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Nexstar to acquire Tribune


CircleSeven

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1 hour ago, oknewsguy said:

That was what I first thought that maybe the DOJ would've had an issue with Indy with the FCC not having an issue with the status quo remaining in place.

 

Turns out it's the other way around

 

It would be easy to split off CBS by simply making them take over the WISH facilities, whether they have to keep the same frequency or not. Nothing stopping them from staying on Channel 4 and moving to the WISH building.

 

Maybe they have to look for a new buyer and that is what is going on.

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I just had another theory about this apparent hold up with the FCC, I'm wondering as to whether the feds are waiting for Nexstar to resolve their dispute with AT&T so that no more stations will be blacked out.

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9 hours ago, JCB4TV said:

I just had another theory about this apparent hold up with the FCC, I'm wondering as to whether the feds are waiting for Nexstar to resolve their dispute with AT&T so that no more stations will be blacked out.

If that's the case then you might as well say the Apollo deal to acquire Cox and Northwest won't get done anytime soon because the Northwest stations are STILL off of AT&T and there are no signs or indications whatsoever that the Northwest stations will be back on AT&T anytime soon

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10 hours ago, JCB4TV said:

I just had another theory about this apparent hold up with the FCC, I'm wondering as to whether the feds are waiting for Nexstar to resolve their dispute with AT&T so that no more stations will be blacked out.

 

I don't think they care about private contractual negotiations. If the FCC is making them split off either CBS or Fox, it's going to take time to renegotiate a sale or find a new buyer.  Since the selling price is based on a stations profit, that's also not going to be the easiest thing to figure out when you split up a duopoly I would think. There is going to be a lot of back and forth on what the numbers are going to shake out if the station is going to be a standalone.

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2 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

If that's the case then you might as well say the Apollo deal to acquire Cox and Northwest won't get done anytime soon because the Northwest stations are STILL off of AT&T and there are no signs or indications whatsoever that the Northwest stations will be back on AT&T anytime soon

Remember, It's just a theory and not fact. As for NWB, those stations won't be back on AT&T until they join Apollo, who'll probably discuss a new contract along with the Cox stations.

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Here's an undiscussed wrinkle in the Tribune/Nexstar merger....WJKT in Jackson, TN.

 

For it's entire existence, it's been tied to WLMT (and later WPTY/WATN), but with these stations being sold to Tegna, it appears Nexstar is keeping WJKT, which means WREG will likely assume the responsibility of running them.

 

The question is, will WREG produce or repurpose a 9pm newscast for them?  They've always simulcasted the WLMT show.

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From Reuters tonight. It looks like Pai is circulating an order with the other commissioners to vote on allowing the deal to go through.

Quote

Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai on Friday sought approval from his colleagues to order the go ahead for Nexstar Media Group Inc’s (NXST.O) acquisition of Tribune Media Co (TRCO.N) in a $6.4 billion tie-up, a spokeswoman for the agency said.

 

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department approved the deal, saying the companies must divest television stations in 13 markets to resolve antitrust concerns. Pai’s order circulated Friday needs the consent of a majority of the five-member FCC.

 

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52 minutes ago, TheRob said:

From the reports I've read looks like the FCC has granted the top 4 waivers on the existing duopolies Tribune had to Scripps (Norfolk) and Nexstar (Indianapolis) respectively.

 

Also, Nexstar has told investors and the SEC that they plan to close the Tribune acquisition at the end of this month

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And the FCC approved the deal. Closing should be imminent. Considering how close the Tribune stations came to being Sinclair stations, this is a decent outcome. Nexstar has shown some improvement since the MG merger. Things could improve further after this merger. It may not be cause for celebration, but there is reason for cautious optimism, especially considering how much, much worse it could have been. 

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Nexstar posted this map of their footprint post-merger.

 

Nexstar-Property-Map-w-Tribune-1.png

 

Nexstar announced that they'll be closing the deal "shortly". 

 

Still It'll be interesting to see if Tribune is going to drop that Sinclair lawsuit since this deal is about to close. Also after closing, I'm wondering whether Nexstar is going to keep WGN America, WGN Radio 720, and those subchannel networks Antenna TV or This TV (i'll probably elaborate more down in the Speculatron). 

 

But you have to give props to Nexstar for something that Sinclair didn't do. Playing by the rules and not stepping on the toes of the regulators. They didn't hesitate to try to get their deal done. Right out the gate, they'd announced a divestiture plan, and four months later, they lined up the third-party entities for the divested properties. While Sinclair didn't post any divestiture plan until close to a year after their now-scuttled deal was announced. And even as Pai changed the ownership rules (reinstate the UHF Loophole, drop the NBCO rule, throw the eight-voice test out, tweak with the top-4 prohibition), Sinclair continued with their scheming ways to circumvent them. And that's why Pai shocked the world and gave them a real surprise on July 19 or last year, in a "regulatory-friendly" FCC.

 

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1 hour ago, CircleSeven said:

But you have to give props to Nexstar for something that Sinclair didn't do. Playing by the rules and not stepping on the toes of the regulators. They didn't hesitate to try to get their deal done. Right out the gate, they'd announced a divestiture plan, and four months later, they lined up the third-party entities for the divested properties. While Sinclair didn't post any divestiture plan until close to a year after their now-scuttled deal was announced. And even as Pai changed the ownership rules (reinstate the UHF Loophole, drop the NBCO rule, throw the eight-voice test out, tweak with the top-4 prohibition), Sinclair continued with their scheming ways to circumvent them. And that's why Pai shocked the world and gave them a real surprise on July 19 or last year, in a "regulatory-friendly" FCC.

 

 

Moral of the story: Cheaters. Never. Win.

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2 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

Nexstar posted this map of their footprint post-merger.

 

Nexstar-Property-Map-w-Tribune-1.png

 

Nexstar announced that they'll be closing the deal "shortly". 

 

Still It'll be interesting to see if Tribune is going to drop that Sinclair lawsuit since this deal is about to close. Also after closing, I'm wondering whether Nexstar is going to keep WGN America, WGN Radio 720, and those subchannel networks Antenna TV or This TV (i'll probably elaborate more down in the Speculatron). 

 

But you have to give props to Nexstar for something that Sinclair didn't do. Playing by the rules and not stepping on the toes of the regulators. They didn't hesitate to try to get their deal done. Right out the gate, they'd announced a divestiture plan, and four months later, they lined up the third-party entities for the divested properties. While Sinclair didn't post any divestiture plan until close to a year after their now-scuttled deal was announced. And even as Pai changed the ownership rules (reinstate the UHF Loophole, drop the NBCO rule, throw the eight-voice test out, tweak with the top-4 prohibition), Sinclair continued with their scheming ways to circumvent them. And that's why Pai shocked the world and gave them a real surprise on July 19 or last year, in a "regulatory-friendly" FCC.

 

 

The only thing about Nexstar: unless they shed assets or get a rule change, they have no room to move up farther.

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I wonder if Scripps & Nexstar will swap a diginet as Nexstar will own Antenna TV for one of the Katz TV diginets in West Michigan. Sorry if this should be in speculatron as for This TV Tribune was getting rid of it in many of there TV markets for Court TV on Nov 1.

 

As I said a couple of months ago can't wait to see the Scripps lighthouse on Fox17. I disagree with Michael O'Reilly that Nexstar didn't need to sell anything which they needed to and Nexstar knew that and did it the right way unlike Sinclair did trying to keep everything and I also disagree with Jessica voting against it I thought she was way off base with the whole localism crap. As that ship has sailed a long time ago before I was born when local TV owners sold to bigger media companies even way back in the '60's etc. Rumors are that Scripps maybe getting Fox for WSFL read that in one of the links that was posted just now about the merger being final in the different article and that WSVN would become big on News like sister station WHDH in Boston.  

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The Plain Dealer says that ownership of WJW is still up in the air. Something has been decided, but if it's going to Fox it won't be announced for a few weeks. I have a feeling it's still going to Fox, which is good.

https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2019/09/fcc-approves-sale-of-tribune-stations-including-fox-8-to-nexstar.html

45 minutes ago, Megatron81 said:

Rumors are that Scripps maybe getting Fox for WSFL read that in one of the links that was posted just now about the merger being final in the different article and that WSVN would become big on News like sister station WHDH in Boston.

 

If that's what happens, it makes the Wolfes look smarter every day for selling WBNS and WTHR.

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1. Nexstar now owns a station in every Colorado market and 3 of them are the markets Fox Affiliates. Maybe we'll see a Fox Affiliate Network? Nah.

2. Nexstar will sell KDVR to Fox and keep the studio lease which will allow them to negotiate as they keep KWGN and negotiate to keep FOX as the operator of both.

3. Get ready for MileHighNow.com

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