Sinclair, Tribune Close to Merger Deal

[T.L. Hughes 751]

Chris just needs to sit down somewhere. He comes off as uneducated.

Not uneducated, insofar as it makes him (and the company he works for) look demonstrably greeeeedy.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

There's always the Hallmark Channel.

 

Or their .3's (assuming MNTV on their .2's).

[tyrannical bastard 3464]

If this ION joint venture becomes a reality, Nexstar could be a HUGE beneficiary because of a large number of ION subchannels they run in markets that don't already have an ION station, and a Sinclair or Tribune Fox affiliate.

 

And how many fringe signals does ION still have?

[Action Newsroom 1150]

This Fox/Ion partnership sounds agreeably weird and far-fetched, but adding that they don't have to deal with Sinclair with an iron fist on a significant basis, it's not exactly all the way terrible. (Although they still should've fought harder for the Tribune stations when they had the chance like they wished they should have now.)

[mre29 1340]

This Fox/Ion partnership sounds agreeably weird and far-fetched, but adding that they don't have to deal with Sinclair with an iron fist on a significant basis, it's not exactly all the way terrible. (Although they still should've fought harder for the Tribune stations when they had the chance like they wished they should have now.)

 

THIS.

[MidwestTV 1173]

Man, whatever hurts Sinclair and slows them down or puts them in their place, I'm all for.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

Chris just needs to sit down somewhere. He comes off as uneducated.

Isn't that a résumé requirement for most conservative pundits/FNC opinion hosts?

[DonDonP1 113]

Don't forget, Fox wants a NFC station. For all we know, this might be the only divestiture that Sinclair might do in order to keep the Fox gods happy.

 

Precisely. Let's hope 21CF would buy the Tribune Media-owned Seattle stations sometime before Sinclair's acquisition of Tribune Media is complete, since the Tribune-Fox deal for KCPQ to remain affilaited with Fox ends in 2018. Oh, sorry I almost forgot. Seattle does have TWO network-owned stations: the CBS-owned KSTW CW 11 and the Ion O&O KWPX.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

This Fox/Ion partnership sounds agreeably weird and far-fetched, but adding that they don't have to deal with Sinclair with an iron fist on a significant basis, it's not exactly all the way terrible. (Although they still should've fought harder for the Tribune stations when they had the chance like they wished they should have now.)

I dunno, if this crashes the valuation of Sinclair (and Tribune) and sinks the merger... anything's fair game.

 

Seriously, I think that Fox made up their minds to interfere with this merger once Sinclair publicly began doubling down with Osama bin Epshteyn.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

There's another BIG part of this Fox-ION deal people are missing... Fox would be handing off day-to-day operation control of their O&Os to ION as part of the arrangement.

 

So that means Fox would be technically leaving the O&O scene.

 

That this is happening as Rupert Murdoch is inevitably going to hand over control of his media empire to his sons should not be lost on anyone. Most may have been wondering what his sons will do to FNC, but never considered what they want to do with the Fox Broadcasting Company.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

This Fox/Ion partnership sounds agreeably weird and far-fetched, but adding that they don't have to deal with Sinclair with an iron fist on a significant basis, it's not exactly all the way terrible. (Although they still should've fought harder for the Tribune stations when they had the chance like they wished they should have now.)

 

I think they felt that Fox would be left with a) too many stations they would have to dispose of anyway, and b) too many non-Fox stations.

[A3N 996]

There's another BIG part of this Fox-ION deal people are missing... Fox would be handing off day-to-day operation control of their O&Os to ION as part of the arrangement.

 

So that means Fox would be technically leaving the O&O scene.

 

That this is happening as Rupert Murdoch is inevitably going to hand over control of his media empire to his sons should not be lost on anyone. Most may have been wondering what his sons will do to FNC, but never considered what they want to do with the Fox Broadcasting Company.

Seems similar to the arrangement they were going to have with Blackstone. This ION deal seems like it could be a much more lucrative deal for FOX than a deal with Sinclair. This is how you take leverage away from Sinclair. What they do next, we shall see...

[atlnews2 557]

If Fox really wanted to stop Sinclair then they should have bid for Tribune, or at the very least file some sort of legal document with regulators/courts saying don't make this deal go through.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

If Fox really wanted to stop Sinclair then they should have bid for Tribune, or at the very least file some sort of legal document with regulators/courts saying don't make this deal go through.

Yanking affiliations across the board will be devastating to Sinclair and puts the merger in serious jeopardy.

 

Remember that when NBC pulled their affiliation off of KRON, their value plummeted by astronomical levels. Young Broadcasting fell apart, and the station has never recovered. Likewise, consummation of the LIN-MediaGeneral merger got held up for a period of time after the WISH-CBS affiliation debacle.

 

David Smith only cares about the amount of money his stations bring in. And Fox is threatening to take untold revenue away from him if he goes through with this. It's become personal.

[nickp 296]

Leo Kulp warns that “this may be a negotiating ploy.” Ion doesn’t have local news, sales, or an engineering infrastructure. The loss of local news “and lead-in programming could have a meaningfully negative impact on Fox primetime ratings.”

[tyrannical bastard 3464]

The one thing that both Sinclair and ION have in common is reach.

 

In a way, it could be a trade off....it makes ION a relevant part of broadcasting, and Sinclair losing FOX (and possibly other networks) as irrelevant as PAX and ION have been....

[mrschimpf 2060]

Fox-Sinclair markets (assuming no divestments) with an Ion O&O:

 

That would get them an affiliate in 25 of the 56 Fox-Sinclair markets. The other 31 would have to involve piping in on cable, buying a signal or affiliating with someone else.

 

WBAY/Green Bay is in play too if Fox looks to flee WLUK (they affiliate with ION on DT3); remember that Gray worked like heck in Wausau to get WFXS to shut down and grab the Fox affiliation for WSAW despite some inconvenice at the start of Packers season, and WBAY has a DT2 subchannel carrying automated weather they would flip in a second to Fox. There's also 3ABN selling off their OTA translators, including W30BU, and that would be the perfect place to put a low-power repeater of that. And WBAY desperately wants to do more with the Packers than air a random wild card game every few years, as last year was the first time in their history they didn't carry a game. Of all the ownership shuffles in GB, WBAY is in the catbird seat as WFRV and WLUK play one-upsmanship with each other and WGBA is stabilizing.

 

Either way, this deal is very interesting.

[Rusty Muck 4167]

Leo Kulp warns that “this may be a negotiating ploy.” Ion doesn’t have local news, sales, or an engineering infrastructure. The loss of local news “and lead-in programming could have a meaningfully negative impact on Fox primetime ratings.”

Even if it's a negotiating ploy, it's pretty damn serious and should not be taken lightly.

 

This is Fox we're talking about. They didn't get where they are today by playing nice or by not taking massive risks. The 1994 New World pact is Exhibit A.

[compubit 670]

Could some of the rimshot ION stations "change" markets? I'm thinking of DC/Baltimore. DC has Fox 5, and 2 ION stations - could one of them move (changing city of license) between markets, even if the transmitter stayed the same, or the ION station entered into a channel-sharing agreement??? Not sure how post-repack looks, but the Northeast corridor is fairly packed in...

 

J

[Samantha 2878]

So I haven't weighed in yet, but I am going to say this.

 

The startup costs will be enormous for Fox. The network will want these new Fox affiliates to have local news. These Ion stations may not have the studio facilities to do this (they might maintain a local sales office but not much else) unless they were something else in a past life.

 

For instance, KPPX here in Phoenix maintains a local sales office that's just another office, housed with a bank, doctor and other concerns. Other stations have similarly small facilities. KSPX is in a Sacramento strip mall between Aabica Medical Supply and a martial arts studio, along with other tenants such as an insurance agent, law offices, and a specialty shop called Back to the '80s. WVPX calls a house its home.

 

Imagine what it took to build a new station from scratch. It cost Nexstar millions to build the current WATN. $15 million was spent on KPRC's new studio building.

 

Multiply that by 15 or 20 or 25. And KPRC didn't even have to hire new anchors, reporters, or the other stuff you need to run a major market TV station!

 

Is Fox willing to do this and launch new local newscasts that will take years to get traction in many, many cities?

[Rusty Muck 4167]

So I haven't weighed in yet, but I am going to say this.

 

The startup costs will be enormous for Fox. The network will want these new Fox affiliates to have local news. These Ion stations may not have the studio facilities to do this (they might maintain a local sales office but not much else) unless they were something else in a past life.

 

For instance, KPPX here in Phoenix maintains a local sales office that's just another office, housed with a bank, doctor and other concerns. Other stations have similarly small facilities. KSPX is in a Sacramento strip mall between Aabica Medical Supply and a martial arts studio, along with other tenants such as an insurance agent, law offices, and a specialty shop called Back to the '80s. WVPX calls a house its home.

 

Imagine what it took to build a new station from scratch. It cost Nexstar millions to build the current WATN. $15 million was spent on KPRC's new studio building.

 

Multiply that by 15 or 20 or 25. And KPRC didn't even have to hire new anchors, reporters, or the other stuff you need to run a major market TV station!

 

Is Fox willing to do this and launch new local newscasts that will take years to get traction in many, many cities?

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.

[A3N 996]

The local news aspect of this deal is way down the list of priorities for FOX/ION. I'm sure FOX's view on forcing affiliates to have a news department or produce a newscast, has softened over the years.

 

But, should FOX require local news operations, then i'm sure there's a plan in place to either:

A.) hub newscasts out of one region for multiple stations,

B.) Have another news department in the market produce a newscast for them or

C.) Build news departments from scratch, doing it the cheapest way possible.

 

In a way, they'll take a page out of Sinclair's playbook and do things in mass and on the cheap.

[GoldenShine9 1509]

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.

 

Making deals with other owners is a boon for the incumbents. Having a secondary Fox affiliate means they could run a 9/10 pm newscast and an extended morning show on that station, along with extra sports programming.

[mre29 1340]

For instance, KPPX here in Phoenix maintains a local sales office that's just another office, housed with a bank, doctor and other concerns.

 

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

 

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.

 

They have an interesting definition of "worthy".

[Megatron81 181]

It says WWMT is the Fox affiliate for West Michigan (for the FTVLive site)

 

I didn't know WWMT was with Fox when it is WXMI that has Fox17 for 30 years since 87. WWMT is second oldest CBS station in Michigan.