In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels (or "sibling stations" in gender-neutral form) are radio and/or television stations operated by the same ownership.
Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and often one station is on the AM band while another is on the FM band. Conversely, several types of sister-station relationships exist in television. Stations in the same city will usually be affiliated with different television networks (often one with a major network and the other with a secondary network), and may occasionally shift television programs between each other when local events require one station to interrupt its network feed.
Sister stations in separate (but often nearby) cities owned by the same company may or may not share a network affiliation. For example, WNYW and WWOR-TV, in New York City and Secaucus, New Jersey, are both owned by News Corporation. WNYW is a Fox affiliate; WWOR-TV is a My Network TV affiliate. In addition, stations in different cities affiliated with the same network, but not sharing an ownership tie, may refer to each other informally as sister stations.
Sister networks, in many cases, are cable or satellite channels which are launched to either broadcast series which either premiered on the main network but has been moved out of the higher-priority schedule (i.e. TV Land), fulfill a specific niche of content which would not be fulfilled on the main network (i.e. Nick Jr., Nicktoons) or broadcast to a wider audience than the main network (i.e. CNN International, Al Jazeera English). The establishment and proliferation of sister networks on cable, satellite and Internet providers has become easier and more commercially profitable over the history of such media venues.
Famous quotes containing the words sister and/or station:
“Whether changes in the sibling relationship during adolescence create long-term rifts that spill over into adulthood depends upon the ability of brothers and sisters to constantly redefine their connection. Siblings either learn to accept one another as independent individuals with their own sets of values and behaviors or cling to the shadow of the brother and sister they once knew.”
—Jane Mersky Leder (20th century)
“Say first, of God above, or Man below,
What can we reason, but from what we know?
Of Man what see we, but his station here,
From which to reason, or to which refer?
Thro’ worlds unnumber’d tho’ the God be known,
‘Tis ours to trace him only in our own.
”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)