Sinclair Broadcast Group - General Discussion

[dman748 1256]

8 hours ago, NewsMaster said:

Welp... can't say I didn't see this coming...

 

https://www.newsbreak.com/oklahoma/oklahoma-city/news/0PW5GhWH/oklahoma-station-tweets-misleading-headline-about-wearing-masks

Can't say I'm surprised on that one. And KOKH wonders why they're in last place in the ratings

 

Anyway we have a shocker on the RSN front, former Universal Studios executive Steve Rosenberg has been tapped to lead Sinclair's Sports division (which includes the RSNs, Stadium and its High School division)

[ED2 144]

On 6/17/2020 at 1:33 PM, oknewsguy said:

Hate to bump up a stagnant thread but Sinclair is going to launch a Headline News Service that will run from 6 to 9am initially on stations affiliated with the CW and MyNetworkTV respectively as well as its own OTT service, STIRR. Scheduled to launch early next year https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/250273/sinclair-to-launch-headline-news-service/

 

Don't be surprised if this expands eventually to other affiliates (particulary the ones without news departments).

 

What happens to the existing morning shows on some of its CW stations (eg. CW Las Vegas)?

[tyrannical bastard 3931]

12 hours ago, ED2 said:

 

What happens to the existing morning shows on some of its CW stations (eg. CW Las Vegas)?

Then the new HNS will probably air on the MyNetwork channel, or in markets with only 1 netlet station that has local news provided for them, air for only part of the time (like the 6am hour).

[TheRob 937]

Here's a look at how much the shortened MLB season will cost Sinclair.

 

https://www.nexttv.com/news/canceled-games-could-cost-sinclair-dollar130m-says-analyst

[CubsFan79 58]

Would Sinclair resell the RSN if they lose money? 

[dman748 1256]

13 hours ago, CubsFan79 said:

Would Sinclair resell the RSN if they lose money? 

I doubt it. Look at what happened to AT&T and they have much fewer number of RSNs than Sinclair yet they couldn't sell because Cord Cutting.

 

Yes Sinclair wants to bundle the RSNs with the TV stations but Sinclair at some point is going to have to decide is it really worth keeping both local stations and RSNs together? If not what's going to attract the buyers more and who's going to pay top dollar for it?

 

Right now I say local TV stations is the one that'd be more attractive to sell by itself than it would to sell the RSNs but the question becomes this.

 

Is it worth it for Sinclair to sell the TV stations by itself or is it worth it to sell both Locala TV stations and RSNs together in one package? And if it's the latter would be more attractive or less attractive to the perspective buyer of the assets?

Edited July 21, 2020 by oknewsguy

[Yankees4life 558]

On 7/20/2020 at 3:37 PM, CubsFan79 said:

Would Sinclair resell the RSN if they lose money? 

They can't even if they want it to especially in these dire times. 

 

They'll have to eat that money they spent on getting them ATM.

[GoldenShine9 1512]

On 7/6/2020 at 8:13 PM, oknewsguy said:

Can't say I'm surprised on that one. And KOKH wonders why they're in last place in the ratings

 

Anyway we have a shocker on the RSN front, former Universal Studios executive Steve Rosenberg has been tapped to lead Sinclair's Sports division (which includes the RSNs, Stadium and its High School division)

 

KOKH has always been a very distant last...literally the fourth station in a three-station market.

[TexasTVNews 1377]

FCC asked to deny renewal of Baltimore TV station licenses tied to Sinclair (WBFF).

https://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-sinclair-broadcast-fcc-petition-opposing-tv-licenses-20200903-4dgzj3tnurg63dvm56zaeturfi-story.html

[Samantha 2895]

1 minute ago, TexasTVNews said:

FCC asked to deny renewal of Baltimore TV station licenses tied to Sinclair (WBFF).

https://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-sinclair-broadcast-fcc-petition-opposing-tv-licenses-20200903-4dgzj3tnurg63dvm56zaeturfi-story.html

 

The petition's all sorts of interesting, even if its chances of success are probably quite low.

[ABC 7 Denver 1712]

19 minutes ago, Samantha said:

 

The petition's all sorts of interesting, even if its chances of success are probably quite low.

 

I'd file one of these in every market in which Sinclair has this kind of control. It's all sorts of screwed up!

[Samantha 2895]

1 minute ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

I'd file one of these in every market in which Sinclair has this kind of control. It's all sorts of screwed up!

 

The New Age Media markets have the same trademark issue spotted here but WTLH doesn't come up for renewal until early next year (Georgia license).

[AaronQ 279]

So on October 1st, YouTube TV will drop the FOX RSNs. 

[dman748 1256]

13 minutes ago, AaronQ said:

So on October 1st, YouTube TV will drop the FOX RSNs. 

It's only a matter of time before Hulu drops the Fox RSNs too.

 

And who knows how many more who will drop them too.

[JCB4TV 347]

25 minutes ago, oknewsguy said:

It's only a matter of time before Hulu drops the Fox RSNs too.

 

And who knows how many more who will drop them too.

Sinclair better figure something out, and fast, whether that's to come down on their price, or allow the RSNs to be premium channels.

[PTVNews 194]

42 minutes ago, AaronQ said:

So on October 1st, YouTube TV will drop the FOX RSNs. 

 

And they aren't lowering the price.... 

[nathannah 2401]

28 minutes ago, oknewsguy said:

And who knows how many more who will drop them too.

As much as the industry would hate it...it may be time to go to a gametime-only model with these networks (or to just have league packages). The long pause between March and July showed that without any live programming, the FSN networks are a dearth of programming stuck with outdoors shows, senior tennis tours to justify the Tennis Channel purchases, and 43 golf tour shows.

[CubsFan79 58]

As Gomer Pyle said " Surprise Surprise".

[Samantha 2895]

1 hour ago, mrschimpf said:

As much as the industry would hate it...it may be time to go to a gametime-only model with these networks (or to just have league packages). The long pause between March and July showed that without any live programming, the FSN networks are a dearth of programming stuck with outdoors shows, senior tennis tours to justify the Tennis Channel purchases, and 43 golf tour shows.

 

Not having shoulder programming has doomed RSNs to faster deaths. It was a premium channel and that hurt more, but look at Sportsvue in Wisconsin (1984–85). It didn't even make it a year.

[dman748 1256]

1 hour ago, mrschimpf said:

As much as the industry would hate it...it may be time to go to a gametime-only model with these networks (or to just have league packages). The long pause between March and July showed that without any live programming, the FSN networks are a dearth of programming stuck with outdoors shows, senior tennis tours to justify the Tennis Channel purchases, and 43 golf tour shows.

I agree completely, the pandemic proved there is very little value in the RSN biz and it may just simply be time for the RSNs to transition to digital streaming only focused on only the games and maybe some team-centric shoulder programming but that'd be it.

 

I honestly believe that Sling was correct well before the pandemic even hit that the RSNs clearly provide no value in them whatsoever.

 

I did notice that Sling did include in the sports pack NBA team centric channels so I wouldn't be surprised if many streamming platforms simply offer team-centric channels during their respective sports seasons as a way to replace the RSNs on their systems.

[Newsjunkie24 506]

RSN's are only good for live sports and team-centric shows, All other content is a dumping ground for stuff that few people care about, like golf tours and air racing, along with low-budget documentaries.  Move it all to streaming services and just focus on live sports. All RSN's are a big waste outside of live sports.

[dman748 1256]

As I told @JCB4TV in the Private Messages with him, what Sinclair needs to focus on is either improving the quality of the programming by adding better shoulder programming than those eons and eons of shows no one cares about before they even think about rebranding the RSNs.

 

I think that if Sinclair can do that they might be able to get back on Dish Network and other MVPDs but I think Sinclair is too busy focusing on rebranding and playing low ball with the MVPDs over content to even fix the programming inventory.

 

Fix it first and the rest will take care of itself. What Sinclair is doing is only going to kill off the RSN industry at an even faster rate than what it's doing now.

[TheRyan 560]

People may hate me for saying this, but I'm now at the point of saying Sinclair should just shut down the RSNs (or perhaps consolidate to a few stronger ones) and move on.    Obviously the fallout during COVID is not Sinclair's fault in the least, and unfortunately the lack of abundant sports programming right now is not helping matters.   They should leverage their station portfolio by expanding their original content for the stations.

 

Edited September 30, 2020 by TheRyan

[dman748 1256]

8 minutes ago, TheRyan said:

People may hate me for saying this, but I'm now at the point of saying Sinclair should just shut down the RSNs (or perhaps consolidate to a few stronger ones) and move on.    Obviously the fallout during COVID is not Sinclair's fault in the least, and unfortunately the lack of abundant sports programming right now is not helping matters.   They should leverage their station portfolio by expanding their original content for the stations.

 

The sad part is that now your only options in order to get the RSNs now are either Hulu Live, DirecTV and the local cable companies. That's it.

 

I'm afraid some of my early predictions of Sinclair collapsing may be becoming true all because of a disastorus acquisition.

 

As we've seen with Tribune with all of the bad buys in the 2000s and 2010s, Meredith with Time, Inc and now Sinclair with the RSNs all it takes is one bad buy and it'll set down a path that will eventually lead towards a sale (I'll save it for Speculatron though) and we're seeing that happening with Sinclair.

 

Whether you like Sinclair's politics or not its not the must runs or their political leanings that has doomed Sinclair (it may be part of it but not the whole reason for this) its the bad acquisition of the RSNs at a time where many people such as myself are cutting the cord is what's doomed Sinclair (on top of that Dish dropped them while Sinclair was in the process of closing its acquisitions of the RSNs).

 

Sinclair needs to figure out quick to reinvent the RSNs or else they may be in serious trouble.

[TexasTVNews 1377]

Sinclair Media ain't s**t! They always screw up. Things need to change in the media world.