The San Francisco Bay Area is currently defined by Nielsen Media Research as the tenth-largest television market in the United States, [1] with all of the major U.S. television networks having affiliates serving the region. All but one of the major U.S. television networks are directly owned by the networks; the one exception is secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate KRON-TV (now The CW), which is owned by Nexstar Media Group.
Television stations that primarily serve the San Francisco Bay Area include: [2]
Callsign | Owner | City of license | VC | RF | Cable | Antenna | Network | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
KAXT-CD | Weigel Broadcasting (KAXT-TV LLC) | Santa Clara | 1 | 22 | — | Monument Peak | Catchy Comedy | — |
KTVU | Fox Television Stations, LLC | Oakland | 2 | 31 | 2 | Sutro Tower | FOX | Owned-and-operated station since 2014 along with KICU-TV 36 |
KRON-TV | Nexstar Media Group (Nexstar Media Inc.) | San Francisco | 4 | 7 | 4 | The CW [primary]/MyNetworkTV [secondary] | Owned-and-operated station since September 1, 2023, after the move of The CW network. | |
KPIX-TV | CBS News and Stations (Paramount Global) | 5 | 29 | 5 | CBS | Owned-and-operated station since 1995, when Westinghouse Broadcasting bought CBS. | ||
KBKF-LD | Venture Technologies Group (Venture Technologies Group, LLC) | San Jose | 6 | — | — | Air1 | A Low-powered television station. | |
KGO-TV | ABC Owned Television Stations (The Walt Disney Company) | San Francisco | 7 | 12 | 7 | Sutro Tower | ABC | The longest owned-and-operated station affiliated with ABC and owned by the Walt Disney Company. |
KQSL | One Ministries, Inc. | Cloverdale | 8 | — | TLN West | — | ||
KQED | KQED Inc. | San Francisco | 9 | 30 | 9 | PBS | The major PBS member station in the Bay Area. | |
KNTV | NBC Owned Television Stations (Comcast / NBCUniversal) (NBC Telemundo License LLC) | San Jose | 11 | 13 | 3 | San Bruno Mountain | NBC | Owned-and-operated station since 2001 when NBC bought KNTV. |
Bold indicates channel is a network owned-and-operated station and a PBS major member station.
KBKF-LD additionally transmits with an experimental analog FM radio subcarrier that is accessible at 87.7MHz. [3]
Sutro Tower is a unique three-legged 297.8 m (977 ft) tall TV and radio lattice tower located in San Francisco, California. Rising from a hill between Twin Peaks and Mount Sutro near Clarendon Heights, it is a prominent feature of the city skyline and a landmark for city residents and visitors. The tower was the tallest structure in San Francisco from the time of its completion in 1973 until it was surpassed by the Salesforce Tower in 2018.
KGO-TV is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's ABC network outlet. It has been owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division since the station's inception. KGO-TV's studios are located at the ABC Broadcast Center immediately west of The Embarcadero north of the city's Financial District, and its transmitter is located atop Sutro Tower. In addition, KGO-TV leases part of its building to CW outlet KRON-TV, but with completely separate operations.
KPYX, branded KPIX+, is an independent television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside KPIX-TV, the market's CBS owned-and-operated station. The two stations share studios at Broadway and Battery Street, just north of San Francisco's Financial District; KPYX's transmitter is located atop Sutro Tower.
KNTV, branded NBC Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving as the NBC outlet for the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Telemundo outlet KSTS ; it is also sister to regional sports networks NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California. KNTV and KSTS share studios on North 1st Street in the North San Jose Innovation District; KNTV's transmitter is located on San Bruno Mountain, and two of its subchannels are also broadcast from the KSTS tower on Mount Allison.
KPIX-TV, also known as CBS Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's CBS network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside independent station KPYX, also licensed to San Francisco. The two stations share studios at Broadway and Battery Street, just north of San Francisco's Financial District; KPIX's transmitter is located atop Sutro Tower. In addition to KPYX, KPIX shares its building with formerly co-owned radio stations KCBS, KFRC-FM, KITS, KLLC, KRBQ and KZDG, although they use a different address number for Battery Street.
KTVU is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside San Jose-licensed independent outlet KICU-TV. The two stations share studios at Jack London Square in Oakland; KTVU's transmitter is located at Sutro Tower in San Francisco.
KRON-TV is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's outlet for The CW. The station also maintains a secondary affiliation with MyNetworkTV. Owned and operated by The CW's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, KRON-TV has studios on Front Street in the city's historic Northeast Waterfront, in the same building as ABC owned-and-operated station KGO-TV, channel 7. The transmitting antenna is located atop Sutro Tower in San Francisco.
KICU-TV, branded on-air as KTVU Plus, is an independent television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by Fox Television Stations alongside Oakland-licensed Fox outlet KTVU. The two stations share studios at Jack London Square in Oakland; KICU-TV's transmitter is located on Monument Peak in Milpitas.
KOFY-TV is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area as an affiliate of Merit Street Media. It is owned by CNZ Communications, LLC, alongside Class A station KCNZ-CD and low-power station KQRM-LD. The three stations share transmitter facilities atop San Bruno Mountain. KOFY-TV's studios were previously located on Marin Street in the Bayview–Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco until 2018; the station has since maintained space at KGO-TV's studios north of the city's Financial District.
KDTV-DT is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the Spanish-language Univision network outlet for the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision alongside Vallejo-licensed UniMás outlet KFSF-DT. The two stations share studios on Zanker Road near the North San Jose Innovation District in San Jose; KDTV-DT's transmitter is located on Mount Allison in Fremont.
KKPX-TV is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving as the Ion Television outlet for the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company, and has offices on Price Avenue in Redwood City; its transmitter is located atop San Bruno Mountain.
KEMO-TV is a television station licensed to Fremont, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area with programming from ShopHQ. The station is owned by Innovate Corp. KEMO-TV's transmitter is located at San Francisco's Sutro Tower, and is shared with KMTP-TV, KCNS, and KTNC-TV.
KSTS is a television station licensed to San Jose, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area outlet for the Spanish-language network Telemundo. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group alongside NBC outlet KNTV ; it is also sister to regional sports networks NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California. KSTS and KNTV share studios on North 1st Street in the North San Jose Innovation District; KSTS's transmitter is located on Mount Allison, and two of its subchannels are also broadcast from the KNTV tower on San Bruno Mountain.
KSCZ-LD, virtual channel 16, is a low-powered television station licensed to San Jose and San Francisco, California, United States. It broadcasts mostly Vietnamese-language programming from atop Mount Allison in unincorporated Alameda County. The station is owned by Venture Technologies Group. Until 2017, the station served the Central Coast media market.
The media in the San Francisco Bay Area has historically focused on San Francisco but also includes two other major media centers, Oakland and San Jose. The Federal Communications Commission, Nielsen Media Research, and other similar media organizations treat the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose Area as one entire media market. The region hosts to one of the oldest radio stations in the United States still in existence, KCBS (AM) (740 kHz), founded by engineer Charles Herrold in 1909. As the home of Silicon Valley, the Bay Area is also a technologically advanced and innovative region, with many companies involved with Internet media or influential websites.
Media in Monterey County is a designated market area (DMA) or media market that includes print media and broadcast media in Monterey County, California.
KQSL is a religious television station in Fort Bragg, California, United States, which is a broadcast partner of the Total Living Network. The station is owned by One Ministries, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Santa Rosa, California. KQSL's transmitter is located west of Laytonville, California.
KBKF-LD is a low-power television station in San Jose, California, United States. Owned by Venture Technologies Group, it transmits from an antenna on Loma Prieta Peak.
Puffer is a free and open-source live TV research study operated by Stanford University to improve video streaming algorithms. The study allows users across the United States to watch seven over-the-air television stations broadcasting in the San Francisco Bay Area media market for free.