How the ABC affiliate change in South Florida will affect sports fans. What to know
This week’s announcement of a seismic shift in local media – ABC switching its affiliation from WPLG-10 to a digital channel owned by WSVN-7 beginning in August – won’t leave sports fans in the dark.
When ABC programming shifts to WSVN’s Channel 7.2 on Aug. 4, the channel, to be called ABC Miami, will be available in nearly every (and potentially every) South Florida home with cable or satellite television service.
Every cable and satellite provider serving Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties (except Dish Network) carries WSVN, and all of those providers also will carry ABC Miami, according to the station.
Dish has not carried WSVN for several years, but Sunbeam Television Corporation - which owns WSVN - will renew efforts to strike a carriage deal with Dish now that it will own rights to programming for two of what have long been regarded as the Big Four over-the-air networks. There’s some optimism that a deal will be struck with Dish.
Sunbeam does not need to strike new carriage deals with every other local provider – such as Xfinity, Breezeline (formerly Atlantic Broadband) and YouTube TV - to add ABC Miami because that’s automatically covered in cable/satellite provider contracts to carry WSVN-7.
The full list of ABC Miami’s channel numbers on cable and satellite providers will be worked out in the coming months.
For local residents without cable or satellite TV, there will be two ways to watch ABC Sports programming:
▪ Viewers who own televisions with an indoor antenna can use their remote control to find Channel 7.2, which will air all ABC programming. It should come up automatically, unless the television is extremely old.
▪ Also, ESPN will launch a standalone direct-to-consumer product by early fall, and that will include all ABC Sports programming. It’s expected to cost $25 to $30 a month.
The direct-to-consumer product, which doesn’t have an official name but has been dubbed “ESPN Flagship” inside the company, will include all of the content of ESPN’s linear cable channels, including ESPN, as well as all ABC Sports programming, all of which is produced by ESPN.
It also will also include the content of the ESPN-Plus direct-to-consumer service, which launched in 2018 and primarily carries events not available on ESPN’s linear channels.
That ESPN Plus service does not include all ABC sports programming, though it does include major events such as the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals.
Following the affiliate change, the first big ABC sports telecast involving a local team will be a Miami Hurricanes-Notre Dame football game on Sunday night, Aug. 31, during Labor Day weekend.
Some of the ABC Sports content has migrated to ESPN in recent years, and a bit of the content (including several Monday Night Football games) are simulcast on both networks.
Among the sports programs that are carried only on ABC and not ESPN: a package of weekend NBA games, including some playoff contests and the NBA Finals; some NHL games on weekends and the Stanley Cup Finals; three MNF games that air opposite a different game on ESPN; three college football games every Saturday during the season; several bowl game; the X Games; some college basketball; international soccer; and some other events.
On Thursday, ABC’s parent company (Disney) and WPLG-10 (owned by Berkshire Hathaway) announced they are divorcing after a 69-year partnership because the parties could not agree on what WPLG would pay ABC to remain a network affiliate. Their affiliation agreement ended in late December, and after months of negotiations, the sides opted for a breakup.
E.R. Bert Medina, WPLG CEO and president, said in a statement, “We made a generous offer to ABC, but it became clear the two sides were not going to agree to a new deal.”
He said an agreement would have forced Local 10 to lay off employees. “Broadcast television stations across the country have announced massive layoffs in recent years,” he said.
“WPLG is proud we’ve not had layoffs, but it became clear that if we accepted the deal ABC was proposing, we too would have been forced to lay off employees in order to pay the hefty price the network was demanding.”
WPLG will continue to carry ABC programming through Aug. 3.
Sunbeam plans to simulcast all WSVN-7 newscasts on ABC Miami. The company hasn’t decided what it will air on ABC Miami during the 2 1/2 hours a day when it’s not carrying Channel 7 newscasts or ABC programming.
“When the opportunity to affiliate with ABC became available, we knew that our combined resources would allow us to develop an extremely strong partnership,” Sunbeam co-president Paul Magnes said.
“Sunbeam Television Corporation has a proven track record as a competitive broadcaster. Adding ABC programming to our stations’ portfolio will only strengthen our footprint. As a family-owned company, we have been embedded in this community for nearly 70 years, with a commitment to local news and supporting non-profit organizations across South Florida.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 2:23 PM.
