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Nexstar Acquires 75% of The CW


Georgie56

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26 minutes ago, David Salter JR said:

The difference is that UPN and The WB had name-brand shows like Star Trek : Voyager, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Dawson's Creek

The other difference is that UPN and WB existed in an era where smartphones and OTT streaming services didn't exist.

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1 hour ago, nickp said:

The CW’s saving grace these past few years was their Netflix deals and global syndication

It seems that is not what Nexstar plans.  I'm guessing he wants to use the off network shows on their own stations, limiting viewership and buzz.  Good luck.

A few things mentioned in the investors conference are a bit concerning.

 

They mentioned the production agreement with Paramount Global and WBD is for a year, and after that will be considered.

 

They mentioned that they plan on moving away from mostly scripted programming.  They seem to be following post divestiture Fox's approach with a few scripted shows and several cheap uninteresting unscripted game shows and more.  I'm not sure that will bring more eyeballs to the CW.  It may backfire.  I know it's a turn off for myself and I watch several CW shows.  

 

They also positioned the transition from WGN America to NewsNation as a success.  Huh?  It's not watched by many and I doubt Chris Cuomo is enough to change that (or any other rehab projects they decide to program).  In five years, I can see Nexstar in a lot of hurt if none of this is as successful as Sook believes.

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The big question here is if Nexstar maintains the CW+ infrastructure and continues to offer it as a sub/cable network, or begins to wind it down, along with overall caution for the largest affiliate bases like Sinclair and Gray. It's still worth it for now to offer syndicated product that would otherwise go unseen in a market, more than the 18 hours of CW programming.

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Likely, the affiliation agreements in place will be status quo for now, but when they expire, they could terminate their deals with competitors and help themselves to an instant O&O in any affected market.

They would be foolish to drop any "big 4" affiliation, unless their fortunes really tank between now and then.  DOOL and DWTS moving to streaming could further accelerate more scripted content leaving broadcast for streaming.

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11 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

What is there to be gained from yanking the affiliations off of WCIU, WPSG, KBCW, WCCB or WISH?

 

What is the return on investment for alienating the massive groups that own those stations right off the bat?

 

What benefits stations like KRON, WGN, WPHL, WJZY and WTTV that already have established brands (and in the case of WGN and WTTV, willingly gave up the CW for their own self-interests) to disrupt their programming with CW fare?

 

Just because Nexstar is buying majority control of what is still for all intents and purposes a three-way partnership does not mean they are going to be doing things to it or to the affiliate base "just because they can"

The CW targets a demographic that is least likely to watch OTA TV. It might have still worked in 2006 but that's 16 years and 12 models of iPhones ago.

If the Nexstar station is affiliated with a Big 4, I see the status quo remaining in place. But if Nexstar has a MNTV affiliate, I could see a swap happening. 

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15 hours ago, NowBergen said:

It seems that is not what Nexstar plans.  I'm guessing he wants to use the off network shows on their own stations, limiting viewership and buzz.  Good luck.

A few things mentioned in the investors conference are a bit concerning.

 

They mentioned the production agreement with Paramount Global and WBD is for a year, and after that will be considered.

 

They mentioned that they plan on moving away from mostly scripted programming.  They seem to be following post divestiture Fox's approach with a few scripted shows and several cheap uninteresting unscripted game shows and more.  I'm not sure that will bring more eyeballs to the CW.  It may backfire.  I know it's a turn off for myself and I watch several CW shows.  

If I’m at Scripps, Sinclair and Gray, I’m taking a good look at exercising whatever sale-related clauses exist in my CW affiliate contracts.

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15 hours ago, NowBergen said:

They also positioned the transition from WGN America to NewsNation as a success. Huh?  It's not watched by many and I doubt Chris Cuomo is enough to change that (or any other rehab projects they decide to program).  In five years, I can see Nexstar in a lot of hurt if none of this is as successful as Sook believes.

Thing is, it was a success…a financial one. A post in the NewsNation thread explained that they’ve saved lots of money by cutting syndicated programming and replacing it with its own, cheaper to produce programming. From Nexstar’s last Annual Report:

Quote

Amortization of broadcast rights was $121.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to $137.5 million for the
same period in 2020, a decrease of $16.4 million, or 11.9%. The decrease was primarily due to the reduction of NewsNation’s film
rights costs by $17.5 million as it continues to shift its focus from syndicated programming to national news programs

Don’t get me wrong, nobody’s watching NewsNation, but that’s secondary to the fact that they’re making more money on the network by virtue of 1) paying less for the programming and 2) owning the ad inventory. I don’t like it one bit from a programming standpoint, but I’d expect the same thing for The CW under Nexstar.

11 minutes ago, Myron Falwell said:

If I’m at Scripps, Sinclair and Gray, I’m taking a good look at exercising whatever sale-related clauses exist in my CW affiliate contracts.

You mean that you wouldn’t want to see a Guy Fieri special replace the Arrowverse on your station? Blasphemy! /s

Seriously though, you can add Hearst to that mix too.

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2 hours ago, Myron Falwell said:

If I’m at Scripps, Sinclair and Gray, I’m taking a good look at exercising whatever sale-related clauses exist in my CW affiliate contracts.

Honestly, why? The CW for those operators is likely on a secondary channel or HD subchannel and probably runs on automatic. Why blow that up over 14 hours of programming a week?

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2 minutes ago, mightynine said:

Honestly, why? The CW for those operators is likely on a secondary channel or HD subchannel and probably runs on automatic. Why blow that up over 14 hours of programming a week?

I guess it depends on the specifics of the new programming. I’m not sure affiliates are going to want to air NewsNation, for example, given that they may soon be home to both Chris Cuomo and Bill O’Reilly. If Nexstar is just planning on putting out cheap older-skewing programs and leftovers from Paramount/Warner, I guess it wouldn’t be as big a deal (especially since it’s just 2 hours per night).

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36 minutes ago, mightynine said:

Honestly, why? The CW for those operators is likely on a secondary channel or HD subchannel and probably runs on automatic. Why blow that up over 14 hours of programming a week?

If I was Nexstar, I would turn The CW into what MyNetworkTV is, a syndication service where most of their affiliates end up treating them like an Independent station. It could open up more newscasts and leftover programming on duopolies that can't air on the main channel. The CBS Owned CW stations with duopolies for example could air more news from its CBS Owned sister stations. 

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3 hours ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

I guess it depends on the specifics of the new programming. I’m not sure affiliates are going to want to air NewsNation, for example, given that they may soon be home to both Chris Cuomo and Bill O’Reilly. If Nexstar is just planning on putting out cheap older-skewing programs and leftovers from Paramount/Warner, I guess it wouldn’t be as big a deal (especially since it’s just 2 hours per night).

Forcing any NewsNation product onto the CW is a non-starter and would implode the affiliate base.

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They won't push NewsNation on the affiliates. Why? Because that's not the best use of NewsNation. 

 

As I've said a few times on the Discord, the best use for NewsNation to Nexstar is to dump existing affiliations on their owned stations in favor of reformatting NewsNation programming to run OTA. With NBC and ABC moving entertainment programming to their streaming services, it's just a matter of time until companies like Nexstar question why they're paying Comcast, Paramount, and Disney big $$$ for basically a bunch of national news programming and a big nightly ad for Disney+/Peacock/Paramount+, when Nexstar already produces national news programming. "Ohhhhh! But..." you say. Tell me, would anyone actually notice if Nexstar replaced the latest flop that CBS has on in the morning with Mornings in America?

 

The CW fits into that plan by providing general entertainment on their duopoly stations, .2s, or by selling the affiliation off and collecting money from other stations in the market.

 

 

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29 minutes ago, Weeters said:

They won't push NewsNation on the affiliates. Why? Because that's not the best use of NewsNation. 

 

As I've said a few times on the Discord, the best use for NewsNation to Nexstar is to dump existing affiliations on their owned stations in favor of reformatting NewsNation programming to run OTA. With NBC and ABC moving entertainment programming to their streaming services, it's just a matter of time until companies like Nexstar question why they're paying Comcast, Paramount, and Disney big $$$ for basically a bunch of national news programming and a big nightly ad for Disney+/Peacock/Paramount+, when Nexstar already produces national news programming. "Ohhhhh! But..." you say. Tell me, would anyone actually notice if Nexstar replaced the latest flop that CBS has on in the morning with Mornings in America?

 

The CW fits into that plan by providing general entertainment on their duopoly stations, .2s, or by selling the affiliation off and collecting money from other stations in the market.

 

 

I also don't see them pushing it on their own stations with active newsrooms.  Nexstar O&O, oops Mission's WPIX has several newscasts a day including at 6:30 pm and 10-11 pm..  NewsNation provides no value.

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22 hours ago, The Frog said:

While the acquisition isn't formally closed yet, Nexstar is immediately assuming corporate oversight of The CW.

There's one thing that glares significantly over this sale, beyond this totally cringe-inducing passage from COO Tom Carter:

Quote

“As you’d expect from Nexstar, our first goal is to improve the profitability of The CW and more fully realize its potential as a broad-reach entertainment provider and marketing solutions platform,” said Nexstar President-COO Tom Carter.

“In the near term, Nexstar can leverage its infrastructure to reduce costs in areas such as corporate overhead, digital infrastructure, advertising sales and content and programming acquisition at The CW. While reducing costs is one path to improving profitability, there is significant opportunity for value creation by focusing on building the broadcast audience and driving new revenue,” said Carter.

As the nation’s largest station group owner, Carter said Nexstar will have a different approach than other network owners — and the previous CW ownership — in not focusing on programming “capable of crossing over to an SVOD service.”

@sanewsguyasked this on Discord this morning... where's Perry? Arguably the biggest day in the history of the company—and less than two weeks after his tenure as CEO was extended by four years—and he was nowhere to be seen.

 

I can't imagine the CEO of one of the country's largest pure-play television chains going AWOL the day of their highest-profile transaction, let alone a CEO so totally tied in with the company that he's almost universally known as Uncle Perry.

Edited by Myron Falwell
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39 minutes ago, Weeters said:

Tell me, would anyone actually notice if Nexstar replaced the latest flop that CBS has on in the morning with Mornings in America?

 

Wouldn't CBS be unhappy about that? Much of the reason CBS even bothers with a morning show seems to be for the soft power that comes in having clips from interviews and such circulating. It makes the network look important, like Today and GMA make NBC and ABC look important.

 

What might that do to Nexstar's relationship with CBS?

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4 minutes ago, channel2 said:

 

Wouldn't CBS be unhappy about that? Much of the reason CBS even bothers with a morning show seems to be for the soft power that comes in having clips from interviews and such circulating. It makes the network look important, like Today and GMA make NBC and ABC look important.

 

What might that do to Nexstar's relationship with CBS?

Well, the inverse of BBS completely taking over CTV comes to mind right away.

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I read that the current entertainment president is staying with The CW under new ownership.  I don't know how long he would last after all of the programming changes.  He is the same guy who kept renewing shows that had horrible ratings, yet had more streaming views and were shows he liked.

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5 hours ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

If I was Nexstar, I would turn The CW into what MyNetworkTV is, a syndication service where most of their affiliates end up treating them like an Independent station. It could open up more newscasts and leftover programming on duopolies that can't air on the main channel. The CBS Owned CW stations with duopolies for example could air more news from its CBS Owned sister stations. 

Might as well close it down.  Does anyone even watch myNetwork?

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35 minutes ago, The Frog said:

How the hell?

Hour-long superhero shows + CGI × COVID compliance + all those writers trying to keep Riverdale from becoming an ouroboros = 💸

 

This is why you're going to be seeing A LOT more of Eric Estrada and Laura McKenzie on The CW (I'm shocked Associated Television International isn't getting their own 25% piece).

 

Also...Hearst does have leverage with the Litton E/I block, so don't expect them to go gently into that good night either. 

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