NBC Cutting Ties With WHDH, Launching Network-Owned Boston Station In 2017

NBC is endings its relationship with WHDH-TV and launching its own network-owned television news station in Boston in 2017.

In a memo to employees Thursday, NBC said it would be "adding significantly" to its local news team over the next year as it prepares to launch NBC Boston on Jan. 1, 2017.

NBC, which is owned by Comcast, already operates NECN and Telemundo Boston here.

"With these investments in necn and Telemundo Boston, we have built a very strong news organization in the Boston market -- both from a personnel and facilities perspective -- which puts us in a great position to launch an NBC-owned station locally," NBC's Valari Staab said in the memo.

Ed Ansin, whose broadcasting company Sunbeam Television has owned WHDH (channel 7) since 1993, told The Boston Globe he has assembled a legal team to challenge NBC's decision to pull its affiliation.

The network said in its memo that the new NBC Boston will be available to over-the-air viewers and will not be a cable-only channel. The memo did not say what signal the new station will broadcast from.