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Standard General to acquire Tegna for $8.6 Billion


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5 hours ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

The FCC is extending the comment window on the Standard General/Tegna deal.

 

https://www.nexttv.com/news/fcc-gives-tegna-commenters-more-time

 

No doubt that the issue over Apollo’s involvement complicated matters.

 

Is it evil to hope the FCC flushes this one down the toilet? It's looking like they are. Whatever people say about Tegna, I don't have a lot of confidence that these new people would run anything other than a cut rate slash and burn operation.

2 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

It’s only a matter of if anyone at Tegna has the good sense to call off the deal before the FCC rejects it out of hand.

 

 

Why would Tegna do that? I think they would love seeing these people crash and burn. I wonder how much management has already bolted for the exit doors. Money and hassle to replace.

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18 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

Gannett and by extension, Tegna, have a lot of allies in Washington because that's where they are based. I wonder if a lot of the employees are whispering in the ears of their buddies to kill the deal. Good for them if they are.

The only way this deal gets done is with Hearst, Graham, Allen, or O&Os getting involved to buy stations in conflict markets. You have to prove that Tegna and Cox won't be the same company.  According to the language in the deal currently, it suggests they are. The best thing that Standard can do is Do a full merger of the Tegna and Cox stations and have the companies mentioned above get involved and buy the conflicts. 

Edited by Kenneth Kissel
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16 hours ago, DirtyHarry said:

Why would Tegna do that? I think they would love seeing these people crash and burn. I wonder how much management has already bolted for the exit doors. Money and hassle to replace.

It’s not that Tegna is full of sinister suits that want to see their employees lose their jobs (though they make up for their lack of cynicism with their incompetence at running their stations.) Tegna wants the deal done ASAP for a much simpler reason. Dave Lougee and company are getting golden parachutes if this merger goes through, and there’s a significant termination fee if they cancel the deal. Why terminate the deal when you have everything to lose if you do?

 

And it’s not evil at all to want the thing dead. This deal kills competition, and in turn kills local stations. While someone like Byron Allen would probably just do nothing with the Tegna stations, that’s still better than a hedge fund operating on a “cut, cut, cut” philosophy.

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6 hours ago, Adam MadMan said:

 

I wonder how much that cost Soo Kim.

10 hours ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

The only way this deal gets done is with Hearst, Graham, Allen, or O&Os getting involved to buy stations in conflict markets. You have to prove that Tegna and Cox won't be the same company.  According to the language in the deal currently, it suggests they are. The best thing that Standard can do is Do a full merger of the Tegna and Cox stations and have the companies mentioned above get involved and buy the conflicts. 

 

Cox would have a nice footprint around here with the Gannett stations. WKYC, WPXI, WBNS, WHIO, WTOL, WTHR, WHAS and beyond fit like a glove.

Edited by DirtyHarry
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10 hours ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

The only way this deal gets done is with Hearst, Graham, Allen, or O&Os getting involved to buy stations in conflict markets. You have to prove that Tegna and Cox won't be the same company.  According to the language in the deal currently, it suggests they are. The best thing that Standard can do is Do a full merger of the Tegna and Cox stations and have the companies mentioned above get involved and buy the conflicts. 

Hearst or NBC can take WCNC and WXIA/WATL.

Edited by Nelson R.
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9 hours ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

It’s not that Tegna is full of sinister suits that want to see their employees lose their jobs (though they make up for their lack of cynicism with their incompetence at running their stations.) Tegna wants the deal done ASAP for a much simpler reason. Dave Lougee and company are getting golden parachutes if this merger goes through, and there’s a significant termination fee if they cancel the deal. Why terminate the deal when you have everything to lose if you do?

 

 

I'm personally not a fan of too much consolidation in the media if for no other reason than it's boring to have the same narrative repeated everywhere. What made this industry fun before was the fact that it wasn't as cookie cutter as it is today. The powers that be like it, though.

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1 hour ago, Nelson R. said:

Hearst or NBC can take WCNC and WXIA/WATL.

Hearst could take all of the conflicts if they wanted too. 

 

Atlanta: Standard keeps WSB 2 (ABC), and Hearst takes WXIA 11 (NBC)

 

WATL 36 (MNT) could go to either. 

 

Charlotte: Standard keeps WSOC 9 (ABC) & WAXN 64 (Ind.), Hearst takes  WCNC 36 (NBC).

 

Jacksonville: Hearst gets WTLV 12 (NBC) & WJXX 25 as an Independent (ABC goes to Graham's WJXT 4)   Standard keeps  WFOX 30 (Fox) & WJAX 47 (CBS).

 

Seattle: Hearst takes KIRO 7 (CBS), Standard gets KING 5 (NBC) & KONG 16 (Ind.).

 

Spokane won't be a problem due to COX selling KAYU -TV to Imagicomm Communications. 

 

Memphis: Standard keeps WHBQ 13 (Fox), Hearst gets WATN 24 (ABC)

 

WLMT 30 (CW) could go to either. 

 

Hearst doesn't like FOX so that is why I avoided giving them any FOX stations. 

Edited by Kenneth Kissel
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Standard should've sold the TV stations that they needed to in the first place with Cox to other stations Deb & Soo Kim pulled a Sinclair in the failed Tribune merger. Maybe they can pull it off if they sell the TV stations they need to get the deal done if they don't the FCC going to deny this merger.

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18 minutes ago, Breaking News said:

Cox & TEGNA should of just got out of the business, because Standard deal is stupid and nothing will change.

Hearst & Cox should of just merge into a better model.

Graham should of bought TEGNA, because the broadcasting pie is shrinking very rapidly!

And I should have a million dollars.

 

It doesn’t matter who buys whom. The main issue is consolidation in general.

On 7/16/2022 at 12:20 AM, DirtyHarry said:

I would hope that Cox would be the survivor, not Standard.

We don’t even know if the existing deal will go through as intended yet. Chances are CMG and Standard will end up merging while the conflicts get spun off (which would’ve made sense if they’d just done that from the start.) Regardless of what you call the thing, it would all be under the Apollo umbrella to some extent. Whatever legacy CMG had under the Cox family has been irrelevant since 2019, and doesn’t apply here.

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1 hour ago, Breaking News said:

Hearst & Cox should of just merge into a better model.

While that is a good idea, and I'm all for it, it wouldn't be a clean deal should that ever happen, and I highly doubt it would. 

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8 hours ago, tjt24 said:

While that is a good idea, and I'm all for it, it wouldn't be a clean deal should that ever happen, and I highly doubt it would. 

If Hearst and Cox merge, The biggest Conflicts would be Pittsburgh (WTAE over WPXI) , Boston (WCVB over WFXT [Fox could get this station back]), and Orlando (WFTV/WRDQ over WESH/WKCF) 

 

WPXI screams Nexstar. 

WFXT goes back to FOX 

WESH/WKCF also goes to Nexstar. 

Edited by Kenneth Kissel
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1 hour ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

If Hearst and Cox merge, The biggest Conflicts would be Pittsburgh (WTAE over WPXI) , Boston (WCVB over WFXT [Fox could get this station back]), and Orlando (WFTV/WRDQ over WESH/WKCF) 

 

WPXI screams Nexstar. 

WFXT goes back to FOX 

WESH/WKCF goes to Graham. 

Doesn't Graham own WKMG? 

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3 hours ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

If Hearst and Cox merge, The biggest Conflicts would be Pittsburgh (WTAE over WPXI) , Boston (WCVB over WFXT [Fox could get this station back]), and Orlando (WFTV/WRDQ over WESH/WKCF) 

 

WPXI screams Nexstar. 

WFXT goes back to FOX 

WESH/WKCF goes to Graham. 

 

"Hey Hearst. Sell your flagship to get WFTV." Are you insane?!

 

2 hours ago, news2me said:

Doesn't Graham own WKMG? 

 

Yes, but in this little hypothetical where Kenneth doesn't understand how the industry works, Graham gets two big 4 stations and the FCC is run by Clippy.

 

Clippy | Know Your Meme

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9 minutes ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

"Hey Hearst. Sell your flagship to get WFTV." Are you insane?!

 

 

Yes, but in this little hypothetical where Kenneth doesn't understand how the industry works, Graham gets two big 4 stations and the FCC is run by Clippy.

 

Clippy | Know Your Meme

 

Not to mention that Hearst's graphics hub is based out of WESH so that station is going nowhere.

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13 minutes ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

"Hey Hearst. Sell your flagship to get WFTV." Are you insane?!

WESH isn’t Hearst’s flagship station (even though they have their graphics hub there,) so I’m not exactly sure what you’re on about. It’s not even their largest market.

 

In any case, this whole “X should merge with Y because reasons” discussion is absurdly hypothetical and it’s WAY off topic.

Edited by nycnewsjunkie
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Do not talk about Orlando. Everything is staying put. The owners are happy with their stations, and SERIOUSLY have no plans to sell anytime soon. Not now, not for a long time.

 

To put this into perspective... WESH has been owned by Hearst since 1999 (WKCF since 2006), WKMG with Graham since 1997, WFTV since 1985 (WRDQ since 2001), and WOFL since 2002 (WRBW since 2001).

 

To think that NO major Orlando station (not counting WKCF, WRDQ and WRBW) has changed ownership in twenty years is just purely amazing, and it also tells you that these stations are not being planned on being sold anytime soon.

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2 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Do not talk about Orlando. Everything is staying put. The owners are happy with their stations, and SERIOUSLY have no plans to sell anytime soon. Not now, not for a long time.

Yes, it's ridiculous to think that anyone is selling at this point in Orlando, and the only possible buyer is the networks (as NBCU did for WTMO and Fox hasn't floated the WOFL/WRBW duop in years, nor even WOGX). WRDQ is in that group too and staying with whoever gets WFTV.

 

Orlando is rare in being a steady market where there are no sellers and the only buyers are either among the low-power bottom feeders, or the religious groups desperate to get carriage on The Villages cable system, and there the only move is someone selling out inevitably to TCT (the K-Love of religious television right now).

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7 hours ago, news2me said:

Doesn't Graham own WKMG? 

I forgot about that. I fixed it with Nexstar. 

4 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

"Hey Hearst. Sell your flagship to get WFTV." Are you insane?!

 

 

Yes, but in this little hypothetical where Kenneth doesn't understand how the industry works, Graham gets two big 4 stations and the FCC is run by Clippy.

 

Clippy | Know Your Meme

I had ONE misstep and you want to jump down my throat on it. 

 

Hearst's graphics hub can be moved to another station if needed. I'm sure WBAL-TV would want it. 

Edited by Kenneth Kissel
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