Gray Television's KFXF-LP (low power) TV station in Fairbanks, Alaska, is dropping its Fox affiliation this Friday (Nov. 3) and will become a MyNetworkTV affiliate.
That comes after it was unable to strike a new agreement with Fox. That still leaves Gray with over a dozen Fox affiliates.
"Notwithstanding significant commitments of time and resources from Gray and its talented local team, we have been unable to turn the station’s finances around," said Gray. "In light of these pressures, renewing the station’s expiring six-year Fox affiliation agreement was not financially feasible."
The station had been airing two hours of Fox primetime and syndicated content otherwise. All the latter content will remain the same.
Gray said the affiliation switch does not affect staffing levels at the stations, or its other Fairbanks TV stations--NBC affiliate KTVF and CBS affiliate KXDF-CA.
"We did not make the decision to transition KFXF-LP from Fox Network lightly. Today, local broadcasters face formidable competition from other local television stations as well as the local cable operators, local radio broadcasters, and countless local and out-of-market digital platform," said Gray in a statement. "Small market television stations in particular can face even more challenging economics than those in large markets."
