Owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate, which is independently owned and carries network programming by contract.
The concept of an O&O is clearly defined in the United States and Canada, where network-owned stations had historically been the exception rather than the rule. In such places, broadcasting licenses are generally issued on a local basis, and there is some sort of regulatory mechanism in place to prevent any company from owning stations in every market in the country. In other parts of the world many television networks were given national broadcasting licenses at launch; as such, they have traditionally been mostly composed of owned-and-operated stations, rendering a separate notion for such a concept redundant.
Usage of the term in the United States
In the broadcasting industry, the term "owned-and-operated station" refers exclusively to stations that are owned by television and radio networks. The term "affiliate" applies only to stations that are not owned by networks but instead have contractual agreements to air programming from one of the major networks. While there may be an affiliation agreement between a network and an owned-and-operated station, this is not necessarily required and may simply be a legal technicality formalizing the relationship of separate entities under the same parent company. This does not prevent a network from dictating an owned-and-operated station's practices outside the scope of a normal affiliation agreement. For example, network programming is rarely preempted by O&Os except in cases of major breaking news of interest to the O&O's viewing area, despite individual affiliates' rights to do so.The term "station" applies to the ownership of the station. For example, a station that is owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company is referred to as an "ABC station" or an "ABC O&O." A station not owned by ABC but contracted to air the network's programming is correctly referred to as an "ABC affiliate".
However, informally or for promotional purposes, affiliated stations are sometimes referred to as a network station, as in "WFAA is an ABC station" even though that ABC affiliate, in the Dallas–Fort Worth market, is owned by Tegna, Inc. A correct formal phrasing could be, "ABC affiliate WFAA is a Tegna station." Similarly, one may informally refer to "ABC affiliates" in regard to stations that air ABC programming, or to "the ABC affiliation" in regard to the transfer of rights to ABC programming from an affiliate to an O&O.
Some stations that are owned by companies that operate a network but air another network's programming are referred to as an affiliate of the network that they carry. For example, WPSG in Philadelphia is owned by the CBS network's parent company Paramount Global, but has no network affiliation and airs syndicated programming; it is an independent station. Prior to September 2023, WPSG aired programming from The CW, which was owned by CBS at the time; therefore, WPSG was a CW O&O prior to October 2022.
The stations carrying The WB Television Network were another exception. The controlling shares in the network were held by Time Warner through its Warner Bros. division, with minority interests from the Tribune Company and, for a portion of the network's existence, the now-defunct ACME Communications. While Tribune-owned stations such as WGN-TV in Chicago, WPIX in New York City and KTLA in Los Angeles aired programming from The WB, they did not fit the standard definition of an owned-and-operated station. A similar exception existed when UPN was launched in January 1995 by co-owners Chris-Craft and Viacom. Each of the companies owned a number of stations that aired the network. However, the stations were also not considered O&Os under the initial standard definition. This ambiguity ended with Viacom's buyout of Chris-Craft's share of the network in 2000, which came not long after its merger with the previous CBS Corporation. The stations were referred to informally as "UPN O&Os".
Following the shutdowns of UPN and The WB, CBS Corporation and Time Warner became co-owners of The CW Television Network, which largely merged the programming from both networks onto the scheduling model used by The WB. The network launched in September 2006 on 11 UPN stations owned by CBS Corporation, and 15 WB affiliates owned by Tribune. Certain UPN and WB affiliates in markets where Tribune and CBS both owned stations carrying those networks either picked up a MyNetworkTV affiliation or became independent stations. The standard definition of an O&O again does not apply to The CW, but the CBS-owned stations that carry the network were referred to as "CW O&Os". After Nexstar Media Group brought a 75% interest in The CW, all of the Nexstar-owned CW affiliates became O&Os.
Some O&Os choose to refer to themselves as "network-owned stations" instead, reflecting the fact that while they may be owned by a national network, much of the operation is usually left to the discretion of the local station.
Distribution
Asia Pacific
Australia
In Australia, Seven West Media, which owns the Seven Network, Nine Entertainment, which owns the Nine Network and Paramount Skydance, which owns Network 10 each own and operate stations in the five largest metropolitan areas. These television markets together account for two-thirds of the country's population. In addition, Seven also owns and operates its STQ station in regional Queensland, its CBN station in regional New South Wales and in the ACT, its AMV station in regional Victoria, its PTV station in Mildura and various stations related to the former GWN7 network in Western Australia and Nine owns and operates its NTD station in Darwin. Nine also owns and operates its NBN station, based in Newcastle.The two national public broadcasters, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Special Broadcasting Service, own and operate all of their local stations.
Indonesia
In Indonesia, although public networks own and operate all of their local stations since their early years, the trend of private networks own and operating more than one station only arose in the 2000s, as the restriction on private radio station's broadcast area was lifted and new regulations concerning network broadcasting system was in effect. The situation is similar to that of the neighbouring Philippines, since most of them are transmitter stations with few regional programming. Also, the terms "network", "station", and "channel" are used interchangeably, and the flagship station could be watched on pay TV.Most of the local private stations that are member of national networks are owned and operated by the same company as their parent network, though they were established as different companies. The stations typically has on-air name format , reflecting their respective network and their broadcast coverage. There is only a single counterexample to this rule: airing in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, is an affiliate of but only 25% shares are owned by Kompas TV.
Due to regulations in the 2002 Act on Broadcasting, currently owned-and-operated radio stations tend to air mostly local programming, while owned-and-operated television stations are allowed to air mostly network's national programming.
Japan
In Japan, commercial terrestrial television is focused on five organizations, known alternatively by either the name of their flagship Tokyo station or a network name.The four largest of these – Nippon TV, Tokyo Broadcasting System, Fuji TV, and TV Asahi, two of four of them owned by major newspapers and Tokyo Broadcasting System being highly affiliated with The Mainichi Newspapers Co. despite the Mainichi's lack of ownership – each own and operate stations in the Tokyo, Keihanshin, Chukyo and Fukuoka metropolitan areas. These four television markets together account for more than half of the country's population. In addition, these four networks also own and operate some stations in other television markets. Most of the Japanese television stations outside the four flagship media markets have affiliates with one of those networks, therefore, they are not owned-and-operated stations. However, in the strict North American definition of "owned by the network", nearly all of those network affiliates would have been classified as owned-and-operated stations, since the networks has controlling shares in those stations. The smaller TV Tokyo clearly owns and operates all of its local stations.
The public broadcaster NHK operates two terrestrial channels, NHK General TV and NHK Educational TV. Both of these channels have some regional stations, all of which are owned and operated by NHK.
Philippines
In the Philippines, networks such as the former ABS-CBN, GMA Network, and TV5 own and operate almost all their local television stations, although a few affiliates also exist. As regional stations simulcast/relay almost the entire programming lineup of their parent network's flagship station, the terms "network", "station" and "channel" can in practice be used interchangeably to refer to either one. Even when a network's local station features programmes that deviate from the flagship station, viewers there may be able to see the flagship station through pay-TV operators.In addition, networks are often informally referred to using their flagship stations' terrestrial channel numbers. For example, ABS-CBN is referred to as "Channel 2" or "Dos", which corresponds to the assigned channel number of its Manila O&O DWWX-TV. This is applicable even if a viewer receives the network on a different channel number.