After a high-profile ramp-up, NBC Owned Television Stations will launch its new Boston station, WBTS, Jan. 1, the group announced Tuesday.
The station, which will be available over-the-air on channel 8 or 8.2 and on cable and satellite services, will be branded NBC Boston, the company said.
It will air local news, including a 7 p.m. newscast, a daily lifestyle show, and a Sunday morning public affairs program in addition to network programming.
WBTS will have many of the same resources that have been rolled out across the station group including a consumer investigation unit, a chopper and a Doppler-radar equipped mobile weather unit.
Beginning Nov. 10, a “Countdown NBC Boston” channel will be available to over-the-air viewers.
The station’s launch caps off NBC’s longstanding effort to launch its own station in Boston, which involved pulling its affiliation from Sunbeam’s WHDH. After losing its fight against that move, WHDH announced will relaunch as an independent station in January.
(Photo via Rene Schwietzke's Flickr. Image taken on Nov. 1, 2016 and used per Creative Commons 2.0 license. The photo was cropped to fit 3x4 aspect ratio.)
