tyrannical bastard

Sounds like it could be a Hearst in reverse.... Cox has been one of the better companies until it was gutted by private equity. Hearst's origins go back to William Randolph Hearst and his "yellow journalism" and today it's one one the more respected groups out there putting out good journalism.

Here's Sinclair's press release https://sbgi.net/sinclair-launches-comprehensive-strategic-review-for-broadcast-business/ Reading this, it almost sounds like they want to be a buyer, whereas the CNBC article spins it as them wanting to cash out. I guess Sinclair will see it their way, and everyone else will see it for what it's worth.

It does make me wonder about the business structure of this new venture. They are accepting advertising opportunities so it's likely a commercial venture. https://alabamaweathernetwork.com/advertise-with-us/

Today is launch day! Both the iOS and Android apps are active, and the TV apps were supposed to launch at 11:00 a.m. but the Roku version is still unavailable as of this time. AWN goes live at Noon CT.

We're at the point now where most markets have 3 newsrooms. Some have 4, and a very select few have 5 or more. Smaller markets may have two, and others only have 1. We could see things dwindle to the point where two voices is the norm in the top 100 markets, and only one in those below. FOX, CW, MyNetwork and independents are easier to consolidate since they don't program a daily national morning show or have network programming during the 10/9pm hour. If ABC, CBS or NBC pulls the plug on that time, (or CBS kills off CBS Mornings...since GMA and Today are not going anywhere) that makes them easier to consolidate as well. CBS seems the most likely to cut and burn since The Late Show is disappearing next year and CBS Mornings will never, ever, ever be able to compete with GMA and Today. And if they get sold to someone (like Nexstar), expect them to be squeezed wherever Nexstar puts them.

Seems like they should be an easy beneficiary in any necessary cast-offs. But if they are still dead to the FCC, despite their stance, oh well...

My question is...if this administration is so gung-ho on the route to dictator-ism and those who have bended towards our fearless leader are getting what they want... Where's Sinclair in all of this? Surely the new FCC has let them off the hook by now for all of their (mis) deeds. Perhaps they are playing their sleeper role by selling off some stations here and there and will magically appear one day like Nexstar did to disrupt the Meredith-Media General merger.

They could turn it into a satellite of WDCW or WUSA, and technically run all 3 stations on it for the benefit of Western Maryland. And the irony of the old WDVM calls coming under common ownership... Plot twist: Tegna could end up trading out WTSP and others like KHOU to CBS. But what would CBS trade out in return?

Regardless of "opolies", market share is going to factor in heavily and will be the deciding factor in who gets sold. The question is, how bad off are some of these Tegna stations that their market share is virtually irrelevant to being merged into their competition? But in a place like Cleveland, if WKYC is the second place station, and WJW is #1, Nexstar is likely going to have to cast off WKYC to someone else.

It should be noted that some of Tegna's stations (and most recent acquisitions) are either former Tribune or Nexstar castoffs from the Tribune purchase by Nexstar. Given the status that some of these duopoly stations have (shacked up on another frequency because of sold spectrum), why have they held on to the old licenses instead of just shutting down these stations? That alone frees up a station so they can legally acquire another. But if this deal goes through, and Nexstar gets their way 100 percent, the results will be devastating. Think if the same people who run the doormat WGNO shut down what's left of WWL. And most importantly (kinda)... WNEP will become another prong that is the pitchfork of what was once "Eyewitness News". No more Talkback 16, and no more of our favorite MCTYW clone....

What makes you think Nexstar would be so generous? If anything, CBS has their own out with the low-powered O&O in Indy. And FOX would be the one to pull up stakes if Nexstar flinches. And it would be uglier than the instance when they pulled out of Fort Wayne, Terre Haute and Evansville.

And when do we get the magical assurance from the FCC (or our lord and savior DJT) that all of this forthcoming consolidation is legal?

And Nexstar could resort back to Tribune's "Plan A"...to put the CW back on WTTV (4.2) and make WISH-TV a full independent. Tribune was the one who sold the CW affiliation, but this was well before Nexstar was in the picture, as the company would later absorb Media General, then Tribune, and later the CW network itself.

And yet they still own stations in Alaska and Hawaii...

The only clean purchases are in Columbus/Tupelo, Terre Haute and Lafayette, IN. And there was a time that WSFA would have never considered merging with WCOV. It was literally a handshake agreement between Raycom and Woods that they would not acquire WCOV, given their former status as the market's CBS affiliate until 1986 and WAKA's quest to serve Montgomery after being relegated to Selma. But ownership rules be damned...let the bloodbath begin!!!!

OFFICIAL: Gray to Acquire 10 Allen Media Stations https://graytv.gcs-web.com/node/24351/pdf Huntsville WAAY (ABC) - duopoly with WAFF Paducah /Cape Giradeau / Carbondale WSIL (ABC) - duopoly with KFVS Evansville - WEVV (CBS/FOX) - TRIOPOLY with WFIE Fort Wayne - WFFT (FOX) - TRIOPOLY with WPTA/WISE Montgomery - WCOV (FOX) - Duopoly with WSFA (no mention of WIYC or WALE-LD) Lafayette, LA - KADN (FOX/NBC) - Future TRIOPOLY with KATC if that swap clears with Scripps Columbus/Tupelo - WTVA (ABC/NBC) Rockford - WREX (NBC) - virtual TRIOPOLY with WIFR/WSLN (since WIFR is an LD and they signed on the Freeport Channel 9 facility) Terre Haute - WTHI (CBS/FOX) Lafayette, IN - WLFI (CBS) And in several of these markets it will be Gray and Nexstar with total control of all of the TV stations, should this ever see the light of day.

It could be an interesting legal precedent if CBS takes Gray to court. Could it technically be cyber squatting if Gray owns the domain yet no longer has the rights to CBS in Atlanta? It's a power move to keep their WANF viewers in the tent since the station was once known as "CBS Atlanta".

Looks like Gray is getting the last laugh on letting CBSAtlanta.com get away. CBS probably can't afford to buy it under the new Skydance management!

It wouldn't surprise me to farm it out to another of their markets for the time being just to get it on the air. Their prior effort was largely non-local and even resorted to simulcasting news from places like Boston during the height of COVID-19.

Likely related, Disney is sunsetting Hulu next year and everything will come though Disney+ https://cordcuttersnews.com/hulu-to-shut-down-in-the-u-s-and-combine-with-disney/ For anyone with the Hulu Live service, has that been integrated into Disney+ yet? It looks like all Hulu and even ESPN+ content has been available through Disney+ as well so it shouldn't be a surprise to most users.

It's a good test to see how many people want to pay $20 to watch Fox News and drop cable. This and ESPN going a-la-carte could be the death knells for cable and satellite. I'd pay a little money to watch Tubi content without ads. They have a decent library of programming.

Got to give them credit for attempting to separate local and news stories. Usually non big 3 stations stick these after the "A block" and run them throughout the rest of the show. I would imagine they still have CNN as their provider?

At least WUAB should be on YTTV for the next month or so. Hopefully they don't go away when the CW walks. WANF is the other station to watch when CBS walks to WUPA.

The difference with WWJ was because they were literally the station of last resort in Detroit, after CBS tried and failed with every other station there. They at least had the nuclueus of WKBD to start from, even though Paramout (pre-CBS) shuttered the operation before their first merger. Still, the startup costs were much higher the first go-around given the technology required at the time. This time with CBS Atlanta, it's on a shaky new foundation under Skydance. CBS needs the cash and will take back their network affiliation in a heartbeat if they feel they are getting screwed. Watch for more dis-affiliations in the future and more cuts to the legacy CBS network....

And another thing PBS stations run by colleges and universities do is to educate and train journalists. This is basically their first job and hands-on experience reporting on the news in the communities they are attending school in. In return, these areas (some of which are VERY under-served) get local news coverage from a mix of students and professionals who work together. Some notable ones that run daily newscasts include WUFT in Gainesville, FL (University of Florida) and WOUB in Athens, Ohio (Ohio University). Even in the 1990s after Paxson shut down WAKC's news department and stripped their ABC affiliation away in favor of infomercials (and later PAX), WNEO and WEAO stepped in with NewsNight Akron which was a discussion show about news in the Akron area. They couldn't afford to start a news department (the stations were a joint venture of the local universities, Akron, Kent State and Youngstown State at the time) but this was a way to fill the void until WKYC partnered with Paxson to start up a local newscast again in 2001 that ran on WVPX (the old WAKC).