinnati , San Antonio , Birmingham , Raleigh , Nashville and Milwaukee . In those last four markets, Sinclair owns both the current UPN and WB affiliates, which means one of them likely will still become a CW affiliate. {Link without Title} Also, Sinclair owns WB stations with in markets currently with Fox-owned UPN affiliates that will become My Network TV O&Os; those stations could also affiliate with The CW. As of May 1 , 2006 , 121 stations have become affiliates of the new network, reaching 77.5 million households and covering 70.4% of the nation. This figure will increase as more stations are added. One of the stations named on the April 26 announcement of affiliates was KNVA in Austin, Texas. Just a week prior to the announcement, The CW had added KNVA to its list of confirmed affiliates. In addition, on May 1, KWKB in Iowa City, Iowa, another confirmed CW affiliate, signed on to carry My Network TV. Currently the only stations in the country to be aligned with both new networks, these stations pose the question of how they will brand themselves in the months to come. BRANDING On many of the Fox owned and operated stations, local programming is expected to be branded with the ''My'' moniker. For example, on WWOR , New York Yankees games are expected to be branded as "My Yankees". In addition, the local stations will be branded to the new "My" moniker. An example is "My9" and "My9 News" for WWOR. KDFI in Dallas recently starting using the phrase "My 27" on graphics and continuity announcements. On April 17 , WWOR changed its on-air identification to "My 9". On April 28 , Charlotte WB affiliate WWWB changed its call letters to WMYT , in anticipation of its My Network TV affiliation, and changed its logo to one based on the My Network TV logo. It also began branding as ''My TV 12''. WWOR was the first station to brand itself with the "My" moniker as a result of affiliating with My Network TV, and WWWB/WMYT was the first to brand itself specifically with My Network TV - both more than four months before the network is due to launch. The station name changes are going ahead despite one potential hurdle: there is at least one station that already uses the "My TV" moniker. WZMY in Derry, New Hampshire filed a trademark for the "myTV" name in the summer of 2005, and may file a lawsuit against Fox for "My Network TV" {Link without Title} . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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