Four of the six commercial television stations in the Mahoning Valley could consolidate some services when and if the FCC approves the sale of WYTV and MyYTV to Parkin Broadcasting.A shared services agreement was filed with the FCC this week by the Los Angeles-based Parkin Broadcasting and NVT (New Vision Television, also based in Los Angeles), which owns CBS affiliate WKBN-TV 27 and FOX affiliate WYFX-TV 17/62.
Under the proposed agreement, Parkin would pay NVT $750,000 a year for the next seven years to provide the local stations with such services as billing and traffic (scheduling commercial time), engineering and information technology services, administrative and accounting services and even ‘‘fully staffed and produced newscasts for broadcast on the station,’’ according to the document. The agreement can be renewed automatically for two additional seven-year periods unless either company submits a written notice of nonrenewal at least six months before its expiration.
WYTV General Manager Dave Trabert said now that Warren-Youngstown no longer is a top 100 media market (it currently ranks 103rd in size), it attracts fewer national advertising dollars than it did in the past.
‘‘Less money is coming in, but it costs even more to keep the properties running,’’ Trabert said.
Trabert stressed that the shared services agreement does not mean that every option contained in the document will be implemented.
‘‘If you read it carefully, there is nothing that is really definite, and that’s on purpose,’’ he said. ‘‘No firm decisions have been made ... We have to find ways to improve efficiency and improve the services we provide the customer. But they have not made the determination of when or how it will be done.’’
Clearly, though, some jobs will be lost under the agreement, but those jobs won’t necessarily come from WYTV. Trabert said he told his employees Monday there will be an independent review of both staffs to determine which people are best suited to the needs of the new agreement.
None of the moves will happen until the sale of WYTV by Chelsey Broadcasting to Parkin is approved, which Trabert expects to happen sometime before the end of June.
‘‘The ultimate goal is to do it an a way that is as transparent to the viewers as possible,’’ Trabert said. ‘‘The people watching a program don’t know how it was put together, how many people were involved and when they did it, nor do they care — ‘Just give me the product that I want.’’’