Cox Media Group general discussion

[ABC 7 Denver 1717]

23 hours ago, atlnews2 said:

Keep in mind Apollo wants someone to buy the entire thing, not a piecemeal sale…that means the buyer will need to be willing to take the radio stations as well 

 

Could a 2-way sale satisfy that? Say Company A wants to by the stations from Apollo, but they don't want the radio stations. So Company A makes and agreement with Company B that upon completion of the sale from Apollo, Company B is transferred ownership of the radio assets, in exchange for a time honor agreement and a proportional contribution of the entire valuation of the sale (say stock and/or cash). Technically, Company A would acquire Cox since they owned the brokerage account and then would immediately split it. Of course, if Company A was tricky, they could negotiate in bad faith and then once the sale was complete immediately sell the assets anyway.

[MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie 917]

On 3/23/2025 at 12:59 AM, Georgie56 said:

Hearst doesn’t buy up whole groups. They buy on an individual basis.

Plus they have the most conflicts: Boston WCVB/WFXT, Orlando WESH/WFTV, and Pittsburgh WTAE/WPXI

[tyrannical bastard 3955]

I'm just going to throw this out there.....

 

With the current state of our government and it's concentration of the financially elite (and the maxed-out state of our current TV ownership situation with their regulatory and financial limitations)

Billionaires tied to the FCC could go after TV stations and groups to start pushing out state-controlled propaganda, or through "favorable" companies despite any past indiscretions?

 

It's a potential disaster that could very well happen at this rate.  Once they weaken the FCC or bow to their demands, it's all over folks.

Edited March 24 by tyrannical bastard
Cleaned up section

[Megatron81 263]

Not surprised that COX Media will be sold as Apollo ran it into the ground. I think that Nexstar buys the COX TV stations since they only have to sell just couple of TV stations in the same market and maybe sell the radio or as someone else said group B gets the radio stations in this thread.

[Breaking News 829]

On 3/22/2025 at 1:25 PM, atlnews2 said:

Gray has conflicts in Atlanta and charlotte. Nexstar conflict in Dayton 

 

 

Any chance Hearst jumps on this? Good chance to get some pretty good assets…conflicts in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Orlando would need to be divested, but that should be easy. 

It would be ideal for Hearst. Big sigh!

[Rusty Muck 4378]

I’m going to be very blunt and say that, given what Apollo has to offer—a slightly above average group of television stations with an over-performer in WSB-TV and an unappealing laggard in WFXT, coupled with a whole bunch of radio stations—they’ll be lucky to find any buyers to speak of. Who’d want that hodgepodge of stuff?

 

it would not be surprising to see Apollo take Cox off the market because no one wants it. They waited four years too late to sell and aren’t going to get another novice like INSP that is willing to burn $400M just for the ego boost of owning TV stations. Gray, Scripps and Nexstar don’t need them at all (and they ESPECIALLY do not want the radio stations) and Hearst doesn’t buy stations, period.

Edited April 18 by Rusty Muck

[ABC 7 Denver 1717]

2 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

I’m going to be very blunt and say that, given what Apollo has to offer—a slightly above average group of television stations with an over-performer in WSB-TV and an unappealing laggard in WFXT, coupled with a whole bunch of radio stations—they’ll be lucky to find any buyers to speak of. Who’d want that hodgepodge of stuff?

 

it would not be surprising to see Apollo take Cox off the market because no one wants it. They waited four years too late to sell and aren’t going to get another novice like INSP that is willing to burn $400M just for the ego boost of owning TV stations. Gray, Scripps and Nexstar don’t need them at all (and they ESPECIALLY do not want the radio stations) and Hearst doesn’t buy stations, period.

 

That story would change if the FCC indeeds eliminates the ownership cap. I'd imagine Nexstar, Gray and Sinclair owning all of the stations in the US.

[Rusty Muck 4378]

7 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

That story would change if the FCC indeeds eliminates the ownership cap.

Good luck with that. None of the suspected companies (Nexstar, Sinclair, Gray, Scripps, etc, &c.) want radio stations and with Apollo wanting to sell the company as a complete unit, there are no available buyers, cap or no cap.

 

8 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

I'd imagine Nexstar, Gray and Sinclair owning all of the stations in the US.

And the industry dies outright with two or three companies too big to fail that are crippled when the networks abandon OTA for streaming, taking the last of the younger audiences with them.

[tyrannical bastard 3955]

Unless there is some SERIOUS deregulation that is to take place, I agree with @Rusty Muck.  Apollo is stuck with Cox unless someone comes along with either money and or cap space to support an acquisition.

 

Even TV stations don't have a savior in the wings like the radio industry does with EMF.  Even Trinity Broadcasting Network cashed in a lot of their stations during the spectrum auction, and as evidenced by Imagicomm selling out, the market is slim pickings.

Edited April 18 by tyrannical bastard

[nathannah 2441]

4 hours ago, tyrannical bastard said:

Unless there is some SERIOUS deregulation that is to take place, I agree with @Rusty Muck.  Apollo is stuck with Cox unless someone comes along with either money and or cap space to support an acquisition.

This is pretty much it; Coxpollo wants it to be 1997 where they can create an omnimedia company when nobody actually wants that. They're better off just keeping only the Atlanta, Orlando and Dayton clusters (or better, just the AM news/talk and FM simulcast) that are historically important to the company and so integrated into the TV stations that there's no way to easily break them up, and selling off the rest. They already created Summit Media the first time, which got the radio stations Scripps couldn't easily sell off, and that might just end up being the default direction they have to take.

[mre29 1537]

10 hours ago, Rusty Muck said:

Good luck with that. None of the suspected companies (Nexstar, Sinclair, Gray, Scripps, etc, &c.) want radio stations and with Apollo wanting to sell the company as a complete unit, there are no available buyers, cap or no cap.

 

The smartest thing Apollo could do right now is split the TV and radio stations into two separate companies. They'd have a better chance of selling both if they did that.

 

[MediaZone4K 2188]

On 4/18/2025 at 12:59 AM, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

That story would change if the FCC indeeds eliminates the ownership cap. I'd imagine Nexstar, Gray and Sinclair owning all of the stations in the US.

Truly hoping that day never comes.

On 4/18/2025 at 9:04 AM, Rusty Muck said:

And the industry dies outright with two or three companies too big to fail that are crippled when the networks abandon OTA for streaming, taking the last of the younger audiences with them.

I'm hearing more and more that networks could eventually abandon the affiliate model.

 

What does that future look like? Local tv stations with no network scripted programming?

 

Just syndicated scripted and talk shows, local news, and national news provided by the station ownership groups?

Edited April 19 by MediaZone4K

[newsdude 61]

On 3/24/2025 at 4:09 AM, MichiganNewsGraphicsJunkie said:

Plus they have the most conflicts: Boston WCVB/WFXT, Orlando WESH/WFTV, and Pittsburgh WTAE/WPXI

Correct. Hearst made a strong bid to buy WJLA when the Albritton family decided to sell back in 2012/2013, but they didn’t want to do a piecemeal sell off. 

[ABC 7 Denver 1717]

On 4/18/2025 at 7:04 AM, Rusty Muck said:

Good luck with that. None of the suspected companies (Nexstar, Sinclair, Gray, Scripps, etc, &c.) want radio stations and with Apollo wanting to sell the company as a complete unit, there are no available buyers, cap or no cap.

 

And the industry dies outright with two or three companies too big to fail that are crippled when the networks abandon OTA for streaming, taking the last of the younger audiences with them.

 

You think that would stop those suspected companies? Apollo can sell the group as a complete unit and one of these suspected companies could have quietly negotiated a TBA in the background. Once the Apollo sale is complete, whomever buys the stations, immediately sells the radio stations to the 3rd-party. Apollo has no recourse. 

 

The entire idea that the FCC grants licenses or allows local broadcasting to serve the public interest went out the window, when the greedy corporations began slashing budgets, experienced journalists and solely providing shareholder value, instead of catering to their communities. You made your point as if crippling the visual storytelling medium wasn't the entire purpose. Really, the 3 biggest station groups - Sinclair, Nexstar and Gray are lead by Conservative CEOs who are more interested in pushing their own opinions and sucking the assets out of local journalism than providing a public good. Why do we think NewsNation is still around? Sean Compton is a close friend of Donald Trump's. Nexstar's local stations are being siphoned from resources and Nexstar retrans agreement with cable vendors must include NewsNation, which both Neilsen and Comscore demonstrate has little value, but Nexstar keeps taking valuable assets away from their stations to propup Donald Trump's friend. So I call bullshit on the idea that this isn't the entire intent of these organizations and we cannot stop it.

[nathannah 2441]

9 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

 

You think that would stop those suspected companies? Apollo can sell the group as a complete unit and one of these suspected companies could have quietly negotiated a TBA in the background. Once the Apollo sale is complete, whomever buys the stations, immediately sells the radio stations to the 3rd-party. Apollo has no recourse. 

That would be obfuscation and obviously actionable if a company claimed in good faith to buy all the assets and then sell the ones they don't want off immediately against the seller's will. Yes, Apollo is not going to get anyone to take but a small fraction of them, but if somehow they do get a deal, there will be a clause where they can't be sold off for a certain period of time or if they go bankrupt. 

[Rusty Muck 4378]

On 4/19/2025 at 4:35 PM, newsdude said:

Correct. Hearst made a strong bid to buy WJLA when the Albritton family decided to sell back in 2012/2013, but they didn’t want to do a piecemeal sell off. 

Allbritton wanted to sell the company as a whole from day one. Sinclair was the only logical buyer.

[Rusty Muck 4378]

18 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

You think that would stop those suspected companies? Apollo can sell the group as a complete unit and one of these suspected companies could have quietly negotiated a TBA in the background. Once the Apollo sale is complete, whomever buys the stations, immediately sells the radio stations to the 3rd-party. Apollo has no recourse. 

Let me know when you find this mythical buyer for the radio stations. Radio is even more of a declining asset than television and the only people buying up stations are Godcasters like K-Love or Relevant Radio. Let's be real: Nexstar, Gray, Tegna, Sinclair and Sinclair know they can't find a third party for the radio stations and they aren't going to bother with Cox.

 

18 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

Why do we think NewsNation is still around? Sean Compton is a close friend of Donald Trump's. Nexstar's local stations are being siphoned from resources and Nexstar retrans agreement with cable vendors must include NewsNation, which both Neilsen and Comscore demonstrate has little value, but Nexstar keeps taking valuable assets away from their stations to propup Donald Trump's friend.

NewsNation is cheap and they hire cheap talent. They make good money on retransmission revenue from cable companies and don't have to pay for acquired programming like movies. That's the only reason why it's around.

18 hours ago, ABC 7 Denver said:

So I call bullshit on the idea that this isn't the entire intent of these organizations and we cannot stop it.

I hope you are aware that younger demos and more and more of the 25–54 "money demo" are abandoning linear television for streaming. The audience for local television is getting smaller and grayer and the industry is on an unsustainable course with pushing endless local news to markets that can't support it. Nexstar, Gray, Tegna, Sinclair and Scripps are all destined to be too big to fail.

 

As for Apollo, they are only guilty of being 10 years too late buying Cox and four years too late trying to sell it.

Edited Tuesday at 01:40 AM by Rusty Muck