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Sinclair, Tribune Close to Merger Deal


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I would think WUAB would be a better choice for Fox in Cleveland, since they have good relations with Raycom.

See... the thing to note is that this is a joint venture. Fox has done this before, most notably with New World and Savory Pictures. If this somehow becomes a thing, WVPX will be the new Fox affiliate in Cleveland.

 

It's obvious why they're doing this. They want to drive down the value of Sinclair. Basically NBC and KRON all over again, but on a much larger scale.

 

You can bet that Fox will yank the MyTV affiliations, too, which would be equally damaging to the Sinclair portfolio.

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They've been trying to do that since 1995.

 

First they messed with Belo in trades. Trying to trade them KSAZ and KTBC for KIRO.

 

Then 2014, they try to trade WPWR for KCPQ. THEN they tried to buy Bellingham based KBCB. But failed.

 

Now with a deal that could brake Fox, Fox is going for a 4th try. and maybe fail...again...or not

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You can bet that Fox will yank the MyTV affiliations, too, which would be equally damaging to the Sinclair portfolio.

 

Considering MNTV's current status, I find that hard to believe.

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IF the main studio rule is abandoned, does the Fox affiliation here in Oklahoma City be moved to 4.3 or can it move to KAUT? I think if the main studio rule is abolished and Sinclair is allowed to control KFOR, KOKH, KAUT and KOCB look for KAUT to take the Fox affiliation (which then would be the reversal of the 1991 switch that saw Fox moving to KOKH and KAUT becoming a PBS member station)

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I don't think Sinclair cares what relationship they have with FOX at the moment.

 

FOX is not in a good position ratings-wise, going to the Ion stations likely only makes that worse, I wouldn't be shocked if WGN America is the basis for a national Sinclair owned network to compete with FOX/CW/MyNet at some point, and even if they give up KCPQ to FOX, if this deal goes through and is successful Sinclair will be in a position to bid for NFL rights next time they come up.

 

FOX is playing scared because they are.

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It says WWMT is the Fox affiliate for West Michigan (for the FTVLive site)

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They are likely doing this to try to get an O&O in Seattle. That's my guess.

I think it's more than just a ploy to get KCPQ/KZJO. Fox does not want Sinclair to have leverage over it in retransmission compensation deals at any cost. If anything this is a gameplan (and a potentially effective one) to force Sinclair to sell off some of its existing Fox stations as well as those owned by Tribune (both in conflict and non-conflict markets) to ensure that Sinclair's Fox affiliate market share is not so high that Fox gets shortchanged in reverse comp negotiations.

 

The concept would create a couple of big issues: first, it would put Fox at risk of losing many of its news-producing outlets (none of Ion's O&Os have carried local newscasts since 2005, when it dissolved its news share agreements with various major network affiliates, mostly NBC stations, upon the former Pax TV's rebrand to i: Independent Television), and unless Fox agrees to help Ion finance the startup of news operations at some of its stations, there's no guarantee that Ion would produce any; Ion Media's frugality is pretty apparent when you look at Ion Television, which doesn't carry more than eight series at a time (Ion Life and Qubo carry more, but those are lower-cost acquisitions). Secondly, moving Fox to a DT2 in large and mid-sized markets would not only be a major downgrade for the network, but would also probably upset some multicast network operators who could find their networks forced out of ATSC 1.0 signals if some stations don't attempt to modify signal compression to balance two major network affiliations in HD and more than one SD multicast network.

 

When I filed an online public comment to the FCC's docket on the Sinclair-Tribune deal yesterday (August 2), I argued that competition from other broadcasting companies in the M&A arena should play a factor in forcing Sinclair to divest some of its stations to independent groups (Hearst, Scripps, Meredith, Cox, etc.) because other companies might not take kindly to having one company become disproportionately dominant over everyone else. This is the similar mindset that Fox appears to be using in trying to play hardball with Sinclair: "either sell some of the Fox and MyNetworkTV stations to other companies because we don't want you to harm our bottom line or well yank the affiliations out from under you". They'd rather deal with multiple affiliate groups with Fox affiliate portfolios similar in size to what Sinclair has now, than have one operate so many that it risks cutting into a key revenue stream.

 

There's a Plan B for Fox, though. Revisit the earlier plan to have Blackstone buy Tribune either in a joint venture with Fox or even convince it to buy Tribune as a whole, a la Nexstar's swiping Media General out from under its deal with Meredith. Come up with a deal at the same valuation but with a sweeter stock and benefits package.

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They are likely doing this to try to get an O&O in Seattle. That's my guess.

I'll say this, KWPX is a much better bargaining chip to use as leverage in Seattle than the tiny border station Fox tried to buy a few years back.

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I don't think Sinclair cares what relationship they have with FOX at the moment.

 

FOX is not in a good position ratings-wise, going to the Ion stations likely only makes that worse, I wouldn't be shocked if WGN America is the basis for a national Sinclair owned network to compete with FOX/CW/MyNet at some point, and even if they give up KCPQ to FOX, if this deal goes through and is successful Sinclair will be in a position to bid for NFL rights next time they come up.

 

FOX is playing scared because they are.

This joint venture with ION is a nuclear option. Sure, Fox would be hurting, but so would the Tribune-Sinclair Fox affiliates forced to go independent. No one would win.

 

Effectively, Fox is contemplating doing what NBC had been mulling over during Jeff Zucker's tenure, and leaving the broadcast dial outside of their O&Os for mass cable penetration.

 

Plus... if Fox succeeds in pulling their affiliations off of the entire Sinclair chain, that enables CBS to do threaten moving the CW affiliations off. A domino effect then takes place not unlike what happened in 1994-1995.

 

Fox may be scared, and they should be. But Sinclair equally ought to be scared at what this does to their companies' valuation.

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If Fox does move their affiliations to the Ion stations, and if Cleveland is included, it would be the first time since 1996 or '97 that WVPX is affiliated with a big network since ABC left.

 

If they're going to do news (the first time since 2008, but it would have to be Cleveland-oriented and not 100% Akron/Canton-based), would it be better to start a newsroom solo or as a partnership with another station just to get it off the ground? I'm not sure if WVPX is still partnered up with WKYC.

 

Then what would happen to WJW when and if Fox affiliates with WVPX? Go Independent or replace it with another network? Maybe CW or a return to CBS or ABC (WJW was actually affiliated with ABC until 1956)?

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Fox-Sinclair markets (assuming no divestments) with an Ion O&O:

 

Buffalo, Cedar Rapids et. al., Charleston (WV), Cleveland, Columbia (SC), Denver, Des Moines, Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo, Greensboro-Triad, Greenville (NC), Hartford-New Haven, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Lexington, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Scranton-Wilkes-Barre and Seattle.

 

That would get them an affiliate in 25 of the 56 Fox-Sinclair markets. The other 31 would have to involve piping in on cable, buying a signal or affiliating with someone else.

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If Fox does move their affiliations to the Ion stations, and if Cleveland is included, it would be the first time since 1996 or '97 that WVPX is affiliated with a big network since ABC left.

 

If they're going to do news (the first time since 2008, but it would have to be Cleveland-oriented and not 100% Akron/Canton-based), would it be better to start a newsroom solo or as a partnership with another station just to get it off the ground? I'm not sure if WVPX is still partnered up with WKYC.

 

Then what would happen to WJW when and if Fox affiliates with WVPX? Go Independent or replace it with another network? Maybe CW or a return to CBS or ABC (WJW was actually affiliated with ABC until 1956)?

 

Probably independent, since Sinclair is doing a good job at angering all the networks. Unless Sinclair wants to start the SBG Network? In the case of Cleveland, the other Big Three networks are all on stations of good owners for them (NBC-Tegna, CBS-Raycom and ABC-Scripps) and I doubt they want to anger them.

 

SBG shares are down 8% this morning on this potential development.

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IF Fox decides to yank their affiliations from Sinclair and the soon-to-be stations, expect Sinclair to put consolidation plans into overdrive....

 

Especially after the remarks CEO Chris Ripley made during their earnings report.

 

So much for a non-Smith CEO at the helm....

 

They could consolidate all they want but they would have nothing but dog stations if they had no network affiliations. As it is, Sinclair's stations are mostly ratings laggards.

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There's a Plan B for Fox, though. Revisit the earlier plan to have Blackstone buy Tribune either in a joint venture with Fox or even convince it to buy Tribune as a whole, a la Nexstar's swiping Media General out from under its deal with Meredith. Come up with a deal at the same valuation but with a sweeter stock and benefits package.

What is the possibility that can happen? Can they pull that off?

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What is the possibility that can happen? Can they pull that off?

 

That would be time consuming, and if someone tried to go nuclear and pull the deal from under Sinclair's rug at this stage, you can guarantee there will be fighting and lawsuits. Sinclair isn't going to kindly walk away like Meredith did.

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IF Fox decides to yank their affiliations from Sinclair and the soon-to-be stations, expect Sinclair to put consolidation plans into overdrive....

 

Especially after the remarks CEO Chris Ripley made during their earnings report.

 

So much for a non-Smith CEO at the helm....

 

This could be just awful.

 

No more Murder She Wrote marathons?

 

Where will Colonial Penn Life Insurance advertise?

 

ION is the only network that blacks out the same time I do each day.

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IF Fox decides to yank their affiliations from Sinclair and the soon-to-be stations, expect Sinclair to put consolidation plans into overdrive....

 

Especially after the remarks CEO Chris Ripley made during their earnings report.

 

So much for a non-Smith CEO at the helm....

If Chris Ripley believes that local news can be consolidated, that automatically means that he thinks the "one to two" media companies within all 210 markets in his scenario would control most of the major network affiliations, too. Yeah, watch the networks strip his uber-groups of their rights to carry their programming if that happens, then Ripley would see how the broadcast television industry would tank, (as Trump would say) bigly. His idea only would work for small markets with fewer stations, it definitely wouldn't fly in the top 100.

 

How Sinclair's management doesn't seem to understand how media market economics work is beyond me. Just because digital is taking a bigger piece of the content pie doesn't justify consolidating broadcast media at a nonsensical pace to where the industry would become an oligarchy. It's that mindset that Ripley, David Smith and Perry Sook have is why antitrust rules were created long before they were even born.

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Ripley's vision? The local broadcast industry would boil down to two, maybe three, station groups, with one or two of them churning out local content in each market.

 

“Right now there are three to five local players, and to us that doesn’t make sense,” Ripley said on the earnings call.

 

So, he'd rather have just one option for local news in every market? I'm sure that'll go over well in large markets such as NYC or LA.

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Just waiting for someone at Sinclair to bitch and complain and call this "Fake News" or a "Liberal Media" attack on the company.

 

When even the conservative factions of this country are against it, then you know the Sinclair/Tribune deal is bad.

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