Owner of WHDH Gives Up Fight to Remain NBC Affiliate: Report

MERRIMACK, NH — The owner of WHDH-TV in Boston, one of the region’s most popular television stations, has dropped his fight to hold onto the station’s NBC affiliation, according to New England 1, a website about the broadcasting industry. The announcement by Ed Ansin of Sunbeam comes after a nearly year-long battle with the network’s parent company, Comcast, which wants to move NBC programming to a smaller station – WNEU-TV, Channel 60, out of Merrimack – which currently airs Telemundo.

Ansin said WHDH will become an independent station in January 2017 and would focus – and increase – its local news coverage, according to the report, including adding a 9 p.m. newscast and expanding the morning news hours to 10 a.m. More news will also be added to the weekend hours, according to the report.

Comcast, according to reports, originally offered to buy WHDH from Sunbeam but Ansin balked at the $200 million pricetag, saying the station was worth double that.

The move of NBC by Comcast will lower potential residential over-the-air viewership in half, according to FCC statistics, although millions more will still have the station on their cable systems.

According to the May ratings book, WHDH was first in the 4:30 p.m. hour and second in most other hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. programming, in the overall households, watchers who are 2-plus years-old and older, and the coveted 25-54 adult categories.

Read the full story on NewEnglandOne.com.