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Nexstar to acquire Tribune


CircleSeven

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Like I have been saying all along...(my scott jones moment if I may...)

The taxes in NY gobble up much of the incentive to do business there. The politics of business also suck in NY for broadcaster.

If they really wanted NYC they could find a million ways to make it happen.

 

In 2019 it's simple to establish yourself worldwide without having the expense of NYC.

 

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2 hours ago, TheOneManHerd said:

If you’re a media company looking to make your own national content, having a property in New York helps a lot. It’s much easier to attract the best of the creative class if you’re in NY or LA.

They had their chance with a full Hollywood studio when they got MG and Hollywood Today Live, but they chose to kill the program and dump the lease (the right move as the entire endeavor was a firepit of money that was never going to compete seriously with anything but Celebrity Page).

 

I see more CBS buying the station (they already lease the studios to shoot DMTV and that would keep it CW), and just dumping off WLNY to DTV America or one of the many area ethnic broadcasters that'll be happy to have a channel 10 cable slot to do whatever they'd like with it.

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3 hours ago, TheOneManHerd said:

If you’re a media company looking to make your own national content, having a property in New York helps a lot. It’s much easier to attract the best of the creative class if you’re in NY or LA. That being said, I could definitely see Tegna or Scripps making a play for PIX.

 

I'll note that Hearst is headquartered in New York.

 

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22 hours ago, mre29 said:

I had a feeling Nexstar would have to spin off one of Tribune's big three, but why WPIX and not WGN or KTLA? I mean, besides NYC being the largest DMA.

 

With WGN, my theory is they don't want to give up the station in Tribune's home base of Chicago 

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1 hour ago, T.L. Hughes said:

That being said, I'm a bit skeptical that Nexstar would choose to give up WPIX. No station owner would give up the opportunity to have stations in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

 

I would think that most station owners would want to at least keep New York and LA stations. Chicago is the cherry on top of this sundae.

 

How many small-market stations would Nexstar have to sell to be able to keep the big three?

 

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1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

As long as the government is padlocked, it's a world of speculation out there and FTV Live isn't helping. We won't know more until the paperwork comes in and the government must reopen for that.

To that point, the shutdown might put the sale in limbo for quite a while, though, since there isn't any funding for the FCC's operations and Trump is, unfortunately, not willing to fund any agencies that have had their funding lapse because of the border wall funding standoff between him and Congress. And I stated my skepticism both for the report about Nexstar possibly selling WPIX for the reasons I stated above as well as the fact that FTVLive sometimes does report on hearsay, with a relatively mixed record of accuracy (and one cease and desist order on a story initially based on a rumor tip, to boot).

 

The shutdown, incidentally, affords Nexstar plenty of time to decide how to fit the Tribune stations into their portfolio while still keeping the group under the 39% cap, and the better assumption would be that Nexstar might keep WPIX, KTLA and WGN, and spin off stations in some mid-to-upper-end top-20 markets and markets ranking far lower.

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1 hour ago, mre29 said:

 

I would think that most station owners would want to at least keep New York and LA stations. Chicago is the cherry on top of this sundae.

 

How many small-market stations would Nexstar have to sell to be able to keep the big three?

 

 

You don't need NY, LA or CHI to operate a TV network anymore.

 

You don't need "flagships" or cherries on sundaes.

 

You can place a TV network just about anywhere in the USA now given you stay close to a decent communications hub.

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The Nexstar Family of Colorado Duopolies

 

In the Colorado Springs/Pueblo market, it's FOX21 KXRM and CW57 KXTU (also known as SoCo CW).

 

In the Grand Junction market, it's CBS5 KREX and FOX4 KFQX.

 

If the FCC approves Nexstar's purchase of Tribune stations, including FOX31 KDVR and CW2 KWGN, that Denver duopoly would be the final piece of the puzzle. The circle will be complete. Colorado will officially be Nexstar Country!

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4 hours ago, dabx said:

What I don't understand is why Tribune did not move WPIX from a VHF to a UHF station during the digital transition. During the transition, WPIX was using UHF 33 - why didn't they stay there? They would now have a discount station. WGN and KTLA gave up their VHF station. Another Sam Zell screwup

Broadcasting on an ACTUAL VHF station is much cheaper than UHF due to the power usage.  In the analog era, Low-V was capped at 100KW, High-V at 316KW and UHF at 5 million watts.   Digital uses much less power, (I don't know the max on VHF but UHF is capped at 1 million watts).  Do the math when it comes to the electric bill....

 

This was a reason back in the digital switchover, but the UHF discount is a relic when analog UHF was inferior....now digital UHF is the standard and VHF is a pain in the viewers you know what.

 

And in this era of mega mergers, a station like WPIX that chose to be VHF is now paying the price since it is counted at full value, REGARDLESS of the UHF discount...

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3 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Broadcasting on an ACTUAL VHF station is much cheaper than UHF due to the power usage.  In the analog era, Low-V was capped at 100KW, High-V at 316KW and UHF at 5 million watts.   Digital uses much less power, (I don't know the max on VHF but UHF is capped at 1 million watts).  Do the math when it comes to the electric bill....

 

Keep in mind those power levels represent effective radiated power. The true amount of power coming out of the transmitter is much lower, and therefore the cost difference between running a VHF station and a UHF one isn't nearly as substantial as the advertised power levels suggest. Additionally, comparing costs between analog and digital broadcasts is a bit tricky, because analog signals were measured in terms of peak power, while digital signals are measured in terms of average power.

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I'll talk about this more in speculation but FTVLive.com is reporting that FOX is talking with Nexstar about buying some of those 42 stations involved in this deal.

 

I'm not surprised that it's happening but how long it took for FOX to jump back into the Tribune station deal 2.0.

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3 hours ago, ColumbusNewsFan said:

I'll talk about this more in speculation but FTVLive.com is reporting that FOX is talking with Nexstar about buying some of those 42 stations involved in this deal.

 

I'm not surprised that it's happening but how long it took for FOX to jump back into the Tribune station deal 2.0.

 

I had assumed they already were talking to Nexstar.

 

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I pretty much know WXMI Fox17 will be sold I'll not say who will buy it on this thread since Wood TV is the Crown Jewel just like when Sinclair with WWMT wasn't going to give that station up. Nexstar & Fox got to get a new deal done was surprised that it was only a 2-year deal so wasn't all that surprised that Nexstar and Fox are in talks to sell some TV stations to Fox.

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On 1/16/2019 at 6:12 PM, ColumbusNewsFan said:

I'll talk about this more in speculation but FTVLive.com is reporting that FOX is talking with Nexstar about buying some of those 42 stations involved in this deal.

 

I'm not surprised that it's happening but how long it took for FOX to jump back into the Tribune station deal 2.0.

That might also explain why they dropped out of the running for the Regional Sports Nets (even though they didn't include it in the SEC filings) but the Murdoch's probably had to decide between either buying up more TV stations or buy back the RSNs but not both of them and (from all indications that I've seen) they've chosen to go after the TV stations

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On 1/16/2019 at 11:07 AM, GoldenShine9 said:

As long as the government is padlocked, it's a world of speculation out there and FTV Live isn't helping. We won't know more until the paperwork comes in and the government must reopen for that.

With the government reopening... for now, we'll get more answers as the paperwork will get a chance to be uploaded to the FCC.

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The Paperwork Is Up!!!

 

Here's the Comprehensive Exhibit & Merger Agreement.

 

The comprehensive exhibit does not tell you which stations Nexstar going to divest fully (like what we've seen in Gray-Raycom). It only list the markets at which Nexstar would have to divest one of the top-4 stations to comply with the top-4 Duopoly rule. So they'll amend these apps once a full divestiture plan gets finalized.

 

On the merger agreement, The initial outside date of this deal is November 30, 2019. But if it gets extended for three months, then the new outside date will be February 29, 2020.

 

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Comprehensive Exhibit, Section 

 

In section VIII-A-2...

The Ames market has miraculously moved itself from Iowa to Ohio!

2. Des Moines-Ames, OH
In this market, NBI is the licensee of WOI-DT, Ames, Ohio (ABC) and KCWI-TV, Ames, Ohio (CW). A Tribune subsidiary is the licensee of WHO-DT (NBC). Both WOI-DT and WHO- DT are currently Top Four stations in the market. In order to comply with the Duopoly Rule, the applicants must divest one of the Top Four stations. An application to divest one such station will be filed as soon as divestiture plans are finalized.

 

Also, Section VII-A-8 seems to suggest that in Indianapolis, Nexstar would keep the Tribune stations and divest WISH & WNDY.

8. Indianapolis, IN
In this market, NBI is the licensee of WISH-TV, Indianapolis, Indiana (CW) and WNDY- TV, Marion, Indiana (MyNet). A Tribune subsidiary is the licensee of WXIN(DT), Indianapolis, Indiana (FOX), WTTV(DT), Bloomington, Indiana (CBS), and WTTK(DT), Kokomo, Indiana.61 Neither WISH-TV nor WNDY-TV are Top Four stations in the market, while both WXIN(DT) and WTTV(DT) are among the Top Four stations in the market. In order to comply with the Duopoly Rule, applicants must divest certain stations in this market. The Top Four Showing in Exhibit 20 to the application for transfer of control of the licensee of WXIN(DT) and WTTV(DT) demonstrates that allowing the continued common ownership of those two stations following the Merger would serve the public interest. If NBI is permitted to acquire both WXIN(DT) and WTTV(DT), then it will divest the other two stations owned in the market. Applications to divest stations sufficient to comply with the Duopoly Rule will be filed as soon as divestiture plans are finalized.

 

(Bold highlight by me.)

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1 hour ago, ColtFromGulfcoast said:

Y'all, they also said WLMT was in the top 4. 

 

1 minute ago, CircleSeven said:

Unless they're really watching The CW, that's a big error.

 

Is WATN really doing worse than their sister station? That's a big insult to injury if true.

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