Miami receives television signals from channels in Key West to those in West Palm Beach.
Located in South Florida, the city of Miami is both a popular tourist destination and a major television market. As of October 2010, the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale metropolitan area ranked 16 out of the 100 major markets in the U.S. and ranked third out of the 25 top Hispanic markets, according to the Station Index Broadcasting website. The Greater Miami area is home to 21 television stations, 16 of which have full-power digital signals.
WPBT
Started in November 1953, WPBT first went on air on August 12, 1955. The Community Television Foundation of South Florida owns and operates channel 2, the city's Public Broadcasting Station affiliate. Channel 2 became one of the first public television stations in Florida to broadcast with color capability in 1971 and began broadcasting digitally in July 2001. The station produces nationally broadcast shows including "Stargazer" and "The Nightly Business Report," a news show viewed by over one million viewers across the U.S. per night, according to the WPT2 website.
WSVN-TV
WSVN-TV is Miami's FOX affiliate station owned and operated by Sunbeam Television. The station broadcasts digitally on channel 7 and was originally an NBC affiliate until 1988, when it became a FOX affiliate. WSVN produces local news programming as well as lifestyle programming specific to the South Florida area including: "Bite with Belkys," "Style File" and "Money Monday."
WFOR-TV and WBFS
WFOR-TV, originally known as WCIX, first signed onto the air as an independent station primarily showing reruns and sitcoms in 1967. The station moved to its facility in Doral (a suburb of Miami) in 1985, and CBS Television purchased it in 1988, making it the local CBS affiliate. On September 10, 1995, WCIX became WFOR, moving from channel 6 to channel 4. This station currently broadcasts in high definition, which started on May 1, 2001.
CBS, through a merger with Viacom in 2000, ended up as the owner of the station WBFS, then-known as UPN 33 and began producing the station's 10 p.m. newscast through CBS4. In 2006, CBS and Viacom again separated, though CBS still owned channel 33. In 2006, after the merger of UPN and the WB into the CW network, UPN 33 joined the MyTV network instead of joining the CW. Now known as My33, channel 33 (WBFS) and channel 4 (WFOR) are both owned by CBS as of October 2010 and broadcast digitally.
WPLG
WPLG is Miami and Fort Lauderdale's local ABC affiliate, owned and operated by Post-Newsweek Stations, a division of The Washington Post Company. The station broadcasts digitally on channel 10 and provides local sports, news, weather and lifestyle programming for the South Florida area. During its history, WPLG has been affiliated with ABC and was not part of the South Florida station lineup change in 1988 involving NBC, CBS and FOX.
WTVJ and WSCV-TV
WTVJ, also called NBC 6, was Florida's first television station, covering South Florida news for more than 60 years, starting in 1949. As Miami's NBC affiliate, channel 6 broadcasts digitally. Owned and operated by NBC Universal, Inc., WTVJ produces programming specific to Miami and the South Florida area, including "Today in South Florida," "South Florida Today," "South Florida Nightly News" and "South Florida Tonight."
The studio and offices for WTVJ are shared by WSCV-TV, a Spanish-language channel. WSCV-TV or Channel 51, a Telemundo affiliate, is also owned by NBC Universal. Channel 51 broadcasts all of its programming digitally and entirely in Spanish.
