Sinclair...Again

[Thundershock MN 169]

Let me preface this by saying i'm not a huge Sinclair fan by any means.

 

I'm not sure why everyone is cheering for the day Sinclair goes bankrupt. That would be potentially catastrophic. It's quite clear to me at least that to some extent they have their bases covered. Yes, they are amassing gobs of debt in order to finance their buying spree. But, the spectrum they currently own is currently valued at 35% above the company’s May 16 closing price of $26.55. It is similar (kinda apples/oranges) to the current Sears Holdings. The physical assets (ie: real estate) Sears Holdings owns are potentially worth more than the business as a whole. Plus, they have already stripped away the IP of their private labels (Kenmore, Craftsman & DieHard) into a separate shell. So, if they make some money on their retail operations, cool. But, if the **bleep** hits the fan they sell the real estate, pocket the cash and walk away, along with the crown jewels of Kenmore, Craftsman & DieHard to boot. Anyway, back to Sinclair a several things could happen here to pay down their debt. First, there are the usual "efficiencies of scale" that are gained in consolidation of operations. Second, they are successful in obtaining considerable increases in ad rates and retrans payments. Third, some of the licences can be offered up in the incentive auction. They could then "repack" the stations offered up on the frequencies of other stations they own. Basically allowing them to have their cake and eat it, too. Also, and the most likely in my mind is a combination of those two options could be used. Lastly, if the **bleep** hits the fan they could offer up all the stations in the incentive auction, pay down thier debt and still potentially walk away with a chuck of change. In turn we would end up with a boatload of stations just disappearing.

Unfortunately, the current marketplace is ripe for some consolidation. The low interest rates makes for obtaining money under favorable conditions. Also, same low interest rates make leaving any cash a company has in a bank unfavorable versus using that money to aquire new assets in order to grow. On top of that you have/had various private equity firms (Four Points, Newport, etc.) looking to cut their losses. The television station groups with strictly terrestrial stations and few other assets generate a good chunk of their cash from advertisers and retrans agreements with cable/sat providers. So, how do you extract higher retrans payments if don't have any any cable channels to leverage? What if you don't have other entities within your company to absorb the losses of another division? How are you going to grow as a company? So, What do you do: Get bigger. By bulking up you can start squeezing advertisers for more cash and leverage massive amounts of local sations at retrans time. It's become get big or go home time. Some groups that most would never think would sell (Fisher, Allbritton, Etc.) have all seen the writing on the wall.

 

It sucks. But, it's reality. I know it's en vogue and most of us here to dispise Sinclair in some form or another. But, instead of rooting for their demise we should be cheering & hoping for their success. Maybe, they will take a page from Nexstar's latest investment in their Memphis operation. Because, i'm afraid and confident that if Sinclair doesn't succeed a majority of these stations will cease to exist. Sinclair is their last hope.

[hathawaynson2 38]

I am not a fan of Sinclair or their acquisitions back in the late 1990's because they were less money hungry people back then who knew how to invest and budget out money in those days in television stations that they were interested in,

I just think that Sinclair has been on a shopping spree for a very long time since the River City Acquisition and Act 3 Communications in 1996 and again in 1998 when they acquired Max Media. However, I personally would like to see them learn a lesson in bankruptcy court when they are forced to divest some or most or potentially half of their roster to stay a float.

Remember when they were going to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in 2009 when they had $11 million in cash and $1.4 billion in debt because they were way behind on their payment plans to the bank or Cunningham would've been insolvent therefore triggering the bankruptcy case to the point that Sinclair needs to been in debt.

 

I really understand the concept on why Sinclair does really need to buy more stations because they are the only station group left who can save the affiliated stations and all, but why pull the 134 plus stations trip on all of us who really have to put up with Sinclair's garbage. I don't mind the shell corporations, but they need really to dump the excessive stations into a Television station group that is competent enough to budget out money for improvements on stations that need the help the most.

[Rusty Muck 4259]

 

If WXYZ drops ET, then this will blow its longtime staples at the station. I don't think any other station have aired in the 30+ years the show have been on. WWJ would quickly grab that sucker, because it also have omg! Insider.

 

I wished they'd drop those low-rated money-saving shows, but I think the Lighthouse is standing firm on their shows. And they think that this will do well for the long haul? I think not.

 

Was WXYZ the only ABC O&O (pre CapCities) that was a charter affiliate for ET? I could've sworn at least WABC carried it, pre WOF/JEO.

[CircleSeven 1945]

 

Was WXYZ the only ABC O&O (pre CapCities) that was a charter affiliate for ET? I could've sworn at least WABC carried it, pre WOF/JEO.

 

WABC did air ET. I'm not too sure if it was the charter affiliate. I found this article stating that WABC dropped ET in 1986 in favored of The New Hollywood Squares, hosted by John Davidson. WCBS aired syndie Wheel at the time, until 1990 when the show moved to WABC.

[Thundershock MN 169]

It hits on some of the same points in my last post. But, this article from Broadcasting & Cable provides a pretty good analysis of Sinclair's spending spree. It's a pretty good read.

[CircleSeven 1945]

 

It hits on some of the same points in my last post. But, this article from Broadcasting & Cable provides a pretty good analysis of Sinclair's spending spree. It's a pretty good read.

 

It would be a great read for folks who have a subscription service. For non-subscribers, we would have to wait 30 days until its out of the paywall.

[Thundershock MN 169]

 

It would be a great read for folks who have a subscription service. For non-subscribers, we would have to wait 30 days until its out of the paywall.

 

Shhh.. Don't tell anybody. But, for some reason the mobile version isn't behind the paywall. That's why I linked to that and not the main site. I checked the link and it still works well for me on both my PC & mobile devices.

[hathawaynson2 38]

 

It hits on some of the same points in my last post. But, this article from Broadcasting & Cable provides a pretty good analysis of Sinclair's spending spree. It's a pretty good read.

 

The article from Broadcasting and Cable was pretty good reading for starters. No wonder why Sinclair was in a acquisition mode.

[CircleSeven 1945]

Shhh.. Don't tell anybody. But, for some reason the mobile version isn't behind the paywall. That's why I linked to that and not the main site. I checked the link and it still works well for me on both my PC & mobile devices.

Damn. My Bad!!! LOL. Tremendous Read!

 

Well Y'all, we knew it was coming and Tonight it has been confirmed.

 

TVNewsCheck posted that Sinclair will buy 6 stations from Titan Broadcast Management for $115.35M. The stations are in Fresno, Sioux City & Omaha.

 

In Fresno, this news comes after Nexstar has completed the acquisition of NBC station KSEE 24 from Granite Broadcasting on Friday, forming the 2nd Big-3 Net Duopoly in the country, with CBS station KGPE 47 (acquired from the Newport acquisition).

 

Several weeks ago, Sinclair's shell Cunningham Broadcasting acquired Titan's El Paso station KDBC for $21M. KDBC will become the sister to Fox affiliate, KFOX. The paperwork for that proposed transaction was posted on April 23.

[TennTV1983 756]

 

Several weeks ago, Sinclair's shell Cunningham Broadcasting acquired Titan's El Paso station KDBC. KDBC will become the sister to Fox affiliate, KFOX.

 

How long before KDBC moves in with KFOX since it's a forgone conclusion Sinclair won't keep the station housed at KTSM, which Nexstar just acquired?

[CircleSeven 1945]

 

How long before KDBC moves in with KFOX since it's a forgone conclusion Sinclair won't keep the station housed at KTSM, which Nexstar just acquired?

 

I'm not too sure the timeline. But from this article for the El Paso Times paper, they stated that both stations could be under one roof by 2014. No telling if they're building a brand new building or they'll be using one of the existing buildings. That's remains to be seen.

[TennTV1983 756]

 

I'm not too sure the timeline. But from this article for the El Paso Times paper, they stated that both stations could be under one roof by 2014. No telling if they're building a brand new building or they'll be using one of the existing buildings. That's remains to be seen.

 

Probably the latter as was the case with a few multiple station operations in the last year or so.

[Rusty Muck 4259]

WABC did air ET. I'm not too sure if it was the charter affiliate. I found this article stating that WABC dropped ET in 1986 in favored of The New Hollywood Squares, hosted by John Davidson. WCBS aired syndie Wheel at the time, until 1990 when the show moved to WABC.

Per the "Official Jeopardy! Book" from 1990, the revived Jeopardy! was on a 2:00AM slot in NYC for their first season (what station, I wouldn't know... the likely candidate sounds like WPIX). WABC picked up the show for its second season, putting it at 7:00PM (in the process, truncating WABC's 6:00 news to a half hour, and moving World News Tonight back to 6:30. Made sense, because Wheel was airing on WCBS at 7:30PM, following a hourlong 6:00 newscast on WCBS and the CBS Evening News at 7:00.

 

Jeopardy! proved to be such a ratings smash for WABC that, in quick order, WCBS moved Dan Rather back to 6:30 so he wouldn't compete.

[CircleSeven 1945]

Alright We have more Sinclair-related news. Two consummations.

 

First, Sinclair Completes its sale of WUTB.

 

Sinclair has completed the sale of MyNetworkTV station WUTB from Fox Television Stations to Sinclair's shell Deerfield Media, forming a virtual triopoly with Cunningham Broadcasting's CW station WNUV and the big station, Fox station, the Flaggy WBFF 45 in their homebase. It was formally consummated on Saturday, June 1.

 

No word if WUTB will move to the facilities of WBFF/WNUV or staying put at their current home. But I have a feeling this will happen, in due time.

 

Also,

* Newport Television!!!

 

Fisher has completed the sale of NBC station KMTR Eugene from Newport Television. Roberts Media, LLC now owns the license to KMTR and its satellites stations in Coos Bay & Roseburg. Since Fisher will operate KMTR under a LMA, it is now the sister station of CBS station KVAL. The KMTR sale was also consummated on Saturday.

 

As you know, this clear the first hurdle in a string of acquisitions, because the FCC has yet to approve the Transfer of Control applications of the Fisher stations to Sinclair, yet last month the FTC has clear the way for the sale to go through. Now I'm wondering if Mr. Roberts will keep the station or will one of Sinclair's shells would come into the fold and give him some money for KMTR? I guess we'll see.

 

The majority of the old Newport stations that were sold to Nexstar, Sinclair & Cox were consummated exactly six months ago, on December 3rd, KMTR is the final Newport property to get consummated, ten months after the July 19 announcement the first stations getting sold by the groups.

 

Now Newport Television goes into as I would like to call it, a 'virtual shrine' of names of other former station group companies that came and went. Even Nexstar has folded their webpage.

 

RIP Newport Television.

 

*I was trying to throw a little fanfare of the completion of the sale of the now defunct company.

[TVIntheDesert 183]

 

Alright We have more Sinclair-related news. Two consummations.

 

First, Sinclair Completes its sale of WUTB.

 

Sinclair has completed the sale of MyNetworkTV station WUTB from Fox Television Stations to Sinclair's shell Deerfield Media, forming a virtual triopoly with Cunningham Broadcasting's CW station WNUV and the big station, Fox station, the Flaggy WBFF 45 in their homebase. It was formally consummated on Saturday, June 1.

 

No word if WUTB will move to the facilities of WBFF/WNUV or staying put at their current home. But I have a feeling this will happen, in due time.

 

 

WUTB most likely has their master control at the FTS centralcasting hub in Las Vegas, so outside of an sales/administrative office and probably production studios, there's nothing much to them. All Sinclair needs to do is add some equipment to the WBFF/WNUV master control room, and WUTB completes its move.

 

Fox will easily convert the WUTB bandwidth at Centralcasting to WJZY.

[CircleSeven 1945]

WUTB most likely has their master control at the FTS centralcasting hub in Las Vegas, so outside of an sales/administrative office and probably production studios, there's nothing much to them. All Sinclair needs to do is add some equipment to the WBFF/WNUV master control room, and WUTB completes its move.

 

Fox will easily convert the WUTB bandwidth at Centralcasting to WJZY.

I almost forgot about the Vegas hub. Yeah I have a feeling Sinclair will no doubt do that for WUTB. It would be stupid for them to keep WUTB's separate facilities in the long run, since Sinclair isn't producing news for 24 & 54 anyway. So it would seem a lot more wise for 24 to move the masters to the Woodberry facilities, in due time.

 

What I'm most interested is to see if Sinclair is going have its programming line-up style, similar to like its Nashville triopoly. For instance one station would air all the court shows all-day on one channel, then all the talk shows all-day on another channel, etc.

 

Sinclar has now updated its website, adding WUTB to the station listing and the new number total, after consummations of the newly announced acquired stations, will be an unprecedented 140 stations.

[ABC 7 Denver 1568]

 

 

I almost forgot about the Vegas hub. Yeah I have a feeling Sinclair will no doubt do that for WUTB. It would be stupid for them to keep WUTB's separate facilities in the long run, since Sinclair isn't producing news for 24 & 54 anyway. So it would seem a lot more wise for 24 to move the masters to the Woodberry facilities, in due time.

 

What I'm most interested is to see if Sinclair is going have its programming line-up style, similar to like its Nashville triopoly. For instance one station would air all the court shows all-day on one channel, then all the talk shows all-day on another channel, etc.

 

Sinclar has now updated its website, adding WUTB to the station listing and the new number total, after consummations of the newly announced acquired stations, will be an unprecedented 140 stations.

 

Gee! What national percentage are they clearing?

[CircleSeven 1945]

 

Gee! What national percentage are they clearing?

 

If you're look at the front page of their website, after consummations, they're closing in on 35%. The Cap is 39%, but they are willing to take the "UHF Discount" slip to continue to buy stations left & right. Like many of the Ion-owned stations (which almost all of the Ion-owned stations are UHF) is over 60% but with the discount, it puts them at 30%. Prior to Sinclair 20-month acquisitive streak, they had only one station on the VHF dial (WLOS 13). The rest of the former VHF went UHF after the DTV transition.

 

Some say that the "UHF discount" is outdated and should be exhausted because this only counted when stations were on the UHF dial in the analog era, where the UHF signals were problematic. But in the digital era, the majority of stations are on the UHF dial and the signals are flawlessly superb.

[hathawaynson2 38]

 

 

I almost forgot about the Vegas hub. Yeah I have a feeling Sinclair will no doubt do that for WUTB. It would be stupid for them to keep WUTB's separate facilities in the long run, since Sinclair isn't producing news for 24 & 54 anyway. So it would seem a lot more wise for 24 to move the masters to the Woodberry facilities, in due time.

 

What I'm most interested is to see if Sinclair is going have its programming line-up style, similar to like its Nashville triopoly. For instance one station would air all the court shows all-day on one channel, then all the talk shows all-day on another channel, etc.

 

Sinclar has now updated its website, adding WUTB to the station listing and the new number total, after consummations of the newly announced acquired stations, will be an unprecedented 140 stations.

 

(s**t, wow 140 stations, that is extremely overkill on a broadcasting group especially, when Sinclair just bought Fisher and now six Titan Broadcasting Group Stations. I am estimating around 146 after the consummation the entire Titan TV Group.

 

I personally think that the UHF Discount should be discontinued because it only counted when the stations were in the UHF dial during the analog TV era and be not usable at all.

 

Gee! What national percentage are they clearing?

 

I have no idea, except more recently they already have gotten Titan TV station Group! I am going to guess 60-75% on this.

[Thundershock MN 169]

 

WUTB most likely has their master control at the FTS centralcasting hub in Las Vegas, so outside of an sales/administrative office and probably production studios, there's nothing much to them. All Sinclair needs to do is add some equipment to the WBFF/WNUV master control room, and WUTB completes its move.

 

Fox will easily convert the WUTB bandwidth at Centralcasting to WJZY.

 

 

 

I almost forgot about the Vegas hub. Yeah I have a feeling Sinclair will no doubt do that for WUTB. It would be stupid for them to keep WUTB's separate facilities in the long run, since Sinclair isn't producing news for 24 & 54 anyway. So it would seem a lot more wise for 24 to move the masters to the Woodberry facilities, in due time.

 

WUTB only leases a small space in a Baltimore business park. I think it's only around 6,000 square feet. All the bulk of the operational stuff is done at the hubs. Either, the Graphics hub in Tampa or the Master Control hub in Las Vegas. To the best of my knowledge they have don't have a studio. They have never really needed one. It's basically a glorified sales office. The move should be quick and relatively easy.

 

 

 

Gee! What national percentage are they clearing?

 

 

personally think that the UHF Discount should be discontinued because it only counted when the stations were in the UHF dial during the analog TV era and be not usable at all.

I have no idea, except more recently they already have gotten Titan TV station Group! I am going to guess 60-75% on this.

 

David Smith, chairman, president and CEO of Sinclair told investors in his post-Fisher address, “We’re at 18%-20%, the way the FCC cacalculates the number.” Smith continued “We can double, theoretically, in size and still not be at the 39% number.” I'm too tied and lazy to do the math but, I believe with the UHF credit you could cover Markets #30-ish all the way down to Glendive (#210) Or, on the flip side you could cover Markets #1 to #50-ish. For Example as CircleSeven pointed out above ION Media Holdings has done this (kinda under the radar) for years. Without the UHF credit they would be well over 60%. Sinclair is taking adavange of (to the fullest extent) something others have for years.

[hathawaynson2 38]

 

WUTB only leases a small space in a Baltimore business park. I think it's only around 6,000 square feet. All the bulk of the operational stuff is done at the hubs. Either, the Graphics hub in Tampa or the Master Control hub in Las Vegas. To the best of my knowledge they have don't have a studio. They have never really needed one. It's basically a glorified sales office. The move should be quick and relatively easy.

 

 

 

David Smith, chairman, president and CEO of Sinclair told investors in his post-Fisher address, “We’re at 18%-20%, the way the FCC cacalculates the number.” Smith continued “We can double, theoretically, in size and still not be at the 39% number.” I'm too tied and lazy to do the math but, I believe with the UHF credit you could cover Markets #30-ish all the way down to Glendive (#210) Or, on the flip side you could cover Markets #1 to #50-ish. For Example as CircleSeven pointed out above ION Media Holdings has done this (kinda under the radar) for years. Without the UHF credit they would be well over 60%. Sinclair is taking adavange of (to the fullest extent) something others have for years.

 

 

well, I have to agree with you with the UHF ownership cap!

[Rusty Muck 4259]

David Smith, chairman, president and CEO of Sinclair told investors in his post-Fisher address, “We’re at 18%-20%, the way the FCC cacalculates the number.” Smith continued “We can double, theoretically, in size and still not be at the 39% number.” I'm too tied and lazy to do the math but, I believe with the UHF credit you could cover Markets #30-ish all the way down to Glendive (#210) Or, on the flip side you could cover Markets #1 to #50-ish. For Example as CircleSeven pointed out above ION Media Holdings has done this (kinda under the radar) for years. Without the UHF credit they would be well over 60%. Sinclair is taking adavange of (to the fullest extent) something others have for years.

And that's the thing. This isn't illegal. Exploiting a loophole in existing law (and a law that won't be changed at any point due to political gridlock) is immoral but it isn't illegal.

 

Sinclair is positioning itself to be the Clear Channel and Cumulus of television - a too-big-to-fail mass media corporation so deeply ridden with debt that eventually engages in biannual/triannual mass firings and increased centralcasting to justify their bottom line. They won't be able to sell any stations without taking massive hits to their pocketbook.

 

And I just summed up the past 15 pages.

[ABC 7 Denver 1568]

 

And that's the thing. This isn't illegal. Exploiting a loophole in existing law (and a law that won't be changed at any point due to political gridlock) is immoral but it isn't illegal.

 

Sinclair is positioning itself to be the Clear Channel and Cumulus of television - a too-big-to-fail mass media corporation so deeply ridden with debt that eventually engages in biannual/triannual mass firings and increased centralcasting to justify their bottom line. They won't be able to sell any stations without taking massive hits to their pocketbook.

 

And I just summed up the past 15 pages.

 

Clear Channel is now owned by Bain Capital. Gee, I wonder David Smith is the Mitt Romney of television.

[NewsMaster 226]

 

And that's the thing. This isn't illegal. Exploiting a loophole in existing law (and a law that won't be changed at any point due to political gridlock) is immoral but it isn't illegal.

 

Sinclair is positioning itself to be the Clear Channel and Cumulus of television - a too-big-to-fail mass media corporation so deeply ridden with debt that eventually engages in biannual/triannual mass firings and increased centralcasting to justify their bottom line. They won't be able to sell any stations without taking massive hits to their pocketbook.

 

And I just summed up the past 15 pages.

 

Sad.

[CircleSeven 1945]

Retroactive to June 1st, KMTR has finally been sold....Newport Television is officially dead. Their website is no longer active as well.

 

The rumors of layoffs are already circling with KVAL being in control...

http://www.registerguard.com/rg/business/29968938-63/kmtr-changes-fisher-raschio-kval.html.csp

Follow-up Time on the KMTR situation.

 

It appears some employees are breaching protocol and stating about the changes, calling these changes a 'bloodbath' situation.

 

To summarize it, The Register-Guard state the its about 31 out of the 50 KMTR employees received pink slips after the sale closed earlier this week, and many of them will be laid off next week.

 

I guess they want to do the layoffs now, before Sinclair comes to the fold, which I think Sinclair will do worse. If they're talking about one moving to the other, that's going to be the final nail in the coffin.