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Outlet profile

CBS News Pittsburgh

U.S. center, mainstream broadcast news (local station of a national network)

Owned byOwned by CBS News and Stations, a division of the CBS network. CBS is part of Paramount Skydance, controlled by David Ellison. Per recent reports, Paramount Skydance has closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery and the combined company is now called Skydance. The Pittsburgh station is KDKA-TV, channel 2.
FundingMainly local and national advertising, including political ad spending. Also retransmission-consent fees paid by cable and satellite distributors, and financial support from its corporate parent. It has no subscriptions or state funding.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

KDKA-TV began on January 11, 1949, as WDTV, owned by the DuMont Television Network. It was DuMont's third station and had a near-monopoly on Pittsburgh television in its early years. Westinghouse bought the station in 1955 and renamed it KDKA-TV, after its pioneering KDKA radio station. Westinghouse then moved its whole Group W station group to CBS affiliation. The station later came under CBS ownership as part of the network's owned-and-operated group, and it is now run by CBS News and Stations. Its news site is branded CBS News Pittsburgh as part of CBS's unified local-news effort. CBS's parent changed hands in 2025, when Skydance merged with Paramount. Paramount then acquired Bari Weiss's The Free Press and made her CBS News editor-in-chief in October 2025. Reports in 2026 describe staff unrest after changes at '60 Minutes', public calls from former correspondent Scott Pelley for her removal, and Paramount Skydance's completed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, which brings CNN under the same corporate roof. I did not find reporting that ties these national disputes to KDKA's local coverage, which centers on Pittsburgh-area news, weather and sports. A fair characterization is a mainstream commercial local broadcaster whose parent company's ownership and national newsroom politics are currently under scrutiny.

Sources

  1. KDKA-TV (Wikipedia)
  2. KDKA-TV Celebrates 70 Years On The Air (CBS News Pittsburgh)
  3. Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery are finally one company (Poynter)
  4. Scott Pelley Presses Paramount to Remove CBS News Chief Bari Weiss (Variety)
  5. CBS Braces for Bari Weiss as Paramount Officially Acquires The Free Press (Hollywood Reporter)
  6. Skydance's leadership team: Mark Thompson and Bari Weiss to separately run CNN and CBS News (TheWrap)

Profile compiled 2026-10-10; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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