The (FTS) are a group of Television Station s located throughout the United States which are Owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company . FTS also produces the Fox program '' COPS ''.
Fox Television Stations was formed in April 1986 after the acquisition of the Metromedia -owned independent stations by the 20th Century Fox film studio, at the time jointly owned by Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation , and Denver -based billionaire Marvin Davis . These stations would later become the basis of the Fox television network, which launched in October 1986. Not long after the Metromedia deal was made, Murdoch purchased Davis's shares and News Corporation assumed complete control of 20th Century Fox.
Starting with the original six stations, Fox Television Stations gained the bulk of its group through two large transactions: the 1997 purchase of New World Communications , succeeding a 1993 business deal between the two companies which led to all of New World's stations switching from other networks to Fox during 1994-95; and the 2001 acquisition of the Chris-Craft/United group, which gave Fox ownership of several stations then affiliated with the UPN network, and also created several Duopolies (two stations in the same market owned by the same company).
The Fox-owned UPN affiliates were not included in the , 2006.
Currently, a total of 35 stations, consisting of 25 Fox stations and 10 MyNetworkTV stations.
- ---Indicates original Fox-owned stations from the network's inception in 1986.
- WATL-TV 36 -- A charter Fox affiliate which was bought by the network in 1993. A year later, after New World (then the owners of WAGA-TV) announced its partnership with Fox, WATL was sold to Qwest Broadcasting, which was controlled by musician Quincy Jones . It is currently a My Network TV affiliate owned by the Gannett Company .
- WCVB-TV 5 -- The seventh Metromedia station was included in the original sale of the Metromedia television group to News Corporation in 1986. However, News Corp. spun off the station immediately to the Hearst Corporation , honoring a promise Metromedia made to Hearst in 1982 (after Metromedia sold KMBC-TV in Kansas City to Hearst), giving the latter company a right-of-first-refusal opportunity to purchase WCVB if the station ever again went up for sale.
- KDAF 33 -- One of six original Fox O&Os. After the Fox/New World alliance saw KDFW-TV pick up the Fox affiliation, KDAF was sold to Renaissance Broadcasting and become a WB affiliate. It is currently a CW affiliate owned by Tribune Broadcasting .
- ''' 12 -- A charter Fox affiliate (1986-88), KPTV was a UPN station when Fox bought out Chris-Craft, then was traded to the Meredith Corporation for WOFL Orlando and WOGX Gainesville in 2001. Ironically, KPTV swapped affiliations with new sister station KPDX two years later.
- KTVX 4 -- ABC affiliate owned by Chris-Craft/United. As Fox already owned KSTU, KTVX could not be retained (the Salt Lake City market could not support such a duopoly under current FCC rules, which prohibit one company from owning two of the four largest stations in a single market), so KTVX was packaged along with KMOL-TV to Clear Channel (see below).
- ''' 4 -- NBC affiliate owned by Chris-Craft/United, previously known as KMOL-TV. When Chris-Craft sold its stations to Fox, this station (along with KTVX) was traded to San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications for Minneapolis-St. Paul's WFTC, then a Fox outlet. Clear Channel, which has owned WOAI Radio since 1975, changed this station's calls back to the original WOAI-TV. WFTC would then trade affiliations with KMSP and become a UPN station.
- ''' 44 -- UPN station acquired through the Chris-Craft purchase, previously known as KBHK-TV. With Fox already committed to KTVU as its Bay Area station through a long-term deal, KBHK was traded to Viacom (whose broadcasting properties were spun off as part of CBS Corporation in 2006) for KTXH and WDCA-TV in 2002. It was alleged that Fox tried to buy KTVU, but was repeatedly turned down by Cox Enterprises , who owns the station.
On a side note, in between the events of Fox acquiring its original charter affiliates and the New World affiliation agreement, only WTXF, WFXT, KDVR, WOFL, KSTU and WOGX were already affiliated with Fox when they were acquired much later on.
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