WKBW

What WKBW does

WKBW (branded as 7 News WKBW) is a local broadcast television station licensed to Buffalo, New York, serving the Western New York DMA on Channel 7. Founded in 1959 and now owned by Scripps Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: SSP) following E.W. Scripps Company's 2021 spin-off of its local media segment, WKBW delivers approximately 101-250 employees' worth of news, weather, sports, and lifestyle programming across over-the-air broadcast, pay-TV carriage, a website (wkbw.com), mobile applications for iOS and Android, and live streaming. Its product portfolio is organized around branded content franchises: 7 News as the core local news platform, 7 Super Doppler as the proprietary weather radar system, 7 Problem Solvers and the 7 News I Team as investigative/community journalism units, 7Life for lifestyle content, the Fandemonium docuseries covering Buffalo Bills football history, Our 716 as a community storytelling initiative, and a 7 Things to Do events guide. The station places particular emphasis on coverage of the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres, as well as severe weather alerting via 7 Super Doppler.

WKBW operates a two-sided business model serving two distinct customer bases. On the audience side, it provides free, ad-supported local news, weather, sports, and entertainment content to viewers in the Buffalo and Western New York region. On the commercial side, it monetizes this audience through local and regional advertising sales and participates in Scripps Media's broader advertising offerings such as Shop Scripps. The station is also embedded in the Scripps News network for national and international content sharing, and operates an e-commerce/affiliate commerce vertical via Super Savings on 7. Its go-to-market approach relies on traditional broadcast reach, pay-TV distribution agreements (currently disrupted by a DirecTV carriage dispute), and direct digital channels including website, mobile apps, email newsletters, and active social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

The technical platform combines a conventional broadcast television infrastructure with a Brightspot CMS-backed digital publishing stack, Uplynk-based video delivery (referenced in image CDN URLs), and mobile distribution via dedicated iOS and Android applications. WKBW does not publicly disclose pricing for advertising or any subscription fees, and the station's revenue is reported only at the Scripps Media parent level rather than at the station level.

Name

WKBW

Legal name

Scripps Media, Inc.

Website

https://wkbw.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

1959

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

WKBW (Channel 7) is a Scripps Media-owned local television station in Buffalo, NY that delivers news, weather, and sports coverage to the Western New York market across broadcast, streaming, and mobile channels, monetized through local and regional advertising.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Local Television Broadcasting

NAICS

Television Broadcasting Stations (516120)

SIC

Television Broadcasting Stations (4833)

akta.pro primary industry

Network-Affiliated Local TV Stations (ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/CW/Telemundo/Univision, etc.) (MPABACAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

News OTT & Live News Streaming Channels (MPABAHAK)

Keywords

• Local television news
• Broadcast journalism
• Weather forecasting
• Local sports coverage
• Digital news content

Headquarters

HQ city

Buffalo

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

WKBW (Channel 7) is a Buffalo, New York television station owned by Scripps Media, Inc. that delivers local, regional, and national news, weather forecasting, and sports coverage (Buffalo Bills and Sabres) to Western New York audiences via broadcast television, digital platforms, and mobile applications. The station operates a 24/7 local news platform under the 7 News brand and sells advertising inventory to local and regional businesses seeking targeted reach in the Western New York market.

Product overview

WKBW (Channel 7) is a Scripps Media-owned television station serving Buffalo and Western New York with a unified broadcast and digital news operation. The core offering is 7 News, a 24/7 local news platform delivering broadcast television and digital content. The product portfolio centers on the 7-branded modules: 7 Super Doppler weather radar, 7 Problem Solvers investigative journalism, 7Life lifestyle content, and the Fandemonium sports docuseries. Supplementary offerings include 7 Things (events guide), Our 716 (community storytelling), mobile and streaming apps, and live stream access. The station covers Buffalo Bills and Sabres sports, local news, national news, weather, and entertainment across multiple distribution channels including broadcast TV, streaming, and mobile apps.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• 7 News WKBW's primary broadcast and digital news platform delivering local, national, and political news coverage across Buffalo and Western New York. The 24/7 local news service is the station's core offering under the 7 News brand.
• WKBW Mobile and Streaming Apps

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Scripps NewscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWKBW is owned by Scripps Media and participates in the Scripps News network, sharing national and international news content produced by Scripps News Group across its local stations.

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• WEWS-TV (News 5 Cleveland): ABC-affiliated Scripps-owned station in Cleveland. Same network affiliation and Scripps parent as WKBW, providing a useful benchmark for station operating performance and content synergies.
• Gray Television: Large multi-station owner of network-affiliated local TV stations, including many mid-size DMAs comparable to Buffalo. Closely analogous operator to Scripps Media at the group level.
• WXYZ-TV (Channel 7 Detroit): ABC-affiliated Scripps-owned local TV station in Detroit. Sister station to WKBW under Scripps Media, sharing national news feeds, ad-sales infrastructure, and operating playbooks.
• Hearst Television (group): Operates a portfolio of network-affiliated local TV stations comparable in model to WKBW's. Peer at the group level given similar audience-targeting, ad-sales, and content-distribution strategies.

Direct peers

• WGRZ (Channel 2 News): NBC-affiliated local TV station in Buffalo, NY. Competes with WKBW for the same local news audience, sports coverage, and regional advertising share in Western New York.
• WIVB-TV (News 4 Buffalo): CBS-affiliated local TV station serving the same Buffalo / Western New York market as WKBW. Direct head-to-head competitor for local news, weather, sports, and advertising dollars in the DMA.
• WUTV (FOX 29 Buffalo): FOX-affiliated local TV station serving the Buffalo / Western New York DMA. Direct competitor across news, sports, and advertising in the same geography.

Regional players

• Spectrum News Buffalo: Charter-owned regional cable news channel serving the same Western New York geography. Competes with WKBW for hyperlocal news audiences and local advertising, but only available to Spectrum subscribers.
• WSTM-TV (CNY Central): NBC-affiliated station serving Syracuse and central New York. Same network-affiliate local-news business model in an adjacent upstate NY DMA, sharing similar weather, sports, and advertiser dynamics.
• WHEC-TV (News 10NBC): NBC affiliate serving the adjacent Rochester, NY market. Operates the same network-affiliated local news model in an upstate New York DMA with overlapping regional advertisers and similar sports franchises.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/wkbw
• Facebookfacebook.com/wkbwtv
• Instagraminstagram.com/wkbw
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wkbw-tv

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about WKBW