Scripps - General Discussion

[tyrannical bastard 3948]

With things so bad at Scripps, they may have to file for bankruptcy protection.  And even then, are they so far gone that stations could be auctioned off or go dark in a nationwide shutdown if they run out of cash?

[ns8401 941]

1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

With things so bad at Scripps, they may have to file for bankruptcy protection.  And even then, are they so far gone that stations could be auctioned off or go dark in a nationwide shutdown if they run out of cash?

I would imagine a fire sale would be in order and the stations would be spread to the four winds ownership wise. The networks would be behind apoplectic if stations went dark. 

[Recovering Producer 217]

1 hour ago, tyrannical bastard said:

With things so bad at Scripps, they may have to file for bankruptcy protection.  And even then, are they so far gone that stations could be auctioned off or go dark in a nationwide shutdown if they run out of cash?

Chapter 7 liquidation is always a last resort. Nothing is impossible. But that's an disastrous outcome for everyone - even creditors. If there is a bankruptcy filing, Chapter 11 reorganization is the path they will try to negotiate with creditors - even if the end goal of the reorganization is reduced debt and a better balance sheet to make the company more attractive to prospective buyers.

 

Think the final decade of Tribune's existence. Everything they did from bankruptcy until the deal closed with Nexstar (minus the whole Sinclair debacle) was done with the intention of getting the most money out of a merger. The print spinoff unloaded a financial problem, the LocalTV LLC Merger gave them scale.

 

Scripps will just need to move at an accelerated pace because they don't have money to grow, they already spun off print, and the clock is ticking with the imminent ownership deregulation.

 

There are considerable financial benefits to a seller with a sale structured as a merger with one company (and the buyer spins off any properties that regulators won't allow them to keep) rather than parts of the company being sold to multiple businesses. 

Edited March 7 by Recovering Producer

[Megatron81 258]

I feel sorry for those that lost their jobs at WXMI FOX17 and the sports department, I know Remi Monaghan left the business in Feb on her own terms good for her as she knew that she wasn't going to be renewed or saw the writing on the wall.

 

I see Scripps on the market and selling their TV stations shouldn't have bought ION in my opinion. And I wonder if Scripps hands in the FOX license for WXMI FOX17 I doubt it but it's a slim chance it happens. 

[channel2 978]

On 3/5/2025 at 9:21 PM, ns8401 said:

I bet Scripps gets broken up at some point. Expanding with the crappy groups they purchased over the years was dumb. 
 

No offense to the KMGH or WTMJ fans out there. 

 

Scripps has had some presence or another in Denver for more than a century (barring 2009 to 2011). KMGH wasn't just some random clunker they ended up being stuck with.

 

On 3/6/2025 at 12:10 AM, mre29 said:

 

Purchasing Ion and most of its O&O stations (over sixty of 'em!) and not doing anything with them beyond running daily marathons of procedural dramas (read: cop shows) from the last few decades and occasional live sports is particularly dumb. I doubt they're attracting any cord-cutters with that strategy.

 

 

They seemed to think Ion was another Food Network...

 

I feel like the company that had the ingenuity to put HGTV on the air and fleece Belo out of the Food Network is basically gone. The current Scripps Networks is not particularly inventive like the previous iteration was.

Edited March 10 by channel2

[ns8401 941]

7 hours ago, channel2 said:

 

Scripps has had some presence or another in Denver for more than a century (barring 2009 to 2011). KMGH wasn't just some random clunker they ended up being stuck with.

 

 

They seemed to think Ion was another Food Network...

 

I feel like the company that had the ingenuity to put HGTV on the air and fleece Belo out of the Food Network is basically gone. The current Scripps Networks is not particularly inventive like the previous iteration was.

Well actually the fact they had a prescence in Denver and that they bought McGraw Hill’s stations in 2011 are unrelated. Unless you know something the rest of us don’t. 
 

All shots aside… when Scripps Networks Interactive spun off the TV stations was when things started falling apart. Those purchases just put lipstick on a pig. 

Edited March 11 by ns8401

[TheRolyPoly 2409]

All non-national Las Vegas Aces games are moving from KVVU (mainly 5.2) to KMCC.

 

https://tvnewscheck.com/programming/article/scripps-sports-to-broadcast-regular-season-wnba-las-vegas-aces-games-on-vegas-34/?utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Scripps+Sports+To+Broadcast+Regular+Season+WNBA+Las+Vegas+Aces+Games+On+Vegas+34&utm_campaign=FCC’s+Gomez%3a+Trump+Administration+Is+Waging+'Aggressive+Campaign'+To+'Bring+Broadcasters...To+Heel'

[Howard Beale 57]

Let’s talk about something that’s a little more substantial…

 

Scripps recently released its latest financial report after a nearly one-month delay, and we finally know why.  The company needed the time to basically shore up its debt and kick the can a bit further down the road.  Even the delay itself didn’t buy Scripps enough time to have a financial report worth praising.

 

Here’s the total numbers for 2024 (with 2023 in parentheses for comparison) for Scripps Local Media:

• Core advertising: $552.2 million ($598.8 million)
• Political ad revenue: $342.8 million ($32.9 million)
• Retransmission/distribution revenue: $764 million ($752.3 million)

Political ad revenue clearly saved the Scripps budget, because core advertising took yet another hit.  Retransmission revenue grew from the previous year, but not by much.  Scripps doesn’t have too much leverage against cable and satellite companies as some of the bigger competitors do.  But it’s also possible that the cable and satellite companies have little juice left to squeeze out.

 

In short, Scripps is somehow still afloat, but the boat is definitely leaking.  Former KSTP news director Kirk Varner questions whether the bad news at Scripps could be a sign that some TV stations may eliminate local news altogether in 2025.

[TheRolyPoly 2409]

8 hours ago, Howard Beale said:

Let’s talk about something that’s a little more substantial…

 

Scripps recently released its latest financial report after a nearly one-month delay, and we finally know why.  The company needed the time to basically shore up its debt and kick the can a bit further down the road.  Even the delay itself didn’t buy Scripps enough time to have a financial report worth praising.

 

Here’s the total numbers for 2024 (with 2023 in parentheses for comparison) for Scripps Local Media:

• Core advertising: $552.2 million ($598.8 million)
• Political ad revenue: $342.8 million ($32.9 million)
• Retransmission/distribution revenue: $764 million ($752.3 million)

Political ad revenue clearly saved the Scripps budget, because core advertising took yet another hit.  Retransmission revenue grew from the previous year, but not by much.  Scripps doesn’t have too much leverage against cable and satellite companies as some of the bigger competitors do.  But it’s also possible that the cable and satellite companies have little juice left to squeeze out.

 

In short, Scripps is somehow still afloat, but the boat is definitely leaking.  Former KSTP news director Kirk Varner questions whether the bad news at Scripps could be a sign that some TV stations may eliminate local news altogether in 2025.

 

The article mentions WRTV. According to one email I read from FTVLive's Patreon... there could be a hint as to what could happen there. I won't say more as I took it with a grain of salt, but still...

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 915]

WXMI is joining the Scripps-ification movement -- less anchor desk time, more "neighborhood reporters"

[ns8401 941]

On 4/3/2025 at 4:35 PM, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

WXMI is joining the Scripps-ification movement -- less anchor desk time, more "neighborhood reporters"

The neighborhood reporters thing isn’t actually a bad concept. WXYZ is giving its plethora of reporters each a beat. And it’s sending them out to rustle the bushes for stories in their assigned area. All but a handful (5 or less) of their air talents are not from Detroit so the reporters they are hiring know the area. If you do it right it’s pretty workable. They haven’t reduced anchor time and the quality is much improved overall. So if done well it’s a win. Certainly an improvement over all the failed Scripps ideas. 

Edited April 6 by ns8401

[Megatron81 258]

I saw the anchorless newscast on Fri at 6:30PM Opening Day for the White Caps the morning team trying the new food items that look nasty and gross but I'm a picky eater. I don't really like the anchorless newscast they did have an update to a news story which was national before the weather.

 

And WXMI FOX17 cut the 5AM newscast on the weekends now Cirictlee movie review show at 5AM and The Pulse a political show from sister TV station WXYZ SAT & Sun.