KUTV is the CBS affiliate serving the greater Salt Lake City, Utah metro area. The station broadcasts on VHF channel 2 from Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains as well as a variety of translators throughout Utah, Nevada and Wyoming-including a full power satellite, KUSG channel 12 serving the St. George area.
It originally signed on in 1954 as Utah's ABC affiliate, trading affiliations with KCPX-TV (now KTVX) in 1960 and becoming an NBC station.
In 1993, NBC bought KUTV. However, in September 1995, KUTV became a CBS affiliate as part of a complex deal resulting from Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W)'s affiliation deal with CBS. CBS traded its longtime O&O in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV, to NBC in exchange for KCNC-TV in Denver, with KUTV added to the deal as compensation. CBS then sold controllling interest in KUTV to Group W. NBC initially wanted to return to KTVX, but ultimately signed with KSL-TV.
When Group W's owner, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, merged with CBS in 1996, KUTV became a CBS O&O. It is one of the few stations in the country to have been affiliated with all three original television networks.
At the time, KUTV retained one NBC program: Saturday Night Live, which remained in its Saturday 10:30pm time slot until about five months later.
In 2003, the station moved from a facility in West Valley City to a street-side studio at 299 Main Street in Downtown Salt Lake's Wells Fargo Building. The move was financed in part by the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency—in the form of $1.2-million in interest free loans. KUTV's newscasts overlook the street, and many segments take advantage of outdoor camera positions. Nearby Gallivan Plaza is also featured in some KUTV programming.
Under CBS ownership, KUTV was one of five CBS-O&O stations that do not follow the CBS Mandate, given the fact it is called 2News as opposed to CBS2 (this branding used on sisters WCBS, WBBM and KCBS. The other four are WCCO in Minneapolis-St. Paul - branded as WCCO 4, KDKA in Pittsburgh - branded as simply KDKA-TV or KDKA-TV 2 (there is a CBS2 logo but residents of Pittsburgh would be upset had this been used "over-the-air"), WJZ in Baltimore - branded as WJZ 13, and WBZ in Boston, branded as simply WBZ.
On February 7 , 2007, CBS Corporation reached an agreement to sell seven of its smaller-market stations, including KUTV and KUSG, to Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., for $185 million. Cerberus then formed a new holding company for the stations, Four Points Media Group, who took over the operation of the stations through local marketing agreements in late-June of 2007. Subsequently, the site was moved to kutv.com with an interface somewhat similar to the former CBS version. The sale was finally approved by the FCC in mid-November of 2007, and ownership was officially transferred on January 10, 2008.
As of November 26, 2007, KUTV started hosting master control operations for its Providence (RI) sister station, The CW affiliate WLWC, which was also acquired by the Four Points Media Group. On February 25, 2008, KUTV added three new stations from West Palm Beach, Florida to this operation, officially becoming the hub network for Four Points. The stations are The CW affiliate WTVX, the MyNetworkTV affiliate WTCN, and Azteca América affiliate WWHB.
