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Cox sells majority TV interest to Apollo


The Frog

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5 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

There's a big amendment regarding this deal tonight.

 

I'm going to drop the big news first. Because of that Third Circuit ruling vacating Pai's dereg rule last month, Cox/Apollo now proposed to surrender the license of the second station in Syracuse (WSYT/WNYS) and Yuma (KYMA/KSWT), and move the programming of the second station over to the sub of the first station. 

 

 

Now that's completely understandable for Syracuse because both stations don't carry any news. Kill WNYS's stick, move MyNet to 68.2, Done. But for Yuma, I guess you can do the same there. But I'm surprised that they didn't try to go for a failed station waiver. That's how Northwest acquired KSWT. Unless both stations aren't deemed failed? I thought Yuma was economically challenged.

 

The other part of the amendment is in regards to the common ownership of the broadcast and the newspapers in Dayton. The parties proposed to publish the papers three times a week. But give Cox (which will have a 19.9% non-attributable minority interest in Apollo's Cox Media Group at closing) the option to reaquire the papers outright, and restore them back to seven-day publication. But they first would have to find a way to separate the paper operations from the rest of the media ops in Dayton. Because you know, they have WHIO radio and Channel 7 in that same building.  

 

 

 

Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the WNYS PSIP in the case of Syracuse than sticking with 68? That brand is so busted that it might be better to start fresh and all.

 

Thanks FCC. By trying to put the genie back in the bottle you made things worse.

5 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

There's a big amendment regarding this deal tonight.

 

I'm going to drop the big news first. Because of that Third Circuit ruling vacating Pai's dereg rule last month, Cox/Apollo now proposed to surrender the license of the second station in Syracuse (WSYT/WNYS) and Yuma (KYMA/KSWT), and move the programming of the second station over to the sub of the first station. 

 

 

Now that's completely understandable for Syracuse because both stations don't carry any news. Kill WNYS's stick, move MyNet to 68.2, Done. But for Yuma, I guess you can do the same there. But I'm surprised that they didn't try to go for a failed station waiver. That's how Northwest acquired KSWT. Unless both stations aren't deemed failed? I thought Yuma was economically challenged.

 

The other part of the amendment is in regards to the common ownership of the broadcast and the newspapers in Dayton. The parties proposed to publish the papers three times a week. But give Cox (which will have a 19.9% non-attributable minority interest in Apollo's Cox Media Group at closing) the option to reaquire the papers outright, and restore them back to seven-day publication. But they first would have to find a way to separate the paper operations from the rest of the media ops in Dayton. Because you know, they have WHIO radio and Channel 7 in that same building.  

 

 

 

Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the WNYS PSIP in the case of Syracuse than sticking with 68? That brand is so busted that it might be better to start fresh and all.

 

Thanks FCC. By trying to put the genie back in the bottle you made things worse.

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On 10/29/2019 at 6:14 AM, scrabbleship said:

 

Wouldn't it make more sense to keep the WNYS PSIP in the case of Syracuse than sticking with 68? That brand is so busted that it might be better to start fresh and all.

It could keep both, like what Sinclair did in Milwaukee. When they surrendered WCGV's spectrum during the auction, they moved that stream to WVTV, and kept their old virtual channel 24.1.

 

But that would only depend on if they follow through on relinquishing the license of the second station, and not ending up selling it to a new buyer.

 

If any of you remember the tail-end of the Sinclair/Allbritton deal in 2014, they proposed to surrender the license of WCFT/WJSU because the Wheeler-ran FCC didn't like some of their previous proposals of keeping certain stations via sharing arrangements. Sinclair was going to own those two to duopoly with WABM, and reassign WTTO to Deerfield Media (Cunningham already owned WTTO's repeater WDBB). After that deal was completed, those stations would be resold to Howard Stirk Holdings as WSES & WGWW respectively. 

 

WNYS was suppose to move from RF 44 to RF 15 in Phase 8 of the repack. It would follow the same contour as WSYT on RF 14. Turning off one of those stations and move the stream to the other wouldn't be much of a hassle. I can careless about the higher channel embarrassment. And given that WSYT been Fox since the beginning, many OTA folks might be confused if they see Fox outside of 68.

 

But we'll see how this goes though. I wouldn't be all that shocked if that second station in Syracuse be acquired by either a religious broadcaster (TCT) or a small group (Major Market or HC2) that would pack in diginets that's not cleared in the market. 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
4 minutes ago, oknewsguy said:

Sorry if I bump this thread but an important update on the Cox-Apollo deal.

 

The FCC gave the Apollo Cox deal the greenlight yesterday

 

As part of the condition the companies will have up to two years to complete the sale of the radio stations in Orlando and Tampa

Does this also include the NWB stations?

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14 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

Sorry if I bump this thread but an important update on the Cox-Apollo deal.

 

The FCC gave the Apollo Cox deal the greenlight yesterday

 

As part of the condition the companies will have up to two years to complete the sale of the radio stations in Orlando and Tampa

 

That link you'd posted (which is related) is a declaratory ruling regarding the FCC allowing a foreign investor up to 100% of equity & voting interest in Terrier. 

 

Here's the actual grant paper of this deal. Let's remember these were two separate transactions. The first were for the Cox & Northwest TV stations. And the second were the Cox radio stations. The FCC has granted both simultaneously.

 

They also ordered Apollo within 30 days following consummation to surrender one of the TV station's licenses in Yuma & Syracuse; and to modify the publication schedule for those three Ohio papers to three days a week.

 

 

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1 minute ago, CircleSeven said:

 

That link you'd posted (which is related) is a declatory ruling in regards to the FCC allowing a foreign investor up to 100% of equity & voting interest in Terrier. 

 

Here's the actual grant paper of this deal. Let's remember these were two separate transactions. The first were for the Cox & Northwest TV stations. And the second were the Cox radio stations. The FCC has granted both simultaneously.

 

They also ordered Apollo within 30 days following consummation to surrender one of the TV station's licenses in Yuma & Syracuse, and to modify the publication schedule for those three Ohio papers to three days a week.

 

That was what I was looking for, I couldn't find the other aspects of the paperwork such as the grant paper among other things

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3 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

Nope, WDBO can be acquired legally (so can WWKA, WMMO, and WCFB)

 

It's WPYO (along with WSUN in Tampa) that's getting resold

 

Glad to hear that WDBO-FM is staying with the combined company.  They, on some occasions, will take WFTV's live storm coverage as a simulcast.  It sounds like that will continue since WDBO-FM isn't getting divested to someone else post-acquisition.

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18 hours ago, JCB4TV said:

Does this also include the NWB stations?

Yes that includes the stations now formerly owned by Northwest Broadcating and everything else Cox had not related to the Cable system or any other non-TV asset they currently own

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Orlando Sentinel stated yesterday that CMG president Kim Guthrie wrote a memo to the staff that the Apollo deal is expected to close next Tuesday (12/17).

Quote

“We’re finally near the finish line to close the sale of our TV and radio portfolios, CoxReps and Gamut businesses to Terrier Media. We currently anticipate the transaction to close on Dec. 17, 2019,” Kim Guthrie, president of Cox Media Group, wrote Monday in an email to the staff. Cox Media Group is based in Atlanta.

 

“We have 30 days post the transaction close to comply with the FCC order, and we will share more as soon as we can,” Guthrie added. “Over the next few days we will have a regular stream of communications to our CMG teams to ensure you have all the tools you need for a seamless transition to the new company post close. And, yes, we have some big celebrations planned to mark this incredible milestone in CMG’s history."

 

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I do wonder what the holdup was for FCC approval of the Apollo-Cox-Northwest acquisition? I don't think the long blackout of the Northwest stations on AT&T was the reason for the lengthy approval process so it's got to be something else that maybe perhaps we don't know about

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1 hour ago, oknewsguy said:

I do wonder what the holdup was for FCC approval of the Apollo-Cox-Northwest acquisition? I don't think the long blackout of the Northwest stations on AT&T was the reason for the lengthy approval process so it's got to be something else that maybe perhaps we don't know about

 

Between the two separate deals (first being the Cox-NW TV stations with the Ohio radio & papers; and second being the rest of Radio outlets, CoxReps & Gamut), this was almost a $4B deal.

 

Any deal this big would have a lenghty regulatory process. The deal included foreign ownership, which also required more vetting. Even the DOJ had to briefly get involved (which they would later sign off on). I'm sure this deal would've lasted longer if they didn't amend their deal on October, after the Third Circuit ruling.

 

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7 minutes ago, mvcg66b3r said:

The press release doesn't say which stations they'll sell/shut down in Syracuse and Yuma.

In Syracuse, Cox will probably keep RF 14 as it appears that WNYS sill needs to repack to RF 15.

In Yuma, Cox will probably keep RF 11 as it appears to be the more superior facility.

 

Also in Yuma, will Cox break the LMA with NPG?

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28 minutes ago, mvcg66b3r said:

The press release doesn't say which stations they'll sell/shut down in Syracuse and Yuma.

 

9 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

Does anyone know whether the station shutdowns in Yuma and Syracuse are still on the table?

 

I would expect (on a later date) they'll file the paperwork on which station they'll shutdown. Remember as a part of that FCC order, they have 30 days to surrender the license on one of the stations.

 

12 minutes ago, JCB4TV said:

Also in Yuma, will Cox break the LMA with NPG?

The sharing agreement between NPG & KYMA/KSWT is still in tack post-closing.

 

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Notes about the press release (I'm making a list just to make a point)...

  • 13 TV stations when Cox actually has 14.
  • 10 radio markets when its actually 11 with Atlanta and Athens being separate.
  • 3 newspapers in Ohio only. So what happens to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, their only non-Ohio newspaper left?

Some questions that I have that's left to be answered.

 

EDIT: So apparently the three newspapers are part of the new CMG with Apollo while the AJC is separate with Cox Enterprises. Yet, this makes no sense to me.

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1 hour ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Notes about the press release (I'm making a list just to make a point)...

  • 13 TV stations when Cox actually has 14.
  • 10 radio markets when its actually 11 with Atlanta and Athens being separate.
  • 3 newspapers in Ohio only. So what happens to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, their only non-Ohio newspaper left?

Some questions that I have that's left to be answered.

 

EDIT: So apparently the three newspapers are part of the new CMG with Apollo while the AJC is separate with Cox Enterprises. Yet, this makes no sense to me.

 

They didn't count WJAX (which its owned by Hoffmann Communications, but op'd by Cox via SSA).

 

Regarding AJC, the parent Cox Enterprises never had the intention of selling the majority interest of that paper over to Apollo.

 

In regards to the Ohio papers, they will have 30 days to change the publication schedule from seven days a week to just three days, according to that FCC order. But Cox parent will have the option to re-acquire full control of those papers so it can go back to seven day status. They just have to find a way to separate the publishing operations from the other media operations in Dayton.

 

Some saw this as a loophole to the NBCO rule (which was reinstated after the Third Circuit vacated Pai 2017 dereg order in Sept.). Because even though you're cutting the publication the three days a week, they're still operating the paper's websites and other digital operations which are 24/7, 365 days a year.

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They’re not going to unspool the Ohio newspapers from the Dayton TV and radio stations. Too many shared resources to unwind, including the joint newsroom. It’d be too much money for Cox — or anyone else — to invest in the newspaper business, which has been slowly dying for more than a decade. 

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22 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

 

They didn't count WJAX (which its owned by Hoffmann Communications, but op'd by Cox via SSA).

 

Regarding AJC, the parent Cox Enterprises never had the intention of selling the majority interest of that paper over to Apollo.

 

In regards to the Ohio papers, they will have 30 days to change the publication schedule from seven days a week to just three days, according to that FCC order. But Cox parent will have the option to re-acquire full control of those papers so it can go back to seven day status. They just have to find a way to separate the publishing operations from the other media operations in Dayton.

 

Some saw this as a loophole to the NBCO rule (which was reinstated after the Third Circuit vacated Pai 2017 dereg order in Sept.). Because even though you're cutting the publication the three days a week, they're still operating the paper's websites and other digital operations which are 24/7, 365 days a year.

 

The man of the hour when needed the most. Thank you!

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