Fresh Network

UPN & The WB collapsing into one:

CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment today announced their intent to form a new 5th network, The CW, to be launched in the fall of 2006. The new broadcasting network will be a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corporation, with each company owning 50%. In an important strategic move that secures major market distribution for The CW, it was announced that Tribune Broadcasting and the CBS Corporation's UPN affiliates have agreed separately to sign 10-year affiliation agreements with the new network.

Not quite sure what happens in markets with both a WB and UPN affliate, like Philadelphia, but this is a smart move. Between the two of them, there's almost a full week of programming.

Via Atrios, who said (and I concur fully): "Bastards had better not cancel Veronica Mars."

UPDATE: WPHL 17 (WB) going independent; WPSG 57 (UPN) new home of the CW.