Overnight News Gets a Reawakening : Television: Pressure from their affiliates prods the networks into re-entering the late-night market; ABC’s ‘World News Now’ begins tonight.

There’s more to ABC’s move to re-enter the overnight news business tonight--about two months behind NBC and another two ahead of CBS--than a simple desire to cover news.

In fact, the decisions by all three networks to start overnight news programs were a direct result of pressure from local affiliates, many of whom had begun to defect during the wee hours to alternative news services such as CNN and the All News Channel, according to industry executives.

And the networks’ capitulation--they’re spending millions of dollars per year on late-night news programming that may not prove to be profitable--is symbolic of the changing nature of the relationships between ABC, CBS and NBC and their increasingly demanding and independent local affiliates.

“There’s a fascinating evolution that’s taking place right now,” said Brian Hocker, programming director at NBC affiliate KXAS in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Tex. “Networks established a terrific identity for affiliate stations in a market, but now our audience is being eaten away by so many competitors. Stations are all reacting differently but the fact is that there’s no longer one primary programming source out there.”

Richard Wald, senior vice president of ABC News, said that a major ingredient in the network’s decision to start its new service, “World News Now,” was pressure from the affiliates--even during dire economic times.

“Of all the times to start a new television news program, this is about the worst,” Wald said. “We’re going to lose money.”

But, Wald said, ABC affiliates want news at night. In fact, some industry insiders estimate that as many as 25% want it so badly that they have been willing to look elsewhere to find it.

“More than most things, it is affiliate-driven,” Wald said. “It is in response to a clear affiliate request.”

According to Don Lundy, program director for KGTV in San Diego, an ABC affiliate, local stations, which have traditionally distinguished themselves through their news coverage, began to want a round-the-clock presence during the Persian Gulf War.

And the networks, which had been scaling back their news operations in the wake of falling profits, didn’t always provide it.

“During the Gulf War, we went to a 24-hour news day, and we did it by picking up the All News Channel (independent news service),” Lundy said. “We were one of the people at the head of the line encouraging ABC to get into the overnight news business.”

ABC’s “World News Now” will operate from 2 to 9 a.m. EST, so viewers on the West Coast will have service until 6 a.m., Wald said. In Los Angeles, the program will air on KABC Channel 7 from 3 to 5:30 a.m.

At first, Wald said, “World News Now” will not produce its own stories. Instead, producers will rely on affiliates and correspondents from “World News Tonight” to provide pieces. Late-breaking stories will be read by anchors Lisa McCree and Aaron Brown. Already, Wald said, 80% of ABC’s 223 affiliates have agreed to air at least two hours of the program each weeknight.

CBS, which plans to go on the air with its as-yet untitled newscast the first week in March, hopes to win back the nearly 50% of its 272 affiliated stations that refuse to carry its current overnight offering, the interview program “Nightwatch,” said Joe Peyronnin, the network’s vice president for news.

The networks are keeping their plans for expenditures on the three services fairly quiet. A source at CBS said that the overnight broadcast there would probably cost less than half of the $6.5 million spent on “Nightwatch.” The Wall Street Journal reported that ABC would spend $5 million in start-up costs and $5 million annually on “World News Now,” and a source at NBC has estimated that the budget for “NBC Nightside” will run about $3 million annually.

At NBC, where “NBC Nightside” has been operating since November, straying stations have made good on their promises to return to the fold, according to Bob Horner, president of the NBC News Channel, which operates the overnight service.

“I think we developed a new audience for our program, and it may be that we took some viewers from cable,” said Horner. He said that “NBC Nightside” has been averaging a 0.8 rating overnight. That figure would be considered abysmal during the day, Horner said, but it’s not bad for the middle of the night. The show beat CBS’ “Nightwatch,” which averaged a 0.4 rating in November, and CNN’s rating of 0.2.

Still, Horner said, ratings and sales of commercials aren’t really the point.

“There’s not a lot of money to be made on a national level overnight--you would never go into this looking to make a profit overnight,” he said. “I don’t think the show makes any sense in that perspective at all. It only makes sense as something that helps stations improve their local image.”

KXAS’ Hocker said the program lured his station back.

“Had they not done it, we would have gone with ‘All News Channel,’ ” Hocker said. “We had already contracted with them” and had begun airing a portion of the channel’s broadcast.

That local stations would even consider jumping the network ship for outside news programming is a sign of the changing relationships between them and the Big Three, who pay affiliates to run their programs, Hocker said.

Part of the change is market-driven--there’s a lot more programming out there now than there was 20 years ago--and part of it is caused by changes in the audience.

“A lot more stations are operating around the clock,” said Jeff Gibson, program director for KLBK, the CBS affiliate in Lubbock, Tex. “Lifestyles have changed.”

People want news, Gibson said, and other reality-based programs. And if the networks don’t provide them, somebody else will.

And it’s not just news that stations are finding in other places.

KXAS delays “Late Night With David Letterman” for half an hour in favor of “The Love Connection.” ABC affiliate WFAA in Dallas delays “Nightline” and airs “Entertainment Tonight.” In Boston, NBC-affiliate WBZ-TV has preempted “The Torkelsons” and replaced it with the syndicated, “New WKRP in Cincinnati.”

“Daytime is where you get your best story in terms of contentiousness between affiliates and networks,” said Hocker, who airs NBC’s “Santa Barbara” soap opera at 9 a.m. so as “not to ruin my afternoon audience.” KGTV in San Diego preempts ABC’s soap opera, “Loving” for the local program, “Inside San Diego.”

But the networks say their new nighttime news programs will begin to change all that.

“We have to be a stronger ally to our affiliates,” said CBS’ Peyronnin. “If we don’t, you can imagine the result.”