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Sinclair and Tribune Part 2: The Redux


Weeters

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Didn't Albritton treat their non-WJLA stations in a similar way?

 

Prior to ending up with everyone that WUSA cast aside and the move from Upper Northwest to Rosslyn, WJLA wasn't treated all that well given its market size and the competition. Heck, their Metropolis-era look was on KATV nearly two years before it made it to DC.

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IMO, Tribune should have sold its’ stake in the WB network to ACME, which was owned by Jamie Kellner and some WB execs, and as a result, these stations were de-facto WB O&Os. Acme was quite successful with their Dayton, Green Bay and Champaign stations, with WBDT/Dayton being the WB’s strongest affiliate at one point. They bought these stations from Pax for cheap around the time Tribune yanked the WB off of WGN Superstation. They kept Pax on the station’s schedules via secondary affiliation.

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I feel like the better course of action would have been to buy ACME, but of course, the then-AOL Time Warner wasn't in much position to do that. Tribune really wasn't of much help to The WB as a network, as far as I can tell.

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And as I said before, Sinclair could've gotten the Renaissance stations back in the 90s before Tribune gobbled them up. Now, they're still getting all of them with the acquisition of Tribune, except of course, WSFL, WPMT, and, if they don't get the greenlight to the whole big-4 duopoly in Indianapolis, WXIN.

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Some Sinclair/Tribune related news:

 

Free Press has joined Common Cause, Communications Workers of America and the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ to file suit against FCC efforts to repeal local media-ownership limits http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/111926/fcc-sued-over-media-ownership-moves

 

The ACA has asked the FCC to put the brakes on its review of the Sinclair-Tribune merger, arguing that Sinclair has withheld information needed to evaluate the deal.http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/111986/aca-to-fcc-not-so-fast-on-sinclairtribune

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This whole deal is just a mess. But it just goes to show you what happens when you rack up untold amounts of debt and grow too big too fail.

 

Fast forward 20 years and Sinclair and Nexstar will be in the same predicament as IHeart and Cumulus. If these companies were subject to the free market much like Toys R Us, they would be liquidating too....

 

I can only hope the smaller companies and individuals can get back in the TV business. There are some blessings when you're fortunate enough to be spun off from a larger company that is caught up in a merger....

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This whole deal is just a mess. But it just goes to show you what happens when you rack up untold amounts of debt and grow too big too fail.

 

Fast forward 20 years and Sinclair and Nexstar will be in the same predicament as IHeart and Cumulus. If these companies were subject to the free market much like Toys R Us, they would be liquidating too....

 

I can only hope the smaller companies and individuals can get back in the TV business. There are some blessings when you're fortunate enough to be spun off from a larger company that is caught up in a merger....

This post is timely as iHeart filed for Chapter 11...

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Even Fox’s own O&Os are beginning to move away from FNC styled newscasts. I’m sorry, but I tune in to a local newscast for the local/national/world news of the day, the 5 day forecast and sports highlights from a game I may have missed. I didn’t tune in to hear how “IF YOU DON’T SUPPORT TRUMP YOU’RE WITH THE TERRORISTS!!!”

 

That's smart on their part (the Fox O&Os, that is). I personally believe that Fox stations (O&Os and otherwise) should have news coverage that is far different than that of the Fox News Channel cable network (don't know why I believe that, but I do believe it).

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This whole deal is just a mess. But it just goes to show you what happens when you rack up untold amounts of debt and grow too big too fail.

 

Fast forward 20 years and Sinclair and Nexstar will be in the same predicament as IHeart and Cumulus. If these companies were subject to the free market much like Toys R Us, they would be liquidating too....

 

I can only hope the smaller companies and individuals can get back in the TV business. There are some blessings when you're fortunate enough to be spun off from a larger company that is caught up in a merger....

Funny thing is, the game is rigged for iHeart and Cumulus to continue functioning as companies. They’re only in restructuring phase, not liquidation. Those two companies actually make money, but it all was going back to paying off massive amounts of debt.

 

Sinclair has, to the best of my knowledge, not been invested upon by private equity firms like iHeart and Cumulus have (and Toys R Us had). That’s another thing to keep in mind.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sinclair has a decent deal on its debt, and should be able to pay off the coming notes in 2020 and beyond. The debt to buy Tribune will come due in 2024, I think. I am curious though, how much SBG is spending in legal fees, the structuring, and so on, considering it's taken nearly a year.

 

As long as banks think companies are good for it, the line of credit will always be there.

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If Sinclair didn't drag it's feet and try and keep everything the merger would have already been a done deal. Glad that DOJ hasn't backed down on their demands of Sinclair divesting the stations they need.

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  • 2 weeks later...
We just got an email with a new filing today:

 

Meredith will buy KPLR/St. Louis.

 

KCPQ, KDVR, WJW, KTXL, KSTU, KSWB and WSFL are listed as "TBA" (assume most of these will be FOX)

 

WGN will be shelled but WPIX will not.

 

KIAH and KDAF will be shelled.

 

Several others in overlap markets will be listed under an entity called "Standard Media."

 

(p.s., please move to appropriate thread if I clicked on the wrong one. I have the .pdf of the latest filing)

 

So does this mean WPIX will be completely divested or will thy keep it without a shell?

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We just got an email with a new filing today:

 

Meredith will buy KPLR/St. Louis.

 

KCPQ, KDVR, WJW, KTXL, KSTU, KSWB and WSFL are listed as "TBA" (assume most of these will be FOX)

 

WGN will be shelled but WPIX will not.

 

KIAH and KDAF will be shelled.

 

Several others in overlap markets will be listed under an entity called "Standard Media."

 

(p.s., please move to appropriate thread if I clicked on the wrong one. I have the .pdf of the latest filing)

 

So it looks like WGN, KIAH and KDAF will be a part of Cunningham or Deerfield but at the end of the day, it will still be with Sinclair.

 

And it looks like KMOV will soon have an outlet to add more news.

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We just got an email with a new filing today:

 

Meredith will buy KPLR/St. Louis.

 

KCPQ, KDVR, WJW, KTXL, KSTU, KSWB and WSFL are listed as "TBA" (assume most of these will be FOX)

 

WGN will be shelled but WPIX will not.

 

KIAH and KDAF will be shelled.

 

Several others in overlap markets will be listed under an entity called "Standard Media."

 

(p.s., please move to appropriate thread if I clicked on the wrong one. I have the .pdf of the latest filing)

Standard Media (which is owned by Standard General) is acquiring the stations in Oklahoma City (KOKH/KAUT), Des Moines (KDSM), West Michigan (WXMI) and others according to the PDF file that I've uploaded to my phone

 

EDIT: KAUT is NOT going to Standard Media, they're going to Howard Stirk

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Meredith will buy KPLR/St. Louis.

 

While they're at it, they should buy the templates and designs for Tribune's websites and update their stations' sites with them.

 

I'm serious. KPLR's site is so much better than KMOV's. (It doesn't help that KMOV seems to be using elements of its last Belo-era site.)

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[ATTACH]5957[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]5958[/ATTACH]

Is there a reason why KFOR, KOCB and WHO has been left out of the filling? Is Sinclair wanting to keep the 3 or are they preparing to sell those 3 to an unaffiliated 3rd party? Can simebody in here explain that to me please?

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Standard Media (which is owned by Standard General) is acquiring the stations in Oklahoma City (KOKH/KAUT), Des Moines (KDSM), West Michigan (WXMI) and others

 

The shambling remains of Media General, and the mess that private equity created with that mess come back from the dead again.

 

Does KPLR get bought under a failing station waiver then? I'm surprised none of these had any WCIV or WBMA IP transfers going on into subchannels.

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We just got an email with a new filing today:

 

Meredith will buy KPLR/St. Louis.

 

KCPQ, KDVR, WJW, KTXL, KSTU, KSWB and WSFL are listed as "TBA" (assume most of these will be FOX)

 

WGN will be shelled but WPIX will not.

 

KIAH and KDAF will be shelled.

 

Several others in overlap markets will be listed under an entity called "Standard Media."

 

(p.s., please move to appropriate thread if I clicked on the wrong one. I have the .pdf of the latest filing)

 

Link please?

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