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Almost three weeks after launching "The Ten O'Clock News on MeTV Boston," WCVB Channel 5 has decided to cut the hour-long newscast down to 30 minutes.

The newscast, anchored by Maria Stephanos and Ed Harding, started with a strong disadvantage airing on MeTV Boston - WCVB's digital sub-channel 5.2. The station has varying placement across different cable systems, and is not carried on either Dish Network or DirectTV. The newscast is also at a slight disadvantage airing only in widescreen standard definition - channel 5.2, and the MeTV network, are not offered in high definition.

In the past three weeks, the newscast has averaged a 0.2 rating in adults 25-54 performing just under the stations expectations. In comparison, during the February sweeps rating period, WFXT earned a 1.9; WLVI (WHDH) a 0.9; and WSBK (WBZ) a 0.5. The 10pm newscasts on WFXT, WLVI and WSBK all broadcast on their primary digital channels

“We are committed to making ‘The 10 O’Clock News on MeTV Boston’ the success we know it can be, and we’re fortunate to be able to make immediate assessments and strategic adjustments to ensure that,” said WCVB President and General Manager Bill Fine to New England One.  

“Because the channel positions of the traditional 10PM newscasts are easier to find than the channel positions of our second station MeTV Boston, it is not a level playing field.  So we’ll make an even more robust attempt to identify the channel positions for MeTV, and we will differentiate our 10PM news by providing all of the news of the day in half the time" Fine said.

Even though WCVB is cutting the newscast to 30 minutes, the station is still committed to competing at 10pm and will start to make MeTV's dial position more well known to viewers.

The half-hour version of the 10pm newscasts starts on Saturday March 19.

You can find MeTV Boston on the following channels:

  • Over the air on Channel 5.2
  • Comcast 292/306
  • Verizon 461
  • RCN 29
  • Charter 184
  • Metrocast 295
  • BELD 75 

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