-
Posts
2016 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
31
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Articles
Posts posted by dman748
-
-
3 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:
Well, to my surprise, (and thanks to scrabbleship for the heads up on WMBB/WPGX) Nexstar stations WMBB and WDHN are now producing 1 hour primetime newscasts for Lockwood stations WPGX and WDFX, respectively.
For WPGX, this is the first 9pm newscast in a LONG time, going back at least 25 years. Panama City was one of the few markets not to have a primetime newscast of any kind.
For WDFX, this replaces a news share from former sister station WSFA in Montgomery, who continued the arrangement until recently as WDFX had to be sold since Gray already owned WTVY in the Gray/Raycom merger.
As for other spinoff markets, WFXG in Augusta appears to be producing their own news still, after spinning off from former sister station WTOC in Savannah.
WTNZ is still having Tegna station WBIR produce their newscasts.
At one time, both WTNZ and WFXG relied on what are now also Nexstar stations, WATE in Knoxville, and WJBF in Augusta to produce their news. WJBF stopped doing so when they entered into the SSA with WAGT under Media General, and WTNZ went with WATE under Young's ownership after their agreement with WVLT expired. This lasted until 2011 when the current share with WBIR began.
If Lockwood is making it work in Augusta, I could see it continuing as is. WATE (under Young & Media General) ended up producing WBXX's newscasts (under Lockwood's ownership) until Gray bought them and merged them with WVLT.
It is entirely possible WATE could be next in line if they choose not to renew with Tegna's WBIR.
I have to wonder if its feasible for a market the size of Knoxville to have 4 in house news departments?
Depending the size of WTNZ/WKNX's facility it might be big enough to accomodate an in house news department for WTNZ
-
2 minutes ago, HearstArgyleFan90 said:
In the case with KOCO, only the L3s and weather graphics were from camera v1; all other graphics such as news topics, split-screens, and other graphics were from camera v2. And this was pretty much the case with any Hearst station that started using camera v2 in 1998 or 1999, as the L3s that would eventually be updated for camera v2 were introduced around 2000. But here's an interesting case with WESH.
Wasn't WESH still with the V1 version on the L3rds or was that something else? It looks like V1 just from the thumbnail of the video alone but I could be wrong
-
6 minutes ago, HearstArgyleFan90 said:
I saw that newscast, and only the opens and talent rejoins were from camera v2; all other graphics were from camera v1. I believe WCVB completed the transition to camera v2 around 1999, although they didn't get the updated L3s until they debuted a new set in March 2000.
Which KOCO was pretty much in the same boat as WCVB, having the Camera V2 graphics but some parts of it were still V1.
-
On 1/25/2020 at 12:09 AM, HearstArgyleFan90 said:
Here is part of a KOCO newscast from 1998 back when they first started using camera 2.0
Correct me if I'm wrong but could KOCO have been the first HA station to use camera 2.0 and not WCVB?
And here's another KOCO newscast from September of '98
I believe KOCO got them just before WCVB got theirs. Here's WCVB from roughly the same period (about a month after KOCO received theirs) it's possible though that CVB could've gotten the Camera 2.0 graphics in the Summer of 1998 before KOCO got theirs (in all likelihood because KOCO was just recovering from a tornado that damaged their studio about 3 months prior to receive the Camera Mandate 2.0 graphics
-
1
-
-
Hate to bump up a stagnant thread but Sinclair is going to launch a Headline News Service that will run from 6 to 9am initially on stations affiliated with the CW and MyNetworkTV respectively as well as its own OTT service, STIRR. Scheduled to launch early next year https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/250273/sinclair-to-launch-headline-news-service/
Don't be surprised if this expands eventually to other affiliates (particulary the ones without news departments).
-
Tegna and Standard General are scheduled to meet this week (h/t @ChocoMingo) https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2020/6/8/tegna-to-meet-with-standard-general-this-week
Even though Kim did lose out on Tegna board seats back in April it should be interesting to see how this meeting goes and will have a follow up once any new developments comes out.
-
1
-
-
4 hours ago, newsbot said:
I wonder what the degree of disclosure was for the local stations. Some hefty fines could be forthcoming.
From what I read only WTVG made the disclaimer that Walker was an Amazon employee.
I think the stations who are in the biggest trouble is the ones that ran the pkg more than once (WLEX, WTVM, KMIR, WOAY)
Ironically enough a Sinclair station is involved in that (WGXA/Macon)
Meanwhile Sabrina Bates is leaving KFSM for KOCO as the new meteorologist (h/t @ColtFromGulfcoast)
https://twitter.com/5NEWSSabrina/status/1265412477933756420?s=20
-
39 minutes ago, newsbot said:
Ad-supported media is getting hammered across the board. Merging into a larger entity with the same vulnerabilities isn't going to fix that problem.
While I do agree that merging the publishing entities with another would create further problems however given the situation were in right now there's likely going to be no other choice but to say we're going to become pure-play and dump the Publishing unit.
Ironically enough the TV side for Meredith is doing fine in spite of losing half of the revenue on the TV side that particular unit isn't in as deep of trouble as the publishing units are.
I'll save the rest of my thoughts for speculatron. I have a lot more to say regarding Meredith (as well as the situation with Apollo and their interest in buying DirecTV and Dish Network than what needs to be said in this thread
-
5 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:
What's taking Gray so long to put the Meredith group out of it's misery? It's one of the only almost perfect mergers left!!!!
I think to be honest a lot of it is probably to do with COVID, I think that Meredith are just trying to get through the pandemic first and then as soon as the pandemic is over they'll put their stations up for sale.
Howeven, given the situation happening right now with bankers predicting that AT&T will spin DirecTV off I think that will come to Meredith and bankers as well as creditors among others aren't going to wait until the pandemic is over to put pressure on a company to do something with the company's assets
-
1 hour ago, Weeters said:
What this part says is that Sinclair cannot apply for "assignment or transfer of control" (broad enough to include any purchase or divestiture of a station) without the applications being approved by Sinclair's legal team, and that any such application must also be accompanied by a certification from the designated Compliance Officer enforcing compliance of this order, stating that the application is accurate and that it's following all applicable laws. They must also submit an explanation as to why it was certified accurate and lawful.
So, in other words, for the next few years, any time they buy or sell a station, they will need to certify that they are following the rules and not trying to pull a fast one on the FCC.
The text applicable to the retransmission agreements is:
Essentially for example Sinclair tries to buy stations C & D but already have Stations A & B they can transfer the station over to say Deerfield as long as the legal team is ok with that (same principle would apply to any station Sinclair tries to acquire anything from one of their shells).
-
8 minutes ago, Weeters said:
This is a bunch of nothing, really. The two largest parts of the Consent Decree deals with sponsorship identification and retransmission negotiations.
Basically:
- Sinclair must have their lawyers review all applications to the FCC, and said lawyers must certify them to be compliant with all communication laws.
- Sinclair must set up policies to ensure sponsored content is properly labeled as sponsored (they are not the first broadcaster to end up with an FCC Consent Decree with this included)
- Sinclair is not allowed to see, or be involved with, retransmission negotiations for stations they do not outright own (i.e. they are not allowed to see or know about the agreements negotiated by Deerfield Media stations)
The question then becomes is that part included in this quote
Quoteno application for assignment or transfer of control of a full-power television or AM or FM radio station license, amendment thereto, or related representation in a proceeding in which Sinclair is a party to such an application shall be submitted to or filed with the Commission by any Covered Employee unless it is (a) first reviewed and approved by Sinclair’s internal legal counsel and such approval is duly noted and (b) accompanied by a certification from the Compliance Officer that it is accurate and complete and otherwise in compliance with Communications Laws—such certification shall be accompanied by a statement explaining the basis for such certification and shall comply with Section 1.16 of the Rules and be subscribed to as true under penalty of perjury in substantially the form set forth therein;
Or is it something else?
-
3 hours ago, CircleSeven said:
Here's the full consent decree posted yesterday (5/22). The decree also includes that its has to abide by a four-year compliance plan.
If this was any other broadcaster, that $48M would've been just. But with Sinclair?! Even if the fine would've been $100M (which should've been the preferred fine), that still would've been a slap on the wrist. FCC should've at least put the matter to a hearing anyway. Without the hearing, this shows that they can just buy their way out of trouble. And once four years elapses, how do we know they won't re-offend again? Remember Glencairn?
Anywho, the FCC did approve their long-awaited transaction of KOMO-FM from South Sound Broadcasting. The deal was first made in June of 2017.
The way I interpreted the whole decree it sounds like that Sinclair can't do anything with the stations whether if its their existing stations or TV stations that they buy from to transfer it over from the shells to Sinclair itself and vise versa.
-
1 minute ago, ns8401 said:
Why is it not a good fit?
I think that the bigger issue here is that the odds of them getting Meredith aren't looking too good that and I think there may be other fish to go after than Meredith
That and given that Meredith is looking more and more likely they're going bankrupt is suggesting to me that Scripps may have to stay away from Meredith although they could still go after maybe one or two of the Meredith stations, maybe more.
I'll save further thoughts in Speculation
-
If anything Scripps could potentially be looking at more stations however, I just can't imagine them with Meredith's stations because in spite of the overlaps it's just simply not a good fit for them and I think Scripps has bigger fish to go after than Meredith
-
6 hours ago, ns8401 said:
Ah so that’s what it’s all about... bankrupting the RSN’s...
If the only place to catch a game is on TV then that’s the RSN’s dream come true. They’ll make more in ad revenue due to higher viewership.
Let's think about this:
Since the sale of the RSNs by Disney to Sinclair (and even during the approval process of the sale) they've lost contracts with Dish, and several streamming providers (partially with YouTube TV) to carry the RSNs. That coupled with the lack of sports is really exposing and truly showing how much "value" the RSNs are actually worth (and its not much)
Sinclair better hope the contact sports can get back to action by June/July
-
1 hour ago, Gavin said:
Plus there deal a blow because of the suit the FCC has made them pay. $43 million fine for failed Sinclair-Tribune deal. Sinclair might sell some stations cause of this and the post COVID World which seems broadcasting very sleak. Advertising-wise.
I'll save it for speculation as I don't want to go too far into speculating in things but we'll know a lot more about the impact of the RSNs by the end of the year and clearly states like Oregon want to bankrupt the RSNs by not allowing sporting events to take place with fans in the stands
-
5 minutes ago, newsbot said:
Radio doesn't have retrans to cushion the blow of lost ad revenue, so they're bearing the brunt of the broadcast media cuts.
I'm also wondering about Sinclair with their heavy exposure to sports - sure, they're getting fat checks from the MVPDs but they're starting to get pushback with no sports on all those pricy RSNs.
As @TheRyan mentioned before everybody now is in this situation where they're not a very healthy company so Sinclair isn't the only one unhealthy here (as is everybody else in every industry)
But it's these smaller companies like Hubbard are going to take the biggest hits out of the bunch
-
1 hour ago, TSSZNews said:
Hubbard apparently made some pretty nasty cuts on the radio side today - anything being heard about the TV end?
Don't be surprised that this is the beginning of what's to come for a lot of the smaller companies given the situation were in right now.
But to answer your question no but that is not to say it will eventually occur on the TV side as well
Honestly I think Hubbard's future in a post-COVID world looks pretty bleak
-
2 hours ago, TexasTVNews said:
IMO, Sinclair should have been fined more than that, as well as lose ownership licenses to stations they owned and/or forced to sell some or a few stations.
If this occured under Wheeler that would've definately been in the cards but since he's no longer in charge, yeah that's not going to happen
-
2 hours ago, TheRyan said:
Glad that Sinclair is finally able to put that debacle behind them. The dollar figure is a bit higher than I expected, but it's still consistent with what I thought would happen long ago that it would just be a fine as the sole requirement to turn the page. Hopefully Sinclair will do better with their acquisition strategy moving forward.
I don't think this will in any way derail their balance sheet. I suspect Sinclair already knew a fine would be forthcoming and were already planning to factor that into their expenses for awhile (long before the RSNs and COVID). And if in the off chance it did derail their balance sheet, remember that every company is in big trouble right now from the response to COVID-19. Until the states fully reopen and people open their wallets again, everyone is less than "healthy" as a company--notwithstanding a few exceptions (Walmart, Amazon, etc).
Exactly but keep in mind there were several media companies that were already unhealthy to begin with including Sinclair, which saw their stocks plunge even before COVID.
I'd say give it until the end of the year and we'll know more about COVID's impact of the RSNs as well as Sinclair but I have to imagine they're cheering for the NHL/NBA to finish their seasons and for MLB to start their season to avoid the ultimate collapse of the RSNs and thus, Sinclair.
-
2
-
-
50 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:
They probably have some bigger issues down the road with their finances, but will it put them back in the M&A game again to scale up to Nexstar?
With the amount of debt load coupled with the fact that companies may not want to deal with Sinclair due to among other things their $13.2 billion debt even though Sinclair is now back in the good graces of the FCC, the best they might be able to do is station swapping to get into new markets
-
1
-
-
18 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:
The postscript to the Sinclair/Tribune merger failure fallout is in from the FCC; SBG will be giving up a 'voluntary contribution of $48 million to Treasury', but escapes any license revocations. Also included in the fine is yet again, undisclosed VNRs (you'd think they'd have learned this in 2006) and other paid sponsorships and programming.
Any other time, this is pretty much just a write-off for a normal 2Q, but it really doesn't help their financial straits overall at this point.
What Sinclair really needs is the contact sports (the ones where staying 6 feet apart is not an option) to come back if they really want to survive otherwise I think they'll be bankrupt by the end of the year.
As for what happens to the Sinclair stations? Well.. I'll save that for Speculatron
-
3 minutes ago, newsbot said:
It could be a matter of Apollo wanting their own person in the top spot, or Guthrie not wanting to preside over what are likely to be draconian cuts once the full extent of the recession/depression hits the media sector, or some combination of the two.
Honestly I say it's a combination of two given the situation were in right now.
-
3
-
-
5 hours ago, newsbot said:
Also, Kim Guthrie is out as President/CEO of Cox Media Group
https://www.rbr.com/kim-guthrie-to-depart-cox-media-group/Her departure is interesting yet it's odd timing, with this virus I wonder if she had waited until we got to the other side of COVID before departing?
-
1
-
Out & About
in General TV
Posted
Not only that but also the economic conditions created by COVID-19 will in all likelihood make any effort made by Lockwood to start a news department from scratch unlikely.