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Sinclair, Tribune Close to Merger Deal


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Conservatism has become a thing of the past in the GOP. Both sides are full of Democrats.

That would imply that Pai and Wheeler's beliefs and enacted policies are nearly identical. That couldn't be further from the truth.

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Time to read the tea leaves. Sinclair will ALREADY start cuts, beginning with WGN America:

 

 

 

And FOX isn't the only one who needs to worry about leverage:

 

 

 

Oh, and they're definitely not getting rid of anything sans CareerBuilder, appropriately enough:

 

 

 

(Source: http://deadline.com/2017/05/wgn-america-focus-cost-effective-originals-reruns-sinclair-ceo-1202086763/)

 

Gulp.

 

Bet ABC wishes they would have been buying stations now.

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It still has to go through the FCC and the DOJ.

I'm sure it will swing in their corner for them but without some changes.

 

Seattle-KOMO 4 is already owned by Sinclair, and FOX is at least hungry for KCPQ unless they merge with KOMO which Sinclair loves. However, here hoping FOX picks up Q13.

 

You have St. Louis, Salt Lake, Harrisburg/York, Grand Rapids, Greensboro/High Point where Sinclair has stations and more likely they all will become one together under one big happy roof. :(:mad::oops:

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It can't Be closed because Markets like Norfolk where Sinclair owns 3 stations(WTKR,WGNT,WTVZ) need to divest one of those stations before the deal is closed.

 

Not 100% certain how Hampton Roads is affected yet (with Sinclair owning WTVZ and WTKR/WGNT being under Tribune spinoff Dreamcatcher Broadcasting), but would the Dreamcatcher stations are counted by the FCC as Tribune since they operate the duopoly via SSA?

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Not 100% certain how Hampton Roads is affected yet (with Sinclair owning WTVZ and WTKR/WGNT being under Tribune spinoff Dreamcatcher Broadcasting), but would the Dreamcatcher stations are counted by the FCC as Tribune since they operate the duopoly via SSA?

That is true. I still think WTKR and WGNT should go to Hearst and leave WTVZ (one of Sinclairs longest owned stations) with Sinclair. Hearst would run the 2 stations better. I could also see something similar to WESH/WKCF for WTKR/WGNT.

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Am I the only one on this newsgroup feeling Deeply Heartbroken for the people of Chicago? I grew up in Boston, but If I grew up in Chicago, instead, I Would NOT be looking Forward to watching WGN anymore! This is blasphemous, and it is why typed in an N followed by dozens of O's, then "! :mad:". Chicagoland, I feel your pain. I also feel the pain of SoCal viewers who grew up with KTLA, who are not looking forward to this change either. I feared this dictatorship from the very beginning and wish someone else could've purchased the big three.

First of all:

 

GOOD LORD. GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF. You shouldn't be THIS emotionally invested in a business transaction. What good are you doing to yourself by being angry about something you can't control. Posters like TheRob work for the affected stations, so their worry and/or disappointment is justified. This isn't.

 

Secondly, this deal was pretty much a fait accompli the second it was rumored. There was more than enough time to brace oneself for this deal. The rumors of Fox being a white knight were nothing more than a sugar pill.

 

Thirdly, the method of delivering content is slowly but surely shifting from linear (OTA, cable) to non-linear. I... I don't know what to tell you, but every telecom group is going to have to evolve or die. Scripps, Raycom, Nexstar, Sinclair... they will eventually be hurting. Sinclair moreso because they've been going on a buying spree funded mostly through retransmission fees recouped by cable providers. They are investing in the wrong industry, and ATSC 3.0 isn't going to be that magic bullet they think it will be, quite frankly.

 

Finally, Tom Freaking Skilling is no dummy. I'm pretty sure he already has an exit strategy if necessary. Who knows, maybe he wants to pursue a non-linear method of delivering the weather to Chicagoans that's not tethered to a TV station.

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Sinclair is better for small markets (i.e. Buttfuck, KS or Nowhere, TX) than for Chicago or NYC or even Cleveland. A lot of these stations are legacy stations. Sincrap will throw it straight down the shitter. They're closer to FNC-lite than Fox's own O&O stations.

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So what are they going to do in Seattle? How could that not be an issue? Unless Univision goes on a KOMO sub and KZJO goes on a KCPQ sub ...

 

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/103905/the-new-sinclair-72-coverage--wgna

 

St. Louis, Scranton-Wilkes-Barre and Salt Lake City are the markets where they are most likely to run afoul of antitrust laws in the minds of the DOJ.

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So what are they going to do in Seattle? How could that not be an issue? Unless Univision goes on a KOMO sub and KZJO goes on a KCPQ sub ...

Maybe... maybe Fox just wants KCPQ/KXJO and will trade stations to Sinclair in non-conflict, non-NFC markets to get it... and alleviating the market conflict in Seattle to boot. WPWR and WOFL/WRBW/WOGX sound about right for KCPQ/KXJO.

 

Come to think of it, Fox made the same damn offer to Tribune two years ago.

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Sinclair is better for small markets (i.e. Buttfuck, KS or Nowhere, TX) than for Chicago or NYC or even Cleveland. A lot of these stations are legacy stations. Sincrap will throw it straight down the shitter. They're closer to FNC-lite than Fox's own O&O stations.

 

Some markets if they destroy the local operation you can expect ratings to change dramatically. However, they are acquiring very few market leading stations other than the big ones like WGN:

 

* KFSM/KXNW. If Hearst wants to invest in one of their smaller/weaker operations, they could absolutely do a lot of damage with KHBS/KHOG. Nexstar might have the chance it needs to get out of the gutter as well.

 

* WGHP. Again, this is Hearst's opportunity to blow the competition out of the water with WXII. Unless Tegna is willing to invest in WFMY...

 

* WHNT. Raycom and Heartland are the primary competition, along with a Nexstar upstart. Could they drop from 1st to 4th? Sure the conservative message will resonate here, but the heavy-handedness won't.

 

* WREG. Are they still market leaders or have WMC and/or WHBQ passed them in ratings? Both of them get that opportunity right away.

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If they were acquiring Raycom or Gray (who BTW I think would make a great combination in themselves) then it would be destructive to market rankings, since those two companies are behemoths when it comes to top-ranked (mostly dominant) stations.

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I hope Sinclair will let WGN, WPIX, and KTLA have free rein with their on-air graphics like KUTV and WKRC.

 

If they have to get the Sinclair graphics, hopefully they make the best out of them like WJAR, KOMO, and KATU have.

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http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/103905/the-new-sinclair-72-coverage--wgna

 

St. Louis, Scranton-Wilkes-Barre and Salt Lake City are the markets where they are most likely to run afoul of antitrust laws in the minds of the DOJ.

How aren't there more markets where Sinclair thinks that antitrust laws would be a problem? You've got several other markets where both Sinclair and Tribune have duopolies, including those which both feature Big Four stations that are among the top-4 in revenue. How much analyzing did Ripley do before making this assumption?

 

Not to mention that the FCC still doesn't allow ownership of more than two stations in one market, so unless Pai makes exceptions (i.e., allowing Sinclair to shell, which could happen, on account that he loosened scrutiny on LMAs not long after he got promoted to agency chair) or changes the rules to allow them to own more stations within a market, they will have to divest or swap other conflict properties besides the ones mentioned.

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Maybe... maybe Fox just wants KCPQ/KXJO and will trade stations to Sinclair in non-conflict, non-NFC markets to get it... and alleviating the market conflict in Seattle to boot. WPWR and WOFL/WRBW/WOGX sound about right for KCPQ/KXJO.

/QUOTE]

 

what about KTBC?

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How aren't there more markets where Sinclair thinks that antitrust laws would be a problem? You've got several other markets where Sinclair and Tribune has duopolies, including Big Four stations that are among the top-4 in revenue. How much analyzing did Ripley do before making this assumption?

 

Not to mention that the FCC still doesn't allow ownership of more than two stations in one market, so unless Pai makes exceptions (i.e., allowing Sinclair to shell) or changes the rules to allow them to own more stations within a market, they will have to divest or swap other conflict properties besides the ones mentioned.

 

They won't be able to swap anything since they are already over the cap even with the UHF discount, so Ripley is dreaming on that one too.

 

I'd say the six markets where two news operations are affected - Salt Lake City, Seattle, Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg et. al., Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo and Oklahoma City - are the most problematic.

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I've always wanted to see a Fox-Raycom trade: KTBC for WXIX in Cincinnati. Cincinnati is a larger market than Austin. Plus, WXIX is routinely number one at 10pm. I'm sure Fox would love to kill that competition from WKRC (on WSTR.)

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They won't be able to swap anything since they are already over the cap even with the UHF discount, so Ripley is dreaming on that one too.

 

I'd say the six markets where two news operations are affected - Salt Lake City, Seattle, Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg et. al., Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo and Oklahoma City - are the most problematic.

Riiiight, I almost forgot that Sinclair just started a news department at WOLF. It might be a wasted investment now, if Sinclair decides to shell that station -- which it really can't, since Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is their biggest conflict on account of the group already has a virtual triopoly there.

 

Sinclair could sort out the issue by keeping either WQMY or WSWB (with either New Age or MPS Media's approval) to form a new virtual duopoly with WNEP, and selling off the outlier with WOLF. They can't divest the whole trio; the only other group owner in that market, Nexstar Media, already runs WBRE and WYOU, and -- even though Nexstar has gotten around it under Genachowski's FCC leadership, and could try it again now -- could only form a new virtual duop with WQMY or WSWB if it gave up one of the two Big Three outlets it has there. Even in a permissive, pro-consolidation FCC administration like Ajit Pai's is turning out to be, it might be tough for a package sale of WOLF, WSWB and WQMY -- even with LMAs included -- to an outside company to pass muster with the DOJ, even if it gets the FCC's approval.

 

The other big problem with this deal is the fact that it would make Sinclair the Luken Communications of full-power television; it already owns three diginets (Comet, TBD and Charge!, the former of which has some Tribune stations as affiliates), while Tribune owns Antenna TV and 50% of This TV (both of which are already carried on several of Sinclair's stations); also, Sinclair has affiliation agreements with networks such as WeatherNation and MeTV, while Tribune maintains an affiliation agreement with Escape. The launch of their ATSC 3.0 signals is the only way that they could fit all of them onto their stations if they are forced to divest some of its existing stations or select Tribune stations, since the 1.0 signal compression limitations make it impossible for Sinclair to shove all of them onto one or two signals.

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