Sinclair Broadcast Group - General Discussion

[Roadrunner 216]

3 hours ago, C Block said:

Anyone have any idea what's up with this?

Should be this [https://tvnewscheck.com/article/256055/sinclair-names-headline-service-the-national-desk/], which has been in the works for some time now, but more quietly than say, Nexstar's News Nation.

[JCB4TV 347]

Sinclair Says It Will Be Offering Standalone RSN Products as Soon as Next Year

[JCB4TV 347]

Variety Exclusive: Fox Broadcasting, Sinclair Strike Multi-Year Affiliation Renewal Deal

[TheRob 937]

ATSC 3.0 News

 

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/203317/sinclair-launches-first-atsc-3-0-radio-service-in-seattle/

[CircleSeven 1955]

Sinclair renews an agreement for 13 CBS affiliates.

[mvcg66b3r 100]

1 minute ago, CircleSeven said:

Sinclair renews an agreement for 13 CBS affiliates.

 

In the article it mentions KPTH in Sioux City IA - that's FOX; CBS is KMEG, owned by Waitt Broadcasting and run by Sinclair. You think Sinclair might move CBS to a KPTH subchannel like it's done in other markets?

[JCB4TV 347]

58 minutes ago, mvcg66b3r said:

 

In the article it mentions KPTH in Sioux City IA - that's FOX; CBS is KMEG, owned by Waitt Broadcasting and run by Sinclair. You think Sinclair might move CBS to a KPTH subchannel like it's done in other markets?

Just by reading the article, it appears that CBS is destined for 44.2 in Sioux City.

[Georgie56 3303]

Here's the firdt five minutes of the inaugural edition of The National Desk. Looks pretty nice.

 

 

[tyrannical bastard 3942]

Sinclair is "sort of" bringing news to it's remaining stations via Stirr...

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/stirr-adds-six-new-stirr-city-channels-for-local-coverage/?source=home

 

Even St. Louis got it's own. 

 

Have KDNL and WTWC picked up The National Desk, to air as a "morning newscast" before GMA or Today?

[Mrtraveler01 738]

1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Sinclair is "sort of" bringing news to it's remaining stations via Stirr...

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/stirr-adds-six-new-stirr-city-channels-for-local-coverage/?source=home

 

Even St. Louis got it's own. 

 

Have KDNL and WTWC picked up The National Desk, to air as a "morning newscast" before GMA or Today?

They haven't. 

 

It does air on the "city channel" on Stirr which I think is why they launched those channels. Because outside of The National Desk, there are no local news programs on those channels.

[JCB4TV 347]

On 1/13/2021 at 3:17 PM, JCB4TV said:

Just by reading the article, it appears that CBS is destined for 44.2 in Sioux City.

CBS will be moving to 44.3 on February 4, just in time for the Super Bowl.

[Nelson R. 569]

On 1/19/2021 at 2:50 PM, tyrannical bastard said:

Sinclair is "sort of" bringing news to it's remaining stations via Stirr...

https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/stirr-adds-six-new-stirr-city-channels-for-local-coverage/?source=home

 

Even St. Louis got it's own. 

 

Have KDNL and WTWC picked up The National Desk, to air as a "morning newscast" before GMA or Today?

 

On 1/19/2021 at 4:13 PM, Mrtraveler01 said:

They haven't. 

 

It does air on the "city channel" on Stirr which I think is why they launched those channels. Because outside of The National Desk, there are no local news programs on those channels.

It does air on WXLV from 6-7am before Good Morning America. The second two hours moves over to sister station WMYV.

[Georgie56 3303]

 

 

[TheRob 937]

 

[Kenneth Kissel 281]

12 hours ago, TheRob said:

 

I think if Sinclair was smart they would sell stations with little to no news departments and then focus on  Tripolies that they can sell as well. 

 

For example, the Fox Stations that Sinclair owns but has Tegna, Cox, or someone else airing newscasts need to be sold to said company that is airing the Newscasts on the Sinclair Fox Stations. It would save Sinclair millions for having to pay said companies to produce newscasts.

[Nelson R. 569]

19 minutes ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

I think if Sinclair was smart they would sell stations with little to no news departments and then focus on  Tripolies that they can sell as well. 

 

For example, the Fox Stations that Sinclair owns but has Tegna, Cox, or someone else airing newscasts need to be sold to said company that is airing the Newscasts on the Sinclair Fox Stations. It would save Sinclair millions for having to pay said companies to produce newscasts.

Even though the stations I’m speaking of are not Fox, they definitely need to get rid of WXLV/WMYV in the Triad. If WGHP and WXLV ever reversed their 1995 affiliation swap, a WGHP/WXLV duopoly would be a no-brainer in the Triad. But I doubt WGHP would ever go back to ABC. And as far as WLFL/WRDC in the Triangle, would love to see WTVD/WLFL (WTVD already produces WLFL’s 10:00 news) and WRAL/WRDC and WRAZ go on their own, but I don’t think any ABC O&O has a duopoly partner?

Edited March 4, 2021 by Nelson R.

[dman748 1256]

As I said before on Discord and I will say this here as well.

 

Honestly I think the cable TV bubble and the pay TV industry as a whole is about to burst and burst HARD.

 

Sinclair is going to have no choice but to let the RSNs go bankrupt and reorganize itself into a new business model (it's got absolutely zero choice but to do so), they "might" sell a few stations here and there other than that Sinclair is going to have no choice but to do the layoffs and just let the RSNs go under. It's going to happen anyway.

[tyrannical bastard 3942]

They can blame COVID all they want, but these layoffs are a direct result of the RSN bubble bursting, not to mention the $48 MILLION fine levied against them for their business practices, namely the bungled Tribune merger and their failure to properly disclose sponsored content.

 

it was bound to happen eventually and I imagine it's going to get a lot worse in the weeks and months to come.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

Totally unnecessary for a company still profitable and giving out stock dividends to shareholders.

 

We didn't see companies like Nexstar, Gray, Scripps, Hearst and the like lay anyone off...

[Kenneth Kissel 281]

5 hours ago, Nelson R. said:

Even though the stations I’m speaking of are not Fox, they definitely need to get rid of WXLV/WMYV in the Triad. If WGHP and WXLV ever reversed their 1995 affiliation swap, a WGHP/WXLV duopoly would be a no-brainer in the Triad. But I doubt WGHP would ever go back to ABC. And as far as WLFL/WRDC in the Triangle, would love to see WTVD/WLFL (WTVD already produces WLFL’s 10:00 news) and WRAL/WRDC and WRAZ go on their own, but I don’t think any ABC O&O has a duopoly partner?

For the Triad: I could see Tegna as a player for WMYV as well. As for WXLV it is more tricky, Nexstar/Mission could claim WXLV but I wonder what the ratings for XLV is for that to be legal. 

 

For Raleigh: I could also see WLFL or WRDC go with Nexstar/Mission as well. It is very unlikely that Disney would want a duopoly. The other station could get bought by Bahakel Communications and have their master control in Charlotte at WCCB. 

Edited March 4, 2021 by Kenneth Kissel

[dman748 1256]

1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

They can blame COVID all they want, but these layoffs are a direct result of the RSN bubble bursting, not to mention the $48 MILLION fine levied against them for their business practices, namely the bungled Tribune merger and their failure to properly disclose sponsored content.

 

it was bound to happen eventually and I imagine it's going to get a lot worse in the weeks and months to come.

I can definitely see that point as well, one has to wonder where Sinclair might've been at if it weren't for Deadspin exposing them for their "extremely dangerous" script.

 

I'm definitely going the conservative route in saying only the RSNs getting sold by Diamond as part of that network's reorganization and even with that I might've underestimated how much worse this could get in not just the weeks ahead but in the months to come.

 

[MidwestTV 1232]

I wonder how much they cut high-level executive salaries to save some cash too.

 

Hahahahaha no they probably didn't. Wouldn't be surprised if after this some of the execs got a bonus.

 

[newsbot 271]

The RSNs were definitely the cause for Sinclair's woes - their timing couldn't have been worse. That said, the RSNs should in time recover and begin making a positive contribution to their bottom line once in-person attendance at sporting events returns to pre-pandemic levels. The fines are a rounding error on their bottom line by comparison.

Edited March 5, 2021 by newsbot

[Nelson R. 569]

19 hours ago, Kenneth Kissel said:

For the Triad: I could see Tegna as a player for WMYV as well. As for WXLV it is more tricky, Nexstar/Mission could claim WXLV but I wonder what the ratings for XLV is for that to be legal. 

 

For Raleigh: I could also see WLFL or WRDC go with Nexstar/Mission as well. It is very unlikely that Disney would want a duopoly. The other station could get bought by Bahakel Communications and have their master control in Charlotte at WCCB. 

Tegna would work for WMYV...then they could put Good Morning Carolina on there and have it go all the way to 9am.

[Rusty Muck 4366]

The likeliest outcome does not involve the mass selling of stations, but is twofold:

 

1.) The holding company for the RSNs goes bankrupt and taken over by creditors who can resolve debts. In fact, that happened with Comcast’s ill-fated Houston RSN. If Sinclair were to offload their stake now, they would be getting hosed big-time.

 

2.) Sinclair winds up like Granite, but in too big to fail mode. (Actually, a better comparison would be iHeart and Cumulus when they entered Chapter 11. You’ll note that there was never a fire sale of stations for either radio operator but it killed off whatever M&A mindset existed for the radio industry.) But indeed, there are multiple stations that Sinclair can cut to the bone like Granite did to WKBW.

 

Sure, a white knight investor like Byron Allen could swoop in, but only if the Smith family is stripped of control of the company. But by then, would it be worth it for Byron?