Editing WFTY-DT (section)

===Subscription TV broadcasting===
On August 24, 1978, Suburban Broadcasting found a Canadian [[white knight]] to pay its $5&nbsp;million in debts. [[CanWest]] Capital Corporation provided the financing in a deal that saw CanWest's U.S. [[subscription television]] (STV) subsidiary, Universal Subscription Television, enter into a franchise agreement to provide pay broadcasting over WSNL-TV. CanWest, as a Canadian company, could not own stations outright, but it could provide them with subscription programming.<ref name="Glob800130">{{Cite news|page=B2|date=January 31, 1980|title=Canwest joins U.S. firm in bid for N.Y. market|work=[[The Globe and Mail]]|id={{ProQuest|386984288}} }}</ref> As part of the deal, channel 67 changed its [[city of license]] from Patchogue to Smithtown, where enough commercial, free TV stations were received to permit FCC licensing of an STV station.<ref name="News780805">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-nassau-edition-li-channel-67-t/135881334/|date=August 5, 1978|page=6|title=LI Channel 67 To Reopen, Offer Pay TV|first=Mitchell|last=Freedman|newspaper=Newsday |via=Newspapers.com|access-date=November 30, 2023}}</ref><!-- Sat --> The station began plans for reactivation in late 1979; in addition to subscription programming from Universal Subscription Television, WSNL-TV would air some local programming as a condition of its license.<ref name="News791016">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-li-tv-station-plans-comeback/136062611/|date=October 16, 1979|page=41|first=Brian|last=Moss|title=LI TV Station Plans Comeback|newspaper=Newsday|location=Melville, New York |via=Newspapers.com|access-date=November 30, 2023}}</ref><!-- Tue -->

WSNL-TV returned to Long Island screens on December 15, 1979, after nearly {{frac|4|1|2}} years of silence, with a limited schedule of prime time programming during the week and daytime programs on weekends.<ref name="News791215">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-nassau-edition-ch-67-rides-ag/135884194/|date=December 15, 1979|page=II:28|title=Ch. 67 rides again|newspaper=Newsday |via=Newspapers.com|access-date=November 30, 2023}}</ref><!-- Sat --><ref>{{cite news|date=December 30, 1979|title=WSNL-TV Returns to Air On L.I. After 4 1/2 Years|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/30/archives/wsnltv-returns-to-air-on-li-after-4-years.html|newspaper=The New York Times|location=New York, New York|access-date=July 22, 2017|archive-date=November 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107115754/http://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/30/archives/wsnltv-returns-to-air-on-li-after-4-years.html|url-status=live}}</ref> A month later, Suburban filed to sell the station to a new joint venture led by [[Wometco Enterprises]]. This sale meant that, instead of programming from Universal Subscription Television, WSNL would provide STV programming from [[Wometco Home Theater]] (WHT).<ref name="News800116">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition-2-firms-seek-t/135881517/|date=January 16, 1980|page=47|first=Brian|last=Moss|title=2 Firms Seek to Buy Channel 67 Operator|newspaper=Newsday |via=Newspapers.com|access-date=November 30, 2023}}</ref><!-- Wed --> WHT had been operating in the New York market on channel 68 from [[Newark, New Jersey]], at this point known as [[WFUT-DT|WWHT]], since March 1, 1977;<ref name="Reco770426">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-record-pay-tv-goes-wireless/136063311/|date=April 26, 1977|page=A-18|first=Robert|last=Feldberg|title=Pay TV goes wireless|newspaper=The Record|location=Hackensack, New Jersey|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=November 30, 2023}}</ref><!-- Tue --> CanWest approached WHT because it was worried about the viability of a standalone STV service from WSNL.{{r|order|p=361}} From January 30 to June 2, 1980, channel 67 was out of service because of an electrical fire at its Central Islip studios;{{r|order|p=362}} the fire gutted the control room and burned so hot that a brick wall cracked.<ref name="News800131">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition-fire-damage-pu/135881547/|date=January 31, 1980|page=31|title=Fire Damage Puts Ch. 67 Off the Air|newspaper=Newsday |first=Mitchell|last=Freedman|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=December 1, 2023}}</ref><!-- Thu --> The station began airing Wometco Home Theater after returning to the air.<ref>{{Cite news|work=The Film Journal|page=72|title=FCC Grants Wometco Control of WSNL-TV|date=January 15, 1981|id={{ProQuest|1017412119}} }}</ref> It also offered old movies and a nightly newscast.{{r|News800131}}<ref>{{cite news|date=June 19, 1986|title=L.I. no longer ignored by New York City news|url=http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper4/Sayville%20NY%20Suffolk%20County%20News/Sayville%20NY%20Suffolk%20County%20News%201986%20Jan-Jun%201986%20Grayscale/Sayville%20NY%20Suffolk%20County%20News%201986%20Jan-Jun%201986%20Grayscale%20-%201001.pdf|newspaper=Suffolk County News|location=Sayville, New York|page=22|first=Karl|last=Grossman|access-date=June 22, 2016|archive-date=November 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105065556/https://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper4/Sayville%20NY%20Suffolk%20County%20News/Sayville%20NY%20Suffolk%20County%20News%201986%20Jan-Jun%201986%20Grayscale/Sayville%20NY%20Suffolk%20County%20News%201986%20Jan-Jun%201986%20Grayscale%20-%201001.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

The FCC approved of Wometco acquiring WSNL-TV in November 1980. Because channels 67 and 68 had overlapping signals, Wometco would operate WSNL-TV as a simulcast of WWHT with up to four and a half hours a week of its own programming.<ref name="order">{{Cite web|url=https://recnet.net/fccrecord/?id=ark:/67531/metadc770893|page=359|title=Memorandum Opinion and Order (83 FCC 2d 359)|date=November 18, 1980|publisher=[[Federal Communications Commission]]}}</ref> Wometco closed on the purchase in January 1981,<ref>{{Cite news|title=Wometco finalizes TV station buy|page=8|date=January 9, 1981|work=The Hollywood Reporter|id={{ProQuest|2598207355}} }}</ref> and in June, it bought out CanWest's interest in the joint venture and became the sole owner of WSNL while sharing ownership of WWHT with [[Blonder Tongue Labs|Blonder-Tongue Laboratories]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=June 18, 1981|work=The Hollywood Reporter|id={{ProQuest|2598184491}}|page=6|title=Wometco, Uni venture terminated}}</ref>

{{#section:WFUT-DT|shared}} <!--All of this material lives at the article for WFUT!-->

In 2017, Univision reached a deal with the Justice Network, a [[diginet]] focusing on true crime and law enforcement programming, and provided it carriage in 11 markets, including New York City.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nexttv.com/news/univision-rolling-out-justice-network-11-markets-168358|first=Diana|last=Marszalek|title=Univision Rolling Out Justice Network in 11 Markets|date=September 6, 2017|access-date=December 1, 2023|archive-date=May 28, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528002215/https://www.nexttv.com/news/univision-rolling-out-justice-network-11-markets-168358|url-status=live}}</ref> Justice Network rebranded as [[True Crime Network]] in 2020.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Jon|last=Lafayette|url=https://www.nexttv.com/news/tegna-relaunching-justice-as-true-crime-net-with-streaming|date=August 26, 2020|access-date=December 1, 2023|title=Tegna Relaunching Justice as True Crime Net with Streaming|work=Broadcasting & Cable|archive-date=June 27, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627114316/https://www.nexttv.com/news/tegna-relaunching-justice-as-true-crime-net-with-streaming|url-status=live}}</ref>