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Outlet profile

KOAA / KKTV

U.S. center (local TV news, mainstream)

Owned byBoth stations are owned by The E.W. Scripps Company, a publicly traded broadcaster. Scripps has owned NBC affiliate KOAA (Channel 5) since May 2019. It took over CBS affiliate KKTV (Channel 11) from Gray Media in a station swap that the FCC approved in April 2026 and that closed in May 2026.
FundingMainly local and national advertising, including political ads. It also gets retransmission-consent fees from cable, satellite and streaming distributors, plus network affiliate arrangements. Scripps is a public company funded by shareholders and debt. The company has cut costs, including about 15 layoffs across the two Colorado Springs newsrooms in August 2026.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

KOAA began broadcasting on June 29, 1953, from Pueblo as KCSJ. The owners of Denver's KOA-TV bought it in the early 1960s and renamed it KOAA. It was the region's first color broadcaster in 1969. Cordillera Communications bought it in 1977, and E.W. Scripps acquired it on May 1, 2019. KKTV signed on December 7, 1952. It is the oldest station in Colorado outside Denver, and it has carried several network affiliations, including NBC, DuMont and ABC, before becoming a CBS station. Gray Media's predecessor owned it for years before the swap. In April 2026 the FCC cleared a swap that gave Scripps KKTV, creating a duopoly. The swap also covered Grand Junction and other markets, and Gray Media and Scripps each announced its closing in May 2026. In August 2026 Scripps merged the two newsrooms into KKTV's building and cut about 15 positions as part of a company-wide reduction of roughly 268 jobs. It said this would reduce duplicate coverage and shift resources to original reporting, and it is moving toward more automation and AI and a planned 24-hour streaming news service. Neither station has a well-known history of strong partisan editorial positions. Their coverage follows standard local-TV news norms and relies heavily on network and wire content. Consolidation may reduce the number of independent local voices in the market. Their stance toward the second Trump administration is based on this general pattern; I did not find a documented analysis of their recent political coverage.

Sources

  1. 15 laid off at KKTV, KOAA, part of national consolidation by E.W. Scripps Co. (Colorado Springs Gazette)
  2. FCC approves station swap, giving Scripps a duopoly in Colorado Springs (Colorado Springs Gazette)
  3. License swap gives Scripps broadcasting control of TV news in Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Grand Junction (Colorado Sun)
  4. Scripps completes station swap with Gray Media (Scripps investor relations)
  5. Gray Media Closes Station Swap Transaction with EW Scripps (GlobeNewswire)
  6. KOAA-TV (Wikipedia)
  7. KKTV (Wikipedia)
  8. KOAA-TV News5 Colorado Springs-Pueblo: About Us

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

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