Nexstar bids for Media General

[newsie 11]

And then there's this...

 

MEDIA GENERAL, INC. SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Former SEC Attorney Willie Briscoe and Powers Taylor LLP Believe the Acquisition by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. May Be Unfair to Shareholders

[mre29 1359]

I highly agree!!! Now even I'm involved in it and I am now considering leaving TVNT!

 

Be sure to leave some exclamation marks for the rest of us to use.

 

I'm talking about the possibility that Perry Sook may be involved in the black market business and may have sent someone to kill MG's chairman and make it look like the accident that we've recently heard of.

 

Uhhhh....and just where did you read or hear this theory?

[A3N 996]

No, because where the forum and TVNT in general is now because of the direction taken sucks!!!

Here's some sobering news... You have no one to blame but yourself. The amount of contradictory, naive and incessant baseless posting by you is driving people away. The fact that you're creating this conspiracy theory about Nexstar and the death of the MG executive without so much as shred of evidence shows that you need to stop posting. I don't want to be rude, but you really need to take a break, seriously.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

I needed a good laugh after hearing about this.

 

Nexstar has really become the TV equivalent of Clear Channel Radio/iheartMedia. They buy TV stations, cut the costs of them down to the bone to the point that they're all homogonized clones of one another. And the best part is that they try to slap on the word "Local" to their branding in a vain attempt to convince themselves that they really are.

 

The biggest losers are the MG stations. Those stations are going to be cut to the bone where they're nothing but hollow versions of their old selves. Stations like WFLA, KXAN, WAVY, KHON, KOIN, etc. I feel for anything who works at these stations right now.

 

The biggest winners besides the shareholders are the competitors to these stations. For example, WTSP could take away a lot of WFLA's viewers if Tegna decided to invest in the station and possibly poach talent that Nexstar cuts from WFLA.

 

Still it's a sad day for Local TV.

 

Using that example, one challenge WTSP has is they lack a sister outlet (I believe) to run additional newscasts, including a 10 pm newscast and an extended morning show where CBS network programming is running. Maybe if Tegna can talk to Hearst nicely, they could use WMOR as a secondary outlet and perhaps acquire it. If WFLA makes cuts, those spots become openings for talent poached away. Also they could likely gain more news on weekend mornings, but that doesn't usually involve established talent but rather gains from smaller markets that move up. I doubt any Nexstar cuts would involve smaller markets to nearly the same degree it would hit the big markets though (if there are any, many of their smaller stations have actually been hiring lately)...

[Samantha 2878]

And then there's this...

 

MEDIA GENERAL, INC. SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Former SEC Attorney Willie Briscoe and Powers Taylor LLP Believe the Acquisition by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. May Be Unfair to Shareholders

That's just generic boilerplate. See... http://finance.yahoo.com/news/talmer-bancorp-inc-shareholder-alert-205500676.html

[IndyNewsOpens 83]

Huh, kind of unimportant, but RabbitEars is listing MG stations as Nexstar now.

 

http://www.rabbitears.info/tvq.php?request=items&facid=39269

[GoldenShine9 1509]

Huh, kind of unimportant, but RabbitEars is listing MG stations as Nexstar now.

 

http://www.rabbitears.info/tvq.php?request=items&facid=39269

 

That is especially premature for stations like WSLS, WANE, KLFY, KWQC, WBAY and WTHI that may not end up with Nexstar in the end...

 

Update: I looked at the site, and the conflict stations have not been updated yet. After all, Nexstar cannot acquire those stations unless they sell their existing assets.

[mardek1995 200]

And then there's this...

 

MEDIA GENERAL, INC. SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Former SEC Attorney Willie Briscoe and Powers Taylor LLP Believe the Acquisition by Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. May Be Unfair to Shareholders

Finally, some hope to calm the stress and eventfulness that we've all been through from tracking the drama that Media General got thrown into by Nexstar (you probably know what I'm talking about by now, because some of the posts I put on this forum are a great example of the stress and hype from said M&A situation). And now that I think about it, Meredith Media General was/is actually a more fair deal than Nexstar Media Group, even with its print media, which now that I think about that more, if Better Homes and Gardens can still be found online after the print version goes out, why would they treat it as print media?

 

That is especially premature for stations like WSLS, WANE, KLFY, KWQC, WBAY and WTHI that may not end up with Nexstar in the end...

 

Update: I looked at the site, and the conflict stations have not been updated yet. After all, Nexstar cannot acquire those stations unless they sell their existing assets.

And if the deal is declared unfair for shareholders (which I'm hoping it will be because the Nexstar Media Group deal rips off of everyone involved), they won't acquire any of MG's stations. If it isn't found unfair, then I will want to pull my hair out and shout "F U NEXSTAR for ripping off everyone involved!!!". I'm sorry, but it's that kind of stress that I just mentioned, so let's all calm down.

 

By the way, even Cox opposes the Nexstar-Media General deal because they (and Sincrap) could jack up retrans fees if they do manage to get the Nexstar Media Group deal through: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/currency/cox-plans-oppose-nexstar-media-general/147347

[Eat News 4738]

Be sure to leave some exclamation marks for the rest of us to use.

 

 

 

Uhhhh....and just where did you read or hear this theory?

 

Why does everyone suddenly blame Putin for everything?

[Eat News 4738]

Huh, kind of unimportant, but RabbitEars is listing MG stations as Nexstar now.

 

http://www.rabbitears.info/tvq.php?request=items&facid=39269

 

Next thing ya know they are killing off Abe Vigoda...

[elfuego35 89]

Finally, some hope to calm the stress and eventfulness that we've all been through from tracking the drama that Media General got thrown into by Nexstar (you probably know what I'm talking about by now, because some of the posts I put on this forum are a great example of the stress and hype from said M&A situation). And now that I think about it, Meredith Media General was/is actually a more fair deal than Nexstar Media Group, even with its print media, which now that I think about that more, if Better Homes and Gardens can still be found online after the print version goes out, why would they treat it as print media?

 

And if the deal is declared unfair for shareholders (which I'm hoping it will be because the Nexstar Media Group deal rips off of everyone involved), they won't acquire any of MG's stations. If it isn't found unfair, then I will want to pull my hair out and shout "F U NEXSTAR for ripping off everyone involved!!!". I'm sorry, but it's that kind of stress that I just mentioned, so let's all calm down.

 

By the way, even Cox opposes the Nexstar-Media General deal because they (and Sincrap) could jack up retrans fees if they do manage to get the Nexstar Media Group deal through: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/currency/cox-plans-oppose-nexstar-media-general/147347

 

These kinds of investigations are created when one segment of shareholders hold sour grapes towards a company for doing something not in THEIR best interests, and unless it is the SEC or Justice Department themselves leading the investigation, very little typcially come out of these.

 

Nice of Cox being hyprocritical, they want higher retrans for their stations, yet want every other ownership group to pay lower fees for placement on their cable systems.

[oklahomanewsman 210]

Using that example, one challenge WTSP has is they lack a sister outlet (I believe) to run additional newscasts, including a 10 pm newscast and an extended morning show where CBS network programming is running. Maybe if Tegna can talk to Hearst nicely, they could use WMOR as a secondary outlet and perhaps acquire it. If WFLA makes cuts, those spots become openings for talent poached away. Also they could likely gain more news on weekend mornings, but that doesn't usually involve established talent but rather gains from smaller markets that move up. I doubt any Nexstar cuts would involve smaller markets to nearly the same degree it would hit the big markets though (if there are any, many of their smaller stations have actually been hiring lately)...

Or they could buy WTOG from CBS if they wanted. but it looks like for WFLA their loss is WTSP, WTVT and WFTS' gain in my opinion.

[hathawaynson2 38]

Next thing ya know they are killing off Abe Vigoda...

What does Abe Vigoda have any thing to do with the Media General/Nexstar merger?

[DirtyHarry 721]

Sure there was/is a conspiracy involved with this deal. It's called money and power; however, I am sure his age (77-years-old), the stress from this crazy deal and whatever injuries he had with his neck was just too much. Just read some of the comments on this thread and it's very evident that the stress is taking its toll on some of the people on this website!!!

 

If there was stress from anything it was the stress of taking a once proud company that has been in the family for generations, and all the value that was destroyed when they bought (overpaid) for the four NBC stations back in 2006.

[T.L. Hughes 765]

I just thought of something. Nexstar doesn't like sub channels. Almost all MG's stations have a sub channel or two. Maybe it's time for Nexstar to rethink that. Ugh first Sinclair and now Nexstar on big ownerships.

Nexstar's mood about subchannels is more indifference than dislike. A RabbitEars group search on the Nexstar stations shows that of the stations it already owned before even the KXMC station and West Virginia Media acquisitions shows that 54 of its stations have subchannels; a few are simulcasts of either the station's main feed or a sister station whose signal doesn't reach the entire market because of low-power status or transmitter location, but there are stations that carry affiliations with Me-TV, Estrella TV, Movies!, Comet and Bounce TV as well as subchannel-only affiliates of Fox, MyNetworkTV, Telemundo and The CW (and one independent station-formatted subchannel). Bounce has the most Nexstar-run affiliates of any of the mentioned multicast networks.

 

Still, there is the fact that it did drop subchannels from its stations in past acquisitions, though I think the last time that happened was when WFFF lost the CW affiliation on its DT2 to WPTZ. Also, other than carrying Bounce TV on a handful of stations, it is the only major station group without a group affiliation deal with a multicast network (now that Meredith has an agreement with Katz Broadcasting).

 

If not, then WNTZ would be a tough one to sell given its situation, and selling WJTV would separate it from its satellite WHLT.

 

WFRV has the issue with its semi-satellite WJMN? That would be a signal to keep them. Personally I think WBAY gets resold and the WFRV-WJMN partnership is not broken.

There is a similar situation with WFXR/WWCW. Neither covers the entire Roanoke-Lynchburg market, since WWCW's signal doesn't reach much of the New River Valley region because its transmitter is farther westward than WFXR's. The two simulcast one another because of this (in the same manner as KNWA/KFTA and WCIA/WCIX, with WFXR's Fox programming airing on WCWW's second subchannel and vice versa).

 

Nexstar's only option for WFXR and WWCW is to either sell both off or shell them with WSLS (if they take the latter route, which is a 50/50 shot even though the FCC's been a bit more scrutinizing with LMA/JSA/SSAs recently, as I mentioned before, it would have meant the investment it made to create a news department for WFXR would have been an utter waste); however, even though those two's signals overlap a little more post-digital transition, selling one off to create a new duopoly with WSLS might not be an option.

 

Anyone suspect the recently announced Cox-Meredith "partnership" turns into something more (a sale) now that Meredith lost MG to Nexstar? Both have publishing holdings in addition to TV. Seems like a potentially better fit.

A Meredith-Hearst Merger might make sense as well either way if Meredith merges with either one of those companies, it would then consolidate it's Newspaper, Publishing and Magazines with the TV Stations in a time in which companies such as Tribune are splitting up TV and Newspapers to focus solely on the TV stations.

If Cox and Meredith merged though, the limited market overlap would make it easier to find buyers in their two conflict markets, particularly in Atlanta, where WGCL and the LMA with WPCH would have to be sold off in any event because of Cox's grandfathered ownership of the Journal-Constitution and the WSB television and radio stations. Though, how much overlap would there be with a Meredith-Hearst merger? The only markets that jump out in my head as conflict markets between those two are Kansas City and Greenville.

[NWA_TV_guy 148]

If there was stress from anything it was the stress of taking a once proud company that has been in the family for generations, and all the value that was destroyed when they bought (overpaid) for the four NBC stations back in 2006.

That doesn't make it any better either. Now Nexstar will deal with it.

[tyrannical bastard 3541]

I think I figured out Nexstar's "Local" obsession..... (with apologies to South Park - episode "Starvin' Marvin' in space)

I think I can explain this whole thing. Local, these locals want to change your local. They don't want Local or any of these locals to live here because it's bad for their local. They use Local to try and

force locals to believe they're local. If you let them stay here, they will build locals and locals. They will take all your locals and replace them with Local. These local have no good local to live on local, so they must come here to Local. Please, let these locals stay where they can grow and prosper without any locals, locals, eh or locals.

 

So in other words, Perry Sook and company came down from the planet Local to bring us all local.

[mardek1995 200]

I think I figured out Nexstar's "Local" obsession..... (with apologies to South Park - episode "Starvin' Marvin' in space)

I think I can explain this whole thing. Local, these locals want to change your local. They don't want Local or any of these locals to live here because it's bad for their local. They use Local to try and

force locals to believe they're local. If you let them stay here, they will build locals and locals. They will take all your locals and replace them with Local. These local have no good local to live on local, so they must come here to Local. Please, let these locals stay where they can grow and prosper without any locals, locals, eh or locals.

 

So in other words, Perry Sook and company came down from the planet Local to bring us all local.

Complete with local ads and local content, among other local stuff

[oklahomanewsman 210]

If Cox and Meredith merged though, the limited market overlap would make it easier to find buyers in their two conflict markets, particularly in Atlanta, where WGCL and the LMA with WPCH would have to be sold off in any event because of Cox's grandfathered ownership of the Journal-Constitution and the WSB television and radio stations. Though, how much overlap would there be with a Meredith-Hearst merger? The only markets that jump out in my head as conflict markets between those two are Kansas City and Greenville.

I just researched and those would be the only conflicts I could see in terms of stations. Atlanta (if Meredith and Cox decide to Merge) Kansas City and Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson (if Meredith and Hearst merge) I think if Cox and Meredith merge WPCH could be acquired outright by Cox and officially create a duopoly with either WGCL or WSB. Now what would be the total percentage of U.S. Households would the combined company have should Meredith merge with one of them? Because there would be 33 stations if Cox and Meredith merge and if Hearst and Meredith merge there would be anywhere between 44 and 46 stations owned by the new company.

[T.L. Hughes 765]

I just researched and those would be the only conflicts I could see in terms of stations. Atlanta (if Meredith and Cox decide to Merge) Kansas City and Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson (if Meredith and Hearst merge) I think if Cox and Meredith merge WPCH could be acquired outright by Cox and officially create a duopoly with either WGCL or WSB. Now what would be the total percentage of U.S. Households would the combined company have should Meredith merge with one of them? Because there would be 33 stations if Cox and Meredith merge and if Hearst and Meredith merge there would be anywhere between 44 and 46 stations owned by the new company.

I don't see WPCH being acquired by Cox if it did merge with Meredith. As I pointed out, Cox operates the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the WSB television and radio stations under a grandfather clause. So it's probable that acquiring WPCH would violate that crossownership protection, forcing it to split up the newspaper from its co-owned broadcast properties in Atlanta.

 

Also, WSB is the highest-rated television station in the market, and one of Cox's strongest stations, so its unlikely that Cox would sell it to buy fourth-place WGCL.

 

Two other notes, Media General has renewed Hollywood Today Live for a second season. However, its future is already undecided past that point since Perry Sook stated last week that he doesn't believe that broadcast groups should be in the syndication business (in apparent ignorance to the relative success Tribune had doing it until its original syndication division folded). The renewal was primarily due to Fox Television Stations agreeing to continue carrying the show; 20th Television could take over production entirely should Nexstar back out.

 

Secondly, Media General has also reached an affiliation agreement with GetTV that took effect today (February 1), covering 20 of its stations. Again, Nexstar has shown... indifference... to subchannels but has agreements with a few multicast networks, so it's a toss-up whether the agreement will continue after the merger gets finalized.

[oklahomanewsman 210]

I don't see WPCH being acquired by Cox if it did merge with Meredith. As I pointed out, Cox operates the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the WSB television and radio stations under a grandfather clause. So it's probable that acquiring WPCH would violate that crossownership protection, forcing it to split up the newspaper from its co-owned broadcast properties in Atlanta.

 

Also, WSB is the highest-rated television station in the market, and one of Cox's strongest stations, so its unlikely that Cox would sell it to buy fourth-place WGCL.

 

Two other notes, Media General has renewed Hollywood Today Live for a second season. However, its future is already undecided past that point since Perry Sook stated last week that he doesn't believe that broadcast groups should be in the syndication business (in apparent ignorance to the relative success Tribune had doing it until its original syndication division folded). The renewal was primarily due to Fox Television Stations agreeing to continue carrying the show; 20th Television could take over production entirely should Nexstar back out.

 

Secondly, Media General has also reached an affiliation agreement with GetTV that took effect today (February 1), covering 20 of its stations. Again, Nexstar has shown... indifference... to subchannels but has agreements with a few multicast networks, so it's a toss-up whether the agreement will continue after the merger gets finalized.

So then they would have to end the LMA with WPCH either way right?

[DirtyHarry 721]

So in other words, Perry Sook and company came down from the planet Local to bring us all local.

 

I didn't realize that Perry Sook was an Ohio University graduate and he got his start in sales at WOWK-TV!

[mardek1995 200]

I didn't realize that Perry Sook was an Ohio University graduate and he got his start in sales at WOWK-TV!

And that's half the reason why Perry Sook wanted to acquire West Virginia Media Holdings. The other half is WHAG complementing said station group's coverage.

[scrabbleship 427]

And that's half the reason why Perry Sook wanted to acquire West Virginia Media Holdings. The other half is WHAG complementing said station group's coverage.

 

I wonder when WHAG's 5:30 will get succeeded by Tonight Live which is produced out of WBOY. Right now WJAL airs it but I would like to think that Nexstar would like their programming on their station.

[tyrannical bastard 3541]

Perry and his wife Sandy are major benefactors for the construction an academic center for student athletes at Ohio University.

https://www.ohio.edu/compass/stories/14-15/9/sook-academic-center-campaign-Sept-2014.cfm

 

 

At one time, he even donated airtime on some of his stations to air Ohio University ads.

 

Maybe now he can out-donate Scripps to get the naming rights to their College of Communication? Before, they only had the Journalism Program and its home, Scripps Hall.