Update: Tribune to acquire Local TV for 2.75 billion

[broadcastfan9751 140]

 

No, Sinclair's still the largest though with their future 140 stations.

 

I think they are referring to market reach, since Tribune will reach 44% of U.S households after the deal, and Sinclair would only reach 35% after the closing of all their pending deals.

[Thundershock MN 169]

Tribune runs its CWs like independents anyway (a good business decision considering their long and rich local histories).

I know and I agree. I just found it funny that apparently they do such a good job deemphasizing the CW brand that TV News Check doesn't realize that WPIX, WGN & KTLA are still CW affiliates.

[Glimmer 282]

I'll be curious to see if there's any attempts at synergy between some of the close proximity stations in the deal (WPMT/WNEP; WGN/WITI0

[Mrtraveler01 738]

As someone in a Local TV Market (KTVI), I'm ecstatic that I won't have to be in a market with a Sinclair duopoly.

 

That being said, a big investment like this makes it even more likely that Tribune will sell off its newspapers. I just hope they don't sell it to someone who will ruin these respectable newspapers (Chicago Tribune, LA Times).

[Breaking News 829]

I'm glad Tribune won the prize of many former FOX O&O stations and other stations as well. I'm sooooooo happy that Sinclair was not the buyer. However Allbritton the next group/chain that has said it will sell and Sinclair placed it bid for WJLA and Sinclair run their station on shoe string budgets. I don't how they figure KOMO, KATU, WJLA which has bigger budgets vs the smaller stations.

 

My hope was for Tribune to buy Local TV stations, so that good. However I hope Lin TV can buy some of Allbritton stations followed by Scripps Howard etc.

 

FCC need to make these ownership law stricter but the best news for those stations. Those FOX stations will bring in lots of $$$$ happy to hear that-

[nickp 337]

Tribune is trying to sell its newspapers to focus on its more profitable broadcasting operations

[tw-804 192]

This is quite interesting. I'm surprised. First Media General will be the new owner of WRIC, and now WTVR and WTKR/WGNT will become the new sister stations of WGN, KTLA, WPIX and others. Wow, I'm glad!

 

UPDATE: Forgot WVEC is going to Gannett.

[CircleSeven 1955]

 

I think they are referring to market reach, since Tribune will reach 44% of U.S households after the deal, and Sinclair would only reach 35% after the closing of all their pending deals.

 

Okay 44% (still over the cap by 5%) but the UHF discount would make it 22%. (I originally said 46%, but I forgot of the overlaps in Denver & St. Louis).

[GoldenShine9 1513]

Surprise! It makes sense though since Tribune had been quiet so far. I figured they might have been a seller too...I think the price tag was too much for even Sinclair.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

I wonder who else bid? I could also see some affiliation shakeups here as well, perhaps some switching to others, mainly Fox, since they seem to have the best relations with Tribune.

[mre29 1521]

Wow. Good for Tribune... and congratulations to the Local TV stations on a safe landing.

[C Block 1566]

Considering that this merger is larger in terms of capital size, I'm surprised at the tone of this thread compared to the relative outrage over the Gannett/Belo hookup.

 

Either way, I'm satisfied in the Denver market. I still maintain that KDVR and KWGN would be better off independently owned and operated, but if they're going to be merged, they may as well be operated by a (mostly) quality broadcaster.

[MidwestTV 1232]

Is anyone else surprised by how "soon" this announcement came too? I honestly wasn't really expecting to hear anything about this until much later on in the year.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

 

Considering that this merger is larger in terms of capital size, I'm surprised at the tone of this thread compared to the relative outrage over the Gannett/Belo hookup.

 

Either way, I'm satisfied in the Denver market. I still maintain that KDVR and KWGN would be better off independently owned and operated, but if they're going to be merged, they may as well be operated by a (mostly) quality broadcaster.

 

It comes down to:

 

1) We all knew Local TV was on the block and going to be sold. Belo was a total shock to all of us.

 

2) A sense of relief that Sinclair didn't win as everyone here had feared.

[CircleSeven 1955]

 

Is anyone else surprised by how "soon" this announcement came too? I honestly wasn't really expecting to hear anything about this until much later on in the year.

 

If the buying group want to get things consummated by the end of 2013/start of 2014, they better deal and announce it real quick. That's what happened with Newport (last July 19) and most of those stations were with their new owners by December. When they'd announced that the final bids were in, we would be hearing who would get those stations in a matter of days, instead of weeks.

 

We all know, it will come down to when the FCC approves these Assignment of Licenses/Transfer of Control applications. I remember it took 5 months for the FCC to approve the LIN/New Vision deal. These new set of deal could take that long, because of the amount of stations. It's been over three months since Sinclair filed those apps for the Barrington stations and at this time, the FCC has yet greenlighted that deal. But that could be any day now. So again, if you want the deal to be finalized by the end of this year/going into the new year, you better deal now, while the capital is hot.

[LoadStar 364]

 

It comes down to:

 

1) We all knew Local TV was on the block and going to be sold. Belo was a total shock to all of us.

 

2) A sense of relief that Sinclair didn't win as everyone here had feared.

 

3) There already exist very strong ties between Local TV and Tribune, so the transition should be fairly smooth and transparent.

[channel2 979]

What would be nice with Tribune regaining control of KWGN would be if they were to expand the 7PM news to weekends. This is probably more a pipe dream than anything, though; Saturday nights are a dead zone, primetime starts at 6PM on Sundays here (and it would be up against Sunday Night Football for part of the year), and The CW does not offer any network programming to lead into on weekends.

[Rusty Muck 4374]

It comes down to:

 

1) We all knew Local TV was on the block and going to be sold. Belo was a total shock to all of us.

 

2) A sense of relief that Sinclair didn't win as everyone here had feared.

3) There already exist very strong ties between Local TV and Tribune, so the transition should be fairly smooth and transparent.

4) Tribune has already emerged from bankruptcy, is in the process of selling their unprofitable newspaper division, and has brought aboard Very Quality People in key spots. Starting, of course, with Peter Liguori.

 

5) Randy Michaels is nowhere to be found.

[sanewsguy 511]

 

It comes down to:

 

1) We all knew Local TV was on the block and going to be sold. Belo was a total shock to all of us.

 

2) A sense of relief that Sinclair didn't win as everyone here had feared.

 

 

3) There already exist very strong ties between Local TV and Tribune, so the transition should be fairly smooth and transparent.

 

 

4) Tribune has already emerged from bankruptcy, and has brought aboard Very Quality People in key spots. Starting, of course, with Peter Liguori.

 

5) Randy Michaels is nowhere to be found.

 

6) Unlike the Gannett/Belo merger, where there is overlap in two markets (Phoenix/St. Louis) plus newspaper holdings in three other markets, there is no significant overlap here. Only Denver and St. Louis overlap with no newspaper holidngs in the remaining markets. Denver and St. Louis have been associated with each other for about five years now, so viewers are already used to the arrangement between the two. This acquisition just makes it "official".

 

 

I wonder who else bid? I could also see some affiliation shakeups here as well, perhaps some switching to others, mainly Fox, since they seem to have the best relations with Tribune.

 

This is unrealistic, especially in Memphis where Fox already O&O's a station. Tribune will now be adding big three affiliates to the fold. Only change I can see with them is hopefully they will let the Local TV LLC stations finally start outsourcing graphics instead of doing them in-house because the Tribune ones outsource. Other than that, I see management at the stations staying put which means they way the stations are run now is how they'll continue to be run under Tribune.

 

 

Surprise! It makes sense though since Tribune had been quiet so far. I figured they might have been a seller too...I think the price tag was too much for even Sinclair.

 

I wasn't shocked but I was a little surprised when I saw the OP post they had been sold which is why I immediately googled it (surprised he didn't give a link with his post) and found it on the Chicago Tribune site (I'd already been up when I saw that). It surprised me Sinclair didn't get any of them. Sinclair isn't as bad as everyone here makes them out to be and I live in a Sinclair market (one with a triopoly to boot!).

 

This is what I think happened. Local TV CEO Bobby Lawrence probably gave his buddies at Tribune and asked if they would buy the stations. I'm sure they said yes in a heartbeat. In the interim, while they were working out the details they decided to solicit bids but they probably knew they truly weren't interested in selling to anybody but Tribune. Maybe they used this as a vehicle to see if Tribune could match other companies offers...

 

The stations are in good hands with Tribune like Mr. Lawrence said. It's just that they leave the stations to the local management for the most part. Most of the stations are very good, some (WPIX, WGNO, KDAF, KIAH) are not. And every thing can be blamed on either local management or Randy Michaels' failed experiments *cough* "Newsfix" *cough*. But now that he's no longer there, that shouldn't be a problem.

 

p.s. I wish Dennis FitzSimmons would come back to Tribune. He never should have left. Quality executive who actually started out with Tribune and worked his way up. Peter Ligouri is also great but meprefers FitzSimmons.

 

EDIT: And wow, did that guy really have to use Randy Michaels' mugshots on a story that had nothing to do with him getting arrested. Someone doesn't really like Randy all too much...

[stevieboy247 42]

All I can say is I'm just glad Sincock didn't even come close to getting the stations.

[TennTV1983 804]

 

Tribune will now be adding big three affiliates to the fold. Only change I can see with them is hopefully they will let the Local TV LLC stations finally start outsourcing graphics instead of doing them in-house because the Tribune ones outsource. Other than that, I see management at the stations staying put which means they way the stations are run now is how they'll continue to be run under Tribune.

 

In terms of graphics, Tribune is doing a bit of in-house stuff now than in the past, particularly with their Fox stations as I mentioned in the Shoutbox with the forementioned graphics package used at WXMI and WXIN. In terms of the Big 3 (CBS, ABC, NBC), it's anyone's guess.

[Rusty Muck 4374]

EDIT: And wow, did that guy really have to use Randy Michaels' mugshots on a story that had nothing to do with him getting arrested. Someone doesn't really like Randy all too much...

Robert Feder is a great writer, but if you get on his bad side (as Michaels apparently did when he took over WGN 720) he'll never let you forget it. And the notoriety surrounding Randy's tenure at Tribune became too much of a sideshow that Feder and others were happy to exploit.

 

Although, to Michaels' credit, he hired Sean Compton, who started the rebranding of Superstation WGN to WGN America.

[AaronQ 282]

And now, WGHP is going to be the first TV station in the Carolinas to be owned by Tribune once the deal is gone through. I say congrats to Tribune on buyng out Local TV LLC and thank God it's not Sinclair, and I hope that WGHP is getting the grahics that WXMI and WXIN is cureently using as well. WGHP's current graphics is terrible.

[Rusty Muck 4374]

And now, WGHP is going to be the first TV station in the Carolinas to be owned by Tribune once the deal is gone through. I say congrats to Tribune on buyng out Local TV LLC and thank God it's not Sinclair, and I hope that WGHP is getting the grahics that WXMI and WXIN is cureently using as well. WGHP's current graphics is terrible.

I cannot agree more. WGHP's graphics make me cringe. For some reason, WBRC was able to deconstruct the Fox O&O V.1 graphics in fantastic fashion, while WGHP just couldn't. If anything, either the KDVR look or the WXMI look would be perfect for WGHP.

 

WJW - which is STILL using the V.1 O&O graphics - should get the WXMI look to complement their O&O set (which has had minimal modifications, as they operate with the "if it ain't broke" belief) or get the current graphics outsourced from Fox (although I'm not too keen on that unless major modifications can be made). Same applies with KTVI and KSTU, both of which use the V.2 graphics.

[Rusty Muck 4374]

Considering that this merger is larger in terms of capital size, I'm surprised at the tone of this thread compared to the relative outrage over the Gannett/Belo hookup.

 

Either way, I'm satisfied in the Denver market. I still maintain that KDVR and KWGN would be better off independently owned and operated, but if they're going to be merged, they may as well be operated by a (mostly) quality broadcaster.

That, and KDVR can keep their distinctive look without being re-standardized back into the Fox O&O motif. That would have been awkward.