continuing coverage Sinclair and Tribune Part 2: The Redux

[T.L. Hughes 752]

Then there could be the "nuclear option".....give up on KPLR and absorb all of the non-license assets into KTVI or KDNL. That's how they finally completed the Allbritton deal.

What power does the FCC have in stopping them from doing so? (And like in Birmimgham and Charleston, Armstrong Williams from swooping in at the last second to feast on a KPLR carcass?)

They had the then-forthcoming spectrum auction as a justification at that time. I'm not sure they'll try to resort that this time around.

 

There is something I've been thinking about concerning this deal for about a week. If the outside date passes without consummation and Tribune decides not to extend it past August 8, I fully believe that Nexstar -- which backed out of the bidding for the Tribune properties when the price got too high for them -- will try to make a second run at Tribune.

 

They could possibly get away with a relatively lower bid (in the range of $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion) because several of Tribune's stations were already earmarked for sale to Fox and Standard Media. Such a deal would hinge on how the DC Circuit Court rules on the UHF Discount, and should allow for Sinclair to rescind some of its stations -- specifically those where a sale of those stations to Standard were would otherwise exit Sinclair from markets where it had a conflict with a Tribune property -- from the Standard sale agreement. Considering the problems Sinclair caused for itself in this deal, I would predict that Nexstar will follow the same playbook it followed when it acquired Media General, not attempt to create new SSAs and sell off conflict outlets to independent third-parties (possibly throwing some conflict properties, in markets like Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Fort Smith and the Quad Cities, into the Standard Media sales).

[Rusty Muck 4168]

Then there could be the "nuclear option".....give up on KPLR and absorb all of the non-license assets into KTVI or KDNL. That's how they finally completed the Allbritton deal.

What power does the FCC have in stopping them from doing so? (And like in Birmimgham and Charleston, Armstrong Williams from swooping in at the last second to feast on a KPLR carcass?)

Thing is, the DOJ might not let them get away with it.

 

In the case of Brimingham, WJSU/WCFT were rimshot relays of a low-power station that wouldn't be counted against the cap. Charleston had enough stations in the market where they could get away with moving WCIV to a subchannel.

 

Problem here is that neither such advantage exists here. There aren't enough stations in the St. Louis market to support two duopolies, otherwise, KPLR would be a Meredith station right about now. And all three stations - KTVI, KPLR and KDNL - are full-power signals that cover the city proper.

 

Not to say Sinclair can't try such a move again, but in all seriousness, this DOJ is playing hardball and doing what this FCC has willfully abdicated responsibility on.

[NEOMatrix 1295]

They had the then-forthcoming spectrum auction as a justification at that time. I'm not sure they'll try to resort that this time around.

 

There is something I've been thinking about concerning this deal for about a week. If the outside date passes without consummation and Tribune decides not to extend it past August 8, I fully believe that Nexstar -- which backed out of the bidding for the Tribune properties when the price got too high for them -- will try to make a second run at Tribune.

 

They could possibly get away with a relatively lower bid (in the range of $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion) because several of Tribune's stations were already earmarked for sale to Fox and Standard Media. Such a deal would hinge on how the DC Circuit Court rules on the UHF Discount, and should allow for Sinclair to rescind some of its stations -- specifically those where a sale of those stations to Standard were would otherwise exit Sinclair from markets where it had a conflict with a Tribune property -- from the Standard sale agreement. Considering the problems Sinclair caused for itself in this deal, I would predict that Nexstar will follow the same playbook it followed when it acquired Media General, not attempt to create new SSAs and sell off conflict outlets to independent third-parties (possibly throwing some conflict properties, in markets like Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Fort Smith and the Quad Cities, into the Standard Media sales).

Plus, Nexstar would make some obvious cast-offs (KIAH, KDAF, WUCW, and KASW to Tegna, WPHL to Fox, etc.).

[dman748 1250]

They had the then-forthcoming spectrum auction as a justification at that time. I'm not sure they'll try to resort that this time around.

 

There is something I've been thinking about concerning this deal for about a week. If the outside date passes without consummation and Tribune decides not to extend it past August 8, I fully believe that Nexstar -- which backed out of the bidding for the Tribune properties when the price got too high for them -- will try to make a second run at Tribune.

 

They could possibly get away with a relatively lower bid (in the range of $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion) because several of Tribune's stations were already earmarked for sale to Fox and Standard Media. Such a deal would hinge on how the DC Circuit Court rules on the UHF Discount, and should allow for Sinclair to rescind some of its stations -- specifically those where a sale of those stations to Standard were would otherwise exit Sinclair from markets where it had a conflict with a Tribune property -- from the Standard sale agreement. Considering the problems Sinclair caused for itself in this deal, I would predict that Nexstar will follow the same playbook it followed when it acquired Media General, not attempt to create new SSAs and sell off conflict outlets to independent third-parties (possibly throwing some conflict properties, in markets like Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Fort Smith and the Quad Cities, into the Standard Media sales).

I think Sinclair would probably not rescind either Standard or Fox deals if the Tribune deal falls apart because they could probably care less about the stations they're selling to Standard and if the Standard deal gets canned, Sinclair will find another group to sell those 7 stations (including the deal with New Age in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre) to.

 

Fox could always modify the deal especially if the courts side with Free Press and may only be able to walk away with just KCPQ/KZJO and the 2 CA Fox affiliates (KTXL/KSWB) unless Fox getting Seattle alone pushes Fox right at the 39% cap and at that point they'll just get KCPQ/KZJO

 

As for Sinclair going nuclear on St. Louis, if this is what Sinclair has to do to get the deal done because they can't find a buyer that's more than willing to run KPLR or KDNL by itself so be it

 

One thing to note if it's true and then neither Standard or Fox deals are affected regardless of the outcome of the deal, if the conflicts would get folded into the Standard deal it wouldn't include Grand Rapids since WXMI would already be at Standard, so Nexstar won't have Grand Rapids as a conflict market

[ColtFromGulfcoast 695]

Plus, Nexstar would make some obvious cast-offs (KIAH, KDAF, WUCW, and KASW to Tegna, WPHL to Fox, etc.).

 

You sure about Nexstar getting rid of KDAF and KIAH? Nexstar is headquartered in Dallas and lacks a flagship station.

[Rusty Muck 4168]

I was a little bit off; Tribune will only need to pay Sinclair upwards of $135M if this deal collapses.

 

Starboard has a stake in Tribune for one reason, and one reason alone: make an unholy amount of money by selling the company. If Sinclair can’t get this done, I can’t help but think that Starboard will simply force an outright breakup and sell the company in bits and parts.

 

The humiliation of having to pay a sizable breakup fee to a buyer who is in the process of totally stumbling and fumbling on the simplest possible transaction to make calls to mind the phrase, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

[TSSZNews 1046]

Another idea: Would the DOJ let them get away with donating the KDNL stick to a local university?

 

Whoever it is, they could pick up PBS. ABC goes to, I assume, KPLR, who I imagine wouldn't mind the upgrade, CW ends up on one of the .2s, and it would be, dare I say, a good faith gesture from Sinclair, who badly need one at this point to get the deal done.

 

Is the KDNL IP too valuable to pull something like that off?

[Eat News 4738]

Another idea: Would the DOJ let them get away with donating the KDNL stick to a local university?

 

Whoever it is, they could pick up PBS. ABC goes to, I assume, KPLR, who I imagine wouldn't mind the upgrade, CW ends up on one of the .2s, and it would be, dare I say, a good faith gesture from Sinclair, who badly need one at this point to get the deal done.

 

Is the KDNL IP too valuable to pull something like that off?

 

 

If it had any value...there would be buyers.

If a university wants it...they must find the donations/ capital to operate and upgrade the plant.

 

The market is depressed...the station sucks...and the books must really suck.

 

"Timmy...Lassie is dead."

 

 

I'm the dream crusher.

[mre29 1340]

Starboard has a stake in Tribune for one reason, and one reason alone: make an unholy amount of money by selling the company. If Sinclair can’t get this done, I can’t help but think that Starboard will simply force an outright breakup and sell the company in bits and parts.

 

That could be good. They'd probably get more bits for individual stations and duopolies than they would for the whole group. Plus, it'd be fun to speculate.

[NowBergen 486]

If it had any value...there would be buyers.

If a university wants it...they must find the donations/ capital to operate and upgrade the plant.

 

The market is depressed...the station sucks...and the books must really suck.

 

"Timmy...Lassie is dead."

 

[ATTACH=full]6216[/ATTACH]

 

I'm the dream crusher.

 

Not to mention St. Louis already has a PBS station already on the virtual VHF dial at Channel 9. So if SLU or Wash U. or UMSL ended up with KPLR minus the CW, getting the primary PBS affiliation is probably a very long shot.

[T.L. Hughes 752]

Another idea: Would the DOJ let them get away with donating the KDNL stick to a local university?

 

Whoever it is, they could pick up PBS. ABC goes to, I assume, KPLR, who I imagine wouldn't mind the upgrade, CW ends up on one of the .2s, and it would be, dare I say, a good faith gesture from Sinclair, who badly need one at this point to get the deal done.

 

Is the KDNL IP too valuable to pull something like that off?

Another viable option would be swapping some or all of the programming assets of KPLR and KDNL, in which KDNL's ABC and syndicated programming would be shifted to the KPLR license (therefore, making it a little bit more palatable for sale) and KPLR's CW, news and syndicated programming would be shifted to the KDNL license.

 

Granted, ABC and The CW would have to sign off on this, but it's happened before. A company selling a station's local rights to a network affiliation is how WISH-TV became a CW affiliate; when WTTV signed on to take over the CBS affiliation from WISH in 2014, Tribune sold the CW affiliation rights to the Indianapolis market to Media General (around the time it assumed the assets of LIN Media), in order to alleviate issues about WTTV's originally proposed move of CW programming to its 4.2 subchannel (which it opted to run as an independent outlet) concerning securing local cable and satellite coverage of WTTV-DT2 in preparation for that planned move.

[tyrannical bastard 3470]

What if....

Sinclair simply walked away from KPLR.

Shut it down, blew up the transmitter, and took all of the equipment out back and ran over it with a steamroller.....

 

Or did the same with KDNL.....

 

Even back in the day, stations simply gave up.

Kaiser abandoned WKBF and let it be reincarnated as WCLQ several years later...

Pappas let some of their stations simply disappear....

[The Frog 393]

DOJ approval could come by the end of this week:

 

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/fox-business-network-doj-nears-sign-off-on-sinclair-tribune-deal

[dman748 1250]

DOJ approval could come by the end of this week:

 

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/fox-business-network-doj-nears-sign-off-on-sinclair-tribune-deal

I've heard that story lots of times only to find out, the DOJ won't sign-off the deal unless Sinclair divests this amount of stations for antitrust reasons

 

Why can't the DOJ just issue a "consent decree" on this thing and call it a day?

[JCB4TV 334]

DOJ approval could come by the end of this week:

 

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/fox-business-network-doj-nears-sign-off-on-sinclair-tribune-deal

Meanwhile the DOJ is appealing the AT&T-Time Warner decision.

[Eat News 4738]

I've heard that story lots of times only to find out, the DOJ won't sign-off the deal unless Sinclair divests this amount of stations for antitrust reasons

 

Why can't the DOJ just issue a "consent decree" on this thing and call it a day?

 

Sure they could.

 

What type on consent decree would you like ?

 

With or without full court monitoring?

 

Who will pay for that?

 

All questions that the Judge will ask.

[dman748 1250]

Sure they could.

 

What type on consent decree would you like ?

 

With or without full court monitoring?

 

Who will pay for that?

 

All questions that the Judge will ask.

A consent decree would be that Sinclair would agree to no top four duopoly waivers in either St. Louis or Indianapolis as well as a full divestiture of KDAF and KIAH

[Samantha 2878]

A flurry of docket activity brought on by today being the final day in the FCC comment period included at least one form letter from a Democratic group.

[dman748 1250]

A flurry of docket activity brought on by today being the final day in the FCC comment period included at least one form letter from a Democratic group.

How long will it take for the FCC to go through all the comments (which from what I saw most of them were Express Comments)? My estimation would be about 2 to 4 weeks (possibly 5 weeks) depending upon how the FCC wants to look at the comments for reality sake or appearance sake

[Eat News 4738]

How long will it take for the FCC to go through all the comments (which from what I saw most of them were Express Comments)? My estimation would be about 2 to 4 weeks (possibly 5 weeks) depending upon how the FCC wants to look at the comments for reality sake or appearance sake

 

 

I wonder what the "reading of the comments" is really like...

 

When is a comment considered "officially read" ?

 

Is it like Judging Emmy entry's with a bunch of pizza and beer? After a few hours everything is 'great".

 

Or is it all serious...sitting around a big oak table...reading one-by-one...with a magnifying glass. Dutifully rubber stamping every original submission. No talking...just some muffled "ummmms"..deep thinking.

 

Or is it like grading high school essays...

You take a bunch home...they sit for a few weeks...you grade them with an eyebrow pencil on the way to work.

"Everyone gets a B-".

 

The has to be some "procedure" to make us all feel like OUR letter was personally read by some pointy bearded type.

 

We all need assurances right?

 

Otherwise...what is the point?

[TennTV1983 743]

How long will it take for the FCC to go through all the comments (which from what I saw most of them were Express Comments)? My estimation would be about 2 to 4 weeks (possibly 5 weeks) depending upon how the FCC wants to look at the comments for reality sake or appearance sake

Pai's probably going to ignore the ones against the merger anyway, so it may not take them that long.

[Rusty Muck 4168]

Pai's probably going to ignore the ones against the merger anyway, so it may not take them that long.

The spoofed emails from those whose identities were legitimately stolen, however, he'll cite endlessly lol

 

Seriously, the FCC is not going to reject this merger, and a ton of form-letter complaints is not going to help change the paradigm. When John Oliver singled out Pai's contact page over Net Neutrality and directed all of his viewers to go onto the FCC website at a rate which blew up the FCC website servers, that was a great moment of trolling on Oliver's part, but it accomplished diddly-squat and likely emboldened Paid Off to do Verizon's bidding.

[Rusty Muck 4168]

There is only one way that this merger doesn't go through, and that is if Sinclair can't get their act together and do what they should do, which is sell off KTVI/KPLR. They are trying to play cute and sell off KPLR, but no buyer has emerged for just that station and probably will not emerge.

 

That's the ballgame. Once that comes down, the DOJ will approve and the rubber stamping will commence.

[dman748 1250]

There is only one way that this merger doesn't go through, and that is if Sinclair can't get their act together and do what they should do, which is sell off KTVI/KPLR. They are trying to play cute and sell off KPLR, but no buyer has emerged for just that station and probably will not emerge.

 

That's the ballgame. Once that comes down, the DOJ will approve and the rubber stamping will commence.

Which in that case whoever tries to buy KTVI/KPLR will have to apply for a Top Four Waiver to keep the 2 together

[Rusty Muck 4168]

Which in that case whoever tries to buy KTVI/KPLR will have to apply for a Top Four Waiver to keep the 2 together

I’m sure the buyer would get it.

 

According to the DOJ, St. Louis is a market that can support one duopoly, but not two. Otherwise KPLR would have been in Meredith hands and the merger would have already played itself out.