Affiliation agreement with Fox, acquisition by News Corporation, and transfer to Disney
The biggest deal involving New World Communications would aid in changing the face of American broadcasting. In the wake of Fox's landmark $1.58-billion deal with the National Football League (NFL) on December 17, 1993, which awarded it the television rights to the National Football Conference (NFC) beginning with the league's 1994 season,[32][33] the network began seeking agreements with various station groups such as SF Broadcasting to affiliate with VHF stations that had established histories as affiliates of the Big Three (ABC, CBS and NBC) and therefore had higher value with advertisers (compared to its predominately UHF affiliate body, the vast majority of which were independent stations before joining the network), in an effort to bolster the network's newly acquired package of NFL game telecasts.[34]
Shortly after the Citicasters acquisition announcement, on May 23, 1994, New World Communications and Fox reached a multi-year affiliation agreement in which New World would switch most of its television stations to the network beginning that fall. The deal would include most of the stations that New World was acquiring from Argyle and Citicasters, with all of the affected stations joining Fox after existing affiliation contracts with their then-current network partners concluded. In exchange, Fox parent News Corporation agreed to purchase a 20% interest in New World for $500 million.[1][35][36][37] New World was approached by Fox in part due to the group's expanding presence in several primary and secondary markets of NFC teams. New World, meanwhile, was concerned about the effect that the network's loss of NFC rights to Fox would have on both CBS, which was near the bottom of the network ratings at the time, and on the group's CBS-affiliated stations.
The stations that became Fox affiliates had to acquire or produce additional programming to fill their broadcast days, as Fox programmed significantly fewer hours of network content (prime time programming for two hours on Monday through Saturdays and three hours on Sundays, the Monday through Saturday children's block Fox Kids, and an hour of late night programming on Saturdays) than its three established major network competitors; on top of that, most of the New World stations (with KTVI later becoming the lone exception) declined to carry the Fox Kids block. The time vacated by news programs, daytime shows and children's programs from each station's former network was filled by additional syndicated programming, particularly local newscasts. The deal as a whole (as well as a second affiliation agreement that was struck one month after the New World deal through the purchase of four stations by a joint venture with Savoy Pictures) caused a domino effect that resulted in various individual and group affiliation deals involving all four networks (primarily CBS, Fox, and ABC) affecting television stations in more than 70 media markets; in most of those areas, New World did not own a station.
Three New World stations were excluded from the Fox affiliation deal. In Boston, where New World owned WSBK-TV, Fox was already affiliated with WFXT (channel 25). WVTM was exempted in Birmingham, as, in the summer of 1995, New World sold WBRC and WGHP to Fox Television Stations, with WBRC switching to Fox after its affiliation contract with ABC expired on August 31, 1996. KNSD (also a UHF station) also did not switch as Fox was already affiliated with a VHF station in the San Diego market, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico-based XETV-TV (channel 6). KNSD and WVTM retained their NBC affiliations, although in 1995, its contract was renewed for 10 years.[38] New World planned to sell all 3 stations as well, to comply with the FCC's 12-station ownership limit.[39] In November 1994, New World sold WSBK-TV to the Paramount Stations Group subsidiary of Viacom for $100 million.[40]
Later that year, Brandon Tartikoff, who helped NBC out of its ratings doldrums in the 1980s in his former role as President of Entertainment at NBC, joined New World Communications in an executive position; concurrently, New World acquired Tartikoff's production company Moving Target Productions.[41][42] New World also acquired the remaining interest in Genesis Entertainment, which expanded upon New World's production assets into television distribution (Genesis has subsequently renamed New World-Genesis Distribution following the closure of the purchase). After New World took over Moving Target Productions, the production company was renamed to MT2 Services.[43] In 1995, Stone Stanley Productions was signed an exclusive agreement with New World Entertainment.[44] 1995 also saw the acquisitions of Cannell Entertainment[45][46] and entertainment magazine Premiere.
In May 1996, New World sold WVTM and KNSD to NBC Television Stations for $425 million.[47][48] On July 17, 1996, Fox parent News Corporation announced it would acquire the remainder of New World Communications for $2.48 billion in stock.[49][50][51][52][53][54] When the merger with News Corporation was finalized on January 22, 1997, New World's television production and distribution arms folded into 20th Century Fox Television
As part of the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by The Walt Disney Company, the New World library was transferred to TFCF America, Inc., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, effective March 20, 2019,[55] while the New World holding companies remained with Fox Corporation.[56]
