Deja vu

I'm visiting the fam in Tampa this weekend, and I notice while watching the local FOX affiliate that the set looks a lot like the set of the FOX station in Chicago.

I'm intrigued at this point so I then check the web sites. The sites for Chicago and Tampa are identical, except for the featured news of course. The sites are also labeled similarly: myfoxtampabay.com, myfoxchicago.com.

I then find out that both stations are owned by News Corp, in addition to 30 others; myfoxmilwaukee, myfoxatlanta. Is this a good thing for local news?

Tampa is so different from Chicago and I believe this branding of FOX affiliates is taking the local flavor away from local stations. I can't even imagine how many corporate mandates they must adhere to; do a story about American Idol, do a story about Bill O'Rielly's new book.

Then again I do admire the marketing. In this country where everyone is transient, this creates loyalty with those that find a station to be similar to the one they are familiar with back home.

What do you think?

JK