Gray Television to buy Meredith

[GoldenShine9 1513]

While Gray and Meredith stocks rose dramatically yesterday, Tegna stocks plunged. Most likely it was because Gray is now pretty much out of the running if they go on the market. Other companies like Sinclair and Scripps also fell some.

 

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3690260-tegna-falls-partly-after-gray-television-planned-meredith-tv-deal

[channel2 979]

I suppose vertical integration isn't out of the question there...

 

Gray may have dodged a bullet not being able to land TEGNA. It's true that TEGNA has a lot of big, attractive prizes, but the Meredith stations ought to be much easier to integrate, given that there are fewer of them. They're also in a lot of the same markets and they're cheaper!

[JCB4TV 347]

2 hours ago, GoldenShine9 said:

While Gray and Meredith stocks rose dramatically yesterday, Tegna stocks plunged. Most likely it was because Gray is now pretty much out of the running if they go on the market. Other companies like Sinclair and Scripps also fell some.

 

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3690260-tegna-falls-partly-after-gray-television-planned-meredith-tv-deal

Tegna will probably go to Soo Kim's Standard General.

[Yankees4life 559]

43 minutes ago, channel2 said:

I suppose vertical integration isn't out of the question there...

 

Gray may have dodged a bullet not being able to land TEGNA. It's true that TEGNA has a lot of big, attractive prizes, but the Meredith stations ought to be much easier to integrate, given that there are fewer of them. They're also in a lot of the same markets and they're cheaper!

Tegna have a LOOOOTTT of problems themselves, yes. Would've been a nightmare of Gray to try to handle that. This deal is better for them. 

[JCB4TV 347]

6 hours ago, Samantha said:

 

It might be KTVK that's not in the top 4, but...that's immaterial in this case.

The Phoenix ratings are dependent of where KTVW is ranked.

[TVIntheDesert 183]

6 hours ago, Samantha said:

 

It might be KTVK that's not in the top 4, but...that's immaterial in this case.

It's hard to tell, since KPNX doesn't brag about being number one anymore (they could be #4 now, given how TEGNA has treated all their properties, as well as their VHF OTA signal, seen as a disadvantage in the digital age. They're working to move to UHF, though). KPHO's strength is its CBS affiliation, not its news department (which benefitted by merging with KTVK, but Meredith's woes as of late might have not helped).

[MidwestTV 1232]

21 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

ABC 58/68.2/17.2/40.2

 You're watching ABC 58/68.2/17.2/40.2 News at 5...Coverage You Can Count On.

[JCB4TV 347]

21 minutes ago, TVIntheDesert said:

It's hard to tell, since KPNX doesn't brag about being number one anymore (they could be #4 now, given how TEGNA has treated all their properties, as well as their VHF OTA signal, seen as a disadvantage in the digital age. They're working to move to UHF, though). KPHO's strength is its CBS affiliation, not its news department (which benefitted by merging with KTVK, but Meredith's woes as of late might have not helped).

KPNX was only #1 back in the mid 90s as they were the only big 5 Phoenix station that did not change their affiliation, NBC, in the 1994-95 realignment, and was the host station for Super Bowl XXX. As a matter of face, KTVK was almost paired with KPNX in the Belo-Gannett deal.

[Raycomrules 3]

On 5/3/2021 at 9:33 PM, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

 

Gray is moving in the same direction of eliminating all of their creative service departments at all of their stations.

 

As a long time and happy Gray employee I can tell you this is completely false.  Gray has a reputation of letting stations decide their own staffing and decisions on creative services, news and whatever else.  So check your rhetoric and reckless assumptions at the door please.  You're talking about peoples jobs and lives here.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

2 hours ago, channel2 said:

I suppose vertical integration isn't out of the question there...

 

Gray may have dodged a bullet not being able to land TEGNA. It's true that TEGNA has a lot of big, attractive prizes, but the Meredith stations ought to be much easier to integrate, given that there are fewer of them. They're also in a lot of the same markets and they're cheaper!

 

It's also a much easier acquisition since there is very little overlap, they are in the same regions where they plug holes and the stations have fairly similar styles.

[tyrannical bastard 3955]

16 hours ago, MidwestTV said:

 You're watching ABC 58/68.2/17.2/40.2 News at 5...Coverage You Can Count On.

Well at least when James Spann is on doing severe weather at the top of the hour, he used to rattle all the legal IDs off at once without a hitch!

[Megatron81 263]

I was surprised that Gray is selling ABC station in Flint as I thought they would keep that and see the CBS station. I see Scripps, Allen buying ABC station in Flint.

[Guest]

On 5/3/2021 at 3:29 PM, newsman123 said:

WGCL’s building is modern, only about 15 or so years old. They also just remodeled the newsroom, and have a prime midtown location. Doraville where the studios are being built is way out of the area.

 

Also, why would anyone go from GCL to WOIO? Thats a big market drop. And WGCL is a better station/much better product than OIO. 

More like 20-25 years old. They moved there in like 1999-2000 timeframe.

[Sendir 194]

Goodbye Meredith’s graphics hub they just put together. 

[GoldenShine9 1513]

Now we just wait for the paperwork.

[CircleSeven 1955]

The paperwork is up!

 

Comprehensive Exhibit, Agreement & Plan to Merger and Transition Service Agreement (All PDF).

[Samantha 2896]

55 minutes ago, CircleSeven said:

The paperwork is up!

 

Comprehensive Exhibit, Agreement & Plan to Merger and Transition Service Agreement (All PDF).

 

The use of "Gray Hawkeye Stations" (presumably referring to Meredith's Des Moines headquarters) is *chef's kiss*

 

Some of the few interesting bones to pick on:

 

In the Meredith duopoly markets: WGCL is #3, WPCH is #9; KCTV is #1, KSMO is #8; KPHO is #1, KTVK is #5; KPTV is #4, KPDX is #6.

 

Post-merger, Gray will have 36.1955% national ownership reach without the UHF discount and 24.5771% with it.

[GoldenShine9 1513]

33 minutes ago, Samantha said:

 

The use of "Gray Hawkeye Stations" (presumably referring to Meredith's Des Moines headquarters) is *chef's kiss*

 

Some of the few interesting bones to pick on:

 

In the Meredith duopoly markets: WGCL is #3, WPCH is #9; KCTV is #1, KSMO is #8; KPHO is #1, KTVK is #5; KPTV is #4, KPDX is #6.

 

Post-merger, Gray will have 36.1955% national ownership reach without the UHF discount and 24.5771% with it.

 

That is probably a temporary name until the stations are fully absorbed, then it goes back to the standard "Gray Television Licensee LLC".

[Samantha 2896]

1 hour ago, GoldenShine9 said:

 

That is probably a temporary name until the stations are fully absorbed, then it goes back to the standard "Gray Television Licensee LLC".

 

That's correct, it's the merger sub and the licenses go to the standard licensee after, but it's still pretty fun.

[PTVNews 194]

Interesting interview on CBS46 with Gray CEO about the acquisition.

 

 

[Yankees4life 559]

7 hours ago, PTVNews said:

Interesting interview on CBS46 with Gray CEO about the acquisition.

 

 

I hope this means the revolving door at WGCL is dead and buried but we'll see 

[Raycomrules 3]

On 5/13/2021 at 12:47 PM, Sendir said:

Goodbye Meredith’s graphics hub they just put together. 

 

[ABC 7 Denver 1717]

On 5/4/2021 at 8:00 PM, Raycomrules said:

 

As a long time and happy Gray employee I can tell you this is completely false.  Gray has a reputation of letting stations decide their own staffing and decisions on creative services, news and whatever else.  So check your rhetoric and reckless assumptions at the door please.  You're talking about peoples jobs and lives here.

 

I've gotten this information FROM a Gray employee.

[Adam MadMan 285]

8 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

I've gotten this information FROM a Gray employee.

A Gray employee that wasn't being held at gunpoint to say good things about the company, apparently.

[Sendir 194]

7 hours ago, Adam MadMan said:

A Gray employee that wasn't being held at gunpoint to say good things about the company, apparently.

Yeah. Not to be rude but if you didn’t hear from a C level executive then they are just reporting the hearsay.