The CW Plus

Logo for KWBD in Duluth, Minnesota. Similar logos are used by most CW Plus stations.

The CW Plus is a group of primarily digital subchannels, analog-only broadcast television stations and non-broadcast cable television outlets carrying programming from The CW Television Network, along with syndicated programming outside of network programming time periods; the service is intended for areas ranked below the top 99 television media markets in the United States. As of 2012, The CW Plus currently has 92 affiliates across the United States.

Background

A predecessor of the CW, The WB Television Network had a similar group of cable-only stations in small and medium markets called The WB 100+ Station Group, which began operations in September 1998 and continued until The WB Television Network ended operations in September 2006. Since the WB 100+ was created before digital television was easily available in the United States, most WB 100+ stations were only available on cable, with a few main channel affiliations on over-the-air broadcast stations.

Dayparts on CW Plus affiliates with no CW network programming are programmed by the network, and consist mostly of programs airing in syndication; this relives the local affiliate's operator from the duty of having to acquire syndicated programming to fill timeslots outside the CW network's schedule. CW Plus stations are generally managed and promoted by a local affiliate of a larger over-the-air television station, which may produce some local programming, such as an early newscast or local sports. CW Plus stations air local commercial inserts, and each have their own local branding, which is usually either the parent station/cable franchise's city of license or a regional descriptor of the area (such as "Northland" for Duluth and Northeastern Minnesota, seen to the upper right). Unlike its predecessor, The WB 100+ Station Group, The CW Plus does not use fake call signs, and many of those that were part of the WB 100+ group that have since moved to The CW Plus have dropped their use of the fictional call signs, although a few cable-only CW Plus outlets have kept the fictional call signs used while part of The WB 100+ group.

As the feed is designed for the Eastern and Pacific time zones, The CW Daytime and Toonzai blocks (which are designed to be tape-delayed) are aired an hour early on affiliates in other time zones.

List of stations

See also: List of The CW Television Network affiliates

• ¹These stations will carry The CW Television Network on a digital subchannel viewable to anyone with a digital television. In these cases, the channel listed is the actual digital channel (e.g. "13", not a virtual channel such as "27.2", for WKYT).
• ²Cable channel already operational, but not yet broadcasting via a digital subchannel. See also note 1.
• ³KCWE is available to cable subscribers in the St. Joseph market, as are the other Kansas City locals; "WBJO" will be replaced by KSJO, which will carry either CW or CW Plus programming on a digital subchannel and is scheduled for a Spring 2012 sign-on.
• ⁴WENY flash-cut to digital on its former analog allocation, UHF channel 36, at the end of the 2009 U.S. digital transition; its CW and CBS subchannels were cable-only until the transition was complete.

Former affiliates

Market	Station	Former affiliation	Ownership	Years of affiliation	Status
Rio Grande Valley, Texas	"KMHB" (cable only)	WB	Unknown	2006-2007	Defunct; replaced by KFXV-LD
Zanesville, Ohio	"WBZV" (cable-only)	WB	WHIZ Media Group	2006-2008	Defunct; shut down in 2008 by WHIZ-TV, later replaced by "Zanesville CW 13"

See also

• CW-W - a standard definition-only feed of XETV/San Diego for markets without a CW affiliate carried on DirecTV
• The WB 100+ Station Group - predecessor of The CW Plus; most of the remaining cable-only channels and some over-the-air stations that are outlets of The CW Plus formerly served as affiliates of The WB 100+ Station Group
• Foxnet - a similar cable-only network for markets without a Fox affiliate, that operated from 1991 to 2006
• CTV Two Alberta - a similar cable-only affiliate of CTV Two in the Canadian province of Alberta; formerly Access
• CTV Two Atlantic - a similar cable-only affiliate of CTV Two in Atlantic Canada; formerly the Atlantic Satellite Network (ASN) and A Atlantic
• Saskatchewan Communications Network - a similar cable-only affiliate of Citytv in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan

External links

• The CW Plus homepage
• The CW homepage
• Program schedule for CW Plus stations