Nexstar Pulls the Plug on Evening Newscast

If you want to see the future of local TV news under Nexstar, take a look at what is going down in Buffalo

Nexstar's CBS affiliate WIVB has been producing a 7 p.m. weekday newscast for its sister station, CW affiliate WNLO.

Well, they used to.

Word is the company has officially axed the 7 p.m. show.

So, what is the Mothership putting in its place? If you guessed "more local news," you clearly haven't been paying attention to how this company operates.

According to the Buffalo News, starting Monday, the station is replacing the traditional newscast with "several programs carried on its streaming site."

That’s right. Instead of paying producers, reporters, and a crew to put on a live, local broadcast, the suits are just taking digital filler and slapping it onto the broadcast signal.

While the 7 p.m. newscast was admittedly low-rated, the move to replace a live show with recycled streaming content is right out of the corporate playbook: figure out how to do less with less, and save a few bucks in the process.

You can bet the bean counters in Irving are watching this closely. If they can get away with replacing traditional newscasts with cheap streaming content in Buffalo, expect this "innovative" strategy to roll out to a Nexstar station near you.

Stay tuned…