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Nexstar to acquire Tribune


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8 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

I think it's unlikely, but do you think Nexstar will try to reenter Seattle in the future?

 

Agreed it is unlikely. I only see one scenario that it does happen, and it requires a turn of events outside their control to even entertain.

 

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45 minutes ago, Georgie56 said:

I think it's unlikely, but do you think Nexstar will try to reenter Seattle in the future?

 

30 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Agreed it is unlikely. I only see one scenario that it does happen, and it requires a turn of events outside their control to even entertain.

 


Their only hope is if TEGNA or Cox/Apollo sell. Sinclair has assimilated KOMO, so no hope for that to ever be the same again.

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9 minutes ago, KentBrockman said:

 


Their only hope is if TEGNA or Cox/Apollo sell. Sinclair has assimilated KOMO, so no hope for that to ever be the same again.

 

I know there have been rumors of TEGNA and Cox/Apollo coming together, which would affect Seattle. That would be out of Nexstar's control, and they would still have to have room to get the loose asset which they would not be favored for.

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Nexstar Media Group Enters into De-Leveraging Buy/Sell Agreements with Fox Television Stations. Nexstar to Purchase Charlotte’s FOX and MyNetworkTV Affiliates for Approximately $45 Million and Divest Seattle’s FOX andMyNetworkTV Affiliates and Milwaukee’s FOX Affiliate for Approximately $350 Million.

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Best case scenario. I think having WJZY/WMYT having that synergy with WGHP will be great for both stations, and even for the region (WNCN, WGHP, WFXR, WSPA). I'm actually a Nexstar fan, so I am much happier with Nexstar gobbling up our affiliates here than keeping them as O&Os. WJZY has barely made a dent in the ratings here. WSOC and WBTV are the giants of Charlotte. Honestly, FOX was taking a real risk creating a news operation from scratch, and from watching a total of 10 minutes of their newscasts since 2013, it just wasn't clicking. Hopefully Nexstar can clean the station up, or (in my best case scenario) possibly outsource their newscast again. 

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57 minutes ago, KentBrockman said:

 


Their only hope is if TEGNA or Cox/Apollo OR CBS sell. Sinclair has assimilated KOMO, so no hope for that to ever be the same again.

Fixed! CBS may want out of Seattle pretty soon unless KSTW is somehow immensely profitable.

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In recently watching the news on WJZY, I can tell they have made some progress towards making the newscast better (compared to the mess that was when they first launched).  But I can also see why Fox would want to divest them at this point, as well.   I think Fox has done about as much as they could for WJZY.  I think Nexstar will be a good owner for WJZY/WMYT and will make the station stronger.   Personally, I'm glad to see Nexstar enter the Charlotte market.

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51 minutes ago, AmericanErrorist said:

The press release says that this reduces Nexstar's effective reach by .7% (through the UHF discount). Is that enough for them to be able to invoke the buy-back clause for WPIX?

 

NYC accounts for 6.44% of the total US television households according to Nielsen. https://www.rbr.com/heres-nielsen-official-2018-2019-dma-ranker/

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15 hours ago, TSSZNews said:

It's getting pretty close, especially considering A) The players aren't paid, B) More people watch the Iron Bowl than the Super Bowl in markets like Birmingham.

even mid-tier bowl games that don't have SEC teams playing get high ratings in Birmingham

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9 hours ago, nomadcowatbk said:

even mid-tier bowl games that don't have SEC teams playing get high ratings in Birmingham

 

If you have a Fox or ABC station in a place where people care about Michigan State, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa, you're getting some pretty good ratings and making some pretty good money on these games. Same goes for certain Big 12 and SEC markets.

 

People who live in pro football cities don't understand how big college football is in non pro-football cities in these three conferences. I prefer college football because that's what I grew up with, and when I go to a game and pay $7 for a Diet Coke, at least the money is going to the university and not into some billionaire's pocket.

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On 11/5/2019 at 6:51 PM, KentBrockman said:

They spent the next few years trying to claw their way out of the ratings basement, even getting beat in competiting time slots with the former FOX station WCCB. In a five station market (which should only be at most three or four) WJZY was and has been almost consistently fifth place. Unsurprisingly, WCNC (TEGNA) and WCCB (Bahakel) have always been distant third and fourth respectively, so surely FOX couldn’t have thought their chances were stellar.

 

What’s worse is that FOX had so many issues from the start (like a failed move to larger facilities, cost-cutting moves, management and talent turnover, equipment problems) and made so many mistakes in the WJZY launch that they ultimately never got a return on that investment.
 

Dumping WJZY/WMYT for WITI and KCPQ/KZJO is the best case scenario, they just got better run, better rated properties for next to nothing when compared with the dumpster fire they just unloaded onto Nexstar. It will take a miracle for Nexstar to turn around WJZY/WMYT and even then it’s less likely they will be able to. Coupled with the fact Seattle is a WAY bigger and better NFC market than Charlotte.

WCCB is probably like "Hate to Say I Told You So"; they did lose the Panthers, but they also lost the Jerry Richardson/Cam Newton headaches that team has had since they were forced from the Fox affiliation, and are much more free to experiment with their news as a CW affiliate with no network pressures, while WJZY ended up under a smaller-market cursed situation like WFLD/WPWR does (it should be fun to see how Nexstar runs a NINE-SUBCHANNEL station, which WMYT might as well be itself). This probably also scares off networks from trying to play 'small-ball' with their news when they launch a new station (despite their struggles, you know NBC Boston decided to play it safe and just stick with NECN-like newscasts rather than trying a WJZY revolution).

 

Fox also comes back to a WITI which is relatively unchanged from where it was when they let it go in 2007; they skipped the worst of the Sam Zell era before the Tribune acquisition, and Tribune pretty much seemed to treat them as if they merely existed throughout their entire run (having WGN-TV nearby really helped there), letting them have free reign. They'll probably also get to keep their logo easier with Fox playing down the kiteboxes, and Fox has to outlay $0 on new set tech. 

 

KCPQ also was able to let their distance scare off most of the Zell-ovations (which they were able to foist off onto 'JoeTV' where they all died with a well-deserved whimper, including a nearly non-existent MyNet affiliation bumped to 1am) and if not for the rise of the Seahawks and that KBCB deal dying (still amazed that there was a world where that station's first day as a Fox O&O would have been mayhem with the Seahawks in the NFC Championship if cooler heads hadn't prevailed), we'd be talking about how terrible 'Fox 24 News' from Bellingham was being beaten by KCPQ and Weigel's MeTV station. KCPQ and Fox's patiences won out in the end.

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I'm not a member, but I assume this might be the revival of some earlier speculation (WJW? California stations?) to get Nexstar closer to the ability to exercise its WPIX option.

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/7/sources-fox-and-nexstar-are-not-done-yet

 

Also, could the news and technology center in Denver be a big hub?

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/7/denver-station-to-become-nexstar-hub

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1 hour ago, TheRob said:

I'm not a member, but I assume this might be the revival of some earlier speculation (WJW? California stations?) to get Nexstar closer to the ability to exercise its WPIX option.

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/7/sources-fox-and-nexstar-are-not-done-yet

 

Also, could the news and technology center in Denver be a big hub?

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/7/denver-station-to-become-nexstar-hub

 

Is WCMH still a hub?

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5 hours ago, TheRob said:

I'm not a member, but I assume this might be the revival of some earlier speculation (WJW? California stations?) to get Nexstar closer to the ability to exercise its WPIX option.

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/7/sources-fox-and-nexstar-are-not-done-yet

 

Also, could the news and technology center in Denver be a big hub?

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/7/denver-station-to-become-nexstar-hub

 

They would need to sell A LOT to get to WPIX though.

 

As for the Denver hub, that could reasonably be a strong base for its Plains/Southwest stations. Nebraska and Wyoming are big holes for Nexstar though (Gray absolutely dominates those two states though).

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6 hours ago, TheRob said:

I'm not a member, but I assume this might be the revival of some earlier speculation (WJW? California stations?) to get Nexstar closer to the ability to exercise its WPIX option.

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/7/sources-fox-and-nexstar-are-not-done-yet

 

Also, could the news and technology center in Denver be a big hub?

 

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/7/denver-station-to-become-nexstar-hub

I wonder if this would include any of the legacy Nexstar stations...or just the former Tribune stations.

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5 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

 

Is WCMH still a hub?

Yes.

 

The former West Virginia Media Group stations still haven't been hubbed, but I think their traffic operations have been.

 

Good to see Nexstar dumping Brutus, Tribune's proprietary master control automation. I haven't heard any good things about it. Nexstar seems to prefer Florical automation for the master control for its stations.

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3 hours ago, nomadcowatbk said:

CBS only airs 1 SEC football game a week, sometimes 2

 

Remember, when Media General merged with LIN, one of the big reasons they kept the CBS affiliate instead of WVTM in Birmingham was because of SEC football. Or at least that's what I remember hearing.

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19 minutes ago, DirtyHarry said:

 

Remember, when Media General merged with LIN, one of the big reasons they kept the CBS affiliate instead of WVTM in Birmingham was because of SEC football. Or at least that's what I remember hearing.

And more often than not the Alabama Chrisom Tide gets featured on the SEC on CBS Game of the Week so I don't think ratings played a role in Media General keeping WIAT over WVTM at all

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39 minutes ago, NEOMatrix said:

Fox and Nwxstar are not done yet! (another Paywall article from FTVLive):

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/11/7/sources-fox-and-nexstar-are-not-done-yet

It basically just says that Nexstar’s CEO wants WPIX badly and they still have the option to 3/31/2020 - 12/31/2021 to buy back the station from Scripps.  If they unload some more stations to Fox they may have room for WPIX. 

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