All About Allen...

[tyrannical bastard 4676]

You have to wonder if companies like Allen have been making these moves on purpose simply so the stations can be so far gone, that the acquirer can legally acquire them with a failed station waiver.

 

It seems the only innovation left in broadcasting is the boardroom manipulation to squeeze out any penny on the working level before cashing out and letting someone else deal with the carcass...

[GoldenShine_10 263]

18 minutes ago, tyrannical bastard said:

You have to wonder if companies like Allen have been making these moves on purpose simply so the stations can be so far gone, that the acquirer can legally acquire them with a failed station waiver.

 

It seems the only innovation left in broadcasting is the boardroom manipulation to squeeze out any penny on the working level before cashing out and letting someone else deal with the carcass...

 

Their ratings have to drop below about 4% of the total day viewership before such can occur.

[GodfreyGR 812]

11 minutes ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

 

Their ratings have to drop below about 4% of the total day viewership before such can occur.

 

Third-Rate newscasts, crap-tastic syndication packages (as @Megatron81 noted Allen foregoing Wheel, J!, TMZ, ET, etc. for lower-tier shows), and if your network can't deliver in primetime... You could very well get there at this point. 

[tyrannical bastard 4676]

Regardless of the free reign that the broadcasters think they'll have, I think as toothless as the FCC and DOJ seem to be, they'll still prevail.

 

We're really living in a f-around and find out time...

[l_miro 245]

9 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

You have to wonder if companies like Allen have been making these moves on purpose simply so the stations can be so far gone, that the acquirer can legally acquire them with a failed station waiver.

 

It seems the only innovation left in broadcasting is the boardroom manipulation to squeeze out any penny on the working level before cashing out and letting someone else deal with the carcass...

Allen is destroying the value of an asset... by destroying EBITDA and the 6.3-8.1 multiple it would get normally for the stations - so they can sell it to ___________ for... 2.1-3.9 multiple a now distressed asset would get?!

 

*facepalm*

Why when Allen can simply JSA or SSA to Gray/Sinclair/Nexstar/Scripps/Graham and call it a day? Or sell at the top.

 

Seriously.

 

Intentional destruction of asset value is illegal. Byron owns nothing, his creditors own everything. In February 2025 he rolled debt over, so in the middle of an active asset value destruction he borrowed money?  This would mean he committed fraud or his lender was stupid, and lenders are rarely stupid or lose money on purpose.

 

His loans come with covenants that force certain things to happen. His sale of the stations could be from a loan covenant clause he had to abide by -- ie $x value of assets will be sold if Y happens in Z-period etc.

At minimum it would open Byron Allen to fraud and breach of fiduciary duties claims from his creditors. He would have pierced the corporate veil and exposed anything he remotely controls to be ceased. Illegal actions are often not protected by bankruptcy. He could also go to jail. Officers down the chain from Byron could be sued for knowingly abetting breach of duties by creditors clawing back every red cent they loaned.

 

Allen is stupid, but doubtful he's that stupid because the above is not an actual strategy
 

 

 

 

 

[l_miro 245]

19 hours ago, mre29 said:

 

Agree with you on the channel basically being dead, but you'd think that having actual competition (AccuWeather, WeatherNation, and Fox Weather) would get the channel to rise to the occasion.

 

 

TWC is like the Allen local stations, no money for anything, mismanaged, low morale. Doesn't sound like they could compete effectively.

 

They are probably paying $15-$30 mil of their yearly budget money to Francisco partners (used to be IBM) for the rights to use 'The Weather Channel' name, weather data, forecast engine, radar mosaic, etc since TWC is a shell, it doesn't own anything, including weather.com. And the way these agreements are set up, the cost probably goes up ~3% per year

[mre29 1967]

4 hours ago, l_miro said:

TWC is like the Allen local stations, no money for anything, mismanaged, low morale. Doesn't sound like they could compete effectively.

 

They are probably paying $15-$30 mil of their yearly budget money to Francisco partners (used to be IBM) for the rights to use 'The Weather Channel' name, weather data, forecast engine, radar mosaic, etc since TWC is a shell, it doesn't own anything, including weather.com. And the way these agreements are set up, the cost probably goes up ~3% per year

 

So you're saying AccuWeather and Fox Weather (which are right next to TWC on the cable system here) are better?

 

[l_miro 245]

On 9/3/2025 at 3:03 AM, mre29 said:

 

So you're saying AccuWeather and Fox Weather (which are right next to TWC on the cable system here) are better?

 

 

better... how? Better is relative. Meaning survival as a business? Yes

Out of the three, Accuweather would be most likely to make it. haven't watched much of it but they remind me of classic TWC form when I washed up on these American shores in the mid 1990s. They're a juggernaut - own their channel, proprietary data, proprietary forecast engine, specialised AI, do forecasting for third parties (the real money maker). 

 

FOX has cash. And seems dedicated to make FOXWeather stick. I wouldn't be surprised if they start integrating it more with their O&O stations. We watched it during the snowstorms, my spouse found them annoying and repetative, which I agree with - they chewed on the same two location for what seemed hours. Rolling that 'Alert' bumper after the end of every live hit or transition was a bit much too.

 

TWC has no big cash money behind it, and doesn't own much of anything really. I checked the USPTO and it turns out Allen owns 'The Weather Channel' trademark so they got that going for them. They are trying to make LocalNow work but who knows if it has. 

 

that USPTO rabbithole though... Allen has applied for and has pending trademarks for:

'Storm Radar' - IC 009: Downloadable software in the nature of a mobile application

 

'What in the weather are you waiting for'  - Downloadable software and mobile applications for providing weather forecasts

 

'Maverick' - IC 042: Providing online non-downloadable software for tracking weather patterns, weather data, and other weather-related information to improve air and airport traffic management, efficiency, and productivity..

 

'Hurricane Central'  -downloadable software, website that lets users create customized web pages and profiles (social network?)

 

'The Weather Engine' - software as serivce (saas), educational services, telecom services

 

'Athmosphere by The Weather Channel' - online store; online journals, blogs, reviews, hosting digital content

 

'Weather Assistant' - downloadable software, non-downloadble software (AI?)

 

'Weatherverse' - multi user access to information and data; hardware/software for data analysys and databases

 

'Reelsphere' - saas for creating automated videos and voice overs in the field of weather

 

[channel2 1042]

I thought that Allen just licensed the Weather Channel name and logo and that The Weather Company was owned by Francisco Partners...

[l_miro 245]

1 minute ago, channel2 said:

I thought that Allen just licensed the Weather Channel name and logo and that The Weather Company was owned by Francisco Partners...

 

my bad, I got them confused. I stand corrected.

 

The Weather Company, LLC is Francisco Partners (formerly owned by IBM)

The Weather Group (officially Weather Group Television, LLC) is Allen Media 

 

Weather Group Television, LLC shows up as owning Local on the 8s, Weatherscan, Storm Stories and a few others. The 'TWC' trademark is also owned by The Weather Company, LLC. So Allen Media do not own 'The Weather Channel' wordmark or logo, and more than likely pay roaylty fees.

 

When Tribune and I squabbled over WSFL using my trademark, my lawyer at the time said typical royalty rate benchmark is 2 to 15% of revenue depending on trademark strength, with a hard dollar minimum. T-shirts and apparel with big tradermarks get 12-15% from sales, I doubt anybody would be paying 15% to use a TV channel name every year but who knows. And given that Weather.com is using TWC for filler content they could have a kind of 'paper' deal for services rendered, + % of revenue top up. Could be anything really.

 

Either way around 2027-28 we'll see something announced. Typically these agreements start with a 10 year term, then one or two 5 year extensions.

[nathannah 2792]

Byron Allen saw the reaction to the 20 ads on-screen for the "NBA Finals Presented by YouTube TV" and decided he could be even more obnoxious today as the sponsor/broadcaster for the CIAA football championship.

 

[evv_mlis 34]

Posted today: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-281A1.pdf

Quote

Granted the applications to assign the licenses of WLFI-TV, Lafayette, Indiana, WTHI-TV, Terre Haute, Indiana, and WTVA(TV), Tupelo, Mississippi, from subsidiaries of Allen Media, LLC, to Gray Television Licensee, LLC.

 

 

[nathannah 2792]

12 minutes ago, evv_mlis said:

Posted today: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-281A1.pdf

 

 

The news staff getting to have weather folks in the studio with them, along with programmers happy that AllenSlop is being tossed off the schedule and being replaced with harmless Gray shows like InvestigateTV+ and Aging Untold...

 

[GoldenShine_10 263]

6 minutes ago, nathannah said:

The news staff getting to have weather folks in the studio with them, along with programmers happy that AllenSlop is being tossed off the schedule and being replaced with harmless Gray shows like InvestigateTV+ and Aging Untold...

 

 

Notice that Gray is having a harder time getting the overall deals through, since they didn't suck up to the administration they are actually having to get hearings on the rest of the pie.

[mre29 1967]

51 minutes ago, nathannah said:

The news staff getting to have weather folks in the studio with them, along with programmers happy that AllenSlop is being tossed off the schedule...

 

Well, except for the two episodes of Comics Unleashed that will continue to air on WLFI and WTHI every weeknight.

 

48 minutes ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

Notice that Gray is having a harder time getting the overall deals through, since they didn't suck up to the administration they are actually having to get hearings on the rest of the pie.

 

Worth it.

 

[ColtFromGulfcoast 869]

52 minutes ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

 

Notice that Gray is having a harder time getting the overall deals through, since they didn't suck up to the administration they are actually having to get hearings on the rest of the pie.

I hope the state of Illinois is taking serious notes right now since this involves WSIL.

Edited March 23 by ColtFromGulfcoast

[JRyan 694]

1 hour ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

 

Notice that Gray is having a harder time getting the overall deals through, since they didn't suck up to the administration they are actually having to get hearings on the rest of the pie.

 

As bizarre that it is for Nexstar/Tegna to be approved and yet Allen still waiting to sell the remaining "for sale" stations to Gray, I'm not complaining about that.  And while Nexstar would likely merge behind the scenes and keep "visually" separate newscasts, the moment Gray gets its hands on WAAY it's over for that station.  They'd merge the news with WAFF without thinking twice about it.

[tyrannical bastard 4676]

These greenlit deals (WTVA, WLFI, WTHI) are not in conflict with other stations in their markets, so they were able to close with no issues from the FCC and DOJ.

Others, like WSIL, WAAY and WCOV conflict with existing stations, and could cause issues with market share as well.  

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

On 3/23/2026 at 4:37 PM, evv_mlis said:

Posted today: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-26-281A1.pdf

 

 

 

Despite that, websites still mention AMG on it. It could be a very slow process considering Gray has just started owning and operating WBBJ too, and this is on top of other additional Allen stations that Gray is trying to acquire and get greenlit from the FCC.

[GoldenShine_10 263]

25 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Despite that, websites still mention AMG on it. It could be a very slow process considering Gray has just started owning and operating WBBJ too, and this is on top of other additional Allen stations that Gray is trying to acquire and get greenlit from the FCC.

 

It hasn't been consummated yet.

[GoldenShine_10 263]

I believe the deal has been finalized. The stations are now showing Gray copyrights, and the FCC sites have changed to such as owners. Confirmation?

[TheRolyPoly 3510]

1 hour ago, GoldenShine_10 said:

I believe the deal has been finalized. The stations are now showing Gray copyrights, and the FCC sites have changed to such as owners. Confirmation?

 

In the latest NewsActive3 video, the closing credits for WTHI and WTVA both feature Gray Local Media so at least those two plus WLFI are now Gray owned stations.

 

The rest are still up in the air, despite what The Desk is reporting.

[GoldenShine_10 263]

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/views/public/consummationDraftCopy?displayType=html&appKey=25076ff39d432e7c019d4448efd70073&id=25076ff39d432e7c019d4448efd70073&goBack=N

 

The deals were consummated April 1 for those three stations, so Gray now owns them.

[evv_mlis 34]

WTHI and WLFI have new information up about joining Gray:

https://www.wthitv.com/news/terre-hautes-wthi-lafayettes-wlfi-join-gray-media/article_f7796406-c324-4a0f-8ba8-bc3f59d01ab9.html

 

With Gray's Local News Live being available, I wonder if they will transition from Weather Channel meteorologists to other Gray stations providing the weather (ala LNL) or if they will hire back former folks. I believe Everett Lau was still working at WTHI, albeit behind the scenes, rather than doing weather.

[evv_mlis 34]

From the Gray press release:

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/gray-media-byron-allen-allen-003000970.html

Quote

ATLANTA, May 01, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gray Media, Inc. and Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, Inc. announced today that the parties have closed on both of their previously announced transactions for a total purchase price of $171 million plus working capital adjustments. In particular, Gray acquired stations located in three new markets for Gray on March 26, 2026, and Gray acquired stations in the remaining seven overlap markets today.