Local TV Stations change Identities with new Online Names.

For local TV Stations, it’s not just about TV — not if they want to grow in the future. But what’s the long-term cost for their brands?

Heeding the advice of some Internet consultants, NBC Universal has decided to revamp its local TV station Web sites, dropping call letters and/or channel numbers, reinventing sites as broader-reaching local media portals.

Instead of KNBC.com or WNBC.com, you’ll have NBCLosAngeles.com and NBCNewYork.com. NBC already was moving in this direction in renaming its local TV group, NBC Local Media.

The good part of this strategy? NBC believes it should have a broader role in attracting and keeping its savvy TV customers, which will include all sorts of media — Internet, print, radio, whatever.

That makes sense. So far, TV stations’ online efforts have been essentially limited as a promotional tool. Customers and business partners — online advertisers — see those Web areas as marketing tool as well, which in the end can be devaluing.

Now the bad: NBC is throwing out some of its long-lived brands, eliminating call letters and channel positions. It will keep around the “NBC” name, however. But what does this mean for WMAQ-TV in Chicago, known as NBC5.com online? Its brand name is basically eliminated online (though it’s still evident in Internet searches.

The problem is that getting bigger as a local media player can produce conflicts, or at least new Internet realities. If an NBC TV station’s online business really wants to cover its market entirely, it will include some stuff from its competitors.

Many Internet news sites regularly have links to other competitors’ stories. (MediaPost, for example, does this all the time). If a CBS affiliate breaks some interesting news, will an NBC Web site offer up a link, and give credit?

NBC believes the name “NBC” and the name of the city are the most important things — which means a well-earned, long-time local brand name in that city is less valuable.

By Wayne Friedman
Courtesy of http://www.mediapost.com