WTVJ Breaking News

[RetroCirq 148]

This is from SFLTV:

 

Breaking news: Announced late on the WTVJ 6PM news by Joel Connable. The sale of WTVJ, an NBC O&O station, has been called off by Post Newsweek.

 

In a joint statement issued today:

 

“The Washington Post company and NBC Local Media today announced that the intended sale of WTVJ to the Washington Post company will not move forward. Given the current economic environment, and the delay in receiving the necessary regulatory approval, the deal has been terminated. The purchase of WTVJ was scheduled to close by the end of 2008.”

 

This is great news for the folks against the sale of WTVJ, and it’s long history. There is no word yet if NBC will put WTVJ back up on the market, or retain it as an NBC O&O station. Tips have been coming in for about a week now, hinting that Post Newsweek would back out of the sale, thanks to a delayed FCC hearing… and today, it looks like they did. We’ll pass on the info as we receive it.

[El ojo 0]

Here's an article about it hot off the press from Broadcasting & Cable, so to speak.

 

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6624978.html

[seriouslythough 0]

Update: Apparently, Mr. DeMarco Morgan made a phone call, and get this… allegedly wants back at WTVJ to host the 6, 7, and 11 PM news. Ha!

Oh dear... so this is coming as a shock to all employees. Wonder if Tony Segretto will actually follow through with his decision too.

No matter what, it looks like the good news... is theirs. For now at least.

[A3N 996]

Oh dear... so this is coming as a shock to all employees. Wonder if Tony Segretto will actually follow through with his decision too.

No matter what, it looks like the good news... is theirs. For now at least.

 

I don't know how this is going to be good news for WTVJ's employees, seeing as now NBC Universal will start laying off employees. Expect a lot more layoffs at the other NBC O&O's to make up for the lost revenue that NBC was going to get for selling WTVJ.

[seriouslythough 0]

I don't know how this is going to be good news for WTVJ's employees' date=' seeing as now NBC Universal will start laying off employees. Expect a lot more layoffs at the other NBC O&O's to make up for the lost revenue that NBC was going to get for selling WTVJ.[/quote']

Well wasn't WVIT planned for a sale? The turnover period for that one lasted a few months less, and there were no major staff cutbacks that I'm aware of.

I do understand however that this will cost NBC a lot that they didn't plan to allocate.

[SterlingNorth 33]

This is probably good news for the WTVJ employees in the near-term, but I still would not get comfortable. As everyone else here said, this probably means that the layoff axe will be welded by NBC-Uni instead of Post-Newsweek. (Though of course, NBC-Uni can't fire as many people at that one station as Post-Newsweek could.)

 

That said, I have to wonder if NBC could even engineer another station sale. If the reports I read are right, when they agreed to sell this station, they sold for far less than they had initially hoped.

[CircleSeven 1945]

YES!!!! Thank The Lord.

 

I'm glad that they'd backed out. NBC needs to find an separate owner that can turn their ratings around. I wished Scripps can pony up some change and grab the station. They'd made WPTV north of them a powerhouse.

 

Well NBC, back to the drawing board.

[qunewsguy 376]

Well wasn't WVIT planned for a sale? The turnover period for that one lasted a few months less, and there were no major staff cutbacks that I'm aware of.

I do understand however that this will cost NBC a lot that they didn't plan to allocate.

 

Not on-air, but they let go a few behind the scenes people and the work on their new facility has essentialy come to a halt.

[stevieboy247 42]

As far as the layoffs go regarding the NBC O&O's, It sure as hell won't be a pretty site.

 

And I could only imagine how much NBC is expected to lose now that the WTVJ sale to Post-Newsweek is dead and buried.

[TSSZNews 1046]

I wouldn't be so quick to throw confetti at this.

 

This provides another opportunity for Ansin to get his hands on WTVJ, and if he does, they will *all* be gone there.

 

-T

[ib-td 1]

all the expensive "talent" that is.

 

let Ansin buy it - SVN badly needs a new crib. they outgrew their present one some 20 years go - like TVJ before the Miramar building

 

it is an interesting twist - or - could PN want to renegotiate even lower??

[TSSZNews 1046]

When Ansin bought WLVI, I don't think anybody made it into the new duopoly. There may be one or two exceptions, but on the whole, everyone at WLVI was laid off.

 

I would expect no less if WTVJ was bought by Ansin, and merged with WSVN in some day. He would *love* to do that to the employees of a network that burned him bad in the 80s.

 

-T

[ybYellow 2]

Just a few sales people went from Boston's CW to CW56. I doubt Ansin would buy WTVJ, its a lot different buying an NBC over a CW, but stranger things have happened.

[jero23 105]

Interesting. I kind of knew it was still an "IF" weeks ago instead of "done deal" as another poster has responded to my post. NBCUni is most definitely cash strapped after buying substantial share of the Weather Channel and practically owning it now. The economy is not going to help, but maybe there is a new potential owner that not in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market that can step in OR NBCUni better be ready to make some major cuts in places since I doubt anybody is going to chalk up $200M for WTVJ in this economy. So here comes NBCMiami.com for WTVJ...

 

However, it would be twisted irony if Media General gets WTVJ after all practically all the other former O&Os that were hubbed out of WTVJ before their sale. MG will have essentially have purchased all of NBC's former Southeastern division of its owned and operated stations.