KDFI (channel 27), branded More 27, is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving as the MyNetworkTV outlet for the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.

The two stations share studios on North Griffin Street in downtown Dallas; KDFI's transmitter is located in Cedar Hill, Texas.

The Dallas–Fort Worth market proved brutal for subscription TV, as three different companies competed for subscribers for a period lasting nearly two years.

The market experienced a shake-out that began in September 1982, when VEU, a competing service owned by Golden West Broadcasters, acquired Preview's Metroplex operations.

With VEU continuing to lose subscribers, the station changed its call letters to KDFI-TV in August 1984 and became a full-time commercial independent on October 1 of that year.

Dallas Media Investors reorganized in bankruptcy in the early 1990s to settle a lawsuit with Paramount Pictures and a dispute among stockholders.

In 1994, Argyle Television, then-owner of KDFW-TV, took over KDFI-TV's programming under a local marketing agreement; KDFW and KDFI became co-owned in 1999 when the Federal Communications Commission permitted duopolies.

In the years following KDFW's takeover of KDFI, channel 27 increased its profile with higher-quality entertainment programming and rights to telecast various DFW-area sports teams, most notably the Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars.

That year, Maxwell Electronics Corporation applied for a new television station on channel 29 in Dallas, which placed it into comparative hearing with two other applicants: Overmyer Communications and Grandview Broadcasting Company.

[3] The change was part of a plan by Overmyer to give both applicants stations by moving the channel 27 allocation from Tyler, Texas, thus replacing 29 with 27 and 33.

[14] Preview charged subscribers a $50 installation fee and $20 a month for continued service, programming sports and feature films;[15] its management believed it would take three to five years for cable to arrive in the city of Dallas.

[18] In adopting aggressive discounting, the services accumulated many non-paying subscribers, with a disconnect rate running as high as eight percent a month.

[19] The first step in consolidation took place on September 1, 1982, when VEU announced it would acquire Preview's customer base and move its programming from KNBN to KTWS-TV by year's end.

One observer told Jerry Coffey of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that one reason VEU succeeded where Preview flagged was a stronger lineup of late-night adult movies.

Dallas Media Investors was led by James R. Grant, a financial consultant, and funded by Warburg Pincus Capital Partners.

[36] VEU petitioned the FCC to deny the sale to Dallas Media Investors, but the commission approved of the transaction on June 22, 1984, and the new owners took control five days later.

Days later, VEU announced that it would leave the air on September 30, bringing to an end the era of subscription television in Dallas–Fort Worth and making way for a full-time commercial programming schedule on channel 27.

McKay hoped advertisers and viewers would take the relaunched station seriously,[37] given its reputation of vanishing at night when it operated in subscription mode.

The owners put the station on the market for two months in 1985, when analysts believed it could go for twice the price the firm had paid, but opted not to sell.

In 1991, Paramount Pictures sued KDFI-TV over failing to pay for reruns of Mork & Mindy, which McKay believed was connected to its acquisition later that year of KTXA.

[47] On May 20, 1994, Argyle Television—then-owner of KDFW-TV—took over management responsibilities for KDFI, including programming and advertising sales, under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Dallas Media Investors.

[52] The Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League, another team affected by KTVT's new CBS affiliation, moved their games to KDFI that same year.

[55] While the stations had pursued the rights to Texas Rangers baseball in 1995,[56] the team signed with KXTX and KXAS-TV, which at the time was programming channel 39 under an LMA.

In 2007, the station simulcast two Dallas Cowboys appearances on Thursday Night Football from NFL Network; the first attracted 46 percent of the audience.