Beginning July 1, Fisher Communications’ KXPI will become the Fox-affiliate in the Idaho Falls market. KXPI replaces KFXP as the market’s Fox-affiliate.

The station is currently a MyNetworkTV-affiliate. Under the new agreement, the station will run MyNetworkTV programming beginning at 10 p.m.

“We’re delighted to have KXPI join the FOX family,” Jon Hookstratten, Fox EVP for network distribution, said in a statement. “Mark Danielson and the team at Fisher Communications are top-notch and we’re confident they will do an outstanding job of representing Fox in the Idaho Falls community.” Read more

By all accounts, this year’s Fox affiliates meeting at the NAB convention went significantly better than last year’s.

Last April’s meeting between Fox executives and affiliate representatives amounted to a retrains shakedown, with Fox demanding that affiliates share a significant portion of the revenue they generate from carriage deals.  At the meeting this week, the focus was on the positive.

“It was 180 degrees different. It was positive,” Jon Hookstratten, Fox executive VP of network distribution, told B&C.  “People are very excited about having live sports on Saturday nights. After what we went through last year, it feels good.” Read more

Fox has firmed up affiliate agreements with two stations in Alaska. The company announced today that it has renewed its deal with KTBY in Anchorage and signed Juneau’s KJUD as a new affiliate.

KTBY, which is owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company, has been a Fox-affiliate since 1986. KJUD, which is owned by Vision Alaska II, currently operates as an ABC-affiliate and plans to air Fox programming on a digital subchannel.

“We are delighted to renew our affiliation with KTBY, while also adding KJUD to Fox’s family of more than two hundred affiliates,” said Jon Hookstratten, who serves as executive vice president of Fox’s Network Distribution unit. “The addition of a new Fox station in Juneau is exciting to us and to the city of Juneau.”

Coastal Television currently provides non-network programming for KJUD under a brokerage agreement with Vision Alaska II. The station’s new Fox channel will be governed by this agreement.