| Date | Event |
| 1 | Al Jazeera launches Bein Sport One and Bein Sport Dos, two new sports channels dedicated to soccer, the former in English and the latter in Spanish. |
| 1 | The expiration of a carriage agreement for NFL Network and NFL RedZone results in the two channels being removed from Insight Communications systems in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, due to a long-running impasse between the National Football League and Insight parent company Time Warner Cable that has prevented a carriage agreement for the channels on TWC's existing systems and the prior removal of NFL Network from Adelphia systems acquired by TWC in 2006. |
| 1 | Subscription streaming television service FilmOn and the four major U.S. broadcast networks reach a settlement in a 2010 lawsuit over the company's streaming of the networks' programming on the website. Each of the parties involved in the suit stipulated to a consent judgment and permanent injunction in the settlement, and FilmOn will pay $1.6 million each to the plaintiffs. The settlement bars FilmOn from streaming broadcast network programming. |
| 2 | American Spirit Media announces that it will acquire Fox affiliate WDBD/Jackson, Mississippi and that it has donated MyNetworkTV affiliate WUFX/Vicksburg-Jackson, Mississippi to Tougaloo College, to be operated by American Spirit Media through shared services and joint sales agreements with Raycom Media. The transactions, pending FCC approval, will take place at the end of the year. |
| 4 | The Buffalo-based syndicated movie series Off Beat Cinema airs its first episode on new flagship station WBBZ-TV, after 19 years airing from WKBW-TV. As part of the change, the series begins taping before a live studio audience. |
| 6 | Jason Vincent resigns as news director of Fox affiliate KQDS/Duluth amid controversy following a racially offensive comment that he had posted August 1 on Facebook, regarding a Native American man that he had discovered in his yard that evening, whom Vincent referred to in the post as a "drunk, homeless... animal". |
| 7 | Two stations in Milwaukee, both owned by Weigel Broadcasting, switch channel assignments. Independent station WMLW-CA moves to full-power UHF channel 49 to facilitate the station's upgrade to high definition broadcasts with a market-wide signal, while WBME-TV moves to the low-power channel 41 assignment of WMLW-CA, with an added relay on the DT2 subchannel of CBS-affiliated sister station WDJT-TV, due to WBME's main MeTV schedule broadcasting solely in standard definition and universal cable and near-full satellite carriage for both stations in the Milwaukee market negating the need for a full-power signal for WBME. An official switch of call signs between the two stations occurred eleven days later. |
| 8 | Liberty Media announces plans to spin off its Liberty Starz subsidiary into its own publicly traded company. The spinoff is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. |
| 9 | CNN suspends Fareed Zakaria and his program Fareed Zakaria GPS after it was revealed that Zakaria had plagiarized an article featured in the August 20 issue of Time on gun control from an article that was originally written by columnist Jill Lepore for the April 23 issue of The New Yorker. Zakaria, who has since apologized for his actions, was also suspended from Time for one month. |
| 9 | FilmOn founder Alki David launches a new streaming service using the domain Barrydriller.com that is similar to Aereo. The site streams network-affiliated stations via individual antennas and intends to pay retransmission fees to carry their programming. Fox filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the site in a Los Angeles U.S. District Court on August 10, alleging that it is retransmitting broadcast network and syndicated programs owned by Fox without the company's permission. NBC, CBS and ABC followed with a joint copyright lawsuit on August 13. |
| 12 | Fond du Lac, Wisconsin television station WWAZ-TV, a station owned by Pappas Telecasting Companies which has had a tenuous history of staying on the air since 2000 as a station unable to find a niche or popular network affiliation in either the Green Bay or Milwaukee markets, along with their parent company's financial struggles, returns to the air as WIWN, carrying programming as an affiliate of WeatherNation from a new tower in the Milwaukee tower site, with translator towers in the west part of their service area serving Columbus and Ripon. |
| 13 | MundoFox, which had an August 1 soft launch, makes its formal debut. The Spanish-language broadcast network is a partnership between Fox International Channels and Colombia's RCN TV. |
| 13 | Stainless Broadcasting Company pulls its six stations from DirecTV. The two companies had previously agreed on a specific carriage fee increase, though the deal fell apart due to a clause added by DirecTV requiring Stainless/Northwest Broadcasting to give a low rate equal to those the company previously signed with other satellite and cable providers. The dispute lasted nine weeks, ending on October 26. |
| 13 | VH1 pulls the launch of the reality series Ev and Ocho indefinitely following the August 11 arrest of its star, NFL player Chad Johnson, on domestic battery charges on accusations that Johnson allegedly head-butted wife Evelyn Lozada during an argument. |
| 13 | The producers of The Good Wife has announced that Kristin Chenoweth, who was scheduled to play a reporter in a multiple storyline arc, will not be returning due to an accident on the set in which a gust of wind caused her to be struck by a piece of lighting equipment during the show's filming on July 11, resulting in the producers to alter her appearance to one episode. Chenoweth, who later treated for her injuries and released, said she needs time to recover before returning to work. However, Chenoweth later returned to the set on August 31. |
| 15 | Avoiding a 12:01 a.m. August 16 deadline, Dish Network reaches a retransmission agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group, covering 70 Sinclair-owned or -operated stations in 45 markets. |
| 15 | The Pac-12 Conference launches the national sports channel Pac-12 Network as well as six regional sports networks. It is the first channel of its kind owned and operated entirely by a college conference, without the backing of a media conglomerate. |
| 16 | Cablevision signs an agreement with the National Football League to allow NFL Network and NFL Redzone to be carried on that company's systems for the first time. The channels will be available on Cablevision systems starting on August 17. The agreement leaves Time Warner Cable as the only major pay television provider that does not carry either network. |
| 17 | Hours after the NFL Network deal was announced, Cablevision pulls four television stations owned by Tribune Broadcasting from its systems in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Colorado. Cablevision accuses the broadcast group of demanding high retransmission consent fees for its stations due to its parent Tribune Company working to get out of bankruptcy and illegally bundling carriage agreements for WCCT's Fox-affiliated sister WTIC-TV to WPIX. WGN America across Cablevision's service area and WTIC-TV in its Connecticut service area were originally unaffected by the dispute, though both were also pulled by Cablevision on August 25. The dispute lasted 10 weeks, ending on October 26, when the affected channels returned to Cablevision systems. |
| 17 | NBCUniversal imposes budget cutbacks for The Tonight Show, leading to the layoffs of about two dozen staff members, the program's weekly budget being reduced by 25% to $1.7 million, and host Jay Leno's annual salary from being cut from $25–$30 million to around $20 million. |
| 20 | New York City-based hedge fund Standard General files an application with the Federal Communications Commission to approve an increase of its ownership stake in the 11-station Young Broadcasting group from 36.34% to a majority stake of 50.03%. |
| 21 | ABC announces changes to its late night lineup that will take effect in January 2013: the network's long-running newsmagazine Nightline will leave the 11:35 p.m. timeslot that the program has held since it debuted in March 1980, while talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! will move up 25 minutes to the 11:35 slot. |
| 22 | Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington files a petition to the Federal Communications Commission asking them to deny the pending license renewals of three stations owned by Fox Television Stations citing the phone hacking scandal involving British newspapers owned by FTS parent News Corporation. |
| 23 | Nexstar Broadcasting Group announces the sale of Fox affiliate KBTV-TV/Beaumont to Deerfield Media. Sinclair Broadcast Group will operate KBTV under a shared services agreement, identical to pending operational agreements between Sinclair and Deerfield in Mobile, Cincinnati and San Antonio. |
| 24 | NBC affiliate KSL-TV/Salt Lake City announced that it will not carry the sitcom The New Normal because of its premise involving a gay couple trying to have a family, which the station's parent company Bonneville International sees as being too controversial, offensive, and not reflecting the station's conservative program policies, with the GM stating that "For our brand, this program feels inappropriate on several dimensions, especially during family viewing time", the latter referring to the Tuesday night 8:30PM slot and its decision in 2011 to not carry The Playboy Club. As with some NBC programs that KSL refuses to air, the series will be seen on CW affiliate KUCW instead. |
| 25 | Saban Brands, via Kidsco Media Ventures, began programming The CW's children's programming block, Toonzai, which was relaunched under the name Vortexx. Programming aired on the block includes Yu-Gi-Oh! and Power Rangers. The former Toonzai block ended its four-year run on The CW on August 18. |
| 28 | ESPN renews its broadcast rights to Major League Baseball Spring training and Sunday, Monday and Wednesday evening regular season games for eight years through 2021. The $5.6 billion deal is nearly double the $2.8 billion that ESPN paid under the previous contract and includes added rights to show games joined in progress, a 13% increase in the number of live games shown and the virtual elimination of home market blackouts for Monday and Wednesday games. Though rights to a single Wild Card game each season are included, all other playoff games are exempt from the deal. |
| 31 | ABC affiliate WKDH/Houston, Mississippi ceases operations after 11 years. The ABC affiliation for the Tupelo-Columbus market moved to the second digital subchannel of WTVA on September 1, bumping MeTV programming seen on that channel to sister station WLOV-TV's second digital subchannel. |
| 31 | Ohio News Network, a Columbus-based regional cable news channel owned by Dispatch Broadcast Group, ceases operations after 15 years. |
| Date | Event |
| 1 | Dish Network pulls Dispatch Broadcast Group's two television stations, NBC affiliate WTHR/Indianapolis and CBS affiliate WBNS-TV/Columbus, due to a retransmission consent dispute with the satellite provider. The dispute ended on October 5, when Dispatch and Dish struck a new carriage agreement. |
| 1 | At the same time, Dish Network reaches a short-term carriage agreement with Big Ten Network to keep the cable channel devoted to sports events from the Big Ten Conference on the satellite provider until a longer-term contract is agreed upon. |
| 2 | One year after being shortened from 21½ to six hours, the MDA Labor Day Telethon is revamped again, paring down to three pre-recorded primetime hours and retitled MDA Show of Strength in an effort to move away from its 46-year heritage as a long-form telethon. |
| 3 | Gray Television launches two low-power network affiliates in Parkersburg, West Virginia : WIYE-LD debuts as the area's CBS affiliate, while WOVA-LD assumes the Fox affiliation from the second digital subchannel of NBC-affiliated sister station WTAP-TV. WIYE-LD replaces WBNS/Columbus as the default CBS affiliate on cable and satellite providers within the market. |
| 4 | Journal Communications purchases CBS affiliate WTVF/Nashville from Landmark Media Enterprises for $215 million. Once the sale of the station is completed, it will leave fellow CBS station KLAS-TV/Las Vegas as the only remaining television station in Landmark's portfolio. |
| 4 | Live! with Kelly becomes Live! with Kelly and Michael, as former New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan is formally introduced as Kelly Ripa's new co-host. Strahan will continue his duties as analyst for the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show, which originates from Los Angeles. |
| 4 | E! names former 106 & Park co-host Terrence Jenkins to replace Ryan Seacrest as co-host of the network's flagship entertainment news program E! News. Seacrest's departure from his co-hosting duties on E! News is part of the terms of a two-year agreement that he signed with E! parent NBCUniversal in April that will have him become a contributor for NBC, though Seacrest will move to a contributor role on the program, while retaining his position as the show's managing editor and serving as co-host of the network's Live From the Red Carpet specials. |
| 4 | Epix strikes a distribution agreement with Amazon that will provide the website's Amazon Video service with film content from the parent companies of the fledgling premium cable channel: Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate. Films will appear on Amazon Video on a 90-day delay after their pay cable premiere on Epix. |
| 4 | Red Zone Capital Management, an investment firm owned by Daniel Snyder, agrees to sell TV production firm Dick Clark Productions to a partnership headed by Guggenheim Partners, Mandalay Entertainment and Mosaic Media Investment Partners. |
| 5 | CBS Corporation signs a retransmission consent agreement with Cablevision, allowing continued carriage of three CBS-owned television stations in the cable provider's New York, New Jersey and Colorado service areas, as well as Showtime, Smithsonian Channel and CBS Sports Network. |
| 5 | The transmitter tower of PBS member station KSMQ-TV/Austin, Minnesota collapses due to straight-line thunderstorm winds that moved through the area during the early morning hours, knocking the station off the air for several hours. The station set up alternate transmitter facilities that evening utilizing a microwave dish installed atop the station's studios that was manually directed towards a backup tower near Grand Meadow. The station later set up a fund to help cover insurance deductible costs, though insurance is expected to cover the costs for the construction of a new transmitter. |
| 6 | Google Fiber enters into a carriage agreement with the National Football League to carry the NFL Network and NFL RedZone upon the September 10 launch of the service in the Kansas City metropolitan area. |
| 6 | Optimum rebrands for the first time in ten years with a new logo. |
| 7 | ESPN renews its agreement to broadcast college football, basketball and baseball games from the Big 12 Conference through the 2024–25 athletics season. The deal, which encompasses ESPN's cable channels and ABC, is reported to be worth an estimated $1.3 billion and increases the number of televised regular season games starting with the 2016 season. |
| 7 | News-Press & Gazette Company enters into an agreement to purchase ABC affiliate KEYT-TV/Santa Barbara from Smith Media. The sale price for the station is $14.3 million. |
| 7 | The Dora the Explorer episode "School Science Fair", premieres on Nickelodeon. |
| 8 | Deadly Affairs, a documentary television series, premieres on Investigation Discovery and is hosted by All My Children actress Susan Lucci. |
| 10 | Nexstar Broadcasting Group renews affiliation contracts for nine of its 11 CBS-affiliated stations for six years. The agreement, which runs through 2018, exempts WTAJ-TV/Altoona and Nexstar-operated WYOU/Scranton due to separate existing affiliation agreements. |
| 10 | Disney-ABC's talk show Katie, hosted by Katie Couric, premieres at the 3:00 PM Eastern timeslot on most ABC stations, while ABC's soap opera General Hospital moves to the 2:00 PM Eastern timeslot. |
| 10 | ABC affiliate KSFY-TV/Sioux Falls, South Dakota will begin carrying CW network programming via a new second digital subchannel. |
| 10 | ACME Communications announces it will sell its last remaining stations — the Albuquerque duopoly of CW affiliate KWBQ, its Roswell satellite KRWB, and MyNetworkTV affiliate KASY-TV; the buyer is Tamer Media, who will purchase the stations in a $17.3 million all-cash transaction in its first TV station acquisition. The stations will continue to be operated by LIN Media stations KASA-TV and KRQE via shared services agreements. |
| 10 | Professional wrestling commentator Jerry Lawler collapses and is sent to a Montreal hospital during a live broadcast of WWE Monday Night Raw. Lawler's partner, Michael Cole, announces the incident "is not part of entertainment" and there is no further commentary during the matches for the first time in the show's 19-year history. |
| 11 | Today causes controversy after the NBC morning program continues on with an interview with Keeping Up with the Kardashians co-star Kris Jenner instead of airing the remembrance ceremonies for the September 11 attacks, when a moment of silence was conducted at 8:46 a.m. ET in memory of those who died in the attacks. Though Today did not broadcast the tribute on NBC's national feed, WNBC/New York City interrupted the program to broadcast locally produced special coverage of the ceremonies. Though the network will not issue a public apology, NBC News president Steve Capus sent a memo on September 12 to managers at all of NBC's affiliates apologizing for criticism the stations have faced. |
| 12 | Actress/singer Jennifer Lopez acquires a minority ownership interest in Nuvo TV. As part of the deal, Lopez's production company Nuyorican Productions will develop series for the channel, which is aimed at an English-speaking Latino-American audience. |
| 13 | Beef Products Inc. files a defamation lawsuit against ABC News, seeking $1.2 billion in damages for claims of roughly 200 "false, misleading and defamatory" statements. The suit alleges that the network's March 2012 investigation on ammonia-treated lean, textured ground beef trimmings misled consumers to believing that the product is unsafe for consumption, resulting in an impact to the company that forced the closure of three of its four U.S. processing plants and the layoffs of more than 650 employees. |
| 13 | DirecTV drops GOL TV after the channel loses U.S. broadcast rights to Spain's La Liga soccer league. |
| 13 | ESPN's flagship sports news program SportsCenter broadcasts its 50,000th episode. |
| 15 | Dish Network drops Big Ten Network from the satellite provider due to the two parties' inability to settle on a new carriage agreement. Dish reached a new long-term carriage agreement with the network one week later, restoring the channel on September 22. |
| 16 | American Idol announces Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban are the two newest members of its judging panel. Minaj and Urban will join fellow new judge Mariah Carey, who joined the show on July 23, and Randy Jackson, who had announced his intentions to leave the panel on August 31 but will instead continue not only as judge but also add duties as contestant mentor. |
| 19 | Fox Sports and TBS renew their broadcast contracts with Major League Baseball to continue broadcasting MLB games through 2021. Fox will pay approximately $500 million annually to broadcast MLB games, while TBS will pay around $300 million. The deal removes TBS' exclusivity for carriage of all first-round MLB playoff games, as Fox will obtain rights to some first-round games to air on its cable motorsports channel Speed, which is rumored to undergo a revamp of programming. |
| 20 | NRJ TV purchases family-oriented independent station WGCB-TV/Red Lion, Pennsylvania for $9 million from Red Lion Television. |
| 20 | HBO announces that CEO Bill Nelson will retire at the end of 2012, after nearly three decades with the pay cable service. Nelson will be succeeded by network co-president Richard Plepler. |
| 21 | Time Warner Cable reaches an agreement with the National Football League to carry the NFL Network and NFL RedZone on its systems. TWC was the largest cable television provider in the United States that did not carry either channel. |
| 23 | ABC hosts the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. This event, which was telecast live in all time zones, also marked the first time in its 64-year history that the four major over-the-air broadcast networks did not receive any nominations in three of the five main categories: Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. |
| 24 | Gray Television signs on low-power WECP-LD/Panama City, Florida to serve as the CBS affiliate for the market. The station replaces WTVY/Dothan, Alabama as the de facto affiliate for the Panama City area. |
| 24 | Willie Geist is named co-host of the 9 a.m. hour of NBC's Today, replacing now-7 to 9 a.m. co-host Savannah Guthrie. Geist will reduce his duties at MSNBC as a result: stepping down as host of the cable news channel's morning program Way Too Early, and continuing to appear on Morning Joe in a reduced capacity. |
| 24 | ESPN's SportsCenter records a 5.0 overnight Nielsen rating leading out of a controversial ending to the Monday Night Football telecast between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks. The rating is the highest for the sports news program in its 33-year history. |
| 27 | Bayou City Broadcasting announces the sale of its eight stations to London Broadcasting Company. The sale marks a temporary exit from the broadcasting industry for the company's owner DuJuan McCoy, who plans on acquiring network-affiliated stations in mid-sized markets larger than San Angelo and Abilene. |
| 27 | Fox Sports Net announces its Southern California affiliates Fox Sports West, Prime Ticket and Fox Sports San Diego have reached a new long term carriage deal to exclusively broadcast Big West Conference college sports. |
| 28 | During coverage of a police pursuit that started with 33-year-old Jodon Romero carjacking a vehicle in Phoenix, ending near I-10 outside Salome, Arizona, Fox News Channel inadvertently broadcasts Romero's suicide from a handgun shot to the head. Studio B anchor Shepard Smith issued an on-air apology minutes later for the broadcast delay error made by FNC's master control that led to the suicide being shown live on-air. |
| Date | Event |
| 1 | Time Warner Cable launches two Los Angeles-based regional sports networks, TWC SportsNet and TWC Deportes. The networks serve as exclusive homes to the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers. TWC Deportes broadcasts in Spanish, the first RSN to do so. Time Warner Cable SportsNet later announces that it will provide Korean language audio of Los Angeles Lakers games via secondary audio programming beginning with the 2012–13 regular season, becoming the first English-language television network to offer play-by-play of sporting events in an Asian dialect. |
| 1 | Comcast SportsNet Houston, the newest affiliate of Comcast SportsNet, co-owned by the Houston Astros, Houston Rockets, and NBCUniversal, launches. As a result, the teams' previous rights owner Fox Sports Houston was shut down four days later. |
| 2 | CBS affiliate WKBT/La Crosse, Wisconsin makes headlines when morning news anchor Jennifer Livingston responds to an e-mail sent to her by a viewer about her weight, who she later criticizes on air after she perceived the e-mail as bullying and calls the viewer out for making the statement. Livingston later received an apology from the viewer for the message. |
| 3 | Gray Television signs on low-power CBS affiliate WSVF-LD/Harrisonburg, Virginia. Harrisonburg was previously unserved by an in-market CBS affiliate with WUSA/Washington, D.C. available as a default affiliate on cable and satellite. |
| 4 | Cablevision and The Walt Disney Company reach an agreement to continue distribution of Disney-owned cable channels across Cablevision system footprint and ABC stations WABC and WPVI in the respective New York City and Philadelphia markets. The deal includes carriage of the planned ABC News/Univision news channel, online service ESPN3, 3DTV channel ESPN 3D, expanded video-on-demand offerings and the ability for customers to view live streams of ESPN, Disney Channel, Disney XD and Disney Junior programming online, on tablet computers and mobile devices through authentication apps. |
| 8 | Narrowly averting a blackout, Gannett Company reaches a long-term carriage agreement with Dish Network for all 23 of its television stations to remain on the satellite provider. The deal was reached despite reported contentious demands made by Gannett for Dish to disable its controversial AutoHop ad-skipping feature on its digital video recorders or pay a "massive penalty" of a 300% increase in carriage fees. |
| 9 | Viacom strikes a deal to add programming from two additional networks to Hulu: the Hulu Plus subscription service adds current season episodes of Nickelodeon's original programming with the five most recent episodes available, and new episodes added 21 days after their original airdate. Programming from Spanish-language network Tr3s will also become available on its Hulu Latino service. |
| 11 | DirecTV announces the release of the Genie digital video recorder, which among its features allows the simultaneous recording of up to five TV shows on up to 8 connectable TV sets, client boxes, gaming or Blu-ray consoles from a single receiver ; recommends shows based on past TV viewing habits; timer-records shows up to two weeks in advance and the ability to view a show's 5 most recent episodes. |
| 12 | After a 17-year run, Fox Sports announces that Speed will no longer air Formula One racing events after the 2012–13 season due to Speed being outbid for the U.S. broadcast rights. While no word has been made on where Formula One telecasts will land domestically, it is expected that the rights will migrate to NBC Sports Network in 2013, as they were the high bidder. |
| 12 | The Federal Communications Commission votes to end a law banning cable providers from encrypting the signals of basic cable channels, effectively closing a loophole that lets many households watch basic cable channels for free. The move is cited as a way to reduce cable theft and reduce the number of visits by cable technicians to disconnect television service. |
| 12 | Retirement Living TV enters into a carriage agreement that will allow the channel to be available on Time Warner Cable and co-managed Bright House Networks systems. Both cable providers will carry the channel as part of their digital cable tiers by the end of 2012. |
| 14 | Providence Equity Partners divests its 10% ownership stake in the streaming website Hulu to site co-owners News Corporation, Comcast and The Walt Disney Company for $200 million. |
| 15 | NASCAR and Fox Sports announce an eight-year multiplatform agreement that will retain Fox's broadcast rights to NASCAR racing events through 2022. The agreement will retains all existing event telecast rights, but gives Fox rights to live stream all races, as well as highlights and pre- and post-race coverage to customers of participating cable and satellite providers online and through mobile devices starting in 2013. |
| 15 | A Tennessee U.S. District Court dismisses a racial discrimination lawsuit against Warner Horizon Television and producers of ABC's The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, citing that casting contestants for the shows for whatever reason is protected by the First Amendment. Filed in April by rejected applicants Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson, the suit noted the lack of minority contestants and the complete absence of non-white Bachelors and Bachelorettes in the 24 cumulative cycles of both series, believing that the producers have done so to avoid potential controversy from anyone opposed to interracial relationships. |
| 15 | Shield Media purchases ABC affiliate WLAJ/Lansing, Michigan from Sinclair Broadcast Group for $14.4 million. Under the terms of the sale agreement, WLAJ's operations will be turned over to Young Broadcasting under a shared services agreement, creating a virtual triopoly with CBS affiliate WLNS-TV and MyNetworkTV affiliate WHTV. |
| 15 | Wichita, Kansas native Tamara Feldman reprises her role as Poppy Lifton in the Gossip Girl episode High Infidelity, her first one since The Wrath of Con, which aired May 4, 2009 on The CW. |
| 21 | With Dish Network's attempt to win their trial against AMC Networks over removal of the Voom HD Networks suite falling apart, Dish Network settles out of court with AMC for $700 million and video and data spectrum rights in several major markets, and signs a long-term carriage agreement with AMC Networks. AMC returns on the same day, with the remainder of AMC's networks to return November 1. |
| 22 | The Federal Communications Commission denies a request filed by Oceanic Time Warner Cable and Hawaiian Telcom that would have declined My Family TV affiliate KLEI-TV/Kailua-Kona, Hawaii carriage on both systems. The decision resulted from a must-carry complaint filed by Mauna Kea Broadcasting Company, Inc., after being rebuffed by both companies for carriage of the station. |
| 22 | Roberts Broadcasting sells CW affiliate WRBJ/Jackson, Mississippi to the Trinity Broadcasting Network. The station, which signed on in 2006, will replace its secular programming with TBN's religious programs after the sale closes. It is unclear as to who will pick up the CW affiliation in Jackson after the sale. |
| 23 | CBS Television Distribution announces that it will rename its syndicated entertainment news program The Insider as omg! Insider in January 2013, through a partnership with Yahoo!'s celebrity news and gossip website omg!. The rebranded program will retain hosts Kevin Frazier and Brooke Anderson, but will also feature talent and entertainment columnists from Yahoo! as contributors. |
| 23 | Rural Media Group announces the purchase of FamilyNet from Interactive Television and Gaming Networks. Under the deal, Rural TV will merge its programming fully with the FamilyNet schedule starting on January 1, 2013, though weekend preview programming featuring Rural TV content will already premiere as of October 27. |
| 24 | The CW signs its first video-on-demand carriage agreement with a pay television provider through a deal with Comcast. The deal allows customers to watch the four most-recent episodes of the network's primetime shows on Comcast's Xfinity On Demand service, with new episodes available the day after their original airdate. The CW On Demand, which is accessible to subscribers at no additional charge, debuted on Comcast systems nationwide on October 25. |
| 24 | NBCUniversal announces that it will revamp its NBC Nonstop news-and-lifestyle multicast network into Cozi TV on January 1, 2013, which will combine original programs both produced solely for its local affiliates and those produced to air nationally on the network, with classic TV shows and movies from the company's library. |
| 25 | Ratings-challenged cable news channel Current TV, started in 2005 by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, puts itself up for sale. |
| 25 | Columbus, Ohio's ESPN Radio affiliate WBNS-FM terminates their morning host Scott Torgerson after he made a tweet on October 13 that he wished that ESPN personality Desmond Howard would "get fired or die" so he can watch College GameDay again. The comments, which later went viral and resulted in a condemnation from Desmond's on-air colleague and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit on the station, resulted in WBNS suspending Torgerson on October 17. |
| 26 | Cablevision and Tribune Broadcasting agree to a new retransmission consent agreement over two months after stations in Cablevision's service area were pulled. WPIX's primetime news audience had fallen by nearly two-fifths due to the dispute. |
| 28 | NBCUniversal gains the U.S. broadcast rights to English Premier League in a three-year deal that will cost $80 million per year to televise the soccer league's games on NBC, NBC Sports Network and possibly on some of the company's other cable outlets. |
| 29 | NBC announces that struggling sophomore sitcom Up All Night will transition from a single-camera to a multi-camera format filmed in front of a live studio audience. The show is expected to make the transition following a three-month production hiatus after filming of the second season's 11th episode, with episodes to air in the new format in Spring 2013. |
| 29 | Univision signs a 10-year deal for Spanish and Portuguese language rights to CONCACAF coverage. |
| 29 | In the wake of Hurricane Sandy affecting the Eastern United States, ABC, CBS and The CW and NBC all alter their schedules to bring complete coverage of the storm. |
| 31 | Fox Sports New Orleans, the newest affiliate of Fox Sports Net launches becoming the new exclusive home of the NBA's New Orleans Hornets. |
| Date | Event |
| 1 | Luken Communications relaunched The Nashville Network as an over-the-air digital multicast network, resurrecting the brand and country music-oriented format of the old cable network that existed from 1983 to 2000. |
| 2 | NBC and a large number of its affiliate channels broadcast ', a telethon to benefit relief efforts in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. |
| 2 | Time Warner Cable inks a deal to carry beIN Sport and beIN Sport en Español on both its flagship service and on its co-managed Bright House Networks cable systems. Both networks will also be viewable to authenticated subscribers through TWC's and beIN's website and mobile applications as well as on Bright House's streaming app. Availability of both channels will vary depending on market. |
| 4 | Nexstar Broadcasting Group acquires CBS affiliate KGPE/Fresno and the Bakersfield duopoly of NBC affiliate KGET and Telemundo affiliate KKEY-LP from Newport Television for $35.4 million. Under a separate deal, Nexstar also acquires the Burlington, Vermont virtual duopoly of Fox affiliate WFFF-TV and ABC affiliate WVNY from Smith Media for $17.1 million. |
| 4 | NBCUniversal expands rights to on-demand content through a carriage renewal with Cablevision, that will allow the cable provider's subscribers access to live streams of NBCUniversal's cable and broadcast networks online and across mobile platforms for the first time. |
| 4 | CBS Corporation, long a holdout from entering into content agreements with streaming services, strikes a non-exclusive, multi-year licensing agreement that will allow programs owned by the company to be streamed on the Hulu Plus subscription service. Programs made available on the site will come from CBS Television Distribution's library of 2,600 shows, generally consisting of series no longer in first-run broadcast. |
| 8 | A preliminary injunction request filed by Fox against Dish Network's AutoHop digital video recorder is rejected in a Los Angeles U.S. District Court on grounds that Fox was unlikely to be able to prove that it suffered irreparable harm from the technology that allows subscribers to skip over commercial advertisements. |
| 9 | Denali Media Holdings purchases three television stations in Alaska: CBS affiliate KTVA/Anchorage from Alaska Broadcasting Co./Media News Group, and NBC affiliate KATH-LD/Juneau and its Sitka translator KSCT-LP from North Star Broadcasting. |
| 9 | Lockwood Broadcast Group purchases WMAK/Knoxville, Tennessee from Daystar Television Network subsidiary Word of God Fellowship for $2.95 million. The sale will create a duopoly with CW affiliate WBXX-TV. If the FCC approves the sale, WMAK's callsign will be changed to WKNX and the station will likely drop Daystar programming to become a commercial outlet. |
| 13 | CBS Sports Network enters into a two-year broadcast rights agreement with the Arena Football League, in which the channel will carry 19 regular season and two playoff games starting with the AFL's 2013 season, and will allow sister broadcast network CBS to carry the ArenaBowl championship game. |
| 15 | Actress Lisa Whelchel, who is currently competing in ', reveals that she has contracted the West Nile virus, although she did not reveal if it happened before appearing on or during the show. |
| 15 | United States Vice President Joe Biden makes history as the first sitting US Vice President to appear in an acting role on an American television series, playing himself in a cameo of the Parks and Recreation Season 5 episode "Leslie Vs. April", in which Ben Wyatt surprises fiancée Leslie Knope with a gift to meet Biden, whom Leslie cited as her top favorite she wanted to meet on her "Celebrity Sex List." |
| 20 | Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash resigns from Sesame Street amid allegations of sexually abusing underage boys. |
| 20 | The main anchor team for Bangor, Maine's ABC affiliate WVII-TV and sister Fox station WFVX-LP, both owned by Rockfleet Broadcasting, both resign on-air at the end of the day's 6pm newscast. Cindy Michaels, who was also the station's news director, and Tony Consiglio cited conflicts with both the upper management at the station itself and with Rockfleet, along with treatment of the staff in deciding to leave the station. |
| 20 | News Corporation purchases a 49% stake in YES Network, the cable TV home of the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Nets. |
| 21 | After what he cites as a rocky relationship on and off the set with the production crew and staff, Chevy Chase has announced that he will leave Community before the end of the fourth season, appearing in only 11 of the shortened 13 episode order. |
| 21 | Gray Television, the owners of KOLN/Lincoln, Nebraska, will acquire KSNB/Superior from Colins Broadcasting, for $1.25 million and is seeking a 'failed station waiver', which will allow the acquisition to occur. |
| 22 | Top 40/CHR WDCG/Raleigh-Durham issues an apology to the city of Raleigh, its mayor Nancy McFarlane, the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association and CBS affiliate WRAL after a float featuring an African American man dressed as an angel hanging from a Christmas tree sponsored by WDCG was featured in WRAL's telecast of their annual Christmas Parade on November 17. The float, which also featured WDCG morning stars Bob and the Showgram, was blasted by officials and parade goers as a depiction of a lynching, and as a result of this incident the producer of WDCG's morning show, who did not approve of the float's concept, was terminated. WRAL GM Jennifer Martin has been assured that WDCG will not allow any more displays that could be seen as racially offensive in future events sponsored by WRAL. |
| 26 | It is reported Fox Sports will rebrand Speed as Fox Sports 1 in August 2013 as a competitor to ESPN. |
| 26 | Roberts Media acquires NBC affiliate KMTR/Eugene and its satellite stations from Newport Television for $8.5 million. Fisher Communications, which also owns KVAL-TV in the market, will operate KMTR under a shared services agreement upon the sale's closure. |
| 29 | Former NBCUniversal CEO and Katie producer Jeff Zucker is named President/CEO at CNN, replacing Jim Walton, who will leave in January 2013. |
| 29 | Fox Television Stations has agreed to sell its MyNetworkTV station, WUTB/Baltimore to Deerfield Media for $2.7 million. Sinclair Broadcast Group will operate the station through a local marketing agreement. |
| 30 | Avoiding a Midnight deadline, Gannett Company has reached a retransmission consent agreement with DirecTV to air its 23 television stations on its satellite carrier. |
