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Outlet profile

Fox17

U.S. local TV news; Fox-affiliated station under a conservative-leaning corporate owner

Owned byOwned by Sinclair Broadcast Group (now operating as Sinclair, Inc.), a publicly traded company controlled by the Smith family. Sinclair also owns WUXP-TV (MyNetworkTV) in Nashville and co-manages WNAB. Note: 'FOX 17' is also the name of WXMI in West Michigan (fox17online.com), which is owned by E.W. Scripps. This profile covers the Nashville station at fox17.com.
FundingMostly local and national advertising, plus retransmission-consent fees paid by cable and satellite providers, and Fox network affiliation arrangements. It is owned by a large corporate group, not funded by a single billionaire or by donations.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

WZTV launched in 1954 on channel 17 and went through several owners and network affiliations. It was an ABC affiliate in its early decades. It became a Fox affiliate in the mid-1990s after Fox's affiliation shifts, which also led to the FOX17 branding. Sinclair bought the Sullivan Broadcasting stations, including WZTV, in 1998 and has owned it since. Sinclair has expanded local news there, and the station also carries The CW on a subchannel. Sinclair is known for requiring its stations to air centrally produced 'must-run' segments, some with conservative commentary, and for a 2018 video in which anchors read a shared script about 'biased' news. Critics have long called it a conservative-leaning owner. In September 2025 Sinclair pulled 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' from its ABC stations after Kimmel's remarks about the Charlie Kirk shooting suspect, and it later restored the show. Sinclair also pursued a hostile bid for E.W. Scripps in late 2025, which Scripps' board rejected. Local reporting at FOX17 tends to focus on Middle Tennessee crime, weather, and government, and it does not usually take explicit editorial positions on national politics.

Sources

  1. WZTV – Wikipedia
  2. WXMI – Wikipedia
  3. FOX 17 under new ownership (fox17online.com)
  4. Exclusive: Sinclair ponders next steps in Scripps takeover bid (Semafor)
  5. Colorado TV news owner slaps down bid by conservative Sinclair broadcast giant
  6. FOX17 Nashville contact page

Profile compiled 2026-10-19; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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