Lexington station suffers ‘catastrophic technical issues’

WTVQ, in Lexington, Kentucky, suffered a massive systems failure that hampered its ability to produce local news and other content.

The issue is being blamed on Charter’s Spectrum broadband services, according to the station. 

A server went down Dec. 4, 2023, and knocked out internet access to WTVQ, which brands as ABC 36, leading to “catastrophic technical issues.”

The internet outage apparently caused numerous downstream failures, which prevented systems such as video file transfer and teleprompters from functioning. 

The station did manage to produce some newscast content using paper scripts and mostly without any video footage. The station’s pared-down newscasts were also unavailable on some platforms. 

Internet access was restored to the building the next day, but some systems were still not fully back online, and at least some production was affected going into Dec. 6, 2023.

WTVQ is owned by Morris Multimedia, which owns a handful of TV stations and newspapers, mostly in the southern U.S. and Caribbean. 

It was not clear if the station had any backup systems in place that it could have turned to or what infrastructure or tools the station uses to produce programs. Having internet access and a reliable local network is increasingly becoming important for television production, especially as IP-based production becomes more popular (though it’s not clear if WTVQ uses that technology).

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Of course, reporters and editorial staffers need internet access to access resources online when building stories.

Most TV stations have backup power generators in the event of electrical failures, but this is a standalone system. There may also be contingency plans in place for events such as these, such as using a remote ENG or production vehicle to produce news.

A reliable backup internet connection can be hard to come by depending on the station location, what utility lines run nearby, and if the station is willing to invest in dedicated backup lines. Of course, like all electronic networked systems, there are also numerous failure points that could affect even backup systems.

Some businesses have invested in backup services that use wireless cellular connections or satellite signals for internet, but these often aren’t ideal for moving large files such as video around, though they could likely at least handle moving text for scripts.

If some or all of the station’s computer system is hosted off-site under a SaaS model, then a lost internet connection could have even more catastrophic effects.