l_miro

Ed Ansin did not want to redevelop WSVN property. One of my sources at the time explained in detail back in 2008, when one day Ed Ansin showed up at WTVJ to tour the building after WPLG announced they are buying the station, but I can't find the emails. What kept Sunbeam from getting the WIOD site was the old man refusing to pay $1.5 mil for it in 2002. I know from someone who was involved the old man balked at the price being too high. He was offered first dibs, even with his son Andrew pushing hard for the performance Ed said no. Then the owner sold to a local developer for $1.3 mil and announced condos. But Ed Ansin told him (and used WSVN to bludgeon him publicly) that he can't build anything on the lot without his permission because he had an agreement with the previous owner that requires his consent first, a condo building would be disruptive to WSVN and that is that. Turned out the developer offered to accommodate, including I believe a parking carve out for the station that can fit the ENG trucks, at his expense. Ed still said no. After the WSVN story aired and made him look bad, the developer decided to spite - he forbade WSVN staff to park on his property, majority of parking for WSVN staff was on it. That's why Sunbeam owns that building across the road. Employees parked there, and had to cross heavy traffic til 2021.The developer also removed the guard at the entrance and one of the billboards. Later, he announced hell make a strip club on the WOID site. A nod to sexed up female anchors at the station. Which caused old Ed to get North Bay Village mayor involved, used WSVN, Belkys Nerey and other female anchors as hammers to nip that plan, and it worked. After suing the developer, around 2008-2009, Ed bought the note on the property from the lender and tried to foreclose but I think failed. After Ed died 7/2020 one of the first things Andrew did after inheriting, is buy the lot from the developer... for $29 million in March 2021 And here we are.

A little birdie told me uncle Warren said no to a sale - if he sold it would have tax implications given how he acquired wplg. I still think Fox will buy 10, and that the ABC deal was a hedge by wsvn management since Their fox affiliation expires 2026 so...

That one is replacing the building across from the studios. Plex will get demolished closer to ~2030 They were supposed to have broken ground by now, this story says 2027. Wsvn new building in Miramar is scheduled to start construction end of 2025 or early 2026 to coincide with their 70th year but not necessarily with a July debut

“We want to be a local news brand that builds community,” said Ellis. “By creating a space like this where everyone is welcome, we will be more local than ever before, and we believe that means something special.” Audibly laughted at 2:04am in the dark. They've no clue what to do to get eyeballs

You didn't define what is alot btw. ZDF and ARD are public channels that don't care about ratings. ZDF supposedly is #1 with 15% share of tv audience, but just 7% of that are 14-49 year olds, and airs around 3 hours 40 minutes of newscasts daily, so the channel receives its 89 million euro news budget regardless. For comparison, 25-30% of viewers Miami and Boston stations get are 25-54 demo. My point was, the Berlin metro for example, does not have 4-6 commercial broadcast channels each pumping 9-12 hours of live news a day.

Miami station ranks have always fluctuated in the total viewer/households ratings, outside of the Spanish stations. There never was that one station that is constantly nailing the #1 spot, like say WPTV did for some time in WPB. WPLG has always been almost predictably strong at 6pm in households. WSVN competes primarily in the demo, that's how they make ~$40mil more than WPLG. Their late news is #1 in 25-54 as of now. Overall, looking at my old sfltv notes, everyone's viewership is down 10x compared to 10-15 years ago. Looks like the diehard viewers are left watching

Europe is varied, and fragmented. But it's not dire yet for various reasons - a lot has to do with the fact the media there is fed by taxpayer money. Even the private channels. The EU doles out tax money as subsidies, and countries' governments do that too separately. Whether anyone watches or not they throw money. The rating trends with the young are the same, and in some ways worse than the US. Add to that the fact that star anchors rarely if ever make 6-7-8 figure salaries, there are no networks to bleed the retrans fees from cable, and sport isn't eating up the budgets to the same level. The NFL bags $13B/yr in broadcast rights, the NBA $2.7B. UEFA is around $3B/yr for broadcast rights and unlike the US, various channels acquire the rights some of which operate like an HBO does. In Eastern Europe, where I'm from originally, will have some games air on broadcast but a lot of the games will be on a pay channel in the style of HBO that sits on top of your cable/satellite subscription. If not fans pull up some foreign satellite channel out of Germany/Italy and watcht that way I was talking to a friend in the biz the other day, and he said they're surviving because they aren't news focused. EU broadcast TV has never been news-focused like the US. bTV/NovaTV in Bulgaria has 2hrs of a GMA-like morning program, then it's coffee talk, gossip, cheap Turkish and Indian soaps until 6pm with a few minutes of noon news, and a 1 hour in-studio political program. The 6-7pm news follow and then it's Masked Singer or whatever bullshit show is on with another 10-15 minutes of news at 11pm. So 3-ish hours of news total in a weekday. Overall the trends of the young not watching are the same or worse as the US. At least for Eastern Europe they're worse, we're leaping right into social medial and our young people are constantly out with their friends. On weekends especially.

Europe does not allow big pharma ads on TV, granted their tax payers foot the bill for a lot of TV production, but it hasn't collapsed their market. In the US the cost of sports, and bleeding affiliates for retrans fees is leaving them scrounging up for cash to invest in something watchable

barring a hurricane visit, 16 months is probably doable. WPLG started construction in October '07 and was on air in March 2009. besides, it's not like that building is a complex work of art, it's a tarted up concrete box made from precast panels on a slab. 60-90 days for the shell is probably very realistic. Getting the other stuff done will eat most of the time.

WSVN is likely not for sale for the forseeable future. We would be reading a very different news releases right now if it were. ABC just didn't want Scripps' alsoran station, and liked what Sunbeam offered. The renewal with FOX is coming up spring 2027, maybe Sunbeam is hedging its options just in case. WPLG will try and give it a go alone copying what WHDH did in Boston but don't nobody be shocked to hear they're for sale As far as construction of the new building for WSVN - people think they were in a rush to move but the new studio was always contingent on the big project accross the street being approved first, and the city didn't take the last vote on that till 11/2024. Ansin siad he wants employees to have somewhere to go, which makes sense many of them live in Miami Shores and the beach for years, they're used to having nice places to visit and Miramar isn't exactly hot, hip and happening. The goal, as I've been told, is to be in by the station's 70th anniversary so they can tie it all up and make a big deal out of it. nah they don't distance themselves. It's a branding decision since the switch days. Currently WSVN airs FOXNews Sunday at 9AM, it used to be on at 4AM Mondays right before Today in Florida. And during the Iraq war they heavily promoted being attached to FOX News. They actually make use of and mention FNC more now than they ever have, and last I was told they're still part of the CNN pool/NewsSource or whatever that's called. Similarly, WHDH referred to itself as '7NBC' only when they mentioned NBC shows during a newscast. Come 2009 when they went HD, the peacock was completely gone from the WHDH open.