all television stations transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. It was the last analog station serving the Erie region to make the switch. WICU-TV has aired an annual telethon for the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation since 2008. WICU-TV and WSEE-TV merged their websites in June 2011. News operation Although the local marketing agreement between WICU-TV and WSEE-TV was established in 2002, the actual beginning of newscast consolidation between the two did not start until WSEE-TV actually moved into WICU-TV's studios. WSEE-TV aired the final newscast from its separate Peach Street studios on May 28, 2009. WSEE-TV's weeknight show at 11 moved to its CW-affiliated subchannel so it would no longer directly compete with WICU-TV's newscast. The program in its new time slot now began to air against another prime time newscast seen for an hour on Fox affiliate WFXP (channel 66). In November 2012, Lilly Broadcasting invested close to a million dollars to build the first HD local news studios with WICU-TV and WSEE-TV. Both WICU-TV and WSEE-TV gather news in the field in full HD and present the news in the same high definition format. WICU-TV airs a midday show during the week at 12:30 as opposed to noon in order for WSEE to offer a live newscast in the traditional time slot. On weekends, the two television stations jointly produce local news at 11 while WICU-TV only provides an early evening broadcast at 6 on Saturdays and Sundays. These shows are known as Weekends Now and can be delayed or preempted on one station due to network obligations. During the week, WICU-TV and WSEE-TV maintain primary personnel such as news and sports anchors that only appear on one station. Most video footage and content is shared, however. In cases of breaking news, severe weather, or election coverage the two simulcast newscasts and occasionally include the CW subchannel as well. On weekday mornings, WSEE-DT2 provides a simulcast of the first hour of 12 News Today at 5 and WICU-TV's midday show at 12:30. In September 2015, Lilly Broadcasting announced that WICU-TV and WSEE-TV would no longer produce separate morning and evening newscasts as of October 12; the two stations will instead simulcast newscasts in these time periods under the joint brand Erie News Now. The stations' executive vice president, John Christianson, said that the WICU and WSEE newscasts were seen by viewers to have been essentially