Jump to content

Sinclair settles with Nexstar over failed Tribune deal


TheRolyPoly

Recommended Posts

As part of a settlement agreement worth $60m, Sinclair is selling WDKY Danville - Lexington to Nexstar and selling "non-license assets" of KGBT Harlingen - Brownsville - McAllen to an unknown buyer (but probably will be to a shell company of Sinclair).

 

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/sinclair-pays-nexstar-60m-some-assets-to-settle-tribune-suit

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 65
  • Created
  • Last Reply
51 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

As part of a settlement agreement worth $60m, Sinclair is selling WDKY Danville - Lexington to Nexstar and selling "non-license assets" of KGBT Harlingen - Brownsville - McAllen to an unknown buyer (but probably will be to a shell company of Sinclair).

 

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/sinclair-pays-nexstar-60m-some-assets-to-settle-tribune-suit

This really doesn't surprise me. I have quietly speculated for some time that if Sinclair had to cough some stations to Nexstar, these would be two of them (I had assumed that KVEO was in the same situation as KSEE in which it could legally create a duo with KGBT.)

 

What surprises me is that there weren't more stations going to Nexstar in this. I could have seen one or two more markets that Nexstar would have been interested in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

As part of a settlement agreement worth $60m, Sinclair is selling WDKY Danville - Lexington to Nexstar and selling "non-license assets" of KGBT Harlingen - Brownsville - McAllen to an unknown buyer (but probably will be to a shell company of Sinclair).

 

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/sinclair-pays-nexstar-60m-some-assets-to-settle-tribune-suit

RIP any chance of Nexstar buying Morris, the biggest slam dunk deal of slam dunk deals?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, ColtFromGulfcoast said:

This really doesn't surprise me. I have quietly speculated for some time that if Sinclair had to cough some stations to Nexstar, these would be two of them (I had assumed that KVEO was in the same situation as KSEE in which it could legally create a duo with KGBT.)

 

What surprises me is that there weren't more stations going to Nexstar in this. I could have seen one or two more markets that Nexstar would have been interested in.

I could see Nexstar getting one additional market (Madison, WI) as part of this.

 

Outside of that Scripps, Tegna and Meredith will likely each get 1 to 3 stations a piece (and I also predict that a few of the stations that were involved in the sales Sinclair had agreed to during the Tribune deal will be sold as part of the settlement with the FCC)

 

Also keep this in mind that Perry Sook does have a history with WDKY (which pre-dates his time at Nexstar) so this is a homecoming of sorts for Mr. Sook.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lexington is kind of a stretch for either company.  WDKY's news product is provided by Gray and WKYT, and the closest Nexstar stations are in Knoxville and West Virginia. 

I believe that they were hubbed out of WSYX/WTTE in Columbus like many other legacy Sinclair stations in the area.

 

Likely, the deal was structured where it was all about the numbers, and hitting the target by both coughing up as little cash as possible and spinning off the right assets to hit that mark.

 

Morris may not be a dead deal, should it ever happen, they could always trade up to WTVQ and flip WDKY to someone like Block or Tegna.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Lexington is kind of a stretch for either company.  WDKY's news product is provided by Gray and WKYT, and the closest Nexstar stations are in Knoxville and West Virginia. 

I believe that they were hubbed out of WSYX/WTTE in Columbus like many other legacy Sinclair stations in the area.

 

Morris may not be a dead deal, should it ever happen, they could always trade up to WTVQ and flip WDKY to someone like Block or Tegna.

They could always pull a WZDX and do it that way (at least WDKY would be able to say they do have a functional in-house news department)

 

I imagine Nexstar would have to do some renovating at WDKY's facility in order to accomodate a full-scale news department.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

As part of a settlement agreement worth $60m, Sinclair is selling WDKY Danville - Lexington to Nexstar and selling "non-license assets" of KGBT Harlingen - Brownsville - McAllen to an unknown buyer (but probably will be to a shell company of Sinclair).

 

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/sinclair-pays-nexstar-60m-some-assets-to-settle-tribune-suit

KGBT's programming will move to KVEO 23.2 tonight/tomorrow morning at 12:01.

 

https://valleycentral.com/news/local/cbs-4-over-the-air-programming-to-begin-airing-on-channel-232-tuesday

Link to comment
Share on other sites

42 minutes ago, broadcastfan9751 said:

KGBT's programming will move to KVEO 23.2 tonight/tomorrow morning at 12:01.

 

https://valleycentral.com/news/local/cbs-4-over-the-air-programming-to-begin-airing-on-channel-232-tuesday

It also appears that in order to make room, the KVEO sub-channels, Estrella, Court TV Mystery, and Grit will be migrating to KGBT-DT 4, 5, and 6 respectively. Also, I wonder whether Sinclair will be able to take either Fox, CW or both to fill the void.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, broadcastfan9751 said:

KGBT's programming will move to KVEO 23.2 tonight/tomorrow morning at 12:01.

 

https://valleycentral.com/news/local/cbs-4-over-the-air-programming-to-begin-airing-on-channel-232-tuesday

So it looks like KGBT CBS moves to KVEO 23.2 and KGBT 04.1 becomes Esrella TV at 6AM, according to KGBT's schedule.

 

Question...
Does Sinclair still have control of KGBT CBS or does it now relinquish that part and KGBT's news department over to Nexstar?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

So it looks like KGBT CBS moves to KVEO 23.2 and KGBT 04.1 becomes Esrella TV at 6AM, according to KGBT's schedule.

 

Question...
Does Sinclair still have control of KGBT CBS or does it now relinquish that part and KGBT's news department over to Nexstar?

KGBT's non-license assets (including the programming and news operation) are being relinquished completely to Nexstar. Sinclair will continue to own the KGBT license with Estrella TV and various diginets.

 

Also, with Nexstar getting KGBT's news operation, KVEO 23.1 may finally get actual local news, since KVEO currently has news produced by KTSM in El Paso with only a few local reporters in the Valley.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, broadcastfan9751 said:

KGBT's non-license assets (including the programming and news operation) are being relinquished completely to Nexstar. Sinclair will continue to own the KGBT license with Estrella TV and various diginets.

 

Also, with Nexstar getting KGBT's news operation, KVEO 23.1 may finally get actual local news, since KVEO currently has news produced by KTSM in El Paso with only a few local reporters in the Valley.

Yeah. Wow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, broadcastfan9751 said:

KGBT's non-license assets (including the programming and news operation) are being relinquished completely to Nexstar. Sinclair will continue to own the KGBT license with Estrella TV and various diginets.

 

Also, with Nexstar getting KGBT's news operation, KVEO 23.1 may finally get actual local news, since KVEO currently has news produced by KTSM in El Paso with only a few local reporters in the Valley.

 

Just watched the end to their 10pm newscast tonight (on their website) and they are already running the Nexstar copyright sequence.  So apparently Nexstar already has control over the newscast--at least.

 

To clarify, this was their final newscast before the switch of CBS4 programming to KVEO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, oknewsguy said:

Also keep this in mind that Perry Sook does have a history with WDKY (which pre-dates his time at Nexstar) so this is a homecoming of sorts for Mr. Sook.

To expand on that, Sook was a co-founder of Superior Communications, which owned WDKY and KOCB in Oklahoma City (then a UPN affiliate) from about 1993 until 1996, when Superior sold both stations to Sinclair; Sook founded Nexstar shortly afterward.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, T.L. Hughes said:

To expand on that, Sook was a co-founder of Superior Communications, which owned WDKY and KOCB in Oklahoma City (then a UPN affiliate) from about 1993 until 1996, when Superior sold both stations to Sinclair; Sook founded Nexstar shortly afterward.

Which if Sook had a chance to acquire at least some of the conflicts in the Sinclair-Tribune merger he could've easily acquired KOKH/KOCB from Sinclair (but if I had to guess Perry must've saw what Sinclair was doing and decided not to buy the conflicts in that merger)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, LexTVandRadio said:

Which that also includes everything but the license assets of KGBT in Harlingen, TX.

 

While Sinclair will more than likely not sell all 170+ stations however, Sinclair selling just a handful of stations (about 4 or 5 stations) would be the most likely outcome as part of their resolution with the FCC (in addition to a pretty hefty fine) I'd be shocked if the WDKY/KGBT sale is the end of the sales made by Sinclair while I'd be additionally shocked if Sinclair sells anymore than 6 stations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made a brief mention of this in Out & About, I wonder whether Sinclair will try to make a run for Fox and/or CW in the RGV. At this time, Fox is relayed on two LD sticks and CW is on Mexican XHRIO, whch will shut down at the end of 2021.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • CircleSeven changed the title to Sinclair settles with Nexstar over failed Tribune deal
1 hour ago, oknewsguy said:

Which that also includes everything but the license assets of KGBT in Harlingen, TX.

 

While Sinclair will more than likely not sell all 170+ stations however, Sinclair selling just a handful of stations (about 4 or 5 stations) would be the most likely outcome as part of their resolution with the FCC (in addition to a pretty hefty fine) I'd be shocked if the WDKY/KGBT sale is the end of the sales made by Sinclair while I'd be additionally shocked if Sinclair sells anymore than 6 stations.

Yep, I would agree with you there. WDKY would be a clean sell. 

 

Would that change anything with their partnership with Gray/WKYT? If approved, Nexstar would own 2 towers here in Lexington. WDKY and WTVQ (from the media general days)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, LexTVandRadio said:

Yep, I would agree with you there. WDKY would be a clean sell. 

 

Would that change anything with their partnership with Gray/WKYT? If approved, Nexstar would own 2 towers here in Lexington. WDKY and WTVQ (from the media general days)

Not in the short term, however I will predict that by either Fall 2020 or in 2021, WDKY will have a full scale in house news department (I do wonder about the size of WDKY's building if it's big enough to leave everything on the outside as is or if it'll require building expansion to accomodate it?)

 

As far as daily newscasts are concerned it'll have the obvious timeslots (Morning, 6 and 10pm to start which doesn't sound like much but as time goes on they can add on with additional newscasts from there)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, LexTVandRadio said:

Yep, I would agree with you there. WDKY would be a clean sell. 

 

Would that change anything with their partnership with Gray/WKYT? If approved, Nexstar would own 2 towers here in Lexington. WDKY and WTVQ (from the media general days)

 

As far as I know only the land that WTVQ's stick and studios sit on is owned by Nexstar; they probably lease them to Morris. Nexstar has no operational control over WTVQ whatsoever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, scrabbleship said:

RIP any chance of Nexstar buying Morris, the biggest slam dunk deal of slam dunk deals?

 

 

This actually may still be a possibility. I mean, after all, Nexstar simply moved the CBS affiliation as well as the rest of KGBT's spirit to KVEO. 

 

What can stop them from simply parking ABC on 56.2, MNT on 56.3 and then selling off WTVQ's license to Gray (which then moves the CW affilation to it) or some small company that would place whatever diginet they wanted on the primary. You know besides the gang of diginets they already have?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using TVNewsTalk you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.