bankruptcy. On February 17, 1993, one day after SCI purchased WTVT in Tampa from Gillett Holdings in a separate agreement for $163 million, New World Pictures purchased a 51% ownership stake in SCI Television from Gillett for $100 million and $63 million in newly issued debt; the film and television production company folded WJW and its six sister stations—fellow CBS affiliates WTVT, WAGA-TV in Atlanta, WJBK-TV in Detroit and WITI-TV in Milwaukee, NBC affiliate KNSD in San Diego and independent station WSBK-TV in Boston—into a new broadcasting subsidiary, New World Communications. Switch to Fox On May 23, 1994, as part of an overall deal in which network parent News Corporation also purchased a 20% equity interest in the group, New World signed a long-term affiliation agreement with Fox to switch 13 television stations that it owned or was acquiring from one of the three major broadcast networks (CBS, ABC and NBC) to Fox once their existing affiliation contracts expired. The deal was motivated by the National Football League (NFL)'s awarding of the rights to the National Football Conference (NFC) television package to Fox on December 18, 1993, in which the conference's broadcast television rights moved to the network effective with the 1994 NFL season, ending a 38-year relationship with CBS. At the time the agreement was signed, the affiliation contract of WJW-TV was set to expire on or shortly after September 1, 1994, giving CBS only five months to land another Cleveland affiliate. The agreement with New World concerned CBS executives, as New World planned to switch several of the network's stronger-performing affiliates in other markets to Fox, a move that often forced CBS to affiliate with either a former Fox affiliate or a lower-profile independent station. To prevent such a situation from happening in Cleveland, CBS approached Scripps-Howard Broadcasting in an attempt to sign its WEWS as the network's new Cleveland affiliate. On June 16, however, Scripps-Howard signed a long-term deal with ABC that would keep WEWS as its Cleveland outlet; this deal also resulted in sister stations WMAR-TV in Baltimore, KNXV-TV in Phoenix, and WFTS-TV in Tampa all switching their affiliations to that network. CBS would reach an agreement with Malrite Communications to move its programming to Fox charter affiliate WOIO (channel 19). WJW switched to Fox on September 3, 1994, becoming the first New World station to switch to the network under the agreement. WOIO concurrently switched