Sinclair...Again

[montydavis 7]

We all have to remember that this is just a proposal. If there arr rumblings that Hearst and Scripps are lurking then Allbritton must be possibly entertaining another offer andd Sinclair is using every desperate ploy to secure this deal. Its really about capturing Washington when it comes down to it. If the FCC has took it this long, there might be instability in the deal and the 57 days left are making Hunt Valley sweat. We can all make our theories as to what will happen; the FCC will win in the end anyway ( which means Smith might end up walking out the door heated).

[CircleSeven 1945]

Free Press has spoken:

 

Lauren Wilson, policy counsel for consolidation critic Free Press, saw the Sinclair move as a victory.

 

"We commend the FCC for closing loopholes in its ownership policies, clearly signaling to Sinclair that the agency would no longer tolerate its dodging of the rules. Apparently, the message was received, and that's good news.

 

"In a statement on Thursday, FCC Commissioners Pai and O'Reilly tried to paint these events as a blow to ownership diversity. However, the Sinclair shell company -- Armstrong Williams' Howard Stirk Holdings -- was slated to become a licensee in name only, and not a truly independent owner. Sinclair's overarching goal as always was to prevent competition and increase its stranglehold on media markets across the country, not to find actual buyers for and users of these public airwaves in the affected communities.

 

"HSH itself was never a viable buyer, but a shell corporation through which Sinclair could expand its influence over local broadcasting. Sinclair's change of heart signals nothing more than its eagerness to close its deal with Allbritton. It also shows that Sinclair can make the same programming available by using digital multicasting technology to air more than one network on its existing stations without the shell company ruse."

No mention of the fact that they would be closing stations without giving others a chance to acquire them though...

http://broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/sinclair-proposes-surrendering-three-licenses-get-allbritton-deal-done/131458

 

So this is what they said? They're calling that shit a "victory"? So they care about shutting down legacy TV stations, specifically two crucial ABC stations that serve close to the eastern & western borders of the state, and move programming streams to another full-power TV stations to crunch two HD channels in the same frequency. They've been the most vocal throughout this entire time, and they're not saying anything about being against closing a TV station down, but allowing intellectual properties and cram up two streams in one channel. Free Press needs to shut their sorry asses up, and don't complain on any other deals, since they are for shutting down major TV stations. He'll they shouldn't even say shit about the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal while they're at it.

 

If the FCC follow through and approve this suicide proposal, we would have no winners. One devil (Old Massa David) will get their deal done and the Heathens of Hunt Valley will come a victor because they won the lucrative prize of having the largest TV station in the country in the nation's capital, and continue to get even bigger. And another devil (Old Devil Wheeler) is going to love the surrendering of the licenses so he can follow through with his shitty plan to reclaim the TV spectrum for broadband use, which I strongly think he will mess up the repacking process for thousands of TV stations post-auction, and the broadcasters are going to hit hard with the enormous cost of either moving facilities, buying new antennas and transmitters, etc. or all of the above. But as you see with his frequent moves these past several months since he started (JSA attribution, retrans reform), Wheeler obviously doesn't give a fuck about the broadcasters. He certainly doesn't. He wants to make it more harder for them, so they would have no other choice but to participate in those shitty ass auctions.

 

I've said this over and over, as I've mention this auction/repacking process, NO TV station should go away. The real losers are the cord-cutters and cord-nevers, who don't want to buy into cable & satellite. But look what Wheeler use to be huh? Cable/Wireless lobbyist? The FCC best bet is to not act on this deal and wait until after the July 27 outside date, so Allbritton can pursue other avenues. But if they act and finally greenlight this shitty ass proposal, they're just as the devils as Sincrap is.

 

Again, There will be no winners in all of this.

[Rusty Muck 4174]

I've waited awhile to review this. I'm going to be the lone person to defend them. It's not their fault. It's one person's fault only: Tom Wheeler. If he's out to destroy broadcast television he's certainly accomplishing his goal. Which wouldn't surprise me because he has ties to the cable industry.

 

To Tom Wheeler's fans, I've said it before, be careful what you wish for, because you'll be seeing more of this soon.

 

Surprised Nexstar hasn't done anything with ComCorp. They need to hire Sinclair's law firm to get them those stations quickly.

 

The proposal itself is stupid, yes, but Sinclair is using logic and legal loopholes. They have to to save their business.

 

If push comes to shove, I recommend Sinclair just buy the non-license assets of all stations from Allbritton only since the FCC is being greedy with this. Wait three years and then buy.

 

Oh BTW, almost everybody commenting against this proposal does not live in the Birmingham or Charleston DMAs therefore would not be affected by this proposal. Your life will still go on if Sinclair shuts down a station hundreds of miles from you. Just saying...

 

:rant:

You're not the only one. I explicitly said as such that the JSA restrictions would lead to behavior like this. And the FCC wants to auction off OTA TV spectrum, so they wouldn't mind having licenses turned in like this.

 

Whilst this is only pertaining to Birmingham and Charleston, the current status of JSAs and LMAs is such that, if the FCC allows this proposal to go through, what's to stop LIN/MG from taking WYTV silent and placing that station's intellectual property as a WKBN subchannel? Or S!nclair taking KBTV silent and moving that intellectual property over to a KDFM subchannel? Or Raycom taking WUPW silent and placing that intellectual property as a subchannel of WTOL? Or Nexstar merging WEVV and WEHT into subchannels of WTVW? Or Meredith taking KTVK silent and its' intellectual property placed on a KPHO subchannel?

 

Any of those moves are now possible, and can be done under the presumption of, "well, we can't find any buyers for X station, so here's the license," and that's what S!nclair did here. Bottom line, any market is now subject to massive consolidation and the depletion of 'voices,' such as they are. A nasty precedent.

 

That JSA legislation was a horrible move, and frankly, was written to the advantage of S!nclair, a company well-known for exploiting loopholes in each and every way.

 

The FCC vis-a-vis Tom Wheeler is in with Big Telecom and Big Media so as to preserve things as they are, nevermind that the current media and telecom landscape is unstable and prone to a massive revolution in content delivery that could lead to a future that even we can't foresee. The future is not with Netflix, YouTube or even Aereo. The future is something else, and it will yield traditional television in the dust at the rate they police themselves.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

You're not the only one. I explicitly said as such that the JSA restrictions would lead to behavior like this. And the FCC wants to auction off OTA TV spectrum, so this gets even better.

 

Whilst this is only pertaining to Birmingham and Charleston, the current status of JSAs and LMAs is such that, if the FCC allows this proposal to go through, what's to stop LIN/MG from taking WYTV silent and placing that station's intellectual property as a WKBN subchannel? Or S!nclair taking KBTV silent and moving that intellectual property over to a KDFM subchannel? Or Raycom taking WUPW silent and placing that intellectual property as a subchannel of WTOL? Or Nexstar merging WEVV and WEHT into subchannels of WTVW?

 

Any of those moves are now possible, and can be done under the presumption of, "well, we can't find any buyers for X station, so here's the license," and that's what S!nclair did here. Bottom line, any market is now subject to massive consolidation and the depletion of 'voices,' such as they are. A nasty precedent.

 

That JSA legislation was a horrible move, and frankly, was written to the advantage of S!nclair, a company well-known for exploiting loopholes in each and every way.

 

The FCC vis-a-vis Tom Wheeler is in with Big Telecom and Big Media so as to preserve things as they are, nevermind that the current media and telecom landscape is unstable and prone to a massive revolution in content delivery that could lead to a future that even we can't foresee. The future is not with Netflix, YouTube or even Aereo. The future is something else, and it will yield traditional television in the dust at they rate they police themselves.

There needs to be a compromise somewhere to protect the low-ranked stations that would never find standalone buyers, yet avoid blatant misuse of the rules where competitors would be able to work.

 

Maybe removing the rule on 8 voices, while keeping the top 4 rule? For markets below #100, that could be a top 3 rule. In addition, there should be a total ban on triopolies (or more), with a possible exception in markets with 9 or more commercial stations. If such a rule was in place:

 

Charleston - WTAT and WCIV must be broken up, but Sinclair could keep WMMP with either of them.

 

Birmingham - One of their streams would still have to be sold, but Raycom, Media General or the LIN buyer could acquire it as well (as long as not WBMA+) and form its own duopoly.

 

Harrisburg - Either WHTM or WHP must be sold.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

NewsBlues is calling it a "last-ditch" effort to "salvage" the deal. Maybe there are signs the deal may be clinically dead? (Although they can't officially walk away until July 28, those hints that Allbritton is at least talking with others sound real.)

 

If that is the case, and shortly after July 28 a new buyer is announced, could they get it done by the end of 2014, if it is a clean deal?

 

https://www.newsblues.com/

[tyrannical bastard 3474]

If this deal goes through, it will set a dangerous precedent that other companies could follow, namely Nexstar and Media General. Shelled stations or vulnerable duopoly partners like WYTV and WVBT could be at risk of being taken off the air and have their signals multicasted on existing stations. WKBN has done this before with their low powered FOX station, and I've seen them use a dual HD stream of it. It has a noticeable effect on the CBS side since they're being converted and compressed down to 720p from 1080I.

 

Down the road, this may even spell doom for stations like WALA, WIAT and WLUK especially if the only safe way is to shut down the acquired conflict stations and move the programming to an existing signal.

 

Hopefully this deal never happens, but things are about to get very ugly no matter what the outcome is...

[Rusty Muck 4174]

Lance Venta of RadioInsight posted an excerpt of the other two commissioner's reactions to this proposal:

 

"So what has the Commission’s decision wrought? Instead of increasing the number of African-American-owned television stations, we are driving stations off the air. This will mean job losses, less service to South Carolinians and Alabamians, and less ownership diversity. We do not see how such an outcome possibly serves the public interest, and we hope that the Commission will take action immediately to correct its misguided restrictions on JSAs."

 

Unbelievable. Ajit Pai and Michael O’Reilly aren't taking the concept of moving the affected station's intellectual property (and employees) into account, thus, the only jobs really lost will have occurred anyway with the merger. But they STILL manage to make more sense on this than the Free Press' idiotic declaration of 'victory.'

 

Ladies and Gents, we have entered BizzaroWorld.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

As for spectrum? Charleston has no shortage of spectrum for wireless with no major cities nearby (same with Tuscaloosa and WCFT), while giving up WJSU on VHF 9 doesn't benefit much either despite being fairly close to Atlanta.

[montydavis 7]

Seems as though Allbritton is okay with this:

 

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/allbritton-says-it-expects-sinclair-deal-to-be-approved-after-recent-changes_b121877

[Mrtraveler01 737]

What are the odds that the FCC will approve this deal?

[NewsMaster 226]

 

What are the odds that the FCC will approve this deal?

 

Better than you might think.

 

 

Seems as though Allbritton is okay with this:

 

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/allbritton-says-it-expects-sinclair-deal-to-be-approved-after-recent-changes_b121877

 

They're OK with two of their stations going off the air?? Especially one that they built from the ground-up? Wow.

 

 

Ladies and Gents, we have entered BizzaroWorld.

 

Buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

[montydavis 7]

okay, I just thought about this. Essentially Sinclair is probably going to make a switch like this. Channel 36 will become the new ABC affiliate along with MyTv on channel 36.2. according to the article, viewers should not see any difference in what they are receiving right now. Sinclair would probably retire the WMMP call letters and replace channel 36 with the WCIV call letters and then remap that channel 4.1, 4.2 etc. this will in a fact seem as though nothing has happen other than that my network TV has moved to 4.2. Thoughts?

[Breaking News 802]

From tvspy/mediabistro

 

The recent news that Sinclair plans on surrendering the licenses to three ABC affiliates currently owned by Allbritton to comply with FCC regulations over joint sales agreements may have left some wondering if the deal with Allbritton was in jeopardy.

But Allbritton’s SVP of legal strategic affairs and general counsel Jerry Fritz told TVSpy by email the deal is still on and is expected to close by June or July.

Fritz told us, “All incidents of common ownership and control of stations in the three markets where Allbritton and Sinclair have stations will be eliminated.”

He said Sinclair plans to sell either ABC affiliate WHTM or CBS affiliate WHP in Harrisburg, PA, to an independent third party buyer and said Sinclair’s plan to give up the licenses to WCFT-WJSU in Birmingham and WCIV in Charleston will eliminate any all common control of those stations.

Fritz also tried to reassure the viewers and the employees of WCFT-WJSU and WCIV by saying, “[T]he public will not be deprived of the programming as that will be carried on Sinclair’s existing stations.” And echoed Sinclair’s assertion that it intends to air ABC network shows, syndicated programming and local programming on MyNetworkTV affiliates WABM in Birmingham and WMMPin Charleston. “It will be seamless to the viewers in those markets and the studios and personnel will remain the same,”

He ended by saying, “We fully expect the deal to be approved with these changes.”

[Samantha 2878]

 

okay, I just thought about this. Essentially Sinclair is probably going to make a switch like this. Channel 36 will become the new ABC affiliate along with MyTv on channel 36.2. according to the article, viewers should not see any difference in what they are receiving right now. Sinclair would probably retire the WMMP call letters and replace channel 36 with the WCIV call letters and then remap that channel 4.1, 4.2 etc. this will in a fact seem as though nothing has happen other than that my network TV has moved to 4.2. Thoughts?

 

That's what's going to happen with this deal (they did want it to be "seamless"), though I do wonder if they can do the remapping they want (68.1 doesn't make for a good ABC affiliate, they would probably want 33, 40 or 58; similarly, 36 is very different from 4). It's almost like channel sharing, except on one license and with one owner.

[sanewsguy 509]

 

They're OK with two of their stations going off the air?? Especially one that they built from the ground-up? Wow.

 

Why would they care? They just want their money. After that I'm sure they couldn't care less what happens with the stations. And only WCIV and the Alabama station's LICENSES would be given up. The stations, news team, etc, will still live on at a different channel number. Sorry to say this but I think you're getting WAY too worked up over this proposal.

[montydavis 7]

 

Why would they care? They just want their money. After that I'm sure they couldn't care less what happens with the stations. And only WCIV and the Alabama station's LICENSES would be given up. The stations, news team, etc, will still live on at a different channel number. Sorry to say this but I think you're getting WAY too worked up over this proposal.

 

Like I said, the channel number may change, but the "seamless" effort is to ensure that the public is not jolted by it. Yes, a full power frequency will be lost, but that frequency may come back through a different owner. The re-mapping and possible call letter retention (for Charleston, at least) will secure a healthy transition. I seriously doubt that Sinclair will start using ABC 68 News or ABC 36 News (LOL). But as you said, Sanewsguy, there is no reason to get worked up. After you think about it, either way Sinclair and Allbritton are ready to close this deal and they will do whatever is necessary to seal it.

[NewsMaster 226]

 

Like I said, the channel number may change, but the "seamless" effort is to ensure that the public is not jolted by it. Yes, a full power frequency will be lost, but that frequency may come back through a different owner. The re-mapping and possible call letter retention (for Charleston, at least) will secure a healthy transition. I seriously doubt that Sinclair will start using ABC 68 News or ABC 36 News (LOL). But as you said, Sanewsguy, there is no reason to get worked up. After you think about it, either way Sinclair and Allbritton are ready to close this deal and they will do whatever is necessary to seal it.

 

Look guys. I understand all of this. But there is more to this than just that. If the deal is complete, the Bozos of Baltimore will be able to get what they want with the "nationalization" of NewsChannel 8 in Washington, and we can expect situations like what happened in Toledo with WNWO and Buckeye CableSystem to be commonplace. That's where I'm trying to go with this. I just don't want this corporation to get what they want anymore.

[Samantha 2878]

It's not just that it's happening now, but that a scary precedent is about to be set should the Commission green light this deal. To quote the thing I might be filing...

 

However, the acquisition structures that Sinclair has put on the table for Birmingham and Charleston are different. It would be the first time in decades (at least by license) that a Big Four network affiliate in a top-50 market, as measured by Nielsen, went dark for good. Not only that, were the Commission to approve this acquisition as most recently amended, it could set a scary precedent in which other television station acquisition conflicts are “resolved” by converting stations with their own FCC licenses into multicast streams of other stations, thereby creating the same combinations of Big Four stations without having to deal with multiple licenses—and the Commission’s ownership rules.

[Rusty Muck 4174]

Look guys. I understand all of this. But there is more to this than just that. If the deal is complete, the Bozos of Baltimore will be able to get what they want with the "nationalization" of NewsChannel 8 in Washington, and we can expect situations like what happened in Toledo with WNWO and Buckeye CableSystem to be commonplace. That's where I'm trying to go with this. I just don't want this corporation to get what they want anymore.

In many ways, retrans disputes are going to be inevitable.

 

In the highly unlikely scenario that the Allbritton deal were to collapse, S!nclair will still continue to fight with Buckeye because they have no idea that WNWO is the market's bottom-feeder and a laughingstock whose value is imperceptible. And such fights will be carried out over many more cable systems, because it's all about the almighty dollar.

 

Even if they get their dream of a nationalized NewsChannel 8, no one is going to watch it. The audience for cable news is a finite resource, and won't be impressed by a poor Fox News knockoff when the real deal is readily available.

[Rusty Muck 4174]

They're OK with two of their stations going off the air?? Especially one that they built from the ground-up? Wow.

This isn't the Allbritton that was headed by Joseph L. Allbritton. This is an Allbritton that wants the money from the sale so they can pour it into Politico. They don't want to be in the television business anymore... they want out.

 

And this doesn't compare to when the Field family literally had a temper tantrum and took WKBS/Philadelphia off the air. It just doesn't.

[NewsMaster 226]

[rant over]

 

Alright people. I have a new outlook on things (don't ask me how, and no, I wasn't drunk). I never was a big fan of the 33/40 operation to begin with, and this might make the Birmingham market a bit easier to understand. As for Charleston, it'll seem as if nothing happened. Guess I just needed a dip in the pool in beautiful Arizona weather to think things through. Not sure how that works, though...

[bobvick 9]

 

[rant over]

 

Alright people. I have a new outlook on things (don't ask me how, and no, I wasn't drunk). I never was a big fan of the 33/40 operation to begin with, and this might make the Birmingham market a bit easier to understand. As for Charleston, it'll seem as if nothing happened. Guess I just needed a dip in the pool in beautiful Arizona weather to think things through. Not sure how that works, though...

 

WOW! I am so glad this will make end to end coverage of 1/3 of the State of Alabama by a TV Station that offers a VALUEABLE PUBLIC SERVICE easier for you to understand. Maybe if on April 27, 2011, if a few more people in Alabama were killed from F5 tornados and ABC 3340 were on "ABC 68" and it were harder for those with only OTA reception to receive, you could UNDERSTAND the Birmingham market better. I am very saddened that your friends or stock that you hold, or what ever you interest that you have in SBGI would suffer if their precious deal were to falter would not go through. If only the catastrophe happened after SBGI got to yank the licenses, perhaps more poor peasants could have been killed from lack of an early warning by those pesky out of "superior" location stations could have been silenced. Less on the dole for Dave, you and the rest of the shareholders at SBGI, I suppose, need all of that corporate welfare. Goodness me, would you have to skip your afternoon tea or mint julep. To summarize my leanthgy diatribe, I am certainly glad that Sinclair's little shuffle will make life easier for you to "understand" the little ole' Birminham Maaket for you! Of course, all of us folk down heear in Alabama are nothin but a buch of redneck hicks anyway, so we just deserve to die I guess!

[24994J 5278]

WOW! I am so glad this will make end to end coverage of 1/3 of the State of Alabama by a TV Station that offers a VALUEABLE PUBLIC SERVICE easier for you to understand. Maybe if on April 27, 2011, if a few more people in Alabama were killed from F5 tornados and ABC 3340 were on "ABC 68" and it were harder for those with only OTA reception to receive, you could UNDERSTAND the Birmingham market better. I am very saddened that your friends or stock that you hold, or what ever you interest that you have in SBGI would suffer if their precious deal were to falter would not go through. If only the catastrophe happened after SBGI got to yank the licenses, perhaps more poor peasants could have been killed from lack of an early warning by those pesky out of "superior" location stations could have been silenced. Less on the dole for Dave, you and the rest of the shareholders at SBGI, I suppose, need all of that corporate welfare. Goodness me, would you have to skip your afternoon tea or mint julep. To summarize my leanthgy diatribe, I am certainly glad that Sinclair's little shuffle will make life easier for you to "understand" the little ole' Birminham Maaket for you! Of course, all of us folk down heear in Alabama are nothin but a buch of redneck hicks anyway, so we just deserve to die I guess!

What the flying f*ck?

[tyrannical bastard 3474]

Here's another thing....what would stop Sinclair from changing the PSIP of WABM from 68 to 36? It's been done before in the post-transition era, and it takes some of the "stigma" of being on such a high channel number away. With WABM being their call letters, and WBMA being those of the low-power originator, they fit the station well and could be source of re-branding ( W Abc for BirminghaM). WCFT and WJSU refer to prior owners under each station's stint as independently controlled outlets.

 

As for WMMP, they could snag WCIV's call letters when WCIV itself ceases broadcasting. Their PSIP is identical to their channel number 36. If they (WCIV) have a strong cable presence on channel 4, the branding may stick.

 

Since DirecTV and Dish use "virtual" channel numbers (that don't correspond to any frequency), what's to stop a broadcaster from requesting a different channel number? Channels 2-69 are reserved for local stations, corresponding to their actual channel number. In certain places where subchannels are carried, their channel number is usually one below or above the parent station's number.

 

UVerse has some differences as well, as certain stations can be on a totally different channel than their broadcast channel, usually being identical to their cable placement. (i.e. WFNA channel 55 in Mobile is on Comcast channel 12, but is ALSO channel 12 on UVerse).

[Samantha 2878]

 

WOW! I am so glad this will make end to end coverage of 1/3 of the State of Alabama by a TV Station that offers a VALUEABLE PUBLIC SERVICE easier for you to understand. Maybe if on April 27, 2011, if a few more people in Alabama were killed from F5 tornados and ABC 3340 were on "ABC 68" and it were harder for those with only OTA reception to receive, you could UNDERSTAND the Birmingham market better.

 

Bob actually raises a really good point. WCFT and WJSU, along with WBMA, offer a slightly larger combined service area than WABM or WIAT, something that comes closer to the larger signal contours of WBRC and WVTM. This is particularly the case at either end of the DMA.