Allbritton could be selling too.......

[ColumbusNewsFan 217]

 

Yes, Sinclair owned radio stations at one point but they divested (gasp!) them to Entercom in 1999.

 

Divest? Does Sinclair even know the definition of that word? Do they even know what that word looks likes or even spelled? :lol:

[ToriElectra 291]

 

That challenge is going to be harder for SBG as they will probably need to make it compatible with multiple systems.

 

Yeah, back in the 90s when JCPenney merged the Eckerd and Thrift Drug pharmacy chains in the northeast, Thrift had also acquired two other chains, Fay's Drug and Kerr Drug, so according to Flickr's JoshAustin610, stuff like stock mangaement and payroll got really screwed up in the late 90s because there were as many as four different systems managing things. That's probably one of the reasons they're now owned by Rite Aid. I'm telling you all this because this might happen to Sinclair, where all the systems (Fisher, Sinclair, Allbritton) are gonna clash with each other and cause problems. They need to streamline all these systems pronto.

[Rusty Muck 4309]

That reminds me: Has anyone who lives in Washington (the state) contacted Senator Cantwell to see if she's going to say anything about Sinclair buying Fisher? If she's going to complain about Gannett buying Belo, she should be saying the same things about Sinclair buying Fisher.

She probably got enough of a kickback from SBG to keep her mouth shut about the Fisher deal. (And it's Washington, DC... try NOT to prove that is the case.)

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

Yeah, back in the 90s when JCPenney merged the Eckerd and Thrift Drug pharmacy chains in the northeast, Thrift had also acquired two other chains, Fay's Drug and Kerr Drug, so according to Flickr's JoshAustin610, stuff like stock mangaement and payroll got really screwed up in the late 90s because there were as many as four different systems managing things. That's probably one of the reasons they're now owned by Rite Aid. I'm telling you all this because this might happen to Sinclair, where all the systems (Fisher, Sinclair, Allbritton) are gonna clash with each other and cause problems. They need to streamline all these systems pronto.

 

Well they've done a fantastic job migrating their newly acquired station's websites and smartphone apps to the Sinclair web platform.

 

*sarcasm*

 

Sinclair is going to struggle big time because they're acquiring so many different station groups and trying to force them to follow and adapt the Sinclair philosophy is going to cause a lot of conflict, chaos, and confusion. It happens any time a company grows too fast.

[swillh2k2 203]

 

Divest? Does Sinclair even know the definition of that word? Do they even know what that word looks likes or even spelled? :lol:

 

It's actually a different Sinclair. I lived in Buffalo when Entercom took over their cluster up there in early 2000. They still own a few stations in VA if I'm not mistaken.

[Samantha 2878]

 

Yeah, back in the 90s when JCPenney merged the Eckerd and Thrift Drug pharmacy chains in the northeast, Thrift had also acquired two other chains, Fay's Drug and Kerr Drug, so according to Flickr's JoshAustin610, stuff like stock mangaement and payroll got really screwed up in the late 90s because there were as many as four different systems managing things. That's probably one of the reasons they're now owned by Rite Aid. I'm telling you all this because this might happen to Sinclair, where all the systems (Fisher, Sinclair, Allbritton) are gonna clash with each other and cause problems. They need to streamline all these systems pronto.

 

Wow. That sounds like a serious mess. Sinclair's swallowed Fisher, Freedom's TV unit, Four Points, Allbritton and Barrington whole and picked up pieces of Newport, Cox and Titan. While it's been two to three years on a couple of those acquisitions and others are still awaiting FCC approval, SBG has almost overnight transformed itself into a patchwork company.

 

In television, you have so many systems. Website CMS, editing and production workflows, master control hubbing and automation and graphics display products all are different in the expanded realm of SBG, not to mention the standards like email services and payroll systems. There's going to be a lot of painful integration and streamlining ahead.

 

---

 

SBGI reported net income today, on another note. Net income fell 41% to $17.8 million but beat the Street. Profits fell due to a one-time extinguishment of debt. Net broadcast revenues rose nearly 30% over 2Q 2012. It also announced it will pay out a quarterly dividend of 15 cents per share next month. The stock was down just slightly in trading today.

[Ntropolis 593]

 

It's actually a different Sinclair. I lived in Buffalo when Entercom took over their cluster up there in early 2000. They still own a few stations in VA if I'm not mistaken.

 

Would that be Bob Sinclair's Sinclair Communications based in Norfolk? Yep, that's a completely unrelated Sinclair.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

David Smith clarifies what his plans are for NewsChannel 8.

 

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/69527/smith-clarifies-newschannel-8-ambitions

[channel2 891]

 

Would that be Bob Sinclair's Sinclair Communications based in Norfolk? Yep, that's a completely unrelated Sinclair.

 

Another point of confusion:

.

 

And the Sinclair we're familiar with did used to own radio stations.

[sanewsguy 509]

 

Wow. That sounds like a serious mess. Sinclair's swallowed Fisher, Freedom's TV unit, Four Points, Allbritton and Barrington whole and picked up pieces of Newport, Cox and Titan. While it's been two to three years on a couple of those acquisitions and others are still awaiting FCC approval, SBG has almost overnight transformed itself into a patchwork company.

 

In television, you have so many systems. Website CMS, editing and production workflows, master control hubbing and automation and graphics display products all are different in the expanded realm of SBG, not to mention the standards like email services and payroll systems. There's going to be a lot of painful integration and streamlining ahead.

 

Sinclair didn't take long to switch email at their stations, maybe about a month at the most. Sinclair uses Microsoft Outlook (they started using that around the time they started this buying spree, previously they used a notoriously unreliable in-house client) so it's an easy switch. Everything else does differ. Like I've said, Sinclair uses Ross, Chyron, and the Avid suite, plus Panasonic cameras, while the Newport stations use Ignite, VizRT, ENPS/Edius, and JVC cameras. And who knows what the other groups used?

 

 

It's actually a different Sinclair. I lived in Buffalo when Entercom took over their cluster up there in early 2000. They still own a few stations in VA if I'm not mistaken.

 

You're right and wrong. There is a different Sinclair (Sinclair Telecable) that owns stations in Hampton Roads. But that has always been a local firm. The much bigger Sinclair in fact operated radio stations, including the Buffalo ones in question. Here's a press release from Sinclair in 1999 announcing the sale to Entercom (hard to imagine they only owned or programmed 59 TV stations back then)

 

If you think that's freaky, wait until you get a load of this:

Sinclair Divests Certain Non-Strategic Television Stations; Agrees to Sell Tyler Television Assets for $38 Million.

 

BALTIMORE, Feb. 26 (1999) /PRNewswire/ -- Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI) today announced that Communications Corporation of America ("CCA") has agreed to acquire for $36 million in cash the non-license assets of KETK-TV and the right to program KETK-TV and KLSB-TV in the Tyler-Longview, Texas market. Included in this purchase price is an option to acquire the license assets related to KETK-TV from Sinclair for an additional $2 million. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 1999 and is subject to Department of Justice approval.

 

"This agreement marks the first step in our program of de-leveraging our balance sheet," said David Smith, President & CEO of Sinclair. "While the decision to sell these properties was a difficult one, ultimately the need to re-focus our company on its core assets and re-establish our capacity for long-term growth was paramount. We wish the employees of KETK and KLSB well, and believe we have left them in good hands with CCA."

 

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. is a diversified broadcasting company that currently owns or programs 56 television stations and 51 radio stations. Upon completion of all pending transactions, Sinclair will own or program 63 television stations in 41 separate markets and 51 radio stations in 10 separate markets. Sinclair's television group will reach approximately 25.5% of U.S. television households and includes ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, WB and UPN affiliates. Sinclair's radio group is one of the top 10 groups in the United States.

Yeah, if they had only kept their promise. The David Smith of 1999 and the David Smith of 2013 are two completely different people...

 

And it looks like this one flew under the radar:

New WJLA Show Covers Business Of Govt.

By Staff

TVNewsCheck, August 7, 2013 6:04 AM EDT

 

Allbritton Communications-owned ABC affiliate WJLA Washington (DMA 8) and co-owned NewsChannel 8 will debut Government Matters, a 30-minute weekly show that features news and in-depth coverage of the business of government.

 

The program will air Sundays on WJLA at 9:30 a.m. and on NewsChannel 8 at 1:30 and 10:30 p.m. It will be hosted by veteran anchor Morris Jones.

 

“DC is obviously the hub of the federal government and this program will discuss business topics of interest in government sectors like security, technology and management,” says WJLA General Manager Bill Lord.

 

The station says the target audience is mid- to senior-level executives in federal agencies and the federal contractors who do business with them. Examples of the topics that Government Matters will cover are: budgets, mobility, big data, cyber security, drones, cloud computing, sequestration, weapons systems, executive orders, health care, IT and social media in government.

 

The Managing Producer of Government Matters is George Jackson. Steve Vito of Sage Communications will serve as consulting producer. The show’s website is: www.GovernmentMattersTV.com. The Twitter handle is @GovMattersTV.

 

WJLA’s local business show, Washington Business Report, hosted by Rebecca Cooper, will move to 11 a.m. on Sunday immediately following This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

I wonder if Sinclair had a say in this, since we all know Sinclair loves (or hates depending on how you look at it) the government. And I think that once Sinclair takes control of WJLA, this show will be syndicated out to the rest of the group. Just the title, the format, the separate web address (even though it's a redirect to a page on WJLA's site for now) and twitter feed, it makes you wonder whether Sinclair's fingerprints were on this. That and Morris Jones (former "DC Bureau"* chief for Sinclair) of all people as their choice to host it... :unsure:

 

*-Sinclair never had a "DC Bureau". Reporters staffed to the "bureau" were actually based in Baltimore and drove to DC for each story...

[Rusty Muck 4309]

David Smith clarifies what his plans are for NewsChannel 8.

 

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/69527/smith-clarifies-newschannel-8-ambitions

There are no words.

[Rusty Muck 4309]

They haven't really done anything with WKRC aside from airing the corporate-mandated stuff. I think there will be minimal change with KOMO. WJLA on the other hand, will have layoffs since they are overstaffed.

 

I also see them selling off the radio stations. I don't think Sinclair's really interested in them.

Hearst still has WBAL/WIYY in their portfolio, despite having become a TV-station only firm long ago.

 

Sinclair may just keep the KOMO stations, which are all-news, and KPLZ. KVI, which has long played second-banana to KOMO, could be spun off.

 

But remember that the radio landscape has been depressed for a long time, ever since that industries' insane M&A of the late 1990s. Buyers are rare, and Sinclair may be stuck with the Fisher radio stations by default.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

There are no words.

 

Yeah, embracing a broadcasting fad from the 1990's in an era where people are cutting the cord makes absolutely no sense to me, no matter how cheap the run it.

[Rusty Muck 4309]

Yeah, embracing a broadcasting fad from the 1990's in an era where people are cutting the cord makes absolutely no sense to me, no matter how cheap the run it.

He also apparently never heard of Dispatch's Ohio News Network, which quietly folded last year. It was a longer-established network that was an extension of market juggernaut WBNS, and it STILL couldn't get any serious cable carriage clearances throughout the state (all Time Warner Cable systems in Northeast Ohio scuttled it to the HD lineup only several years back.)

 

He SHOULD know, because Sinclair has been in the Columbus market for... I don't know... HOW LONG?

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

He also apparently never heard of Dispatch's Ohio News Network, which quietly folded last year. It was a longer-established network that was an extension of market juggernaut WBNS, and it STILL couldn't get any serious cable carriage clearances throughout the state (all Time Warner Cable systems in Northeast Ohio scuttled it to the HD lineup only several years back.)

 

He SHOULD know, because Sinclair has been in the Columbus market for... I don't know... HOW LONG?

 

Nearly 30 years but that's not enough time to really understand how the market works right?

 

What they're ultimately going to do is try to bundle this with their next negotiations for renewal with TV providers like Comcast/Xfinity and TWC ("We won't allow you to carry WSYX/WBFF/WJLA/KOMO/WKRC/etc. unless you also agree to carry our new local cable news station for the same price CNN charges you to carry that.")

 

I think this plan is ultimately going to backfire on Smith unless he realizes that trying to charge Comcast/TWC the same price to carry his new channel that CNN charges to carry it is an absolutely stupid idea.

[DirtyHarry 721]

 

He also apparently never heard of Dispatch's Ohio News Network, which quietly folded last year. It was a longer-established network that was an extension of market juggernaut WBNS, and it STILL couldn't get any serious cable carriage clearances throughout the state (all Time Warner Cable systems in Northeast Ohio scuttled it to the HD lineup only several years back.)

 

He SHOULD know, because Sinclair has been in the Columbus market for... I don't know... HOW LONG?

 

You guys are way off base here.

 

First of all, ONN simply was not a great product .... borrrrring. Awful production value and picture quality. They did some good things, but lackluster overall.

 

Second, there are something like 12 DMA's serving Ohio (Cleveland, Youngstown, Toledo, Lima, Zanesville, Parkersburg-Marietta, Wheeling-Steubenville, Columbus, Huntington-Charleston, Dayton, Cincinnati, and Fort Wayne), 13 if you count Pittsburgh. Because of the way the markets are split up, there simply isn't enough common interest there to support a news channel, not to mention that most of those markets straddle state lines. How are you going to produce an interesting newscast that has to cover the high points of 12 media markets and still be interesting to the rest? OTOH, sports works because there are two Ohio NFL and MLB teams, 1 1/2 major university sports programs, and one basketball, hockey and soccer team. Sports gets enough critical mass to justify an Ohio sports channel or two.

 

Third, Time Warner is the major cable company in Ohio and the folks at Time Warner are jerks, so getting what you want out of them is not easy not to mention that WBNS is one station and can't exactly hold them hostage statewide. But what would happen if Sinclair yanks their stations from Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo and Charleston-Huntington? Far different scenario.

 

(By the way, from the standpoint of being a cable subscriber, I applaud Time Warner. I'm glad they just don't bend over and take it from programmers. Cable is expensive enough as it is.)

 

Fourth, we don't need another cable news channel. I think the money here is as a digital subchannel along the lines of MeTV and ThisTV. Feed Washington News which you are already producing, along with segments where the locals can cut in. With a Sinclair news set, it will be a more logical reincarnation of NewsCentral ... PLUS ... they can extract retransmission fees for the news subchannel, by holding the cable companies hostage. Think about it ... Sinclair has 200 stations or whatever the number is and pulls them off Time Warner and Bright House? LOL! I call that leverage.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

Fourth, we don't need another cable news channel. I think the money here is as a digital subchannel along the lines of MeTV and ThisTV. Feed Washington News which you are already producing, along with segments where the locals can cut in. With a Sinclair news set, it will be a more logical reincarnation of NewsCentral ... PLUS ... they can extract retransmission fees for the news subchannel, by holding the cable companies hostage. Think about it ... Sinclair has 200 stations or whatever the number is and pulls them off Time Warner and Bright House? LOL! I call that leverage.

That is unless that leverage backfires on them.

 

Journal and CBS are currently learning this lesson the hard way and they aren't even forcing TWC to carry new additional channels in the process.

 

TWC will play hard ball no matter what and if Sinclair thinks that TWC won't be the same way with them...well they're in for a surprise. Ultimately the consumer is going to lose in the process just like TWC customers in NYC, LA, Dallas and Wisconsin are losing right now.

 

Sinclair is going into this thinking that they will be able to charge TWC the same price for their new channel the same price that CNN charges them. I don't know what David Smith is smoking, but it must be good to come up with a logical conclusion like that.

[DirtyHarry 721]

 

That is unless that leverage backfires on them.

 

Journal and CBS are currently learning this lesson the hard way and they aren't even forcing TWC to carry new additional channels in the process.

 

TWC will play hard ball no matter what and if Sinclair thinks that TWC won't be the same way with them...well they're in for a surprise. Ultimately the consumer is going to lose in the process just like TWC customers in NYC, LA, Dallas and Wisconsin are losing right now.

 

Sinclair is going into this thinking that they will be able to charge TWC the same price for their new channel the same price that CNN charges them. I don't know what David Smith is smoking, but it must be good to come up with a logical conclusion like that.

 

The article linked above I think says it all and I think it leans toward what I would like to see them do with this channel:

 

" ... The key issue, Smith said, is carriage of NewsChannel 8. Potential platforms include D2 channels, cable and satellite ... We see the cable channel as a free option to go build the business. ... The notion that we would want to go build a CNN that nobody watches doesn't make any sense to us.”

 

Think of it this way:

 

NewsChannel 8 is up and running. By virtue of being a news channel in Washington, it covers national politics because that's what is news there. The bulk of the stuff cable channels cover is national news. They already have the operation in place ... i.e. no start up cost, not likely to flop in the market.

 

Now how much effort would it take to "tweak" NewsChannel 8 for national distribution? It seems to me that all you have to do is pull a NewsCentral where you stagger between local and national segments, where the local station would cut away ... much like HLN. But by virtue of having WJLA, you have far better content than what NewsCentral was able to offer and could actually produce good, relevant journalism for national consumption as opposed to relatively poor product for NewsCentral.

 

Okay, so you have a news operation producing a product that's already there, relatively little additional cost to tweak it for national consumption, and 70+ markets where you can stick it on a dot 2 channel where it becomes the OTA news channel.

 

AND HERE'S THE KICKER .... the Sinclair station gets to be the defacto channel dedicated to news in the market by virtue of being the only station devoted to news 24/7.

 

I would also say that news content on a dot 2 (with local content) is far more saleable in terms of air time than existing subchannels.

 

AT LITTLE TO NO EXTRA COST. WITH VERY LITTLE DOWNSIDE.

 

This is a no brainer if you ask me. It will be a huge success provided that it's credible ... and by credible, they need better people than hacks like Armstrong Williams and Mark Hyman. (I am also a conservative, like sanewsguy).

 

EDIT: One more point about where NewsChannel 8 has another advantage over MeTV and ThisTV. Don't those channels have to pay to get on a subchannel and isn't this one of the reasons why so few of them have been viable? NewsChannel 8 won't have to pay a dime be on in 70+ markets.

 

====

 

Summary:

 

1. Low risk of failure. NewsChannel 8 will cost nothing to launch as it already exists. It will cost nothing to distribute out to the 70 markets where Sinclair has stations and who really cares if a subchannel gets high ratings or not? At least not for now.

 

2. Even "failure" will raise the profile of the local Sinclair news operation creating a halo effect. Even if the ratings flop, it costs nothing to throw this on a subchannel and Sinclair gains the image of being the defacto "news" station in their market.

 

3. With the resources of WJLA, it will produce credible journalism relevant to a national audience.

 

4. Not much effort to "tweak" NC8 for a national audience. Just put in breaks where the local station can cut away for local news, weather and sports like CNN/HLN does.

 

5. Local content adds "life" to the station with something local being broadcast 24/7 (as opposed to Maury Povich), even if prerecorded, translating to local advertising.

 

I think this is a no-brainer.

[Rusty Muck 4309]

But what would happen if Sinclair yanks their stations from Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo and Charleston-Huntington? Far different scenario.

TWC can simply plug in the air feed from stations on other markets. WSYX and WKEF get replaced with the signal of WEWS in Cleveland... and WKRC and WTOV with WBNS. If TWC can replace Sinclair stations with non-Sinclair stations, they have leverage of their own.

[broadcastfan9751 136]

According to the FCC applications, Deerfield will buy WHP, WTTO, and WABM while WMMP will be acquired by Armstrong Williams' Howard Stirk Holdings. It looks like the other stations will retain their current licensee names, as all of the applications to transfer the Allbritton stations are Form 315 (Transfer of Control) applications.

[AaronQ 260]

TWC can simply plug in the air feed from stations on other markets. WSYX and WKEF get replaced with the signal of WEWS in Cleveland... and WKRC and WTOV with WBNS. If TWC can replace Sinclair stations with non-Sinclair stations, they have leverage of their own.

WTOV cannot be replaced with WBNS since WTOV is a NBC affiliate and WBNS is a CBS affiliate. It should be WCMH replacing WTOV.

[Rusty Muck 4309]

WTOV cannot be replaced with WBNS since WTOV is a NBC affiliate and WBNS is a CBS affiliate. It should be WCMH replacing WTOV.

Sorry... I got WTOV (NBC) and WTRF (CBS) confused. Even better, WPXI can be piped in to replace former sister WTOV.

 

The point being, Sinclair may think that they can show leverage by threatening to drop all their stations if they can't get this news channel cleared at premium rates, but in truth, TimeWarner has the ability to retaliate.

 

And another sobering fact that the Smiths are overlooking. Fox is converting Speed Channel to Fox Sports 1, and is charging higher retrans rates for carriage purposes. But a vast majority of cable companies aren't going along.

 

If Fox Sports 1 (which is being backed by a billion dollar mass media corporation) can't get serious carriage - and FS1's proposed retrans rate is at 80 CENTS! - that does not bode well at all for Sinclair's Folly. And if the Smiths think that threatening to drop all their stations will make a difference, then they just deserve to go bankrupt.

[Thundershock MN 169]

TWC can simply plug in the air feed from stations on other markets. WSYX and WKEF get replaced with the signal of WEWS in Cleveland... and WKRC and WTOV with WBNS. If TWC can replace Sinclair stations with non-Sinclair stations, they have leverage of their own.

No. TWC (or, any other provider) is not allowed to do this. That violates SyndEx/ network non-duplication rules. WSYX owns the rights to ABC & their various syndicated programming in the Columbus market, period. You can't pipe in a distant station like WEWS or WABC or any other station during a dispute (or, otherwise) as that circumvents the rights holder in that market.

 

Yes, I am aware that some areas have more than 1 network affiliate due to being in neighboring areas. But, this is handled through "significantly viewed" rules and is a whole different ball of wax.

[CircleSeven 1945]

 

No. TWC (or, any other provider) is not allowed to do this. That violates SyndEx/ network non-duplication rules. WSYX owns the rights to ABC & their various syndicated programming in the Columbus market, period. You can't pipe in a distant station like WEWS or WABC or any other station during a dispute (or, otherwise) as that circumvents the rights holder in that market.

 

Yes, I am aware that some areas have more than 1 network affiliate due to being in neighboring areas. But, this is handled through "significantly viewed" rules and is a whole different ball of wax

 

It didn't stop TWC from piping in Nexstar stations (WBRE) when they dump WKTV & WLWT when the retrans fight went sour. And without Nexstar's consent.

[Rusty Muck 4309]

It didn't stop TWC from piping in Nexstar stations (WBRE) when they dump WKTV & WLWT when the retrans fight went sour. And without Nexstar's consent.

That's exactly what I was thinking of.

 

The difference here, though, is that Sinclair's army of lobbyists can force the FCC to look into TWC's business practices should a similar threat be made, of course citing SyndEx. Smith Media (WKTV's owner) and Nexstar don't have that type of pull.

 

But there is precedent, and TWC is far and away the dominate cable provider in Ohio (their cable roots in Columbus

). It's going to be a case of Big Media Conglomerate vs. Big Media Conglomerate. And if anyone is going to stand up to Sinclair, it's likely going to be TWC.

 

And lest we forget, Sinclair suddenly started demanding recently to have WTTG removed from area Baltimore cable systems. Of course, it could be totally unrelated.