Sinclair Buys, Buys, Buys, and Never Stops

[Leavellebrett 85]

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/492015-Sinclair_to_Acquire_Four_Cox_Stations.php

 

Please take a look at this. For living in the Johnstown market, I am deeply saddened to see WJAC, the oldest station in our market, owned by Cox since the beginning of the 2000s, being sold to none other than Sinclair. I think I might cry.

[MidwestTV 1174]

How is Sinclair not BANKRUPT yet? WHERE do they get the money for all of this and WHY do they constatnly feel the need to just buy, buy buy?! Like shyte man.

 

Surely this will catch up to them one day right?

[detroiter313 178]

How is Sinclair not BANKRUPT yet? WHERE do they get the money for all of this and WHY do they constatnly feel the need to just buy, buy buy?! Like shyte man.

 

Surely this will catch up to them one day right?

Maybe, and Nexstar too.

[Guest Former Member 207]

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/492015-Sinclair_to_Acquire_Four_Cox_Stations.php

 

Please take a look at this. For living in the Johnstown market, I am deeply saddened to see WJAC, the oldest station in our market, owned by Cox since the beginning of the 2000s, being sold to none other than Sinclair. I think I might cry.

Wow...seriously, some of you guys need to relax and chill. You're taking this much too seriously; I'm not in love with the idea of Sinclair (and Nexstar) buying-up stations left and right, pretty much building up monopolies in several markets. Maybe I see things somewhat differently because I'm in Los Angeles, a large market with plently of diverse broadcasters (albeit with four duopolies), but I was born in and spent part of my childhood in a much smaller market (Rockford, IL), where's currently occupied by Gray (WIFR), Nexstar/Mission (WTVO/WQRF), and Quincy Newspapers (WREX). From things I've read, Gray and Nexstar don't have stellar reputations, and I don't know much about Quincy to really comment.

 

Now, I do wish the FCC does indeed lay the hammer down on Sinclar and Nexstar and break-up their station groups. However, if the economics doesn't warrant more broadcast groups like we had up until 10-15 years ago, then this how things are going to be.

[Leavellebrett 85]

My big thing with Sinclair is the fact that they are buying all of these stations, they're not spending time in development and refurnishing and updates of these stations and the quality is just slipping. They're putting these standardizations on everything and it just doesn't work. The number one station in my market is WTAJ, a Nexstar CBS affiliate. I do watch that, as compared to WJAC, the Cox, turning Sinclair, NBC affiliate. I personally like a lot of things that Nexstar does. Granted they do have some downfalls, but at least Nexstar is doing a lot of facelifts for their stations. WTAJ just went HD at the end of January with a rebuilt set, new graphics, the whole spiel... which was fantastic. In LA, it is different because the big four are all O&O with and CW is Tribute-owned, and personally I like what Tribute does with their stations. I have WPIX in my home in central PA. We don't have a CW station and Comcast just gives us PIX11. I watch it a lot. It's just a different world between a top 10 market, especially number 2, than number 98, I think it is, at last update.

[News 9 Viewer 100]

I don't get why a media company would want to own more than one television station in a market. Even if as an owner of a media company you felt that one or more of your tv stations needed to air a primetime newscast on another station in a market, wouldn't you rather try to reach a news share agreement? Who in their right mind wants to own a CW or MyNetworkTV affiliate? Those stations should be owned by small local media companies, new or relatively new ones and small ones with a reputation trending upward. Sinclair falls into none of those categories.

 

The FCC should limit the ownership of stations to one per company in a market. That would dramatically reduce Sinclair's portfolio.

[channel2 883]

Owning more than one television station is attractive because that means more ad revenue.

[MidwestTV 1174]

I don't get why a media company would want to own more than one television station in a market. Even if as an owner of a media company you felt that one or more of your tv stations needed to air a primetime newscast on another station in a market' date=' wouldn't you rather try to reach a news share agreement? Who in their right mind [i']wants[/i] to own a CW or MyNetworkTV affiliate? Those stations should be owned by small local media companies, new or relatively new ones and small ones with a reputation trending upward. Sinclair falls into none of those categories.

 

The FCC should limit the ownership of stations to one per company in a market. That would dramatically reduce Sinclair's portfolio.

I keep waiting for Sinclair to come out one day and say that they're pretty much going or are bankrupt, and then have the FCC issue a statement literally ordering them to sell off at least 25 of their stations. (and seeing as they own nearly NINETY of them, selling off 25 shouldn't be any problem to them at all)

[Samantha 2878]

Here's another question.

 

Why is Sinclair the only company buying these stations? Are other potential bidders being squeezed out?

[effseesee 101]

My big thing with Sinclair is the fact that they are buying all of these stations, they're not spending time in development and refurnishing and updates of these stations and the quality is just slipping. They're putting these standardizations on everything and it just doesn't work. The number one station in my market is WTAJ, a Nexstar CBS affiliate. I do watch that, as compared to WJAC, the Cox, turning Sinclair, NBC affiliate. I personally like a lot of things that Nexstar does. Granted they do have some downfalls, but at least Nexstar is doing a lot of facelifts for their stations. WTAJ just went HD at the end of January with a rebuilt set, new graphics, the whole spiel... which was fantastic. In LA, it is different because the big four are all O&O with and CW is Tribute-owned, and personally I like what Tribute does with their stations. I have WPIX in my home in central PA. We don't have a CW station and Comcast just gives us PIX11. I watch it a lot. It's just a different world between a top 10 market, especially number 2, than number 98, I think it is, at last update.

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Sinclair has been building new sets left and right at their stations. You can complain all you want about Sinclair, but Cox hasn't put a dime in WJAC or WTOV in years and is quite happy to be rid of them.

 

Here's another question.

 

Why is Sinclair the only company buying these stations? Are other potential bidders being squeezed out?

Nobody is getting squeezed out. In most cases, there aren't many people interested.

[mre29 1345]

Maybe Sinclair wants to own a station in each DMA.

 

Watch out, Glendive.

[News 9 Viewer 100]

I did some digging and found Sincrap's corporate acquisition strategy.

[Leavellebrett 85]

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Sinclair has been building new sets left and right at their stations. You can complain all you want about Sinclair, but Cox hasn't put a dime in WJAC or WTOV in years and is quite happy to be rid of them.

WJAC got two new sets and moved to a brand new studio in the time Cox owned them.

[CircleSeven 1945]

TVNewsCheck posted this morning about the reasoning about these buying sprees. And they've hinted a couple other groups like Granite, Local TV LLC & Titan could also be on the block.

[speed053 35]

I guess that Sincrap (I mean, Sinclair) is on a buying spree....

[CircleSeven 1945]

I guess that Sincrap (I mean, Sinclair) is on a buying spree....

They've been on a buying spree since the Four Points Media deal, and they haven't stopped since. This is not the first time they've been buying at this rate. Back in the 90s they bought out Act II/Abry/River City Broadcasting. And at that time these were huge deals. One of the deals from the 90s fetched more that a $1 billion. But I think this is one of their biggest chain of acquisition and in a very rapid rate but nearly all the individual deals have totaled so far $1.5 billion. So the deals have been low.

 

Nevertheless, Sinclair and Nexstar have ran that gauntlet for too long. And Sinclair is just about 10% away (after the deals be closed) for going over the current ownership cap (39%). And I don't think they will buy stations in a market higher than Tampa, otherwise they would have to sell a bundle of stations just to get within the cap. You know prior to their buying spree, you know almost all the Sinclair stations what physically on the UHF dial. If WLOS wasn't on physically on VHF 13, Sinclair would've probably get an FCC discount like Lowell Paxson did when he bought all those UHF stations in the late 1990s. Since he owned several UHF stations he actually was over the cap buy double like 60%, but FCC cut that by half (30%) because it owned all UHF stations. I don't think Sinclair is going to move any of the stations to the UHF dial, since the FCC put a freeze on moving channels, pending on the upcoming incentive auctions so spectrum can be reclaimed for broadband use. And another problem is that these new companies OTA Broadcasting, NRJ TV, LocusPoint, those are the companies (or Spectrum Speculators as they are called) that don't care about the future of the broadcast industry. All they care about is to buy the stations so they can resell it to the FCC so they can give the spectrum to those Wireless Companies for Broadband.

 

So I don't think the buying spree is going to end. But its sounds too stupid that the bigger companies are not buying at a rate Sinclair & Nexstar have done in the last several months.

[padrechuck 25]

I'm not sure what you're talking about. Sinclair has been building new sets left and right at their stations. You can complain all you want about Sinclair, but Cox hasn't put a dime in WJAC or WTOV in years and is quite happy to be rid of them.

 

 

Nobody is getting squeezed out. In most cases, there aren't many people interested.

 

When WTOV debuted their new set in October 2010 they announced that it was part of a $12 million investment in the station. The last part involves bringing the news into HD, which should happen anytime now, hopefully.

[channel2 883]

Didn't the FCC get rid of the "UHF stations count for half" thing with the digital transition?

 

Also, I'm kinda surprised that I haven't heard more rumbling about Local TV LLC being up for sale. Oak Hill appears to be one of the only private equity firms that's still at it.

 

Granite...I get the impression that they're a dying company. Who, other than possibly Sinclair, would want most of their stations? (Though KOFY and WMYD seem like duopoly or spectrum speculator bait to me, at least.)

[News 9 Viewer 100]

Didn't the FCC get rid of the "UHF stations count for half" thing with the digital transition?

 

Also, I'm kinda surprised that I haven't heard more rumbling about Local TV LLC being up for sale. Oak Hill appears to be one of the only private equity firms that's still at it.

 

Granite...I get the impression that they're a dying company. Who, other than possibly Sinclair, would want most of their stations? (Though KOFY and WMYD seem like duopoly or spectrum speculator bait to me, at least.)

I hope WKBW is sold to a quality owner. The station that made Tom Jolls and Irv Weinstein household names in western New York deserves better than to be run into the ground by Sincrap or Nexstar.

[effseesee 101]

I hope WKBW is sold to a quality owner. The station that made Tom Jolls and Irv Weinstein household names in western New York deserves better than to be run into the ground by Sincrap or Nextstar.

Granite already accomplished that.

[CircleSeven 1945]

I don't think Sinclair is going to move any of the stations to the UHF dial' date=' since the FCC put a freeze on moving channels, pending on the upcoming incentive auctions so spectrum can be reclaimed for broadband use. And another problem is that these new companies OTA Broadcasting, NRJ TV, LocusPoint, those are the companies (or Spectrum Speculators as they are called) that don't care about the future of the broadcast industry. All they care about is to buy the stations so they can resell it to the FCC so they can give the spectrum to those Wireless Companies for Broadband.

 

So I don't think the buying spree is going to end. But its sounds too stupid that the bigger companies are not buying at a rate Sinclair & Nexstar have done in the last several months.

I know this is unrelated to this topic but a point I stated about these Spectrum speculators that doesn't give a damn about the broadcast industry and only care about cashing in on the TV station so the FCC can give it to the wireless carriers. The Daily Variety wrote this article about the battle between the broadcasters & the telco companies over who should rule the broadcast spectrum.