WTVJ Joins WFOR and WPLG in Miami Chopper Pool

By Andrew Gauthier 

What was once the Sky 10 news helicopter has been rechristened Sky 20 as WTVJ (channel 6) joins WFOR (4) in sharing what was originally WPLG‘s (10) chopper.

CBS O&O WFOR and ABC-affiliate WPLG entered into a pool agreement at the start of 2010 and now NBC O&O WTVJ has joined as well, according to SFLTV. WTVJ had been operating without its own news chopper.

The move now leaves Fox-affiliate WSVN as the only Miami station to have its own eye in the sky.

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Details of the WTVJ deal are scarce but one can assume that the revised pool agreement will stick to the existing rule of 60 hours of flight time per month, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. It remains to be seen how those hours will be partitioned, though. Under the WFOR-WPLG deal, the stations were allowed up to 5 hours of private flight time per month and they took turns every month dispatching the helicopter.

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