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Nexstar bids for Media General


TheRob

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It's like Nexstar just wants to buy stations without any forethought. They buy Media General, then not only are they going to be run down to the ground, they might as well buy Meredith as well. And I still think CBS should've bought KLAS, not Nexstar and contrary to what Sook thinks, Nexstar buying Media General doesn't make any sense.

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It's like Nexstar just wants to buy stations without any forethought. They buy Media General, then not only are they going to be run down to the ground, they might as well buy Meredith as well. And I still think CBS should've bought KLAS, not Nexstar and contrary to what Sook thinks, Nexstar buying Media General doesn't make any sense.

 

Nexstar buying both Meredith and Media General would send them over the 39% cap.

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It may not be a fun thought for current employees, but this makes a lot more sense than the MMG merger proposal. It had conflicts in half of the markets Meredith was in. It involved operations in publishing, an industry which MG had divested from just recently. Coupled with the LIN merger, it would have created a huge debt load for no apparent reason. The Meredith magazines coupled with the Meredith stations in Phoenix, Atlanta, Flint, KC, St Louis, and Vegas isn't worth 3 billion minus whatever trades or revenue would come back from divestments in Nashville, Portland, Hartford, Springfield, Greenville, and Mobile. That was insane and if I were a MG shareholder, I would have voted against it.

 

Nexstar/Media General would create debt, but not quite to the staggering extent that the appallingly large MMG transaction would gave done. And at least the conflicts would be minimal and mostly confined to small markets. At least it makes sense.

 

That being said, adding the proposed cash payment to MG shareholders and existing MG debt to Nextar's existing debt would create a pretty big balance in Nexstar's debt in its own right. So my analysis might be moot.

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You've still gotta feel for KOIN/KSNW/KSNT though, this would be the sixth time they've changed hands in the last 16 years (and fifth in a decade, which also includes KHON)

 

Or the people who still work for KTVK after the past few years. Meredith has really kept a somewhat "hands off" approach on them, although they now share a newsroom with KPHO. If the Meredith/Media General merger goes through, MG will find ways to really streamline the KTVK/KPHO operations. This will eventually happen if the M/MG merger falls apart anyway; as I said before, Meredith isn't a free-spending company, and the current setup seems bloated...

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If Media General prevails, Nexstar and Gray should talk about getting together. This way, they can be a superpower with hundreds of stations and stay below the top 50. The only conflicts would be in small places like Panama City, Grand Junction, Dothan and once the Schurz deal goes through, places like Roanoke and Springfield, MO.

 

Media General is too big to be swallowed up by a company like Nexstar. MG is still suffering from their ill-fated purchase of the NBC O&Os. And they still don't have a clue what they are doing after being married to Young and LIN thanks to more debt.....

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If Media General prevails, Nexstar and Gray should talk about getting together. This way, they can be a superpower with hundreds of stations and stay below the top 50. The only conflicts would be in small places like Panama City, Grand Junction, Dothan and once the Schurz deal goes through, places like Roanoke and Springfield, MO.

 

Media General is too big to be swallowed up by a company like Nexstar. MG is still suffering from their ill-fated purchase of the NBC O&Os. And they still don't have a clue what they are doing after being married to Young and LIN thanks to more debt.....

 

Assuming that all other deals are completed, conflicts with Nexstar and Gray:

 

* Dothan, AL

* Grand Junction, CO

* Panama City, FL

* Rockford, IL

* Alexandria, LA

* Monroe, LA

* Springfield, MO

* Bismarck-Minot, ND

* Bryan-College Station, TX

* Midland-Odessa, TX

* Waco, TX

* Roanoke, VA

* La Crosse-Eau Claire, WI

 

That is a total of 13...mostly in low markets where they are the only game in town as well.

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Yuck, WFLA as a Nexstar station is an unsettling thought.

 

Nexstar is a fine owner in small to lower markets but they should never operate in a large market unless they start opening up their wallets a little more. Heck, I think Las Vegas and Salt Lake City are markets too big for them.

 

I don't think Tampa is ready for Local 8.

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Yuck, WFLA as a Nexstar station is an unsettling thought.

 

Nexstar is a fine owner in small to lower markets but they should never operate in a large market unless they start opening up their wallets a little more. Heck, I think Las Vegas and Salt Lake City are markets too big for them.

 

I don't think Tampa is ready for Local 8.

 

Nexstar isn't suited running a standalone CW in Market 12. Never understood why they bought KASW. It seems like they've been "absentee owners" for the station so far (even SagamoreHill under the Meredith SSA seemed to care more). Once they moved to the new broadcast hub, I still see top-of-the-hour ID's with the azfamily.com web site; I've even seen a NAB promo with KTVX/KUCW's logos plastered on it.

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So activist investor Starboard Value, which owns 4.5% of Media General, likes the Nexstar deal. They are even threatening to nominate an alternative slate of directors at the next shareholders meeting. That caused stock to jump again today (MEG went up 22% yesterday on a bad, bad day for the markets).

 

Starboard is notorious for this. They have pushed Macy's to try and spin off a REIT, pressed Olive Garden to serve fewer breadsticks (and ousted parent Darden's entire board!), and called for the Office Depot-Staples merger. Oh my gosh this is going to be fun — but with their laser focus on cost efficiencies, potentially very bad news for the stations.

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So activist investor Starboard Value, which owns 4.5% of Media General, likes the Nexstar deal. They are even threatening to nominate an alternative slate of directors at the next shareholders meeting. That caused stock to jump again today (MEG went up 22% yesterday on a bad, bad day for the markets).

 

Starboard is notorious for this. They have pushed Macy's to try and spin off a REIT, pressed Olive Garden to serve fewer breadsticks (and ousted parent Darden's entire board!), and called for the Office Depot-Staples merger. Oh my gosh this is going to be fun — but with their laser focus on cost efficiencies, potentially very bad news for the stations.

 

Doesn't Starboard Value favor cost efficiencies?

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So activist investor Starboard Value, which owns 4.5% of Media General, likes the Nexstar deal. They are even threatening to nominate an alternative slate of directors at the next shareholders meeting. That caused stock to jump again today (MEG went up 22% yesterday on a bad, bad day for the markets).

 

Starboard is notorious for this. They have pushed Macy's to try and spin off a REIT, pressed Olive Garden to serve fewer breadsticks (and ousted parent Darden's entire board!), and called for the Office Depot-Staples merger. Oh my gosh this is going to be fun — but with their laser focus on cost efficiencies, potentially very bad news for the stations.

 

 

Well that isn't good. Do they have enough power to force this deal through ?

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To me, Nexstar's offer to MG seems a little desperate; Media General decided to reject a $2.1 billion takeover bid by the company on August 10, so what if MG prefers to be the buyers and not the ones being bought? Also, I would think reneging the Meredith deal would risk causing a magnified version of the dispute between CBS and Belo over WUPL a decade ago. Call off the deal (in which Meredith's CEO was named MG's president-to-be, BTW) and Meredith might sue Media General and Nexstar, it's best to consider that possibility in weighing the decision not to sell.

 

And anyway, what would Nexstar do with larger market stations (their largest station by market size, if you don't count WHAG, is KASW), especially news-intensive ones like KRON and WISH? Their closest experience with running news-intensive stations was when they owned WTVW pre-disaffiliation from Fox, and both KRON and WISH are more news-heavy than WTVW ever was. MG hasn't really done much with KRON other than overseeing their relocation to the annex of KGO-TV's facility, but they have turned WISH into basically Indianapolis' version of WGN with the heavy news lineup and the sports rights it acquired for the station or moved over from WNDY.

 

It would also make Nexstar's investment in creating a news department for WFXR pointless, since Media General owns the station that has been producing WFXR's newscasts since 1996, WSLS (a deal that ends tomorrow, September 30, in fact). That is unless Nexstar is willing to sell WFXR and WWCW to someone other than Mission or Marshall (or even White Knight, since they have SSAs with that group through the ComCorp purchase) that will agree to operate and own those stations independently from WSLS or any other Roanoke station.

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Before the economic collapse of 2008, Media General had a similar proxy fight with Harbinger Capital partners. Media General advised against their election, and Harbinger ended up with three seats on their board when the shareholders made their voices heard.

 

This was when the economy was tanking, along with the newspaper industry, and not too long after Media General closed on the former NBC O&Os. Soon after the collapse was in full force, they ended up pulling their investment causing even more chaos.

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What a mess this is turning into. First Media General buys Meredith now Nexstar wants to buy MG? Folks, this is 1989 when Paramount Communications attempted to buy Time, Inc. when at the time Time was merging with Warner Communications all over again. This madness of mergers and media companies getting bigger madness needs to be stopped.

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Former top FCC official Adonis Hoffman thinks that regulators can be persuaded, but it is no sure thing.

 

“No stranger to the FCC, Nexstar will have to convince the regulators that this merger will be in the ‘public interest’ and will not stifle competition,” he told B&C. “These are not insurmountable hurdles, but could be dicey, given the intense scrutiny the FCC has given to Nexstar's recent deals, and a few skeptics on the Eighth Floor."

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Yuck, WFLA as a Nexstar station is an unsettling thought.

 

Nexstar is a fine owner in small to lower markets but they should never operate in a large market unless they start opening up their wallets a little more. Heck, I think Las Vegas and Salt Lake City are markets too big for them.

 

I don't think Tampa is ready for Local 8.

 

I agree with you, and let see we have some of the biggest shops under Media General; KRON, WFLA, KOIN & WISH.

I just can't see Nexstar owning some the stations. KRON would probably be gutted. WFLA has a solid product as well as KOIN. WISH-TV has a very polished product, but without CBS. I just don't see what they would do with WISH.

 

One thing for sure many long time vets would either be shown the door, or leave. Nexstar in smaller markets have a very simple cookie-cutter product. I know I shit on Sinclair and their cookie cutter product, but will give them their credit. They've made some strides to better their product, but still cookie cutter.

 

I can't see Nexstar with WISH, KRON, WFLA & KOIN. Oh, and let us not forget the crazy web url they give their stations. These are some big markets and playing with the big leagues not Erie, PA. We don't need ourtampabay.com for WFLA. I don't see the folks at KRON saying mybayareanews.com. For Indy the good folks at WISH would say mywishindy.com.

 

I think Media General should move forward with the Meredith bid and find some good owners for those particular stations in those certain markets and MG moves forward. I feel Nexstar wants to be like Sinclair which has gotten lucky getting into the bigger markets, and they feel they can put their own stamp in Tampa, San Fran, Indy, Portland.

 

Nexstar should find another company that could work together as in merging. SJL, or Block Communications, or Gray?

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I agree with you, and let see we have some of the biggest shops under Media General; KRON, WFLA, KOIN & WISH.

I just can't see Nexstar owning some the stations. KRON would probably be gutted. WFLA has a solid product as well as KOIN. WISH-TV has a very polished product, but without CBS. I just don't see what they would do with WISH.

 

One thing for sure many long time vets would either be shown the door, or leave. Nexstar in smaller markets have a very simple cookie-cutter product. I know I shit on Sinclair and their cookie cutter product, but will give them their credit. They've made some strides to better their product, but still cookie cutter.

 

I can't see Nexstar with WISH, KRON, WFLA & KOIN. Oh, and let us not forget the crazy web url they give their stations. These are some big markets and playing with the big leagues not Erie, PA. We don't need ourtampabay.com for WFLA. I don't see the folks at KRON saying mybayareanews.com. For Indy the good folks at WISH would say mywishindy.com.

 

I think Media General should move forward with the Meredith bid and find some good owners for those particular stations in those certain markets and MG moves forward. I feel Nexstar wants to be like Sinclair which has gotten lucky getting into the bigger markets, and they feel they can put their own stamp in Tampa, San Fran, Indy, Portland.

 

Nexstar should find another company that could work together as in merging. SJL, or Block Communications, or Gray?

 

Nope. Not with Gray. Gray is fine on its own. And I was actually thinking of "myindywish.com" or "ourindywish.com"

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