Boston television is headed for a seismic shakeup in 2017, when NBC programming moves from Channel 7 to a new station called NBC Boston — which will air on WNEU (Ch. 60) — and the powerhouse network is already assembling a news team that includes just-departed 7News weatherman Pete Bouchard.

According to a source with knowledge of the deal, NBC­Universal already has informed Sunbeam Television, which owns Channel 7, that they will not be renewing the station’s NBC affiliation when their contract runs out at the end of next year.

Instead, all NBC programming, sports, news, entertainment, late night, etc., will move to NBC-owned WNEU. The Telemundo programming currently airing on WNEU will move to a digital channel that NBC owns.

It is likely that Sunbeam will then move the CW programming currently airing on Channel 56, which it also owns, to Channel 7. But Channel 7 Vice President and General Manager Paul Magnes said he doesn’t see that happening because the station expects to keep its longtime relationship with NBC.

“Our contract expires 1/1/17 and we fully expect to extend our affiliation agreement with NBC,” he told the Herald.

But a source said, “This is a done deal.”

Bouchard, the popular longtime Channel 7 chief meteorologist, left the station earlier this week and will report for duty at New England Cable News, which is owned by NBC and parent company Comcast.

NBC also is wooing former Fox 25 anchor Maria Stephanos for its Boston news operation.

“Maria has not made any ?decision as to what her next move is yet. She’s quietly enjoying her time with her family,” Stephanos’ agent, Lisa Hall Mazzaglia, said.

Every station in town, as well as out-of-town stations and some in New York, have shown interest in Stephanos, a source said. WBZ-TV (Ch. 4), which is struggling in the ratings, would want to team her up with her former Fox 25 co-anchor David?Wade. Channel 5 is adding ?4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. newscasts on WCVB and a 10 p.m. newscast on MeTV, which parent company Hearst also owns. It also is chasing Stephanos.

“It’s between Channel 5 and NBC,” said a source.

NBC has been quietly gearing up for the Boston news operation for months. The company sunk millions of dollars into building a state-of-the-art news studio at New England Cable News. And late last year it hired longtime news veteran Kenny Plotnik, a vice president and news director for New York ABC affiliate WABC-TV, as vice president of news.

NBC has long wanted to own a television station in Boston — the eighth-largest TV market in the country — but Sunbeam owner Ed Ansin has refused to sell Channel 7. Ansin’s station has a far superior broadcast signal than WNEU, but only a small percentage of viewers do not have cable, making that ?almost a moot point. And ?because NBC is owned by Comcast, the cable provider can make sure that the new station has an easy-to-find position on the channel lineup.

NBC and Ansin have had a long and fractious relationship going back decades. In 1988, the network pulled its programming off Sunbeam-owned WSVN in Miami, which subsequently ?became a Fox affiliate.

In 2009, the network threatened to strip Channel 7 of its NBC affiliation when Ansin?initially refused to air the ?10 p.m. Jay Leno show, saying he preferred to launch a local ?10 p.m. newscast. Ansin caved,?but in the end was proved correct when Leno’s disas­trous ?foray into prime time failed.

But even if Ansin loses his NBC affiliation, his stations are still worth hundreds of millions. The FCC is launching a broadcast buyback program to purchase local TV stations willing to go off the air. The agency will then auction the space on the broadcast spectrum to wireless communications companies that are desperate for more bandwidth. An FCC-commissioned study has put the value of a Boston station’s air at as much as a half-billion dollars.

Ansin did not return a call. ?NBCUniversal spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman also declined comment.