Brain 81 Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 I'm very interested in budgets/finance and I'm a TV news junkie. I want to see a template for a TV news budget, maybe even a full simulation of one. Does this sound cool? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkolsen 1679 Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 I'm very interested in budgets/finance and I'm a TV news junkie. I want to see a template for a TV news budget, maybe even a full simulation of one. Does this sound cool? Your in the right place we all are TV junkies, I mainly lurked around for a while before deciding to start posting. TV news budgets is mainly kept secret for competitive reasons. Contracts for news talent are rarely made public in order to respect the talents privacy and also to prevent a bidding war with multiple stations when the talents contract is up. Probably the single most expensive item in a news organizations budget is the news helicopter which often times costs in the $500,000 (in small markets where it's not used often) - $1,000,000 (in large markets where it's used for every newscast) range a year to operate it. Because of the high cost of operating a helicopter is the reason many stations have started local news services in order spread out the cost equally with all participants. For example in 2009 WNBC and WNYW (Fox NY) started sharing their helicopter and was reported that by sharing Chopper 4 with Fox was going to save WNBC was going to $500,000 a year. WNBC has since exited the LNS and has their own helicopter which is only shared on occasion with their Telemundo sister station, WNJU, when needed. One of the most innocuous things I notice whenever a TV station builds a new set or moves into a new building (like KNBC and KXAS did recently) they show it off to the press and a reporter usually asks how much did the set cost? Most general managers would decline to comment. The only time I remember a person giving out an actual price was at WBZ in Boston saying their set cost about $750,000. Most of the time the general managers will only give out generalizations like when WBAL-TV rebuilt two news studios and updated infrastructure (HVAC and electrical work) the engineer said in a Broadcast Engineering interview that it was in the several million dollar range, but under $10 million, and that didn't include any new construction/additions. In another example the NBC and Telemundo O&O duopoly in Dallas-Fort Worth, KXAS and KXTX respectively, moved into a brand new 75,000 sq ft facility in October 2013. The move finally brought together all of stations operations under one roof, previously the stations administrative offices were in Dallas but the studios were in Fort Worth, a distance of 30 miles. During the open house reporters from the local newspaper asked NBC exactly how much was spent building this news facility and the stations general manager only stated it was only several million dollars. However public documents reveal that the city of Fort Worth offered NBCUniversal a significant tax credit if they would spend at least $8,000,000 for construction, spend another $8,000,000 in new taxable property and move at least 78 jobs to Fort Worth from their Dallas office. Because of this deal they were committed to spend at least $16,000,000 for this project to house both stations, NBC Artworks graphics hub and other NBC businesses. Personally I think NBC probably spent somewhere between $20,000,000 and $25,000,000 outfitting their new facility. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2011/12/28/wbz_tv_newscast_set_gets_750000_facelift/ http://www.fortworthgov.org/council_packet/mc_review.asp?ID=16708&councildate=4/10/2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2878 Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 There are redacted budgets (no numbers, but you can see what some of the different expenses are) in some of the Sinclair/Allbritton filings. I received one via physical mail and it was just a big black sheet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRob 920 Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 I can tell you the budgeting process begins in the fall, looking ahead to the following fiscal year. Some expenses are immediate. Some are deferred. Some income is set and some is anticipated. But a working model of a TV station budget will require someone with sales experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkolsen 1679 Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 There are redacted budgets (no numbers, but you can see what some of the different expenses are) in some of the Sinclair/Allbritton filings. I received one via physical mail and it was just a big black sheet. I couldn't find the blacked out budget on here: http://www.fcc.gov/transaction/sinclair-allbritton as some of the documents appear to be offline for server maintenance. I did notice they responded to your complaint and mentioned you live in Arizona and for a minute I thought they were stalking you and going to come after you. But I did notice on other documents they carbon copied you, I guess it must of had something to do with your opposition letter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2878 Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 I couldn't find the blacked out budget on here: http://www.fcc.gov/transaction/sinclair-allbritton as some of the documents appear to be offline for server maintenance. I did notice they responded to your complaint and mentioned you live in Arizona and for a minute I thought they were stalking you and going to come after you. But I did notice on other documents they carbon copied you, I guess it must of had something to do with your opposition letter. Correct. I did not know that I did not have standing to file in this case. (A couple people, mostly Harrisburg, would have had standing from this forum.) I've elected to remain silent because of my lack of standing or lawyers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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