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Sinclair Broadcast Group - General Discussion


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48 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

And the process begins.... We don't know what the end result to all of this. Whether they'll get a hefty fine, or lose its licenses, etc., that's too early to tell. But I wouldn't be surprised if this would open up a brand new hearing, since the Media Bureau is now probing this matter. And it's great to start the process now because remember, next year 2020, Sinclair's crown jewels (WBFF & WJLA) are up for license renewals.

 

Here's the full letter from the FCC. With the list of info & documents the Commission is requesting (p.3-4 on the PDF).

 

Some of the info they're asking for from Sinclair:

 

And it goes on to asking Sinclair for any documents that they haven't already submitted, like other agreements, loan guarantee, etc.

 

Sinclair has until July 9 to respond to this inquiry.

That looked like more than 3 questions that CNBC and others were reporting.

 

But, of course they don't tell you eveything

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7 hours ago, MidwestTV said:

I'm curious to know what a punishment would be if FCC concludes they did?

The FCC forcing Sinclair to sell stations/lose licenses would seem out the question. What is far more likely is that Sinclair would get something that would amount to a slap on the wrist and some rule changes that would affect everyone. But any hearings will make good theater.

Edited by doublejman69
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On 6/10/2019 at 5:47 PM, GoldenShine9 said:

 

They do have the advantage of two transmitters, so I can't see them being that low. I thought Nexstar's WCIA was always the leader, but I think WICS (and its satellite WICD) are 2nd ahead of Block's WAND, which is location-challenged.

The stations only really target the areas were there based. WICS does well in Springfield, WAND in the central part in the market and WCIA in the eastern. The Springfield market plays much smaller than its ranking. 77?

 

Eat News is right; it's going be very difficult Crain to find another Meteorologist job especially in that market. No GM/ND would want to take the risk of him bashing their station onair. 

Edited by doublejman69
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32 minutes ago, doublejman69 said:

The FCC forcing Sinclair to sell stations/lose license would seem out the question. What is far more likely is that Sinclair would get something that would amount to a slap on the wrist and some rule changes that would affect everyone. But any hearings will make good theater.

One of the big rule changes I could see take place (and this may or may not take affect until after the Elections next year nut could also occure beforehand) is the elimination of using sidecars to skirt around FCC rules/regulations (which would likely result in a lot of virtual triopolies and quadropolies being broken up)

 

That's not for certain whether it'll happen or not but, I think that's a very real possibility

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A potential worst-case scenario would be the breakup of Sinclair much like Adelphia (under bankruptcy due to their fraud) where their cable systems were largely divided between Time Warner and Comcast.  There's plenty of broadcasters who could snatch up some extra stations should they be forced on the market.

 

They need their day in court because of not only their Tribune antics, but other ownership games they've played before and gotten away with.

 

Throw the book at 'em, Sonny!

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3 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

Just out of curiosity, what was the largest fine the FCC has ever given in their history as an agency?

 

The largest fine the FCC has imposed was back in 2015, when it fined AT&T $100 million for violating the FCC'S "Transparency Rule".

 

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0617/FCC-15-63A1.pdf

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Hypothetical question:  If Sinclair were to end up losing their station licenses, would it be a 22-year court battle like RKO General was?

 

I mean, we don't know if the industry will even be around in 2041..

 

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33 minutes ago, mre29 said:

Hypothetical question:  If Sinclair were to end up losing their station licenses, would it be a 22-year court battle like RKO General was?

 

I mean, we don't know if the industry will even be around in 2041..

 

 

TV will absolutely be around in 2041. Whether it will be a zombie industry like radio is another question.

 

I think the length of a court battle largely depends on whose administration is in office when this all comes to a head. If Trump gets another four years and it's his FCC again, Sinclair probably gets away with murder. If it's, say, a type like Sanders or Warren, I could honestly see Sinclair just packing up shop. Anything in between probably gets murky.

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2 hours ago, TSSZNews said:

 

TV will absolutely be around in 2041. Whether it will be a zombie industry like radio is another question.

 

I think the length of a court battle largely depends on whose administration is in office when this all comes to a head. If Trump gets another four years and it's his FCC again, Sinclair probably gets away with murder. If it's, say, a type like Sanders or Warren, I could honestly see Sinclair just packing up shop. Anything in between probably gets murky.

The problem is that Ajit Pai has distanced himself from President Trump, Pai was the one that brought up the "lack of candor" issues and had Pai not investigated Sinclair's actions (in spite of what President Trump says about Pai) the Dems would be calling for Pai to resign right now.

 

The bottom line is this:

 

Could licenses of the stations owned and/or operated by Sinclair be threatened? Yes, but it probably won't be pulled

 

Will there be some form of divestitures whether it's from Sinclair itself, their shell companies, or both? Absolutely, especially the stations owned by the shell companies.

 

Also the FCC might also order that parts of the original Standard deal be honored (i.e. the Sinclair stations that were part of the original deal) but other than that, the rest of the original deals in that now-cancelled Tribune deal is nullified and it won't be honored by the FCC

 

Beyond that I fully expect a hefty fine and the FCC will probably prohibit Sinclair from making any deals broadcast-related (not related to divesting of the statiuons both the stations part of the Standard deal on the Sinclair side as well as stations owned by companies like Cunningham, and Deerfield which would likely result in some of the stations owned by Sinclair that are tied to the stations owned by the shells being sold as well) for a certain length of time

Edited by oknewsguy
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I'm guessing they will settle with a hefty fine (say, $100 million) and additional conditions (i.e. no new acquisitions for x amount of time, like 2 or 3 years). I can't see this ending up like RKO General nor do I see any forced divestments...that would end up going through the SCOTUS and creating a whole new can of worms.

Edited by GoldenShine9
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7 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

I'm guessing they will settle with a hefty fine (say, $100 million) and additional conditions (i.e. no new acquisitions for x amount of time, like 2 or 3 years). I can't see this ending up like RKO General nor do I see any forced divestments...that would end up going through the SCOTUS and creating a whole new can of worms.

Do you see any scenario where the FCC forces Sinclair to honor parts of the Tribune deal (i.e. the Standard Media deal) plus did the RKO General thing went through SCOTUS too?

 

 

I think we are all in agreement that Sinclair will have to pay at least a hefty fine and will be restricted from acquiring any broadcast licenses for a certain length of time

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I see a major fine & scolding as well and no buying TV stations for a couple of years. No way do I see Sinclair going bye bye bye just my opinion.

 

I think the weatherman should have kept it in house and not bash Code Red on air like he did which I think was with local bosses just kept it private. Although Code Red wasn't a right name for it WWMT never used Code Red they use Serve Weather 3 that is there branding for weather forecast since the Freedom days they have used it.

 

I see some hopefuls running for president want the DOJ to deny Sinclair of buying the RSN's which I doubt that will happen which is just pandering is all. Plus DOJ wanted Disney to sell the RSN's because they would own most of the sports rights.

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1 minute ago, Megatron81 said:

I see some hopefuls running for president want the DOJ to deny Sinclair of buying the RSN's which I doubt that will happen which is just pandering is all. Plus DOJ wanted Disney to sell the RSN's because they would own most of the sports rights.

(I hope quoting certain parts of the post doesn't break the quote but if it is let me know)

 

Thing is though they would be doing the same thing had Liberty Media/MLB won the bid for the RSNs, it doesn't help that Disney only got at most half in return after initially acquiring the RSNs from the Murdoch's for over $20 Billion.

 

On top of that these same Dems wouldn't be crying foul over this had Big 3/Ice Cube won the bid but they didn't so....

 

Here's the link to it, NOTE: it is behind the paywall unfortunately https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2019/06/26/Media/Congress-Sinclair.aspx

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16 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

Do you see any scenario where the FCC forces Sinclair to honor parts of the Tribune deal (i.e. the Standard Media deal) plus did the RKO General thing went through SCOTUS too?

 

 

I think we are all in agreement that Sinclair will have to pay at least a hefty fine and will be restricted from acquiring any broadcast licenses for a certain length of time

 

No, I don't. In fact, Standard (in that form) doesn't even seem to exist anymore, it appears to be a completely different company now.

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5 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

No, I don't. In fact, Standard (in that form) doesn't even seem to exist anymore, it appears to be a completely different company now.

Tbh even though that yes the original Standard Media may have dissolved but it dissolved through absolutely no fault of their own, it was just the greediness from Sinclair that caused the deal to fall apart they way it did

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  • 3 weeks later...
5 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

https://abc6onyourside.com/station/people

 

Somehow I ended up on the WSYX talent page. I count 35 people. I know at least one of them is a Sinclair reporter, but is their news department really this large?

 

It makes sense when you're operating a virtual duopoly with WTTE via LMA.

 

Apart from Kristine Frazao and Scott Thurman (who are both from corporate out of the DC bureau and shouldn't be considered as local talent), they have roughly 12 anchors (at least 3 with dual roles as anchors and reporters, and 3 who are also I-Team investigators), 7 general assignment reporters, 5 meteorologists, 1 sports director (Clay Hall), 1 traffic reporter/anchor (Katie McKee), 1 "Mobile Trak" guy (Mike Kilburn), 1 consumer investigator (Jesse Pagan), 3 MMJs, and two feature and entertainment people. And that's between BOTH stations.

 

I really wish Sinclair's stations had their talent pages better organized.

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6 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

https://abc6onyourside.com/station/people

 

Somehow I ended up on the WSYX talent page. I count 35 people. I know at least one of them is a Sinclair reporter, but is their news department really this large?

 Yes, it is that large the morning show "Good Day Columbus" is a large cast.

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If you want to know how any SEC or FCC fine against Sinclair is going to go down, just realize that today the SEC fined Facebook $100 million, which sounds like a lot until you realize that 3 months ago Facebook had $11 billion dollars cash on hand and reported $15 billion in revenue.

 

Sinclair, if fined, will get the equivalent of a speeding ticket for the average person. It stings but it doesn't bankrupt you.

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On 7/19/2019 at 10:15 AM, DirtyHarry said:

https://abc6onyourside.com/station/people

 

Somehow I ended up on the WSYX talent page. I count 35 people. I know at least one of them is a Sinclair reporter, but is their news department really this large?

 

https://wwmt.com/station/people

 

WWMT has 27 (2 National Sinclair, 1 Michigan Sinclair reporter) which is rather large for the Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek market -- especially since this station is very heavily focused on the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek portion.

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12 hours ago, Weeters said:

If you want to know how any SEC or FCC fine against Sinclair is going to go down, just realize that today the SEC fined Facebook $100 million, which sounds like a lot until you realize that 3 months ago Facebook had $11 billion dollars cash on hand and reported $15 billion in revenue.

 

Sinclair, if fined, will get the equivalent of a speeding ticket for the average person. It stings but it doesn't bankrupt you.

Have we heard anything out of the FCC or Sinclair since this investigation began? I know they were supposed to turn over evidence to the FCC by the 9th (and here we are on the 25th, they're almost 2 and a half weeks late)

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14 hours ago, Weeters said:

If you want to know how any SEC or FCC fine against Sinclair is going to go down, just realize that today the SEC fined Facebook $100 million, which sounds like a lot until you realize that 3 months ago Facebook had $11 billion dollars cash on hand and reported $15 billion in revenue.

 

Sinclair, if fined, will get the equivalent of a speeding ticket for the average person. It stings but it doesn't bankrupt you.

$100 million is basically like losing one network affiliate station in a place like Charleston, WV maybe?

Edited by DirtyHarry
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