WHDH and NBC are planning their next moves in their ugly television ?divorce now that a federal judge has knocked the legs out from under Channel 7’s legal challenge to the network’s move to strip it of all NBC programming on Jan. 1.

“The matter is under ?review,” WHDH spokeswoman Joan McCready told the Track. “We have no comment at this time.”

Meanwhile, NBC must move quickly in order to get a network-owned station, dubbed NBC Boston, up and running in just over six months.

As you may know, U.S. Judge Richard Stearns on Monday threw out Channel 7’s bid to hang onto its NBC affiliation, saying the station fell victim to “doing business in a competitive and unsentimental marketplace.” The decision appears to clear the way for NBC to launch a network-owned station in Boston on Jan. 1 and to move all the NBC programming — “The Voice,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Sunday Night Football,” etc. — from Channel 7 to the new signal.

The judge ruled that ’HDH had no standing to claim that the new station would fail in its duties to provide free over-the-air television to the Boston area because it will broadcast on WNEU’s signal, which is weaker than WHDH’s.

“He seemed to leave it up to the viewers to make that complaint,” said one local TV insider. “But there aren’t a lot of rabbit ears out there. Most people have cable.”

NBC has not confirmed that it will broadcast over WNEU, a station that it owns and which currently carries Telemundo programming. A network source said that issue “hasn’t been resolved yet.”

“I think NBC will wind up with a stronger signal,” said our spy. “Especially with the spectrum auction coming up.”

The FCC wants to buy local TV signals from smaller stations willing to go dark and will auction their broadcast capability off to the highest bidders — an opportunity for NBC to pick up more signal strength. NBC also reportedly is eyeing purchasing Channel 68 in Boston, which would give it the same broadcast reach as WHDH.

NBC has already hired a raft of talent to man its ?local news operation when it goes on the air, and will share resources with NECN, which, like the network, is owned by Comcast. Until the new station begins broadcasting, the talent has been working at NECN.

The new pickups include:

•?Former Channel 7 weatherman Pete Bouchard.

•?Investigative reporter Karen Hensel, who worked for WISH in Indianapolis for 14 years.

•?Former Fox 25 anchor/reporter Shannon Mulaire, who anchored “Early ?Today” on NBC and “First Look” on MSNBC.

•?Melody Mendez, who began her career at Boston Neighborhood Network News and most recently anchored WFLD’s “Good Day Chicago.”

•?Former Fox 25 anchor/reporter Joy Lim Nakrin.

And rumor has it, the NBC Boston suits also are eyeing Phil Lipof, whose contract with WCVB runs out at the end of the year.

They’ve not determined yet who is going to anchor what newscast,” said the insider. “Usually, stations have something specific in mind. It’s a work in progress I guess, but they have a lot of work to do to get going.”

As always, do stay tuned …