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I'm just gonna put this in the most blunt way possible: I do not expect "the cap" to survive under any political regime for much longer. It is a dinosaur. You can make a convincing case to either "side" as to why it needs to go away. It's been 20 years since Congress last meddled with it, it's just going to take one of the not-Sinclair groups to make a stink about it to the right people. It's a dated method of calculating "reach" in a world where everyone is connected to everything. I've theorized before that this isn't going to start from a company wanting to buy more stations, but a company trying to sell stations and not finding a buyer. Sinclair begging to raise the cap so they can buy more hits a lot differently than, say, Disney saying they can't sell the O&O group because nobody who wants to buy it can because of the cap. The ownership cap on television stations is the least of Biden's worries. I really don't think the general public cares all that much.

Not sure why this continues to be a discussion. NBC Universal killed the idea a while ago. If one of the full networks decides to do this (I would bet on ABC first as a cost cutting move). then it is worth the discussion. Sorry. And why so much about Kansas City? It's all speculative.

Hearst buying WBBH is a unique one off, if you look at the demographics of SW Florida it’s very old, it’s the only demo that’s watches tv news and subscribe to cable in large numbers. Ft Myers is still a fast growing area. Just going by news ratings and how many people are watching in the market it’s likely far larger than its 55 ranking, possibly 5-10 rankings higher. Local news pay is really bad and in ft Myers for all stations especially WBBH it’s even worse. There is a bunch of injury lawyers and shady home remodelers in SW florida that purchases ads that make WBBH very profitable. Hearst isn’t going to buy your guys pet stations from owners that you don’t like. There is no one that’s going to purchase tv stations and “invest” in tv news in 2024 we are long past that point.

Things are getting a little off track here... Hearst rarely buys stations, and just blew $220 million on a station in a market where $220 million is a... questionable amount to pay for a TV station. I'm not so sure they'd still be in a buying mood, and I'm also not sure why people see this as the golden opportunity for Hearst to enter the market... This company has had operations in New York City since long before anyone even thought of the concept of television. I feel like they have had numerous better opportunities in much better market conditions to make that happen. In all likelihood, a forced sale of WPIX would probably result in Nexstar dumping some underperforming stations (I'm sure they have a few) to get them back under the cap to own WPIX outright. They've invested far too much in WPIX to let it go elsewhere.

The problem is young people watch shows on streaming. Young Sheldon actually had changing demos when reruns went to Netflix. From the New York Times: The show also struck a chord with viewers under the age of 34, according to Nielsen. Mr. Molaro, the show’s co-creator, said the Netflix bump became apparent to him when the crew was shooting a scene recently near a church in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles. “Young Sheldon” had filmed in that location dozens of times without incident. But this time, roughly five months after the show began streaming on Netflix, it was a vastly different situation. “There were hundreds of kids at the fence screaming for Wallace Shawn,” he said, referring to the 80-year-old cast member. “We were like, ‘What is happening?’” So yeah, linear television is in a very bad state right now, and the last thing the affiliates need is for the networks to give up on them, because they have no Plan B. And contrary to the sentiments of a few people in this fandom, MOAR NEWS is not, I repeat NOT, an acceptable Plan B.

Funny to see that everyone on here almost universally pans KABC's switch to WABC music. I agree, but I can't help but wonder whether we might all have thought differently had they made these changes 10-15 years ago when CBS was similarly standardizing around the WCBS look. The WABC cut of Eyewitness News has become so recognizable with WABC for us that it feels wrong to hear it in Southern California. But, it's probably one of those things that doesn't matter a whole lot at this point. Most viewers are only watching for 5-10 minutes at a time at most, so who cares what the open music sounds like these days.

WAAY was a Raycom/Calkins overlap. Nexstar had to sell WFFT and WTHI as overlaps from the Media General buyout. I'm not sure why they dumped KQTV and forewent KIMT and WLFI but I guess every little bit of cap room helped.

KYW picked up the new morning cut of Dimensional that KPIX and now WCBS are using:

It doesn't appear NBC will be cutting back in prime time programming from recent reports. Also, they plan on getting NBA rights back. With that, it will help them reduce their scripted programming and allow them to shift shows to other nights where they don't have sports programming.

What is excess profit? Corporations are in businesses to provide value to shareholders. Persistent growth is the objective. There is no such thing as excess profit.

Best implementation of the package: WPVI-TV - Philadelphia. Biggest disappointment of the package: KABC-TV moving to the WABC-TV music package. Overall, it's a very nice and clean package. -- Matt

It should also be pointed out that Hearst is a private company, so if it was a waste of money, we'll never know or need to care and obviously the Watermans wanted a steward, not a repeat of Jim Rogers's wishes being completely disregarded by his family for some quick Sinclair cash. I tend to put Hearst in a completely different container than most of the public broadcast groups simply because they do quality things that would be shot down by shareholders and seem to still think of the public as their actual customers as far as television and print, along with online.

That's wishful thinking given the ridiculous and unrealistic anti-Scripps sentiment that exists in this fandom, propped up by two-bit hack blogger Scott Jones and his obvious prejudice against the company. And you might be surprised to find out that even if they wanted to sell, there's no buyers available because the mass consolidation of the past decade literally wiped out whatever list of buyers existed. Absolutely not. Hearst doesn't buy stations unless they are wastes of money like WBBH in freaking Fort Myers, Florida, a totally inconsequential market of old people. Graham hasn't entered any new market since buying WSLS a decade ago as part of Media General's disappearing act. What is it with this fandom that just keeps wishcasting for Hearst or Graham to buy stations like this when they never do and never will?

You're right. Valid points, @24994J Yeah overall the new look is amazing for KABC the graphics are stellar and spectacular there are still some kinks they gotta fix like the audio in some of the closes and opens also the transitions can be a bit too fast but i'm sure they'll work those out over the coming weeks. I guess when it come to the music theme, on the flipside, when I visit LA, I won't feel too homesick since I'll hear the familiar theme there too. And the Angelinos can feel the same when they visit us here in New York ;). In summary from the colors which can't be changed per the mandate as suggested, and the wild choice to adopt WABC's music, it doesn't change their product and who they are, along with the amazing talent that both stations employ to deliver an excellent news product making them the top news stations in the country. Al Primo is a pioneer in this format of local news delivery and to this date remains successful. In a way it goes back to the old days when all of the ABC O&O stations were using the Cool Hand Luke and News Series 2000+ theme, in retrospect that is what it is now low-key reminiscent of with KABC/WABC now on the same theme. The two stations in a way are now united and their tenacious spirit can now be felt coast to coast. I've even seen WABC use the "Eyewitness News" titular wordmark that KABC/WLS uses in some of their promos so it is all a shared resource and the days of being unique and individual are behind, as the world becomes more and more connected. Bravo to all the O&Os, overall I think out of all of them, the ABC look is the best!

WBD & Paramount all but gave up on the CW in 2019 when they ended the Netflix deal and stopped selling CW shows oversees. They are the ones that set the CW down it's current path. Had Nexstar (or someone else) not assumed the network's $100 mil. debt in 2022/23, the CW likely wouldn't exist today. I say this to say, that even if all three companies (WBD/Paramount/Nexstar) been equal partners, you still would need all three to be fully invested in the success of CW. It's clear that WBD and Paramount could care less about the network which leaves Nexstar to have to shoulder everything alone. Yes they could have made more of an effort to keep/buy more expensive/higher quality programs, but again, if your main programming suppliers (WBD and Paramount) aren't willing to work with you, what can you do?????

If an average joe doesn't pay attention, they don't know what WABC is. Stand out more among who? Nobody but us would be watching multiple ABC O&Os at once, and everything outside of the opens are similar enough to the old look that those same average joes won't really notice, so nobody should be confusing them with any of their LA competitors. As for the shade of blue, that's just what it is. Opportunities to customize the package are based on literally any other accent element that isn't the primary blue pieces. Look at the CBS package, the in-show branded bugs have been seen in blue, red, orange, green, gold, black, and even purple, but the standard lower third doesn't change. Same thing for ABC, but they're blue.

Why does Matthew Keys even give Kevin Adell the time of day? This moron did just as much to torpedo this deal as the FCC did, he'll be lucky not to lose WADL in bankruptcy to a Godcaster.

Update: Mission Broadcasting just said, "nope" to acquiring WADL-TV

Paramount and WBD should have only sold a combined 33% of their stakes in The CW to Nexstar, rather than giving up all but 25% of the network. By offloading the majority of the network to Nexstar, the company’s strategy for The CW seems to hinder it more in the name of making it profitable while making it more difficult for the network to make it into the black (even though they claim it’s slashed the network’s operating deficits, while simultaneously stating that the network’s revenue will soon no longer be disclosed publicly) by driving away its existing audience through the replacement of its more costly but better produced shows with low-cost fare and imports that make it less competitive with the Big Four. It makes you wonder what the network would look like under a Paramount/WBD/Nexstar equal partnership. Would the programming be much like the CW pre-Nexstar or a hybrid of the old and new formats?

So Nexstar is just like Sinclair then? They're going to hold on to their stations until they're either broke or the FCC deals their hand. I thought you were cool Nexstar.

Locally in Kansas City, if any and I will repeat this literally ANY Television station tries to put an 9pm newscast on thier main channel or if they are in a duopoly, the secondary channel, it WILL get defeated by WDAF-TV (A FOX AFFILIATE) because Channel 4 just have the experience with an 9pm newscast SINCE 1994. It doesn't even care if it's Channel 9, 5, or 41, it will lose against Channel 4. That's an local, but important example why the Plan B wouldn't be an More News situation.

Jamie was a guest on Fox 29 tonight https://www.facebook.com/share/p/QsZHAvAFrd3wG1TL/?mibextid=WC7FNe

If they have to CW+ cable-only those markets it'll be devastating, and you know cable/streaming companies would want a big cut to take a market-only channel like that in 2024.

After a long delay… the (reimagined) street side studio will be unveiled soon (tentatively scheduled for July). Not sure if it’s just a state-of-the-art weather center (as previously reported) or something more. Nevertheless, glad to see the studio fully back up and running.

The fact they introduced it while in a police chase is so Los Angeles. Also, that graphics are really AMAZING.

Wow! How incredible is that? First time I've ever seen a graphics package done in mid-air haha. And of course, classic LA California style, they changed their graphics in the midst of a police chase, ha! Classic move by KABC hahaha. Looks really nice! Though very similar to their big sister here on the east coast now with the darker blues. I was kinda hoping they'd keep their Pacific Blue / Light Blue or yellow color from their previous package. But nonetheless looks really nice! I wonder if they kept the opens and the themes the same? I guess eventually someone will capture it and we can do a full assessment. Here is a quick video from YouTube with the first intro on the new package. They've replaced their package with the WABC bumper theme. So interesting! Was hoping they'd keep their current theme, I guess we'll have to see how the rest of the day goes with the opens. Looks solid though!

I am watching CBS News Detroit right now and Karen is still there. She is pregnant. Guess she is on maternity leave and just came in to do the weather today.

For what it's worth, I don't necessarily think it's the solution as much as I think it is the likely outcome. We, and the FCC, can continue to dream that all these local investors are going to come out of the woodwork to buy up these stations, but we continue to see the opposite of that happening as the small, local owners continue to sell out (i.e. WBBH). Some of these stations have already sold off their towers, and I really wonder how long it will be until you start seeing companies wanting to sell off the transmitter itself... Setting up something similar to the UK's broadcasting system where the transmission is contracted out to Arqiva. Especially as the bean counters at these groups love not owning things, and nobody seems particularly interested in doing anything useful with ATSC 3.0... It might be more "economical" to go through another round of spectrum auctions with the caveat that some will remain for television, and Crown Castle or whoever can buy that up and rent out the space to everyone else. We're already kind of seeing this with the post-repack channel shares out there, and ATSC 3 is primed to consolidate much of a market into a handful of frequencies.

I don't think they're filling in for free. Whether or not they're getting paid salary or not, I would assume they would get some kind of bonus for doing the extra work, besides getting the national exposure.

The race is usually blacked out live locally.

Agreed. Should it happen, it will likely be part of a larger bill related to FCC rules and regulations. I'd compare it to the FAA reauthorization law that passed earlier this month, where lawmakers added five daily long-distance flights out of slot/perimeter restricted National Airport just outside DC. A small piece of a must-pass bill that got more noise than more consequential parts of the law, and was heavily lobbied for by an industry with a few big players. (In this case, most airlines that aren't named United, which wanted to protect its hub at nearby Dulles airport.)

All the dead malls can merge together and you'd still wind up with a dead mall, just much larger and needing a bailout from the federal government when the entire system comes crashing down.

I think any serious discussion of whether Mission has to sell WPIX needs to be put on the back burner of everyone's minds until after the election, and I'm guessing "get past the election" is their legal strategy as well. A shift in partisan control of the FCC or Congress passing a law that loosens or eliminates ownership caps could make this all moot. And even if things remain the same, the backup plan is certainly to extend the appeals process as long as possible in hopes the regulatory environment shifts.

Not even Pax TV got to own all its affiliates. The dream of the CW being all O&Os doesn't sound feasible to me. Again, I point to UPN. After Viacom bought Paramount, they dumped all their NBC and CBS affiliates to make room for more UPN affiliates. If you want to own a network you had better go all-in on it.

WVTM was an easy fixer upper that Media General squandered. As soon as Media General saw the opportunity to get WIAT back (which had been fixed by others), they jumped at the chance to sell off WVTM. Hearst immediately turned the station around. Not entirely sure about WJCL but I'm pretty sure there was an upside after Hearst took over. The only downside is They couldn't take on WTGS which became another half-station Sinclair runs in the market with news piped in from elsewhere. Bottom line, if Hearst can easily make a station work, then they'll buy when the opportunity arises.

Okay, everyone, I'm sorry for the semi-all-caps rant but if Scripps DOES get WPIX, WHO WOULD EVEN GET THE CW?? WPXN IS NOT AN GOOD CHOICE, I don't even think it has even has a programing schedule for the CW if they have that. Like, I'm actually sick of this udder stupidity of this whole situation about WPIX and stuff. It feels like, if Nexstar shuts down WPIX, then it might be good for y'all at this point because Nexstar isn't controlling it. Please, all I just want is to give me an example on how Nexstar messed UP WDAF-TV, then maybe I'll change my example. Otherwise, please don't respond to me over this comment. Just don't.

I see two additional opportunities. Sinclair is selling 60 stations as well. If a new player enters the arena, they could snap up whatever stations Sinclair wants to exit AND whatever Nexstar wants to sell to meet market cap. This second idea has some caveats. We don't know what Fox's position is on their O&Os are right now. They could be a buyer or seller. That might also be the play for Nexstar. Sell Fox stations to Fox, some in duopoly markets, and sign SSAs to manage Nexstar's CW assets in these market, or completely relinquish control of KDVR, KTXL, KSWB, WXIN, WDAF, WVBT. I'm sure there's an algorithm that they could use to identify audience cap and clearance to divest of the most appropriate stations. No no. Perry Sook is a pearl clutching, technophobic square. He believes in the sunk-cost fallacy which is why he's stupidly riding the NewsNation bong rip. He is a local manager who's duped everyone into some grand unifying vision that he's pulling out of his ass. Just like David Smith, Adam Symon, Dave Lougee and Bob Iger. None of these men are particularly shrewd when it comes to asset management. They fully believe in finding synergy in local news product and overleveraging their companies to expand rapidly, but the reality is that local news doesn't have any synergy. That's why it's LOCAL.

Yeah not sure I understand all the bemoaning. Was there confusion on what a station group mandate was?

It looks like they just lumped KQTV into the Media General divestiture package because, let's face it, it IS St. Joseph, Missouri. That small a market wouldn't give that much cap relief even though it would be... what... five or six WJMNs? Imagine Scripps repurchasing WPIX, divesting WPXN to an unrelated third-party, and relaunching WPIX as a sports-heavy indie.

I think they will (use the entire space). Based off the orange signage promoting the street side studio, my guess would be that the morning/streaming newscasts will move here. Plus, if designed properly, there should be enough room for an AR weather center/space as well.

Can't Nexstar just buy WPIX and unload whatever stations they need to unload in order to make room for it? Because selling WPIX off to somebody else just smacks of Fox buying WWOR and KCOP in the Chris-Craft deal and thus having their hand on UPN's throat.

Despite the fact KMBC is the market leader, WDAF is considered an strong 2nd place, with the 9pm timeslot being considered an leader due to the longevity (WDAF started an prime-time newscast in 1994)

Not only that, it would undermine every single one of their current Z-level sports deals. Why would NASCAR want to be with a network that no longer has two top 20 affiliates? Or the ACC? Or the PAC-2? And just imagine the hell that will come when Mission is forced to sell WPIX to a company hostile to the CW, like Scripps or Tegna.

They really should be begging on bended knee to find any affiliate in Detroit, Tucson and Miami, because there's no options available in either of those markets and they can't buy their way out of this crisis they placed on themselves, nor do they have Gray or Sinclair ready to bail out their sorry butts this time. But I guess Uncle Perry wants to play pretend media mogul because something something "plan".

I'm guessing they wanted a partner in North Carolina; WCCB was willing to take it and had the flexibility to schedule a limited-run show. Nexstar may make a lot of questionable choices, but they aren't going to enter into new contracts for limited-run external news programming in a world where NewsNation could do something similar, with all the potential revenue staying inside the company.

I’m going to miss the “California Look.” KABC was polished and bright, KFSN got the discount look since the font styles never matched, then later adopted the KGO “LIVE” bug by making it bigger than KABC’s version. KGO had the best color execution keeping it neutral (Royal Blue, Grey and Black) it was simple package that I wished that rolled out to the station group, it was pretty much nothing extravagant, easy to read and just a plain wallpaper with diagonal lines that would revolve looking like a cash register belt, no flashy animations and sweeping effects that we see now with all these boxes and large lower thirds that they adapted from WPVI and WABC. the weather graphics varied with KABC, KGO and KFSN, they could’ve done better but I do like the new weather graphics now that they are using.

And it is LIVE for KABC TV (ABC7 Los Angeles)!

Looks like KABC is ready to debut.

Huh, it's weird that they wouldn't re-acquire WDAF.

Good to see Maurice hosting tonight!