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Retransmission Consent squabbles


bhratbrat

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Sinclair is really digging themselves into a hole on this one if they think they can muscle the OTT providers.  These are more worthless now with all of the shutdowns and restrictions COVID has forced into the industry.

It seems they are planning on launching their own OTT platform, either through Stirr or some other means.

Let the sports fans pay for the RSNs.   I remember back in the day the Sportschannel Ohio feed was a premium service and the extra Indians and Cavs games were scrambled.

 

And they want to restructure the 8 BILLION in debt they have tied to this deal.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/creditors-brace-for-possible-debt-restructuring-at-sinclair-sports-unit-11603235294

Edited by tyrannical bastard
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2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

It seems they are planning on launching their own OTT platform, either through Stirr or some other means.

 

 

And they want to restructure the 8 BILLION in debt they have tied to this deal.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/creditors-brace-for-possible-debt-restructuring-at-sinclair-sports-unit-11603235294

Honestly, I'm not exactly sure what Sinclair is doing here. They haven't even indicated anything yet what they're going to do with the RSNs and the fact they have to restructure the debt ($8 billion of them to be exact)

 

I'm going to be honest and frank I keep saying that both Sinclair and Meredith are in really bad shape and what's going on with both companies is further proving my point that I keep making time after time after time.

 

Granted I don't know what Sinclair's plans are they won't tell us anything but so far people like Rich Greenfield of LightShed have been proven correct and even Rupert Murdoch (the seller of the FSNs) has been proven correct as well.

 

If there are two companies you do not want to buy assets from that are Disney and Fox if you do what Sinclair has done by buying the RSNs from BOTH Disney and Fox you'll lose money and lose money just as fast as the debt on that said asset is rising.

Edited by dman748
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5 hours ago, Yankees4life said:

Sinclair is getting greedy. They're gonna learn their lesson soon...

As if screwing up their chances to own the former Tribune stations wasn't enough.  Nexstar got them fair and square and is now reaches twice as many people.

Any other deal in the pipeline is going to be a lot more messy should they want to grow their station portfolio...that is, if they can even afford it now.

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Well, since it is 2020, could Comcast/Xfinity have a retransmission consent issue with (gasp) itself?!?!?!??!?!?

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/comcast-could-lose-local-nbc-channels-more-in-carriage-disputes-with-itself-and-others/?fbclid=IwAR074B03v6DGumw6RHc98mHNYmUQQgfbjJ7Hqxe5_BWpCKAdpie-jBeeD0Y

 

Looking at the list, Weigel and others are up in October and Hearst, Cox, Capitol/WRAL, Hubbard and NBC/Comcast are up in December.

Edited by tyrannical bastard
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25 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Well, since it is 2020, could Comcast/Xfinity have a retransmission consent issue with (gasp) itself?!?!?!??!?!?

Looking at the list, Weigel and others are up in October and Hearst, Cox, Capitol/WRAL, Hubbard and NBC/Comcast are up in December.

Quote

Then there are the local NBC channels. WMAQ in Chicago, WRAL in Raleigh, and WTVJ in Miami are just a few of the NBC stations on the list of channels up for contract renewals, along with NBCUniversal-owned cable channels including Bravo, E!, and Syfy.

I didn't think it was possible for a cable provider to lose their own channels.

Edited by ddaniels20
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1 hour ago, CubsFan79 said:

Could Sinclair sell FOX RSN"s ? With Dish, Sling, Fubo, Hulu, all dropping the RSN"s.

 No, at least in the short term.

 

Dish/Sling has dropped all RSN's, not just Sinclairs. It's likely that the other OTT providers will get agreements right before the NBA and NHL season starts whenever that is, at the moment Sinclair has no leverage, providers can holdout as long as they can without sports live sports going on. Earlier this year it was announced that Sinclair has agreements for multiple years with at least 85% of the MVPD's that carry the RSN's. 

 

In non pandemic years at least some of Sinclair RSN"s has profit margins of over 20% (in the broadcasting world that consider very good), it's the price tag for the channels that turned many companies away the first time they were for sale, very few traditional broadcasters can raise that kind of money for what the RSNs are worth. 

Edited by doublejman69
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2 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Well, since it is 2020, could Comcast/Xfinity have a retransmission consent issue with (gasp) itself?!?!?!??!?!?

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/comcast-could-lose-local-nbc-channels-more-in-carriage-disputes-with-itself-and-others/?fbclid=IwAR074B03v6DGumw6RHc98mHNYmUQQgfbjJ7Hqxe5_BWpCKAdpie-jBeeD0Y

 

Looking at the list, Weigel and others are up in October and Hearst, Cox, Capitol/WRAL, Hubbard and NBC/Comcast are up in December.

 

 

I refuse to believe that there'd be a dispute with the channels that the company actually owns. A deal should be reached before the channels are dropped.

 

What's next, a dispute with AT&T owned channels and Directv/Uverse?

Edited by Newsjunkie24
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I find this interesting. Here in Western WA KIRO-TV (CBS, owned by the Apollo group which has a somewhat less than pleasing article on Bloomberg right now largely dealing with unrelated concerns) could end up losing a larger monster of an audience in December. They're off dish as it is and have been since that spat began. Now KIRO stands the chance of losing access to xfinity subscribers in December as well. I'm thinking just over half the connected TV homes in the market, and certainly the ones that haven't prepared for the worst by installing (or keeping) an off-air antenna as backup. Also on the watch list around here: Weigel's duopoly of KFFV and KVOS (MeTV, H&I, Movies, Decades, and StartTV for Bellingham).

O'course, xfinity losing access to channels owned by their parent comany would not look good at all. It would be awkward, no, deadly for them to ask subscribers to xfinity to switch providers. I just don't see that happening. BUT...this is 2020, and stranger things have been happening of late.

Wash your hands, put on the mask when you're away from the house, and pray for some sanity.

Edited by Joe Capitano
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10 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Looks like Dish is on a "mission" to dump the Nexstar sidecars of the same name.

Haven't we been down this road before?

https://keepmystation.com/kolr

 

Ohhhhh nooooo....this would mean no WJZY or WMYT in Charlotte, they are still without WSOC and WAXN and have been since July

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hearst and Comcast are doing some pruning of adjacent market stations effective in December.

 

Some of the prunings are going to be met with some resistance, the biggest one probably being the removal of WMUR from the Comcast system serving Claremont/Hanover/Lebanon, NH. Waynesville, GA is right behind as of this they would have zero ABC service of any sort.

 

Other fun droppings: A lot of out of market coverage for WBAL where WGAL, WRC, WRDE, and WCAU have a presence, anything out-of-Boston-DMA for WCVB (which is going to go over well in Bristol County), ancestral WTAE territory where WTRF/WBOY's .2's have a presence, WXII in the Roanoke DMA (IIRC significantly viewed), and WVTM in one of the Atlanta DMA counties in Alabama. This has shades of the Comcast/Nexstar purges a few years back.

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On paper, it's Comcast dropping the "extra" Hearst stations from mostly external markets. But I do agree that some of these moves will be controversial, especially if viewers are losing an "in-state" voice, especially in New Hampshire.  And some of these moves directly benefit Comcast, when stations like WBAL and WGAL are dropped, well, the stations that remain are owned by Comcast, who has to negotiate with Xfinity.  Gee, I wonder when that dispute will ever happen?🤣

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8 hours ago, scrabbleship said:

Waynesville, GA is right behind as of this they would have zero ABC service of any sort.

According to Zap2it, Waynesville's Comcast system carries NBC from Jacksonville and CBS/Fox/ABC from Savannah. Plus, the system apparently goes only up to Channel 61, so it's a system Comcast never upgraded.

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53 minutes ago, NEOMatrix said:

According to Zap2it, Waynesville's Comcast system carries NBC from Jacksonville and CBS/Fox/ABC from Savannah. Plus, the system apparently goes only up to Channel 61, so it's a system Comcast never upgraded.

 

There are a lot of these systems listed on the other forum:

https://www.radiodiscussions.com/showthread.php?662567-Worst-Cable-Systems-in-America

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Looks like TEGNA might be close to a dispute with DIRECTV/ATT Uverse:

https://www.wthr.com/att

https://www.10tv.com/att

https://www.whas11.com/att

 

In my market, this would make 4 stations (WISH, WTHR, WNDY, WALV-CD) that AT&T isn't carrying, WISH/WNDY for well over a year now.

 

AT&T is a company built on pure greed.

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2 hours ago, IndyNewsOpens said:

Looks like TEGNA might be close to a dispute with DIRECTV/ATT Uverse:

https://www.wthr.com/att

https://www.10tv.com/att

https://www.whas11.com/att

 

In my market, this would make 4 stations (WISH, WTHR, WNDY, WALV-CD) that AT&T isn't carrying, WISH/WNDY for well over a year now.

 

AT&T is a company built on pure greed.

DIRECTV STILL doesn't have WISH/WNDY? Wow! 

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