Sinclair, Tribune Close to Merger Deal

[Samantha 2895]

I would think that KPPX would just move in to KSAZ's building.

 

I'm using KPPX as an example. Most stations have small facilities and I doubt they have major studios of their own. The exception might be existing stations that were bought (WPXC Brunswick, GA, the former WBSG, comes to mind). Even then, equipment replacement would need to be necessary.

[Megatron81 258]

I think WSYM wouldn't like WZPX having Fox as WZPX has duel markets Lansing & West Michigan although west of 131 even with OTA can't really get WZPX. If I were Fox only use WZPX as last resort try and flip WOTV Nexstar from ABC to Fox or TEGNA with WZZM also with ABC. Would be weird not seeing WXMI not with Fox or the Fox17 brand either.

[tyrannical bastard 3953]

As mentioned a few times before, it is likely a given that any market with an EXISTING Fox O&O would continue to be the Fox afflilate run by ION if such a deal would happen.

ION would simply be the responsible party to pay the bills and keep it running. All of the infrastructure is in place, provided that FOX doesn't strip it away when they "hand off" the stations.

Given ION's financial status and past skirmishes with bankruptcy, that could be an issue....but if Fox pays them in some kind of arrangement, it may work.

 

The investment would come into play IF Fox decides to pull their affiliations from Sinclair stations AND the Tribune deal closes, leaving those FOX affiliates to a similar fate.

 

If WJW loses their FOX affiliation, and WVPX gets it, you would have an AKRON station doing news again! Would they be an Akron-centric newscast?

 

Ok...getting a little far ahead of myself....goodnight.

[The Frog 429]

As mentioned a few times before, it is likely a given that any market with an EXISTING Fox O&O would continue to be the Fox afflilate run by ION if such a deal would happen.

That opens up more questions...what of the markets where you have a Fox/MyNet O&O duopoly AND an ION O&O? Who sells off? And what happens to the ION network?

 

ION would simply be the responsible party to pay the bills and keep it running.

Maybe I'm not understanding the deal completely. Is Fox intending to cede complete ownership and operation of their stations to ION? I'm under the impression that they're proposing a joint venture with ION in which they'll keep some degree of autonomy.

[nathannah 2429]

I'm assuming that this would be Ion taking care of the operational and license issues for Fox Television Stations in the future; Fox keeps the license along with any proprietary network infrastructure, but Ion is in charge of the stuff that doesn't go on the balance sheet, but more likely the existing FTS engineering staff becomes Ion employees, which will be different for that company since there's not much an Ion engineer does besides making sure the feeds are up and the transmitter is working (and some of them sub-contract that work out to other stations, especially if they share a tower with someone else). The good thing is that since the bottoming out in the 'i for infomercial' era, we've heard little to nothing about IMN having any money issues, and the leveling out of Ion's infomercials to the cable industry 3-9am standard is a perfect sign of that.

 

And Ion likely wouldn't go anywhere (on a good day it easily beats MyNet in good markets, and equals the CW when reruns are on). They still have two other networks to run in Qubo and Life. But I would expect the Shop TV infomercial pipe to die with zero protest, and QVC OTA and HSN OTA to be pushed off where there's no room for Light, Movies! or Buzzr. At this point, it's just a question of when Fox gives up on MyNet and when the syndication industry finally gives up on a sixth network not driving people to watch their (declining) shows; when you have more stations pushing it off to late night, when do you just give up and call it done? Outside of promotions, Sinclair has been a lousy partner for MyNet anyways and does the bare minimum to promote it.

[TheRob 937]

Doesn't everyone love being the pawn in a corporate chess game? Sinclair's stock fell 12% yesterday. If FOX wanted to send a message, I'd say they did.

[T.L. Hughes 890]

The onus would supposedly be on ION, which also is baffling.

 

I will be shocked if Fox actually pulls this off. Pulling their affiliations off of Sinclair is not that far-fetched; after all, multiple deals can be made with Raycom, Nexstar, Gray, TENGA, Cox and even Scripps for .2 subchannels or replacing other CW/My affiliations (where existing news departments can compensate for the newscast quandary). But that doesn't have the immediate impact to Sinclair's bottom line as a rumor like this.

 

Lastly... part of this can still be true. Maybe Fox really wants to get out of the O&O business, and they view ION a worthy candidate.

Another option for Fox if it cuts deals with the groups you mentioned would be to transfer the Fox affiliations to the main feeds of major network affiliates owned by those companies whose contracts with ABC, NBC and CBS are headed toward the end of their current term.

 

But as flawed as the plan might seem, it illustrates that Fox has some sort of gameplan to force Sinclair to divest some of its affiliates. Whether Sinclair receives that message, and values potential financial growth by retaining fewer Fox stations than it planned have after the Tribune deal is finalized over risking getting run over by the bus being driven by Fox... well, we'll have to see.

[CLETVFan 367]

As mentioned a few times before, it is likely a given that any market with an EXISTING Fox O&O would continue to be the Fox afflilate run by ION if such a deal would happen.

ION would simply be the responsible party to pay the bills and keep it running. All of the infrastructure is in place, provided that FOX doesn't strip it away when they "hand off" the stations.

Given ION's financial status and past skirmishes with bankruptcy, that could be an issue....but if Fox pays them in some kind of arrangement, it may work.

 

The investment would come into play IF Fox decides to pull their affiliations from Sinclair stations AND the Tribune deal closes, leaving those FOX affiliates to a similar fate.

 

If WJW loses their FOX affiliation, and WVPX gets it, you would have an AKRON station doing news again! Would they be an Akron-centric newscast?

 

Ok...getting a little far ahead of myself....goodnight.

 

I think the newscasts on WVPX would be more targeted towards Cleveland as opposed to all-Akron. Although, there should be more coverage for Akron and Canton.

 

Speaking of WVPX, their offices are located in Warrensville Heights (in the same area WCLV-FM used to be before they moved to ideastream in Downtown Cleveland). They would have to find new studios for newscasts or share with another station.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

Doesn't everyone love being the pawn in a corporate chess game? Sinclair's stock fell 12% yesterday. If FOX wanted to send a message, I'd say they did.

 

That's just one network playing their pawn. If all the networks start to retaliate - and the Trumpsters' attacks on the media might be what does it - then this could cascade out of control...

[CircleSeven 1955]

Some groups including DISH Network, and the American Cable Association was asking for extension of time in the comment period. The FCC rejected their request.

 

Meanwhile, the DOJ have issued a "second request" to the parties for more infomation about the deal, meaning this deal could very well be stretched into the new year.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

Some groups including DISH Network, and the American Cable Association was asking for extension of time in the comment period. The FCC rejected their request.

 

Meanwhile, the DOJ have issued a "second request" to the parties for more infomation about the deal, meaning this deal could very well be stretched into the new year.

 

From the sound of it, they may have to divest considerably to get both under the cap and clear all conflicts, and the "deep state" that Trump and Co. hate so much may have a big role to play here. They might even have to dig a bit deeper...

[TSSZNews 1051]

Doesn't everyone love being the pawn in a corporate chess game? Sinclair's stock fell 12% yesterday. If FOX wanted to send a message, I'd say they did.

 

So could SBG (or its top shareholders) theoretically sue FOX for driving their stock price down on what most of us agree is a bluff?

 

They might be able to prove harm on the dive alone. If it kills the acquisition (which I doubt) I wonder if they'd have a legit case.

[NEOMatrix 1299]

How would Fox airing on ION stations work if Fox were to go through with its threat? Would the stations air Fox programs 8-10PM with news after then ION the rest of the day? Or will Fox scrounge up some syndicated programming?

[MXSans2 64]

Move Ion to DT2 maybe?

[Samantha 2895]

Some groups including DISH Network, and the American Cable Association was asking for extension of time in the comment period. The FCC rejected their request.

 

Meanwhile, the DOJ have issued a "second request" to the parties for more infomation about the deal, meaning this deal could very well be stretched into the new year.

 

The second request by DOJ is significant. In the Gannett-Belo acquisition the second request later meant that DOJ intervened to force Gannett to spin off KMOV to another buyer.

[oklahomanewsman 210]

From the sound of it, they may have to divest considerably to get both under the cap and clear all conflicts, and the "deep state" that Trump and Co. hate so much may have a big role to play here. They might even have to dig a bit deeper...

Let's say, if the Justice Department tells SBG and Tribune that they have to divest a considerale amount of stations, which stations does Sinclair/Tribune divest?

[Rusty Muck 4374]

So could SBG (or its top shareholders) theoretically sue FOX for driving their stock price down on what most of us agree is a bluff?

 

They might be able to prove harm on the dive alone. If it kills the acquisition (which I doubt) I wonder if they'd have a legit case.

Considering that the merger was only possible due to Altji Paid Off's reinstalling of the UHF Discount, Fox can retort that they did what they thought was best to preserve their network's viability.

[ColDayNews 438]

So what happens in the markets that haven't had a Pax/ION station in years plus their Fox affiliate is owned by Sinclair?

 

(i.e. Columbus - hasn't had a full service ION affiliate since 2007 plus WTTE is owned by Sinclair through Cunningham ; Dayton - WDPX was sold to ACME and they became a de facto WB O&O. Ran ION secondarily through 2004. WRGT is owned by Sinclair, etc. The only other owners in these markets are Nexstar, Dispatch and Cox.)

 

I could see Fox purchasing their larger Sinclair stations (WTTE, WPGH, etc.) before yanking the affiliations.

[mre29 1525]

For the record, Ion owns stations in almost all of the markets that Fox owns stations in with the exception of Austin, Charlotte, and Gainesville -- and in the latter two, Ion is on subchannels of Fox O&Os. (In Austin, it's on a subchannel of KXAN.)

[Rusty Muck 4374]

Bloomberg has more details. It's a good read.

 

Apparently Fox and Sinclair have been on icy terms for years. And it's not the first time Fox has threatened to sever ties with Sinclair... it almost happened in 1996, when Fox wanted to expand programming beyond prime time, and Sinclair resisted.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

What other deals required a second review? I don't think Nexstar-Media General did, since they knew from day 1 that they wouldn't get away with everything and didn't even try - the stations were shopped around right away.

[mre29 1525]

So, I've been thinking about the Fox/Blackstone thing not going through...and I'm thinking it wasn't the right approach. Instead of that, Fox should have gone to several other station groups -- Hearst, Scripps, Raycom, Graham, etc. -- and said, "Look, it's in most everyone's best interest that the Sinclair is kept from buying Tribune. Let's pool our money together and make an offer, then split the stations up between us. We here at Fox only really want our affiliates, anyway. Who's with us?"

[ColtFromGulfcoast 708]

So, I've been thinking about the Fox/Blackstone thing not going through...and I'm thinking it wasn't the right approach. Instead of that, Fox should have gone to several other station groups -- Hearst, Scripps, Raycom, Graham, etc. -- and said, "Look, it's in most everyone's best interest that the Sinclair is kept from buying Tribune. Let's pool our money together and make an offer, then split the stations up between us. We here at Fox only really want our affiliates, anyway. Who's with us?"

 

Would have made a whole lot of sense. And they should have.

[Samantha 2895]

What other deals required a second review? I don't think Nexstar-Media General did, since they knew from day 1 that they wouldn't get away with everything and didn't even try - the stations were shopped around right away.

 

Gannett-Belo did in August 2013. Sinclair-Albritton also got second request-ed that year.

[David Salter JR 66]

Bloomberg has more details. It's a good read.

 

Apparently Fox and Sinclair have been on icy terms for years. And it's not the first time Fox has threatened to sever ties with Sinclair... it almost happened in 1996, when Fox wanted to expand programming beyond prime time, and Sinclair resisted.

was fox planning to enter the daytime soap buisness?