NEWS ANALYSIS : Fox Network’s Historic Raid Rewrites Affiliates Rulebook : Television: The action is also a reaffirmation of faith in the future of broadcasting.

Fox’s historic raid on eight key CBS affiliates this week will profoundly affect the relationship between networks and their affiliates and could trigger a massive realignment of local stations.

Those changes will also confound TV viewers, who are accustomed to stations remaining on the same channel for generations. And sorting out the winners and losers may take years. For instance, although CBS in the near term stands to lose the most stations, it may be third-place NBC in the long run that faces the most serious setback.

The coming realignment--described as the largest affiliate switch in history--was put in motion by a precedent-setting agreement announced this week between Fox Inc. and New World Communications Group. Under the deal, up to 12 New World-owned stations will be converted to Fox affiliates in exchange for Fox investing $500 million in New World.

At a time when the television industry’s focus is largely on cable TV operators and the race to build the information superhighway, the Fox-New World deal is also a bold affirmation of the continuing significance of broadcasting, which many experts have declared to be in decline.

Not coincidentally, Fox and New World have driven executives.

Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of Fox parent News Corp., has pushed ahead with the expansion of the 7-year old Fox network despite skeptics who said it would never work.

Ronald O. Perelman, the Revlon cosmetics mogul who controls New World parent McAndrews Group, has been aggressively working to build a vertically integrated media empire over the last several years. Perelman, who is also close to former Fox Inc. Chairman Barry Diller, recently consolidated his media holdings, which include Marvel Entertainment, TV syndicator Genesis Entertainment, a TV station group and infomercial producer Gunthy-Renker.

By entering into a broad alliance with Fox--the deal also calls for New World and Fox to co-produce programming that will air on both companies’ stations--New World paves the way to enter the network business as well.

New World executives cited as one of the attractions of affiliating with Fox the fact that it would open up many time slots that are now filled by CBS shows. Fox schedules only 15 hours a week of prime-time programming, compared to 22 each for ABC, CBS and NBC. In addition, Fox does not schedule daytime programming such as soap operas and news.

New World wants to use the newly available slots on 12 TV stations it will eventually acquire--it currently owns seven but is purchasing two other station groups--as a “launch pad” for developing syndicated shows.

The New World shows, however, will be targeted to so-called fringe time periods, such as the late afternoon or early evening. While the competition to start a new prime-time network is too risky--both Warner Bros. and Paramount are already in a race to establish a fifth broadcast network--no one has tried to build a fourth network in daytime, a lucrative advertising market.

In this way, New World could become a partner with Fox in building a daytime and fringe programming schedule. Fox, because of its start-up circumstances, has frequently been forced into innovative relationships that the major networks have eschewed.

For example, it forged a relationship with cable TV operators around the country to give it coverage in areas where it did not have an affiliate, and it negotiated favorable channel positions higher up on the dial.

Both of these actions boosted Fox’s ratings, which have been hampered to some extent by the fact that most of its affiliates are UHF outlets.

Additionally, Murdoch took an important step to becoming a “full” network earlier this year when he paid $1.6 billion to acquire the new four-year contract to air National Football League games.

The strength of broadcasting in the United States has rested on the peculiar relationship between the networks and their affiliates. Fox and New World have taken that relationship in a new direction, and the ripple effects are likely to be felt for years.

CBS will be losing affiliates in such key markets as Dallas, Detroit, Cleveland and Atlanta. It will need to find new affiliates to replace the ones it is losing to Fox--perhaps with the undesirable former UHF Fox affiliates.

Despite that unwelcome prospect, however, things could be worse. CBS just came off its third consecutive prime-time season ratings win. Although many analysts doubt that CBS, without professional football and the Olympics, can win again next season, it still might appeal to certain NBC affiliates, who are frustrated with that network’s perennial third-place standing.

Arguably, Fox’s dramatic raid on CBS is, more than anything, a potent reminder that the network-affiliate relationship, long considered the bedrock of broadcasting, is at the mercy of sudden disruptions, like any other part of the business.