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WFAA Tegna to give up its helicopter for sharing agreements with KTVT and Fox 4 Dalla

I just caught KPRC-TV, co-owned KHOU, KRIV, and KTMD sharing the same helicopter for post-Harvey aerial pictures the other evening. KTRK has it's own helicopter and KXLN credited KTRK on screen.

I wonder what the sharing arrangements are. Are they company-wide, regional, or local?
 
It's just local. Fox 4 and KTVT have shared a chopper for years. 4 and 5 shared a chopper before that. It's interesting to note that things started to change after the 2007 Phoenix TV disaster. Until 2008, Fox 4 had two helicopters. One was Sky 4 for news. The other was a traffic helicopter operated by Metro, but staffed with a Fox 4 personality. After the Phoenix disaster and Fox 4's traffic helicopter making a hard landing in a field in 2007, it only took about a year and the economic mess of 2008 for Fox 4 to get out of the traffic helicopter deal and put their traffic guy in the studio. It has gotten a lot more expensive to run these helicopters and TV news departments are not exactly awash in cash to afford that anymore. Sharing with one or two other stations seems to be the wave of the future.

I also think you'll start seeing stations use drones for some footage they used to get with a helicopter. Channel 8 already has one and I think at least two of the other stations here are getting them.
 
tested said:
It's just local. Fox 4 and KTVT have shared a chopper for years. 4 and 5 shared a chopper before that. It's interesting to note that things started to change after the 2007 Phoenix TV disaster. Until 2008, Fox 4 had two helicopters. One was Sky 4 for news. The other was a traffic helicopter operated by Metro, but staffed with a Fox 4 personality. After the Phoenix disaster and Fox 4's traffic helicopter making a hard landing in a field in 2007, it only took about a year and the economic mess of 2008 for Fox 4 to get out of the traffic helicopter deal and put their traffic guy in the studio. It has gotten a lot more expensive to run these helicopters and TV news departments are not exactly awash in cash to afford that anymore. Sharing with one or two other stations seems to be the wave of the future.

I also think you'll start seeing stations use drones for some footage they used to get with a helicopter. Channel 8 already has one and I think at least two of the other stations here are getting them.
Click to expand...

and these drones are the future of news as they can get them up there and not risk harming people's lives unless the drones crash into people accidentally. so the days of helicopters with cameras on them for the purpose of covering news are nearing it's end.
 
KHOU just premiered Drone 11 right before Harvey. It got some pictures today of the flooded Addicks and Barker Reservoirs 3 weeks after Harvey (still flooded). I guess Air 11 is so '90s!

Does WFAA have a drone yet? Might be one of the changes company-wide. Looks like another company-wide graphics package tweak might have premiered unexpectedly with Harvey. Can't tell if the music and graphics changes at KHOU are a result of the flooding or the change at an unfortunate time.
 
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