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Cox sells majority TV interest to Apollo


The Frog

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If Disney is spinning off as many assets as possible to alleviate debt from the Fox deal, going as far as to sell their NYC headquarters and the home to WABC, what makes you think they’re going to buy a television station, whereas television is frankly a dying medium? If anything, Disney may (and I wouldn’t hold my breath on it) shed their smallest O&Os in Raleigh and Fresno, not buy more television stations when that money could go toward better uses. While anything’s possible, some things are quite unlikely. Disney buying a television station in Atlanta is very unlikely. They haven’t purchased a station since 1995 when they bought their Flint and Toledo stations. The ONLY reason they bought those stations was to ensure ABC’s carriage in Detroit during their dispute with Scripps. You’re kidding yourself.

 

What? I did not state it would happen.

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Kinda getting tired of reading people argue about the whole "Disney doesn't buy stations" thing.

 

They haven't bought a station since 1995. Period. Yes, they briefly seemed interested in WJLA. Who cares? It's Walt f#cking Disney. If they truly wanted WJLA, they would own it right now.

 

Anyone who believes that WJLA has been the only station they have been interested in is fooling themselves. But that's all that's seems to come from them. A brief interest until someone (probably near or at the top) decides time, effort, and money is best focused elsewhere.

 

Could they buy more stations? Yes, absolutely. But a 23-year dry spell seems to indicate that they just haven't been all that interested in doing so. And in this current day and age, why? Why should one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world invest into what seems to be a failing medium, when there's hundreds of better ways to spend that money?

 

Anything is possible. I mean, there's a possibility that tomorrow I dig a hole, find a buried treasure map, and follow it to find $500 million dollars in gold coins that I turn around and use to buy WSB. There's just a very low chance that will happen.

 

There's a chance Disney buys WSB, but based off their history, it's a small one.

 

If Disney is spinning off as many assets as possible to alleviate debt from the Fox deal, going as far as to sell their NYC headquarters and the home to WABC, what makes you think they’re going to buy a television station, whereas television is frankly a dying medium? If anything, Disney may (and I wouldn’t hold my breath on it) shed their smallest O&Os in Raleigh and Fresno, not buy more television stations when that money could go toward better uses. While anything’s possible, some things are quite unlikely. Disney buying a television station in Atlanta is very unlikely. They haven’t purchased a station since 1995 when they bought their Flint and Toledo stations. The ONLY reason they bought those stations was to ensure ABC’s carriage in Detroit during their dispute with Scripps. You’re kidding yourself.

 

The voices of reason! Thank you!!!

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So you’re saying there’s a possibility? I see you’ve moved off your NEVER stance.

 

I see you live in a cartoon make believe world like EatNews.

Good one. I've seen that type of tone from others on other sites and I almost always hit "ignore" on them.

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Good one. I've seen that type of tone from others on other sites and I almost always hit "ignore" on them.

Listen, I’m glad you edited your comment because this is the only forum site I post to. And I certainly am not try to pick on anyone (in fact, i feel like you sometimes talk down to me), I’m just trying to make my point. If we can’t disagree without any hard feelings, maybe you should click ignore (instead of repeatedly threatening to do so). Have a good day.

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Kinda getting tired of reading people argue about the whole "Disney doesn't buy stations" thing.

 

They haven't bought a station since 1995. Period. Yes, they briefly seemed interested in WJLA. Who cares? It's Walt f#cking Disney. If they truly wanted WJLA, they would own it right now.

 

Anyone who believes that WJLA has been the only station they have been interested in is fooling themselves. But that's all that's seems to come from them. A brief interest until someone (probably near or at the top) decides time, effort, and money is best focused elsewhere.

 

Could they buy more stations? Yes, absolutely. But a 23-year dry spell seems to indicate that they just haven't been all that interested in doing so. And in this current day and age, why? Why should one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world invest into what seems to be a failing medium, when there's hundreds of better ways to spend that money?

 

Anything is possible. I mean, there's a possibility that tomorrow I dig a hole, find a buried treasure map, and follow it to find $500 million dollars in gold coins that I turn around and use to buy WSB. There's just a very low chance that will happen.

 

There's a chance Disney buys WSB, but based off their history, it's a small one.

Fair enough, same argument can be made about CBS too, though. Never is a term that she be used lightly. Unlikely would be the better term.

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If Disney is spinning off as many assets as possible to alleviate debt from the Fox deal, going as far as to sell their NYC headquarters and the home to WABC, what makes you think they’re going to buy a television station, whereas television is frankly a dying medium? If anything, Disney may (and I wouldn’t hold my breath on it) shed their smallest O&Os in Raleigh and Fresno, not buy more television stations when that money could go toward better uses. While anything’s possible, some things are quite unlikely. Disney buying a television station in Atlanta is very unlikely. They haven’t purchased a station since 1995 when they bought their Flint and Toledo stations. The ONLY reason they bought those stations was to ensure ABC’s carriage in Detroit during their dispute with Scripps. You’re kidding yourself.

I'll add this.

 

Disney actually is concerned about scale, but in the realm of their primary, bread-and-butter studio output. That's why they made the deal with Fox to get 20CF, and bought Marvel and Lucasfilm. The entertainment landscape is changing as much as the broadcast landscape, if not more so.

 

ABC has been, for all intents and purposes, a pipeline for Disney's television output and a means to promote Disney's movie studio output. It serves a critical purpose for the conglomerate enough for them to keep owning the network and their stable of O&Os but not enough to make them want to expand their O&O base. If they did, then WJLA would have been an O&O and we wouldn't be having this conversation.

 

Thing is, do you want to buy and keep up with your primary means of content creation and delivery (Disney Studios) or your secondary means of content creation and delivery (ABC)? And is the return on investment going to be worth the purchase?

 

Anyone can tell you that Disney will benefit tremendously from buying 20CF. Maybe they would if they waved bags and bags of cash to Sinclair, Scripps and Cox and bought all of their remaining non-O&O ABC affiliates in the top 20 markets, but that isn't as much a slam-dunk argument to make in comparison.

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I've read some scuttlebutt recently in this thread about NBC possibly getting WFXT.

 

Not going to happen.

 

Fox likes to tack on really long affiliation contracts with the sale of a station. Case in point - the ex-New World stations in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Greensboro, Birmingham, Kansas City, St. Louis, etc; and other stations (i.e. Denver, Salt Lake City, Memphis, and Boston.)

 

In fact, WJW’s current affiliation contract dates back to 2008 and was negotiated during the sale from Fox to Local TV.

 

NBC has also made it quite clear in the past that they do not wish to run another network's affiliate if it isn't NBC or Telemundo.

 

When was the last time NBC operated a station that wasn't affiliated with one of their networks? 1997. It sold the WB stations that it operated via LMAs it inherited from Outlet located in Chillicothe/Columbus, Ohio, and Providence, RI. NBC does not want to operate a Fox affiliate. It's the same reason they sold their WB affiliates to Paramount/Viacom in exchange for WVIT.

 

Legally, Fox can also take Comcast to court for breach of contract, especially if it has right of first refusal.

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Should CBS get under Viacom's direct control again, the remote chances they buy any stations will diminish dramatically.

 

It's pretty simple as to why: instead of being a conglomerate where the network itself is the largest piece, CBS will be part of a larger conglomerate where Paramount Pictures and Viacom's (badly struggling) cable networks will receive equal attention, if not holding a larger priority.

 

NBC buying their way into Boston through an existing Telemundo O&O and a series of deals with existing low-power signals is almost an anomaly within a conglomerate that has Universal Studios, Telemundo and an insane amount of cable networks (and the vast majority of US cable systems) under their oversight. Yes Telemundo has been buying quite a few O&Os but they are being paired (smartly) with existing NBC O&Os or are standalones in markets with a high Spanish language-speaking population.

 

Fox made an attempt - a public one - to buy some of their affiliates (in some cases, back) as a $900M deal contingent with the failed Sinclair-Tribune merger attempt. That it happened (and will no doubt happen again) while Fox is in the process of selling off their movie studio and the majority of their cable assets is not an accident.

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Which is why I dread what will happen to WSB and all the other Coxes if Sinclair does get them-- I have always liked WSB, WFTV and WSOC (even though I have not lived in Atlanta, Orlando, or Charlotte), and I'd hate to see them go down the drain with those required Trump-praising segments (a.k.a. "must-runs")!

 

ETA: And worse, if Sinclair gets the Coxes, there will be two Sinclairs in Seattle, and not just one!

I can't even talk about this, because my greatest fears and even more my worse nightmare would be Sinclair buying them. I lived in Atlanta in the 90s, and WSB-TV what I wish every tv station could be. The company, the station and everything about Cox IMO is everything! It hurts to see somebody else to own WSB, WHIO, WFTV, WSOC, because I feel Cox, is healthly company. I think they should have more stations in their portfolio, and even expand.

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Cox is one of those companies that takes a pretty penny to swallow whole because many of their stations are valuable, and because of so, are very expensive.

 

It may be some reclusive billionaire who opens up their wallet. Hoping it's someone like Warren Buffett as opposed to someone like the Koch Brothers or Sheldon Adelson.

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Cox is one of those companies that takes a pretty penny to swallow whole because many of their stations are valuable, and because of so, are very expensive.

 

It may be some reclusive billionaire who opens up their wallet. Hoping it's someone like Warren Buffett as opposed to someone like the Koch Brothers or Sheldon Adelson.

Buffett may look to buying some stations to possibly fold it's stations into Graham (basically buying up stations just to cash out and merge) I'm thinking that's what Buffett's intentions are unless Buffett is serious about being in the TV business and buys more stations

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I'm not sure I buy this, but maybe your point is flying over my head and I can't see it.

 

It's true that WGCL isn't a strong CBS affiliate (and I've repeatedly criticized their news operation in the past,) but CBS is no stranger to nonexistent or poorly-rated news operations: they still own WWJ, which doesn't even have a news department despite being a top-20 market station! Doesn't WFOR place dead last behind all the Spanish-language stations in Miami?

 

As for NFL teams, I'll bring up WWJ. The Lions are an NFC team, and unlike KOVR and the Raiders there are no nearby NFC teams to share coverage of.

 

As for Disney, I just think we're being a bit too certain in the idea that the networks won't bite for WSB. Atlanta's a top-10 market and WSB has always been the #1 station here. Cox isn't just a group with a bunch of stations in 30-to-40 market DMAs. WSB became Cox's largest station by market size when KTVU was traded to Fox. Atlanta's not Jacksonville or Memphis.

 

Now if Cox sells as a group or merges with another broadcaster, then this is all moot. But if they sell station-by-station, I wouldn't blindly dismiss the networks as WSB suitors just as much as I wouldn't blindly dismiss Sinclair because of their current merger troubles with Tribune.

 

Or maybe I don't know any better, I dunno.

 

CBS only bought the current WWJ because they had to. It was either that, or they would have to serve Detroit with rimshot signals (completely unacceptable, for obvious reasons).

 

Now, they're basically stuck with channel 62. I can't imagine buyers lining up for it, and they haven't been able to get a news operation off the ground. A much worse situation than WGCL in Atlanta.

 

But, on the flip side, I do respect Weigel for actually being creative enough to make WDJT 58 in Milwaukee (initially seen as the ugliest dog of the lot of bad stations CBS had the choice of affiliating with in 1994) into a success. Their newscasts have become competitive, and they actually beat the competition by forgoing a 6PM newscast in lieu of Jeopardy, while doing plenty of news in other time slots and on their sister Indy station WMLW 49 (as well as a Spanish-language newscast on their local LP Telemundo outlet - Weigel employs a few bilingual reporters). All in all, Weigel is small, but smart. And they've been able to maneuver all of this into a tiny, successful empire full of subchannel networks and now, stations in rather substantial markets. Good for them.

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It's kind of too bad that WWJ almost certainly makes a ton of money in its current state, because what it's become is shameful. From WGPR to that.

 

It’s CBS’s bastard station. They should sell it to someone who cares.

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It’s CBS’s bastard station. They should sell it to someone who cares.

 

And with CBS out of radio, the utility to keep it just isn't there that much anymore.

 

Hypothetical time: If Cox/Meredith happens, toss in WKBD/WWJ and some cash in exchange for WGCL? As much of a mess as WNEM is, it would at least be a starting point for something.

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And with CBS out of radio, the utility to keep it just isn't there that much anymore.

 

Hypothetical time: If Cox/Meredith happens, toss in WKBD/WWJ and some cash in exchange for WGCL? As much of a mess as WNEM is, it would at least be a starting point for something.

Why would Meredith want to trade one dog CBS affiliate for another? WKBD/WWJ are pass-throughs, but they are at least profitable and cheap in a declining Rust Belt market.

 

CBS might as well just keep them as-is.

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Also, the Cox and Scripps families have done business before; Scripps Networks bought the Travel Channel from Cox Communications in two stages (obtaining majority control in 2010 and the rest in 2016).

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