Sinclair, Tribune Close to Merger Deal

[DonDonP1 113]

One question I do have about the Sinclair/Tribune merger regards syndicated programming. Right now, a majority of the Tribune stations carry talk shows such as "Maury" and "Jerry Springer." "Crime Watch Daily" is carried by almost all of Tribune's stations, as well.

 

Is it possible that shows like "Maury" and "Springer" could be going away once the merger takes hold? Or is there a possibility of Sinclair producing/syndicating programming themselves? (Case in point: Sinclair with "Ring of Honor" pro wrestling, and Scripps with "The List" and "Right This Minute" [the latter in partnership with Raycom and Cox]).

 

Well, both Maury and Jerry, as well as Steve Wilkos, are produced and distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution.

[rkolsen 1678]

Well, both Maury and Jerry, as well as Steve Wilkos, are produced and distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution.

 

I think all three of those shows are carried on many of their stations.

[Megatron81 181]

Y'know, Sinclair could stick it to Fox by keeping the Fox affiliates and selling off KUTV, KOMO, WNEP, WHP, WWMT, and KFOR (and any sister stations, if need be).

 

WWMT makes more money than FOX17 I don't see Sinclair selling WWMT to take FOX17. I see FOX17 being a de facto Sinclair station since there shell takes the license of FOX17.

[Eat News 4738]

The newspaper (Chicago Tribune) has had a conservative viewpoint/approach for years not WGN-TV. If Sinclair decides to implement a conservative agenda/pov on WGN, it will be rejected by viewers. Not because it's a conservative pov, but because viewers here tend to not like opinions (of any kind) within a newscast (i.e..Jerry Springer/WMAQ disaster and pretty much every opinion-based format WFLD has ever tried).

 

I'm not sure this is the right forum to debate liberal or conservative agendas/pov within the media. What I will say is that newscasts (local ones in particular) shouldn't be used to push anything political.

 

But if I may...

News viewers have become segmented and seem to mostly prefer a slant that they agree with. Advocacy Journalism has mostly replaced real "non-biased" reporting.

 

Journalism for profit has failed.

Sadly, there is no desire or money for real reporting when stations are mostly servicing debt.

 

If the "opinion" shows a profit...look out.

[Megatron81 181]

http://sbgi.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/SBG-Trib-Final.pdf

 

Full press release. No mention at all was made of the fact that this deal, even with the UHF discount, still blows past the cap. The discount-adjusted reach will be 45.1% based on my calculations. They do admit that divestitures will be necessary in at least some conflict markets if the rules are not changed by Congress (I think 6 of the 14 markets are flagged as big trouble, 7 of them they could probably get away with and one - Washington DC - is no issue as WJLA and WDCW can legally form a duopoly). Still, to get down to 39% without touching the big market stations, they would have to either unload basically every other Tribune station being acquired, or sell some of their existing assets.

 

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/local-tv/sinclair-inks-deal-buy-tribune-39b/165584#.WRDRvkpSL90.twitter

 

Ripley is delusional if he thinks he can swap (as I previously mentioned) to ease the issue and expand the reach even more. Adding more assets in more markets will only put them even farther over the cap.

 

I agree about Ripley he is delusional if he thinks he can keep almost everything which Sinclair can't I agree with 6 markets which one of the 6 is West Michigan hoping DOJ tells them sell either keep WWMT or take FOX17. I believe if Sinclair does sell it will be FOX17 as WWMT is higher profile than FOX17.

[TSSZNews 1046]

I think all three of those shows are carried on many of their stations.

 

And I'm pretty sure many of them still rate well. The Trio of Trash™ ain't going anywhere any time soon.

 

But here's something not a lot of people are talking about with this deal: The homegrown Tribune tech Sinclair will now acquire.

 

Case in point (Source: http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/103819/diy-tv-tech-powers-tribune-newsrooms-mcs/ )

 

A confluence on circumstances, technology and vision in early 2008 set Tribune Broadcasting on a path few broadcasters choose to take: develop and maintain its own key television systems, including those in the newsroom and master control.

 

In total, Tribune has developed nine separate software-based systems running on off-the-shelf gaming-level computers.

 

Trib built and owns its own Master Control management system, its own Newsroom system, a CG system for social media, video playout ,and on and on. I can't imagine Sinclair would want to get rid of that and not build upon that, since it would reduce costs a ton, affording more in the budget to buy more stations

 

On the flip side, I wonder how some of the vendors like Chyron or Grass Valley feel about the prospect of their client footprint being slashed significantly practically overnight. A lot of the industry's support system--not just the broadcasters themselves--stand to lose a lot if this goes through.

[Jase 818]

But if I may...

News viewers have become segmented and seem to mostly prefer a slant that they agree with. Advocacy Journalism has mostly replaced real "non-biased" reporting.

 

That may apply to cable news, but I wouldn't say that it has reached the local level (not here anyway). Do viewers have favorites? Yes, but that's based largely on an individual (not that individual's opinions) and/or a newscast format/presentation. There are times certain things can slip through. A Joel Waldman report often sounds more 'conservative' than a report from Doug Luzader, which is more straight forward/non partisan. But there is not much WFLD can do about that.

 

Nevertheless, given I have never seen a newscast on a Sinclair-owned station, I don't know what's in store for WGN. But if Sinclair starts pushing a conservative angle /tampers too much with what works for WGN, it won't be good.

[MetroCity 247]

But here's something not a lot of people are talking about with this deal: The homegrown Tribune tech Sinclair will now acquire.

 

Case in point (Source: http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/103819/diy-tv-tech-powers-tribune-newsrooms-mcs/ )

 

Trib built and owns its own Master Control management system, its own Newsroom system, a CG system for social media, video playout ,and on and on. I can't imagine Sinclair would want to get rid of that and not build upon that, since it would reduce costs a ton, affording more in the budget to buy more stations

 

That puff piece aside, I wouldn't be surprised if the first thing Sinclair does is dump all the Tribune homegrown stuff. Nobody who uses it, likes it. Tribune rarely asks eventual end-users for input before or after something is deployed at its stations. It does not interface or work with any standard products out there. It can only be installed or repaired by a very limited staff of Tribune corporate engineers who know how it works. Only the commercial servers have a back-up. If anything goes down, you sit and wait for someone to figure out who to call for advice. (The newsroom system alone is legendary for how absolutely bad it is.)

 

I don't think keeping the Tribune tech would save a penny. It would require its own dedicated developers and maintenance departments. Plus Sinclair would have to find a way to allow it to interface with the rest of their stations and systems. Instead, with its sheer size, Sinclair can do what Walmart does: negotiate the biggest discounts imaginable with every single vendor.

[mrschimpf 2059]

As a conservative, I can say that it's about time that conservatives got more of a prominence in the media. However, this wasn't the way I had in mind. To be fair though, Tribune has always leaned conservative.

 

Exactly, and besides, hasn't Tribune been a conservative media company for years now?

 

We all forget about KAUT in Oklahoma City, which is basically the most brazen 'Murica' station out there with a military-pandering newscast and that awful 'Freedom 43' branding. Thankfully if SBG has any sense, it'll be Stirked into a H&I/Comet robofeed or have its license turned in since it would take six seconds to light it up on 25.4 (the station should have been gone several times over the years).

 

Well, both Maury and Jerry, as well as Steve Wilkos, are produced and distributed by NBCUniversal Television Distribution.

 

They're not going anywhere; they're all produced on the backs of CT's taxpayers and basically print money since all you need is a few PAs looking to get into the business and people in conflict. Both are always going to exist (though I do wonder about Robert Irvine's buzz-free Tribune-produced show on the CW; will SBG finally spare that show an HD camera? ).

[rkolsen 1678]

That puff piece aside, I wouldn't be surprised if the first thing Sinclair does is dump all the Tribune homegrown stuff. Nobody who uses it, likes it. Tribune rarely asks eventual end-users for input before or after something is deployed at its stations. It does not interface or work with any standard products out there. It can only be installed or repaired by a very limited staff of Tribune corporate engineers who know how it works. Only the commercial servers have a back-up. If anything goes down, you sit and wait for someone to figure out who to call for advice. (The newsroom system alone is legendary for how absolutely bad it is.)

 

I don't think keeping the Tribune tech would save a penny. It would require its own dedicated developers and maintenance departments. Plus Sinclair would have to find a way to allow it to interface with the rest of their stations and systems. Instead, with its sheer size, Sinclair can do what Walmart does: negotiate the biggest discounts imaginable with every single vendor.

 

As a tech geek can you elaborate a bit more?

[mardek1995 200]

And aren't we forgetting that it's not just a wider spread conservative platform that Sinclair is after, but also a bigger roster in the field of local sports?

 

And didn't Sinclair at one point want to buy Renaissance broadcasting before Tribune got their hands on it instead?

[atlnews2 557]

So Sinclair seems to believe that they will only face conflicts in St. Louis, Scranton/Wilkes Barre, and Salt Lake City. The fact that they believe they won't have a problem in Seattle, Harrisburg, and West Michigan is bizarre.

 

http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/5/12/sinclairtribunes-conflicted-markets

[thetxisdown 0]

I see a bunch of references to the speculatron- Is this an inside joke or is this a different forum? I can't find anything-

[Georgie56 3066]

So Sinclair seems to believe that they will only face conflicts in St. Louis, Scranton/Wilkes Barre, and Salt Lake City. The fact that they believe they won't have a problem in Seattle, Harrisburg, and West Michigan is bizarre.

 

http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/5/12/sinclairtribunes-conflicted-markets

 

Well, they have a conflict in San Antonio and that seems to be going fine.

[nickp 296]

Meredith could see an opportunity to get a Des Moines station, its home market. Fox could see an opportunity to get its much desired Seattle-Tacoma O&O, and the Seahawks being a competitive NFC franchise.

[TheRolyPoly 1847]

So Sinclair seems to believe that they will only face conflicts in St. Louis, Scranton/Wilkes Barre, and Salt Lake City. The fact that they believe they won't have a problem in Seattle, Harrisburg, and West Michigan is bizarre.

 

http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/5/12/sinclairtribunes-conflicted-markets

 

They also have a conflict in Mobile/Pensacola (WEAR-WFGX and WPMI-WJTC) and for some reason, that's going well.

[oklahomanewsman 210]

So Sinclair seems to believe that they will only face conflicts in St. Louis, Scranton/Wilkes Barre, and Salt Lake City. The fact that they believe they won't have a problem in Seattle, Harrisburg, and West Michigan is bizarre.

 

http://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2017/5/12/sinclairtribunes-conflicted-markets

Yeah that's baloney in those 3 markets Sinclair will have to do something in those markets listed above.

[oklahomanewsman 210]

Meredith could see an opportunity to get a Des Moines station, its home market. Fox could see an opportunity to get its much desired Seattle-Tacoma O&O, and the Seahawks being a competitive NFC franchise.

Also Cox has an opportunity to move down the Turner Turnpike/I-44 and buy KOKH and KOCB creating both a corporate, network and sister station scenario with KOKI/KMYT that would similar to that of KWTV/KSBI and KOTV/KQCW.

[TheRob 920]

As a tech geek can you elaborate a bit more?

 

As someone who uses the stuff, yes, it's imperfect. We often say "Thanks, Hank!" if something goes wrong. But most of my problems are VIZ-related, not necessarily Tribune-related.

 

My opinion is Sinclair will dump the Hank-ware. What's more cost-effective, adding 40 stations to an existing system, or adding 150+ stations to an existing system? I know what I would choose.

[jbnews 344]

They are all going to be fired so quickly, and that freakin' sucks, but at least they're going out in style.

 

That's IF the deal goes through. So there is some hope, but not much. When will the Democrats, station groups, and free media groups take this to court?

[MXSans2 64]

WWMT makes more money than FOX17 I don't see Sinclair selling WWMT to take FOX17. I see FOX17 being a de facto Sinclair station since there shell takes the license of FOX17.

But Fox17 has NFC Football, because it broadcast Chicago's football team and the Lions (idk what is Chicago's team. I don't pay attention in football)

[oklahomanewsman 210]

But Fox17 has NFC Football, because it broadcast Chicago's football team and the Lions (idk what is Chicago's team. I don't pay attention in football)

Da Bears

[24994J 5276]

Da Bears

[Rusty Muck 4167]

And I'm pretty sure many of them still rate well. The Trio of Trash™ ain't going anywhere any time soon.

 

But here's something not a lot of people are talking about with this deal: The homegrown Tribune tech Sinclair will now acquire.

 

Case in point (Source: http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/103819/diy-tv-tech-powers-tribune-newsrooms-mcs/ )

 

 

 

Trib built and owns its own Master Control management system, its own Newsroom system, a CG system for social media, video playout ,and on and on. I can't imagine Sinclair would want to get rid of that and not build upon that, since it would reduce costs a ton, affording more in the budget to buy more stations

 

On the flip side, I wonder how some of the vendors like Chyron or Grass Valley feel about the prospect of their client footprint being slashed significantly practically overnight. A lot of the industry's support system--not just the broadcasters themselves--stand to lose a lot if this goes through.

Sinclair, to the best of my knowledge, has not set an equipment or CG standard among all their acquisitions. That's been the primary limitation with their standardized graphics, and could explain why they are so ridiculously blando.

 

Plus I forgot about the automated master control system Tribune was developing. Good lord.

[TSSZNews 1046]

From today's NY Daily News (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/disgraced-bill-o-reilly-scouted-conservative-media-outlets-article-1.3158226)--

 

Sources tell Mediablast that (Bill) O’Reilly is also being pursued by executives at Sinclair, a huge right-leaning broadcaster.

 

...The family that controls the company — four brothers: David, Robert, Frederick and J. Duncan Smith — are reportedly considering a plan to transform wide-reaching WGN into a conservative all-news network to compete with Fox.

 

Welp.