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Sinclair launching original programming division


The Frog

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Sinclair Broadcast Group today launched Sinclair Original Programming, a division that will develop and create original content.

 

SOP’s focus, Sinclair said, will be on entertainment content and business-to-consumer content such as infomercials and direct response commercials. Initially, shows will be developed for the company’s MNT and CW affiliates and will air in primetime and afternoon time periods on the weekend.

 

The division will be led by Arthur Hasson, who is being named chief operating officer of Sinclair Original Programming, reporting into David Smith, Sinclair’s president-CEO. Hasson will also continue as GM of Sinclair’s Harrisburg, Pa., CBS affiliate WHP, which also airs MNT programming on a subchannel, and CW affil WLYH.

 

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/78651/sinclair-starts-original-programming-division

 

 

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But the Canadian versions of Discovery Channel and Animal Planet are partially owned by Discovery Communications themselves. Bell Media owns the TSN name, and may not want Sinclair to use it. Sinclair does have stations in several border markets - this might not help their case.

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But the Canadian versions of Discovery Channel and Animal Planet are partially owned by Discovery Communications themselves. Bell Media owns the TSN name, and may not want Sinclair to use it. Sinclair does have stations in several border markets - this might not help their case.

 

They only own it in Canada. You can't enforce Canadian trademark rights in the US and vice versa. TSN from Canada is a sports network and the US one would be general. They should be OK.
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Why they picked Arthur Hasson to run this division:

 

Hasson most recently and from 2006 was principal-president of MultiPlatform Distribution Co., a producer and distributor of television programming. From 2009 to 2011, he was co-creator and executive producer of Crowd Sourced Hero and Subway High School Heroes, social entertainment programs and competitions.

 

Prior to that, Hasson was chief operating officer and co-founder of ClubCreate Inc., a music creation software and services company. From 1990 through 2005, he served in various roles at NBC Universal Television Distribution, including EVP cable, Canada and ancillary sales; EVP sales and new business; and various sales management roles.

Quite a bit of experience in creating and distributing television programs. In fact, I was kind of perplexed why Sinclair brought him on to run WHP-TV but I guess it was kind of "parking him" there until they were ready for this division. Now it all makes sense.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Since WTTA is being sold to Media General, they currently house one of Sinclair's traffic operations which is responsible for a lot of national and direct response advertising for their stations. This, and the future programming operation could be moving to Harrisburg.

Especially since Harrisburg is close to Hunt Valley. WHP's signal contour actually includes Sinclair headquarters, and an antenna located there might have a chance of picking the station up, to give you a sense of the distance.

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Especially since Harrisburg is close to Hunt Valley. WHP's signal contour actually includes Sinclair headquarters, and an antenna located there might have a chance of picking the station up, to give you a sense of the distance.

 

Explains why WHP seems to be the preferred station to do must run stories if WBFF is unavailable...
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  • 1 month later...

Let's hope this doesn't become like what they were forcing stations to do in 2004-2006 when they had the News Central thing and the Stolen Honor thing. No forcing stations to serve a blatant political agenda as hard news, regardless of the side that agenda is on.

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No forcing stations to serve a blatant political agenda as hard news, regardless of the side that agenda is on.

 

They do that now with their newscasts (at least with the corporate mandated segments).

 

I'm anxious to see what original programming they produce. Hopefully the production qualities won't look as cheap as they do with Ring of Honor, but I'm not holding my breath either.

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