Update: Tribune to acquire Local TV for 2.75 billion

[A3N 996]

I have a feeling that their attempt to sell their papers is more than a little related to their emergence from bankruptcy. I bet that once they find a buyer for the papers, they'll start selling some television stations. Buying KDVR would make sense though, as it would give KWGN needed resources.

I could maybe see Tribune selling their smaller stations. If they were thinking about selling their tv portfolio, then Peter Ligouri and Larry Wert would not have been hired to manage the company/tv side.

[Glimmer 238]

The only two groups besides the ones that shall not be named that I could see buying the Local TV stations are Tribune and Meredith. Maybe Cox, since they joined into the Newport sale.

[tyrannical bastard 3464]

I'm sure Nexstar is kicking themselves for buying WPTY/WLMT now....should Nexstar decide to pursue WREG...but they could be on a "mission" to get it!

Like Newport, I think this is going to be a piecemeal sale, and some properties are going to be absorbed by an in-market owner.

 

Sinclair could be interested in KTVI/KPLR, which they could use along with KDNL to switch up affiliations (moving CW to KDNL and putting ABC on KPLR)...that is if Tribune is willing to sell KPLR as well....

[stevieboy247 42]

I just hope Sinturd doesn't even come a step closer to buying the stations, that's all I can say.

[Jterry 43]

I'm sure Nexstar is kicking themselves for buying WPTY/WLMT now....should Nexstar decide to pursue WREG...but they could be on a "mission" to get it!

Like Newport, I think this is going to be a piecemeal sale, and some properties are going to be absorbed by an in-market owner.

 

Sinclair could be interested in KTVI/KPLR, which they could use along with KDNL to switch up affiliations (moving CW to KDNL and putting ABC on KPLR)...that is if Tribune is willing to sell KPLR as well....

You may be right about their feelings, but I don't think they'll pursue WREG, even if they wanted to go on a special 'mission' for it. I think they're full steam ahead on WPTY now.

 

Of course, nothing would surprise me I guess when it comes to Nexstar.

 

I think they'll undoubtedly be involved in some of these stations though. I could see Cox going after a few too since they seem interested lately. Tribune? I don't know, probably more depends on what's really happening internally right now. I do imagine it going individually or in multiple small groups rather than one big chunk. It'd be nice to see any of these stations go to somebody besides Nexstar and especially Sinclair.

[channel2 869]

Saw this coming. Private equity's been wanting out of TV.

 

That said, I hope Sinclair and Nexstar stay away from KDVR/KWGN. I see Meredith being interested in WHO, at least, as Des Moines is their hometown.

[CircleSeven 1944]

Well let's look at it market by market. Local TV is in 16 markets.

 

Let's start with Sinclair & Nexstar.

• Sinclair is already in eight of those markets, including three that are duopolies (*) (St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Milwaukee*, Oklahoma City*, Norfolk, Greensboro*, Richmond & Des Moines).
  
• Nexstar is in four markets, all involving duopolies (Salt Lake City*, Memphis*, Scranton* & Fort Smith*).
  

 

For the bigger groups:

• Hearst is in six of those markets (Kansas City*, Milwaukee, Okahoma City, Greensboro, Des Moines & Fort Smith).
  
• Gannett is in four of those markets (Denver*, Cleveland, St. Louis & Greensboro).
  
• Raycom is also in four of those markets (Cleveland*, Memphis, Richmond* & Huntsville).
  
• Scripps is in three of those markets (Denver, Cleveland & Kansas City).
  
• For the Groups that are in two of those markets, thats Belo (St. Louis & Norfolk), Young (Richmond & Davenport), & Citadel (Des Moines & Davenport).
  
• For the Groups that are in just one market, thats LIN (Norfolk), Meredith (Kansas City), Journal (Milwaukee), CBS (Denver), FOX (Memphis).
  

 

The only group I didn't mention on the list is of course Tribune Broadcasting, which is obviously in St. Louis & Denver. Notice when the restructuring company was consummated on the last day of 2012, KPLR & WGNO/WNOL's licensee titles haven't changed to an LLC title (i.e. KPLR, LLC or Tribune Broadcasting of New Orleans, LLC). That could be a sign that they could be in a process of selling (and I say it very loosely). I think Tribune could get KDVR, but sell off its St. Louis properties. And since this company is eyeing the big markets, Cox could very well be a lucrative buyer in a few of those markets. Cox could use Bayshore to get KPLR, since both stations (along with KTVI) are within the top-4 highest rated stations. Since they already bought the Tulsa duopoly (KOKI/KMYT), they could very well get KFOR/KAUT in OKC on the fly. Other stations Cox should get is Kansas City, Salt Lake City & Cleveland.

 

I don't think Belo would be at any interest of any of the Local TV LLC stations. Belo have stated earlier that they could be willing to expand their TV portfolio "as they make sense". I think Belo is eyeing those Griffin stations (KWTV/KOTV) in Oklahoma. Should the Griffin family is ready to get out of the business, Belo should be the #1 contender for those properties. Belo already owned KOTV prior to 2000.

 

Now for WHO. If Meredith have the agility to go in-market in their homebase, it would be a god-send if they bought WHO as their true flagship television station.

 

And I completely forgot about Media General. Since they sold the Times-Dispatch, MG should come back home and buy back WTVR. Of course they couldn't keep Channel 6 because of the cross-ownership restriction, after Roy Park stations merged to MG. MG would be a great buyer for the Richmond, Norfolk & Huntsville properties.

 

I'm also at a toss-up of rather WREG should go to Meredith or if Journal will shock us again and buy WREG, the same way they bought WTVF last fall. Both are good buyers for that one. I don't think Nexstar will play the Mission card, while they pouring all their dollars invested on WPTY/WLMT. I think they're making so much good of what they already have. But I also said five years ago on this board that either LIN or Meredith should acquire WHBQ. Fox should pursue to unload WHBQ.

 

For WNEP, if none of the big groups started this on-air cosmetic standardization, I would say Hearst or Scripps because of their heavy ABC count. But I'm at a toss up between Cox or Tribune on this. WNEP is too good of a station to be cosmetically standardized.

 

And I think a smaller group like one of the newly formed groups Alchemedia or Huntington should get the Davenport & Fort Smith properties. Sinclair should not get their hands on any of those.

 

But you just can't expect the unexpected. Sinclair and or Nexstar would probably have something up their sleaves. But it's safe to say it won't be a take the entire group and run. It will no doubt be bits and pieces. It's really hard to speculate which group would really get these stations because these are "dog" stations, like 4th place stations. The only market leader I see is WNEP. And probably WREG, when WMC is drunk.

[Newser 0]

I'm leaning toward Cox for WREG, KFOR and maybe St. Louis.

WREG is number one in all times slot. Technically a tie at 6 am and 6 pm

St. LOuis has gained on KTVI and KFOR does well, usually #1

[Weeters 1811]

Just let it be a station group with a decent group graphics package please.

 

I do have the urge to register every Nextstar-like domain for the Milwaukee area just to be safe. Please, God, let it not be Nextstar for WITI.

 

Too bad Journal and Hearst are already here. Good thing Sinclair and Weigel are maxxed out here. I'd prefer if WITI went to someone like Gannett, who still seems to care about the industry.

[bhratbrat 423]

Since we are playing speculation here, lets go ahead and actually take a look at the stations under LOCAL TV LLC and where they might go:

My thoughts will be posted under two posts. One for the FOX cluster and one for the other cluster.

FOX Cluster:

WJW-TV: The biggest station in terms of DMA for the group. They already have HD and the station group that would purchase them would require minimum capital to do any upgrades to the station. Considering Gannett/Scripps/Raycom already own in this market, I would love to say Hearst could buy WJW. But that probably won't happen so Im going to throw a bone not knowing who is going to buy them and Im going to stay at that.

KDVR-TV/KFCT-TV: If Tribune can get an approved duopoly, than this one should be the easiest group to buy. With Scripps/Gannett/CBS owning in the market, Tribune is primed to buy.

KTVI-TV: Same situation here for KTVI if they can get the approved duopoly. Maybe rumblings can also begin for ABC to lose the affiliation from ABC30 and move it over to KTVI and/or KPLR.

KSTU-TV: It seems like every big station group has pulled out of Salt Lake City like there is no tomorrow. For a market that was owned at one point by CBS/Bonneville/FOX/Newport-CC, now its Nexstar/Bonneville/Sinclair and KSTU is the one swimming out in the open. I would say Raycom could take a swipe, but more than likely, there will be a lot of swimming for the station until a buyer comes up and says that they are going to buy them.

WGHP-TV: As odd as WJW and KSTU's situation is going to be, WGHP is in a weirder situation as there former owner just bought out two stations in Charlotte for nothing more than a few pairs of jeans and the major players in NC media already has a station either in Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh which is nothing more than an hour to an hour and a half away from where WGHP is. In Greensboro, its Hearst/Gannett/Sinclair but then at the neighboring markets where its FOX/Bahakel/Raycom/Cox/Belo in Charlotte and Capitol/Media General/ABC in Raleigh, there could be weirder things happening. I would hate to put Nexstar in the market, but at the moment that might be the most logical pick.

WDAF-TV: With Scripps/Hearst/Meredith already in the market, this could be prime real estate for a bigger company to come in and invest some money into WDAF. But this could also lead to some problems down the road and the ownership group might be more mucked up. I am not wanting to say Sinclair or Nexstar here but this is one of them that might be an ownership group.

WITI-TV: With Hearst/Journal being the top dogs in the market and Sinclair owning two stations in the market, the question becomes who wants WITI. Other than CBS58's marked turnaround and the highly praised redesigned set, but the ownership is muddled as well.

[Big Country News 435]

WITI-TV: With Hearst/Journal being the top dogs in the market and Sinclair owning two stations in the market, the question becomes who wants WITI. Other than CBS58's marked turnaround and the highly praised redesigned set, but the ownership is muddled as well.

Just let it be a station group with a decent group graphics package please.

 

I do have the urge to register every Nextstar-like domain for the Milwaukee area just to be safe. Please, God, let it not be Nextstar for WITI.

 

Too bad Journal and Hearst are already here. Good thing Sinclair and Weigel are maxxed out here. I'd prefer if WITI went to someone like Gannett, who still seems to care about the industry.

I think FOX could want WITI, but that maybe thinking out on a very-brittle and narrow limb.

[TennTV1983 743]

I'm sure Nexstar is kicking themselves for buying WPTY/WLMT now....should Nexstar decide to pursue WREG...but they could be on a "mission" to get it!

Like Newport, I think this is going to be a piecemeal sale, and some properties are going to be absorbed by an in-market owner.

If Nexstar did that, it would defeat the whole purpose of them investing in the Memphis duopoly and making them competitive against the other stations. Besides, with WREG being the market's ratings leader and all, you would think it would be a valuable asset for a company like Cox, Belo, or LIN to have in their broadcasting portfolio.

[TheRob 920]

Our GM informed us of the news this morning. Local TV hopes to sell everything to one buyer, but admitted that may not be realistic. Otherwise it's business as usual.

[TVNewsLover 727]

It'd be nice for St. Louis to get ABC back on KTVI, with KPLR gaining the FOX affiliation, and the CW going to KDNL. Same for WITI and CBS, WHBQ and ABC, and WJW and CBS.

[C Block 1488]

I'm eagerly waiting to read a substantive article about this and hear why exactly Local TV is divesting. Also, speculation is always fun, of course, but it's almost always wrong in these situations. With that said, I'd be shocked to see Tribune buy any station, and I'd be more interested to see what the LMA contracts in Denver and St. Louis stipulate if one station gets sold...

[CircleSeven 1944]

I'm eagerly waiting to read a substantive article about this and hear why exactly Local TV is divesting. Also, speculation is always fun, of course, but it's almost always wrong in these situations. With that said, I'd be shocked to see Tribune buy any station, and I'd be more interested to see what the LMA contracts in Denver and St. Louis stipulate if one station gets sold...

And here you go! B&C posted this within the hour. They said the process could take up to a year! So you can throw the scenario of a single buyer buying the whole company out the window.

[FirstNews8 13]

I am actually excited to see this happen. Some of these stations need some change, and need a company with $$$, and knowledge of how to run a TV station. Im not sure that Oak Hill Capital was ever cut out to run local tv stations. I think it's scary anytime you sell anything to an investment firm, who has NO experience in the industry... because you pretty much know ALL that will matter is the bottom line, and the actual performance of the station may not be important... just SALES SALES SALES!!! Now, obviously these other big station groups care about the money, but I feel SOME of these groups know what it takes to run a TV station, and have experience and know how of what might work, and what won't.

[T.L. Hughes 751]

As someone living in a Local TV market, I hope that KFOR/KAUT don't go to either Sinclair or Nexstar. A Nexstar purchase of any of the stations could have some effect on Antenna TV and a purchase of all the stations could drive a stake in the heart of the network, since while the company has a few subchannel-only affiliations within its group, it has removed quite a few several secondary subchannels on stations it has acquired recently and many Nexstar stations don't carry additional subchannels at all. Keep in mind that Antenna TV's core affiliate groups are Tribune and Local TV. To say Sinclair couldn't get any of the stations in markets where they have a station would be unrealistic, they did create a virtual quadropoly in Mobile-Pensacola, using Deerfield Media to acquire WPMI and WJTC. But hopefully, they won't get any station in a market where it owns one already.

 

Cox would be a good choice to buy WJW and KFOR/KAUT, it would also be a logical one considering that the company does have cable systems operated by its Cox Communications subsidiary in those markets; keep in mind that they did get KOKI/KMYT in Tulsa - one of Cox Communications' markets - via the Newport Television breakup.

 

My question is if Tribune did get KTVI, and that's a reasonably big if, would FCC rules allow a legal duopoly with KPLR? The FCC requires a media market to have eight unique station owners among the market's full-power stations once a duopoly is formed, and St. Louis proper has eight full-power stations (although there are two FPTVs on the Illinois side of the market) and only allows duopolies in markets with at least nine full-power stations.

[MidwestTV 1173]

Since we are playing speculation here, lets go ahead and actually take a look at the stations under LOCAL TV LLC and where they might go:

My thoughts will be posted under two posts. One for the FOX cluster and one for the other cluster.

FOX Cluster:

WJW-TV: The biggest station in terms of DMA for the group. They already have HD and the station group that would purchase them would require minimum capital to do any upgrades to the station. Considering Gannett/Scripps/Raycom already own in this market, I would love to say Hearst could buy WJW. But that probably won't happen so Im going to throw a bone not knowing who is going to buy them and Im going to stay at that.

KDVR-TV/KFCT-TV: If Tribune can get an approved duopoly, than this one should be the easiest group to buy. With Scripps/Gannett/CBS owning in the market, Tribune is primed to buy.

KTVI-TV: Same situation here for KTVI if they can get the approved duopoly. Maybe rumblings can also begin for ABC to lose the affiliation from ABC30 and move it over to KTVI and/or KPLR.

KSTU-TV: It seems like every big station group has pulled out of Salt Lake City like there is no tomorrow. For a market that was owned at one point by CBS/Bonneville/FOX/Newport-CC, now its Nexstar/Bonneville/Sinclair and KSTU is the one swimming out in the open. I would say Raycom could take a swipe, but more than likely, there will be a lot of swimming for the station until a buyer comes up and says that they are going to buy them.

WGHP-TV: As odd as WJW and KSTU's situation is going to be, WGHP is in a weirder situation as there former owner just bought out two stations in Charlotte for nothing more than a few pairs of jeans and the major players in NC media already has a station either in Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh which is nothing more than an hour to an hour and a half away from where WGHP is. In Greensboro, its Hearst/Gannett/Sinclair but then at the neighboring markets where its FOX/Bahakel/Raycom/Cox/Belo in Charlotte and Capitol/Media General/ABC in Raleigh, there could be weirder things happening. I would hate to put Nexstar in the market, but at the moment that might be the most logical pick.

WDAF-TV: With Scripps/Hearst/Meredith already in the market, this could be prime real estate for a bigger company to come in and invest some money into WDAF. But this could also lead to some problems down the road and the ownership group might be more mucked up. I am not wanting to say Sinclair or Nexstar here but this is one of them that might be an ownership group.

WITI-TV: With Hearst/Journal being the top dogs in the market and Sinclair owning two stations in the market, the question becomes who wants WITI. Other than CBS58's marked turnaround and the highly praised redesigned set, but the ownership is muddled as well.

In regards to WDAF, this sale and eventually buy will either be good or bad for them. Their ratings have recently damn near skyrocketed (thanks primarily to KSHB being forced to give up Wheel of Fortune for that in-house crap Scripps started producing) and other factors that have once again made them a contender in what's becoming a very unstable market ratings wise. It could be good because whoever buys them might have a history track record of having strong stations, to which they would only strength WDAF some more. It could be bad because whoever buys them might have a history track record of not having strong stations, so WDAF would either end up on its own in some aspects, or be run-down by their new parent company.

 

But I do suppose that's always the risk.

[Jterry 43]

And here you go! B&C posted this within the hour. They said the process could take up to a year! So you can throw the scenario of a single buyer buying the whole company out the window.

 

I like how they called it an "exclusive" when it was tweeted by a Local TV employee publicly more than 12 hours prior, with basically zero additional information to that same information.

[CircleSeven 1944]

My question is if Tribune did get KTVI' date=' and that's a reasonably [i']big[/i] if, would FCC rules allow a legal duopoly with KPLR? The FCC requires a media market to have eight unique station owners among the market's full-power stations once a duopoly is formed, and St. Louis proper has eight full-power stations (although there are two FPTVs on the Illinois side of the market) and only allows duopolies in markets with at least nine full-power stations.

Yes! Eight commercial full power, plus one non-commercial, equalling nine. By City of License (COL), they are seven St. Louis stations (2, 4, 5, *9, 11, 24 & 30). And the two others (13 & 46) are licensed on the Illinois side (Mt. Vernon & East St. Louis respectively). The Channel 24 one is a religious independent station KNLC, but its full power. And Channel 9 is the PBS outlet. So that totals nine in the market.

 

But you forget one other duopoly rule. If both KTVI & KPLR are within the top-four highest rated stations in the market. If they are, they can't legally form a duopoly. If one of them is in fifth place, then yes. I think I stated that earlier. But I also stated about Tribune, that KPLR didn't get the same licensee titles like most of the others with an LLC. Which made me think that the Trib could probably sell KPLR.

[T.L. Hughes 751]

Yes! Eight commercial full power, plus one non-commercial, equalling nine. By City of License (COL), they are seven St. Louis stations (2, 4, 5, *9, 11, 24 & 30). And the two others (13 & 46) are licensed on the Illinois side (Mt. Vernon & East St. Louis respectively). The Channel 24 one is a religious independent station KNLC, but its full power. And Channel 9 is the PBS outlet. So that totals nine in the market.

 

But you forget one other duopoly rule. If both KTVI & KPLR are within the top-four highest rated stations in the market. If they are, they can't legally form a duopoly. If one of them is in fifth place, then yes. I think I stated that earlier. But I also stated about Tribune, that KPLR didn't get the same licensee titles like most of the others with an LLC. Which made me think that the Trib could probably sell KPLR.

Just making sure, so this would mean that San Diego is the only Top 25 market that doesn't have enough stations to allow a duopoly (considering half the full-power stations in that market are in Mexico) - I wasn't sure if St. Louis had this anomaly as well. Considering this, it is odd that St. Louis doesn't have a duopoly already. I think I've read before that KDNL ranks below KPLR, KSDK, KTVI and KMOV in the ratings, so KTVI and KPLR would be stuck as a virtual duopoly (assuming the new owner wants to continue the LMA with KPLR) if both are among the four highest-rated in the market. If a legal duopoly is ever formed between KPLR and KTVI, should Roberts Broadcasting auction off WRBU (which would happen sooner or later considering that company's financial status) the only way that station would be part of a duopoly would be if Belo, Sinclair or Gannett filed a failing/failed station waiver to acquire that station and pair it with KMOV, KDNL or KSDK.

[MidwestTV 1173]

B&C is just now reporting it and also calling it an "exclusive," which doesn't make sense really, but I guess it does at the same time since no official media-watching outlet had reported it yet.

[A3N 996]

San Diego is a very interesting and tricky market for television/signals. Since we share a border with Mexico, there are only so many tv stations that each country can license to this market so in effect this reduces the amount of U.S. television stations San Diego can have. Also, with different topography, tv signals do not reach all areas of the market which makes San Diego an area with high cable penetration. I'm sure this is not the only market with these limitations, so I am curious to know if the FCC makes exceptions to their rules regarding ownership/duopolies.

[News 9 Viewer 100]

Just let it be a station group with a decent group graphics package please.

 

I do have the urge to register every Nextstar-like domain for the Milwaukee area just to be safe. Please, God, let it not be Nextstar for WITI.

 

Too bad Journal and Hearst are already here. Good thing Sinclair and Weigel are maxxed out here. I'd prefer if WITI went to someone like Gannett, who still seems to care about the industry.

What the hell are you waiting for?