Nexstar...again

[mer764KCTV5 14]

12 hours ago, mer764KCTV5 said:

TL:DR: We ain't in the 1960s anymore Y'all. New York isn't in flames because WPIX isnt sold off yet.

 

Okay, so, I mentioned the Nexstar WPIX type of controversy on April 1st (and no, what I said wasn't a joke)

 

The FCC focusing on WPIX, a station which is only in the crosshair because of an LMA with Nexstar and not focusing on, well, I don't know... 

 

LOCAL news being taking AWAY in some rural areas (Wyoming) makes it looks like the broadcasting and ESPECIALLY the Television Broadcasting world seems to be semi-stuck in 1964. its like the ONLY Nexstar can do is to CANCEL the news department and sell it off to Sinclair and not compete in the market. 

 

Like, I've heard good stuff about KMBC's owners but not about WDAF? Like, should I explain that KMBC back in the day REMOVED an anchor because of her age in the 1980s under Metromedia ownership, then she sued Channel 9 only to lose after winning once because it's previous ownership was acquired by News Corp.?

 

I said this on the same day: "Oh yea, since everybody is forgetting this, if Nexstar and/or Mission Broadcasting doesn't want to sell WPIX, they can sell any other stations to meet the cap/quota on Television stations." I do think Nexstar knew about this and sold off WJMN to Sullivan's Landing LLC to NOT get in anymore trouble. (Like if that helped). 

 

Sometimes, the Broadcasting Universe makes me confused. I'm NOT saying Nexstar is doing an good job, nor is the FCC but focusing on other problems like WPIX's ownership and not on how local news may be affected negatively be ownership changes are stuff that get me confused. As what Megatron did say, it's not the 60s hence why I said that time period. 

 

WLBT ain't under investigation in 2024 so why should any one else now?

 

BTW, the length is a bit too much buti just want to say that really I still don't understand. 

Huh, so I realized that some people here got confused and that's okay. That was an long reply I said  but want I basically said was that it didn't make sense that the FCC is focused a lot on WPIX. 

I hope this clears it up, I assume. 

[Rusty Muck 4167]

Surprise! The FCC approved the $75 million sale of WADL to Mission Broadcasting earlier today. But there's a catch: Nexstar is legally prohibited from directly being involved in Mission's operations of the station.

 

I'd argue this is much worse for Nexstar than the WPIX decision, because Mission is incapable of operating a television station by themselves. Moreover, the $75M price tag does not include WADL's current facilities, all of which were retained by Kevin Adell.

 

Quote

“Any financing utilized by Mission in connection with either the acquisition of WADL or Mission’s operation of the Station, including with regard to day-to-day operations, capital improvements, programming acquisition, or technical upgrades to the Station, may not involve Nexstar, its affiliates,…or any related person or entity in any manner, including through the provision of such financing directly or indirectly, the guarantee of any loan or debt instrument sought or held by Mission, or the provision of collateral to secure a loan or debt instrument sought or held by Mission.”

 

Additionally, the FCC said the sale is allowed to move forward if Mission is allowed to claim 70 percent of WADL’s ad inventory revenue for itself, limit Nexstar’s annual performance bonuses to $155,500 and restructure certain purchase options involving Nexstar should Mission enter into a shared services agreement with the broadcaster to operate WADL when the sale closes. It also prohibits Mission from extending Nexstar an option to purchase the station at some point if both sides enter into a shared service agreement.

Edited April 23 by Rusty Muck

[Recovering Producer 100]

1 hour ago, Rusty Muck said:

Surprise! The FCC approved the $75 sale of WADL to Mission Broadcasting earlier today. But there's a catch: Nexstar is legally prohibited from directly being involved in Mission's operations of the station.

 

I'd argue this is much worse for Nexstar than the WPIX decision, because Mission is incapable of operating a television station by themselves. Moreover, the $75M price tag does not include WADL's current facilities, all of which were retained by Kevin Adell.

 

FCC order is here (it boggles the mind that some websites paywall documents that can be found in two minutes)

 

It feels like the FCC is doing a case of malicious compliance by allowing the sale under these conditions.

 

And I love it.

[mer764KCTV5 14]

2 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

Surprise! The FCC approved the $75 sale of WADL to Mission Broadcasting earlier today. But there's a catch: Nexstar is legally prohibited from directly being involved in Mission's operations of the station.

 

I'd argue this is much worse for Nexstar than the WPIX decision, because Mission is incapable of operating a television station by themselves. Moreover, the $75M price tag does not include WADL's current facilities, all of which were retained by Kevin Adell.

 

$75 DOLLARS?! XD 

But no seriously, despite all the things there, I'm still thinking WDIV is gonna have the CW Affiliation. One way or another.

Also, this is just stupid in its self. Like who would NOT get the facilities? Mission Broadcasting is in some trouble on its own. 

 

Update: According to the document, "We further condition our approval of the Application by limiting Nexstar's provision of programming on WADL to no more than 15% of the total programming time aired on the Station, including through any affiliation with The CW Television Network, NewsNation, or any other programming source that is majority-owned or controlled by Nexstar of its affiliates."

Yea, WADL is going to be an MyNetworkTV station for the mean time and WDIV gonna grab The CW for Detroit. 

Edited April 23 by mer764KCTV5

[Rusty Muck 4167]

1 hour ago, Recovering Producer said:

FCC order is here (it boggles the mind that some websites paywall documents that can be found in two minutes)

 

It feels like the FCC is doing a case of malicious compliance by allowing the sale under these conditions.

 

And I love it.

From paragraph 54:

 

Quote

Accordingly, we impose the following condition: No more than 15% of the programming time aired on WADL may consist of programming provided by, procured from, or owned by Nexstar, its affiliates, or its VIEs. Accordingly, Mission may not lease time to, procure from, outsource to, or otherwise air programming owned, provided, produced, or procured by Nexstar, its affiliates, or its VIEs for more than 15% of WADL's programming time, including, but not limited to, by affiliation with The CW Network, NewsNation, or any other programming source majority-owned or controlled by Nexstar or its affiliates. For purposes of clarity, if WADL airs more than one channel of programming, this limitation shall apply to each channel or multicast stream of programming offered by the station, such that no more than 15% of the programming time on any one channel or multicast stream may consist of programming provided by, procured from, or owned by Nexstar, its affiliates, or its variable interest entities.

15% of 168 hours means Nexstar cannot supply more than 25 hours and 20 minutes of programming per week. The CW primetime takes up 15 hours total per week, meaning they cannot program any more than 10 hours of sports per week or any NewsNation simulcasts.

 

Mission got a greenlight to purchase a boat anchor for $75 million.

Edited April 23 by Rusty Muck

[Rusty Muck 4167]

It does feel like there are three options for WADL since Mission is so badly handcuffed here:

1. Sell it to another group owner—hell, even Gray!—who can run it as a CW affiliate
2. Sell it to a Godcaster and sell the existing program inventory to Scripps/WMYD
3. Convert it to a diginet tree and sell the existing program inventory to Scripps/WMYD

There's no way in the world that Mission is going to want to run MyNet dreck with a terrible syndicated program inventory (although not as horrendous as WMYD's lineup by comparison!) on a station that has no facilities, doesn't own the transmitter tower, has an inferior signal and can't use Nexstar at all to extort cable companies for extra retrans revenue.

[mer764KCTV5 14]

On 4/23/2024 at 8:36 PM, Rusty Muck said:

It does feel like there are three options for WADL since Mission is so badly handcuffed here:

1. Sell it to another group owner—hell, even Gray!—who can run it as a CW affiliate
2. Sell it to a Godcaster and sell the existing program inventory to Scripps/WMYD
3. Convert it to a diginet tree and sell the existing program inventory to Scripps/WMYD

There's no way in the world that Mission is going to want to run MyNet dreck with a terrible syndicated program inventory (although not as horrendous as WMYD's lineup by comparison!) on a station that has no facilities, doesn't own the transmitter tower, has an inferior signal and can't use Nexstar at all to extort cable companies for extra retrans revenue.

Better yet, just return the license to the FCC and sell the existing programs to WMYD and the E. W. Scripps Company/Scripps Howard Broadcasting. (Does LITERALLY anyone call Scripps by Scripps Howard anymore?) Wait an minute, if WMYD grabs MyNetworkTV, they technically got their former pre-2021 but post-2006 affiliation back.

 

Case solved.

(Except it won't help since it has an affiliation with MyNetworkTV but let WJBK grab it, it's Fox Owned anyway.)

Edited April 25 by mer764KCTV5
I just got the funniest realization about bringing back MyNet to WMYD.

[Megatron81 181]

I agree with Brandon Carr on this deal, I wasn't surprised that what The FCC put conditions on the deal which I thought that The FCC had to agree with the deal at hand and not make changes or just outright reject the deal or let it expire. Like Standard General & TEGNA merger last year at this time.

[NowBergen 486]

Here is an interesting hypothetical (or it may not be in reality) in light of the FCC ruling on WPIX.  One of their news vans struck a pedestrian adult and child this morning in NJ.  Luckily both were not severely injured.

 

If the victims decide to file a lawsuit, who would they sue?  Nexstar or Mission (or both?). If Mission said not us, that could reinforce the FCC ruling.  An interesting situation since this is not a duopoly with a Nexstar station in the market.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

14 hours ago, NowBergen said:

Here is an interesting hypothetical (or it may not be in reality) in light of the FCC ruling on WPIX.  One of their news vans struck a pedestrian adult and child this morning in NJ.  Luckily both were not severely injured.

 

If the victims decide to file a lawsuit, who would they sue?  Nexstar or Mission (or both?). If Mission said not us, that could reinforce the FCC ruling.  An interesting situation since this is not a duopoly with a Nexstar station in the market.

Doesn't WPIX use the Nexstar copyright endcap for their newscasts?

[mer764KCTV5 14]

1 hour ago, Rusty Muck said:

Doesn't WPIX use the Nexstar copyright endcap for their newscasts?

Yea, it does. Just like WDAF-TV in Kansas City

16 hours ago, NowBergen said:

Here is an interesting hypothetical (or it may not be in reality) in light of the FCC ruling on WPIX.  One of their news vans struck a pedestrian adult and child this morning in NJ.  Luckily both were not severely injured.

 

If the victims decide to file a lawsuit, who would they sue?  Nexstar or Mission (or both?). If Mission said not us, that could reinforce the FCC ruling.  An interesting situation since this is not a duopoly with a Nexstar station in the market.

I don't know if it was an accident but that might be confusing...

Probably Nexstar?

[tyrannical bastard 3464]

In the eyes of the FCC, Mission only controls the programming and license of WPIX.  Nexstar may have the "non-license assets" which likely includes anything involved in the production of newscasts, including equipment and personnel.  As long as said newscasts (or any other programming provided by Nexstar) don't take up more than 15 percent of the station's airtime, then it can't be counted as ownership of WPIX.

 

Since the people and equipment involved were most likely tied to Nexstar, than there's your liable party.

Edited 14 hours ago by tyrannical bastard

[T.L. Hughes 751]

35 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

In the eyes of the FCC, Mission only controls the programming and license of WPIX.  Nexstar may have the "non-license assets" which likely includes anything involved in the production of newscasts, including equipment and personnel.  As long as said newscasts (or any other programming provided by Nexstar) don't take up more than 15 percent of the station's airtime, then it can't be counted as ownership of WPIX.

Thing is, WPIX runs 59 1/2 hours of newscasts per week (approximately 35% of its airtime), along with several additional local shows (10 extra hours), and the entire CW schedule (15 hours of primetime, a three-hour E/I block and an hour-long political talk show, plus sports).

Edited 13 hours ago by T.L. Hughes

[tyrannical bastard 3464]

2 hours ago, T.L. Hughes said:

Thing is, WPIX runs 59 1/2 hours of newscasts per week (approximately 35% of its airtime), along with several additional local shows (10 extra hours), and the entire CW schedule (15 hours of primetime, a three-hour E/I block and an hour-long political talk show, plus sports).

In that case, also being in the #1 market on a station that warrants roughly 6 percent of national cap space (with NO UHF discount) puts a major target on Nexstar's back. 

 

The reach of a New York City station alone can roughly equal that of a small company (like Graham) with only a few stations or ones that serve smaller markets.