If You Love KTVU Staple '10 o'Clock News', Better Watch as Changes Coming in 2021; Fox Plans Massive De-Emphasis; Less Co$tly Presentation

Top left clockwise: Bill Martin, Frank Somerville, Julie Haener, Mark Ibanez

The 10 o'clock News --KTVU's storied franchise and an industry-respected and admired station staple--is well on its way to being something you'll never see again, something you'll hardly recognize if Fox has its way, I'VE LEARNED.

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I would remind you all I'm saddened by this even if it's not a reality until the end of the year--I've always admired the 10 PM KTVU signature news platform.

Fox-owned KTVU simply is ready to go all out on high-priced news talent, from anchors to reporters, whatever and that includes KTVU, its most-profitable O and O, its Bay Area prized station.

While KTVU still makes globs of money, both for itself and its owner, Fox wants a much more leaner operation that is at least a quarter less, perhaps half as costly as it is now and salary compensation is at the top of its hit list and the entirety of the 10 o'clock News budget

 All four anchors at 10 make at least $300K a-year, including Frank Somerville, news anchor and veteran at the top who makes $615K--Somerville's contract is up in March, 2021. So too, sports anchor/director Mark Ibanez' deal goes to March of next year; Ibanez earns $330K and would like one more contract extension, sources tell me. Both Julie Haener and weather anchor Bill Martin are close to contract-ending status and all but gone from KTVU's/Fox landscape, I've discovered.

Fox, internally, has already begun discussions within its management alignment on O and O (owned and operated) stations, KTVU right now, as to what a leaner, less frills news operation would look like. It would involve more network-kind news gathering and visual display. Fox already has popular play of its primetime TV show schedule highlighted in KTVU and other O and O stations. If you watch the 10 PM news (and other KTVU news programs) you see for yourself the number of shows that are highlighted --it's nothing new, but it most certainly stands out on a Fox-owned outlet like KTVU.

If you like the consistency of a 10 PM News show like KTVU has run for several decades then you should watch KTVU now because very soon before you know it, you'll see a vastly different program in the coming year and an eventual entirely differently-looking program too. That much is certain.