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Gray Television to buy Meredith


TheRob

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1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

Apollo and Sinclair also bid up according to the article. It even went past the revised Gray offer, but Meredith stuck with it.

 

I think those at Meredith stations are breathing a sigh of relief right now. Hedge funds are BAD, and Sinclair is even worse.

I thought they meant that Sinclair, Cox and Standard would merge together from the way that was written. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

Meredith probably deep-sixed their bid before even reading it.

WGGB's GM probably had an all caps email to corporate; 'we dodged their worst once, don't make us go through being owned by them again! 😫

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Am I the only reader on this site actually hoping for those stations to be sold to Cox, instead of Gray? I, too, don’t want to see the Meredith graphics hub destroyed. I hope someone else has the Heart to resurrect it if it Is destroyed.

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On 6/7/2021 at 9:13 PM, GoldenShine9 said:

Apollo and Sinclair also bid up according to the article. It even went past the revised Gray offer, but Meredith stuck with it.

 

I think those at Meredith stations are breathing a sigh of relief right now. Hedge funds are BAD, and Sinclair is even worse.

Mobile/Pensacola would have been a deal breaker with WALA.  Sinclair owns the two in Pensacola and staffs the other two Deerfield stations in Mobile.  Unless WJTC was killed off since it's an independent, but still, the market share Sinclair already has would have set off alarm bells with the DOJ.

 

Standard General probably wanted Meredith since they were heavily invested with LIN/Media General and their original merger with Meredith was dashed by Nexstar's unsolicited offer & hostile takeover.

 

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1 hour ago, Action Newsroom said:

WJRT is yet another Gray station formerly owned by Quincy to be acquired by Allen Media Group. 

 

It's actually an incumbent Gray station that's being spun off to Allen, because Gray is getting Meredith's WNEM.

 

So Byron Allen is getting the spinoffs from BOTH Quincy & Meredith transactions.

 

 

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35 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

 

It's actually an incumbent Gray station that's being spun off to Allen, because Gray is getting Meredith's WNEM.

 

So Byron Allen is getting the spinoffs from BOTH Quincy & Meredith transactions.

Ahh, I see, thanks. I skimmed through the linked article before posting and read it as a Gray station previously owned by Quincy.

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1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

That was a pretty obvious purchase. Cap issues hit Nexstar and Scripps, and it doesn't fit anyone else.

Scripps could've uploaded a few smaller Ion markets to Inyo and have been fine. Also, Graham...exists. 

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  • 1 month later...

A TV antenna outfit called "Mr. Antenna" is claiming that Meredith refuses to air antenna company ads because of them 'cutting into retransmission consent revenue' and placed an FCC objection to stop the Gray/Meredith merger.

 

Personally, this is laughable; I watched a Mr. Antenna ad on KTNV when I was in Vegas a couple weeks ago and it was tacky as hell with an awful mascot (claiming you could get '40 high-quality networks' in the same way those 'as seen on TV' antennas that never work do). I think KVVU just didn't want to take anymore money from a sketchy antenna outfit (they've been on KLAS's advertorial shows) in the same vein as the Clear TV thing that's a garbage piece of metal that only works close to the transmitter site. MA is also not BBB accredited, and going by the one review there, charges way too much for an antenna install to begin with.

 

Also, Mr. Antenna is talking about a policy that Meredith apparently made up suddenly in July in the middle of being acquired. Considering Gray's multiple FCC VHF>UHF apps and transmitter moves and I've never heard of this with Gray stations, if said policy exists, Gray would revoke it the moment Meredith came under their control.

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5 hours ago, mrschimpf said:

Personally, this is laughable; I watched a Mr. Antenna ad on KTNV when I was in Vegas a couple weeks ago and it was tacky as hell with an awful mascot (claiming you could get '40 high-quality networks' in the same way those 'as seen on TV' antennas that never work do). I think KVVU just didn't want to take anymore money from a sketchy antenna outfit (they've been on KLAS's advertorial shows) in the same vein as the Clear TV thing that's a garbage piece of metal that only works close to the transmitter site. MA is also not BBB accredited, and going by the one review there, charges way too much for an antenna install to begin with.

Even if the things worked perfectly, you could only really get 6 "high-quality" networks (8 if you also spoke Spanish, and maybe a few more in other languages in the big cities).

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On 8/31/2021 at 6:47 AM, AmericanErrorist said:

Even if the things worked perfectly, you could only really get 6 "high-quality" networks (8 if you also spoke Spanish, and maybe a few more in other languages in the big cities).

I'm sure it also has problems with VHF stations, which many Meredith use for digital broadcasting, and have little hope of moving from given the packed spectrum in the places they operate.

 

So what's a viewer to do?  I guess they're forced to get PAY tv to watch their FREE TV station they have trouble getting over the air!  

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is a true surprise.

 

The FCC has greenlighted Byron Allen's acquisition of WJRT. 

 

I find it surprising that they would approve this before the main transaction (it would normally happen concurrently.)

 

But not to fret. Gray is basically in the driver's seat, despite that laughable & wasteful informal objection from that Antenna guy.

 

Gray & Meredith have written rebuttals to Mr. Antenna's comments. 

 

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33 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

This is a true surprise.

 

The FCC has greenlighted Byron Allen's acquisition of WJRT. 

 

I find it surprising that they would approve this before the main transaction (it would normally happen concurrently.)

 

But not to fret. Gray is basically in the driver's seat, despite that laughable & wasteful informal objection from that Antenna guy.

 

Gray & Meredith have written rebuttals to Mr. Antenna's comments. 

 

 

That's probably a sign the green light is about to come soon, maybe next week, and the deal could close in October.

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53 minutes ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

That's probably a sign the green light is about to come soon, maybe next week, and the deal could close in October.

 

There's alot that has to happen. Not only they need the FCC (& DOJ) greenlight, but also the approval from Meredith shareholders. And of course, they have to complete the spinoff of the National Media assets.

 

But getting the WJRT approval this soon is a big plus. And Allen could close this deal before Gray completes the Meredith acquisition.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Byron Allen has closed its purchase of WJRT today.

 

This is the first time WJRT & WTVG have not been commonly-owned in over 30 years.

 

Also, I don't think I remember a time where the divested station gets their deal closed before the big transaction get completed. I believe this is also a first. Normally, all of related deals be completed simultaneously.

 

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I think the interesting part is this 

Quote

"All of our media assets will work in concert to amplify our free-streaming services, Local Now and theGrio.”  

I have a feeling as Byron starts buying more TV stations I think the picture will become more clearer in terms of what he wants to do with moreso Local Now than theGrio

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  • 2 weeks later...

I know this is not related to this transcation. 

 

But it appears that Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp. will acquire the rest of Meredith (its magazine biz) for $2.7B.

 

IAC will merge Meredith's biz with its exisiting Dotdash unit, and the combined entity will be known as Dotdash Meredith

 

Don't know why you want to keep the "Meredith" name but whatever.

 

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