They seem to be tip-toeing into this thing, with a hire here and there. Buying all these stations is pushing them billions of dollars in debt. National news is another big money pit. Not sure where they think the profit will come from.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Will Sinclair Challenge Fox News?
- Thread starter Kemosabe
- Start date
They seem to be tip-toeing into this thing, with a hire here and there. Buying all these stations is pushing them billions of dollars in debt. National news is another big money pit. Not sure where they think the profit will come from.
I can't see Sinclair or anyone else try to compete with FOX, CNN, msnbc/nbc. You would have to spend several millions for a startup and most likely will have losses for 10 years or more. Even if you could land a Bill Oreilly you still have to program the other 23 hours of the day. Newsmax, cbsn and more so the digital operations like newsy aren't really competitors to the "big 3," they just pick up the scraps.
Some observers see them selling their radio stations and concentrating on TV, but I don't. I think talk radio is an easier and potentially bigger market for them than a news TV network or service. Fox uses it for brand reinforcement.
In the case of CBSN that News outlet is easily promoted in cities where CBS O&O's and CW Affiliates owned by CBS air national news segments from CBS N in their local newscasts to expand their audiences. In the Case of NewsmaxTV they have no Local TV affiliates to promote their content they are dependent on Internet TV distribution like Pluto TV, Playstation Vue and others to promote their content.
In the Case of ABC News Live they have the Disney Owned stations to promote their outlet via the ABC News app.
But the CBS and ABC TV networks reach more people than their O&O stations. If that's what Sinclair wants to do, they could simply form another TV network, affiliate a bunch of indie stations, and then they wouldn't have to spend the money owning stations.
Well everything you said is right though but David D. Smith's advisors and PR People argued that they can reach more people in a battleground state with their local stations than the current Cable News talk channels though to Jared Kushner like the CNN 30k viewers vs 250k Sinclair viewers in Ohio example. This is David D. Smith's justification of owning more TV stations than all the Network O&O's combined.
The issue here is that this rumored Sinclair News/Talk outlet is running at the same time as the Sinclair/Tribune deal is pending.
You have KTLA going to be the West Coast Flagship station of Sinclair plus WGN and WPIX going to associated companies related to Sinclair like Cunningham, Deerfield and WGN Inc.
Also the persistent questions of how many Trump Voters will leave Fox News for Sinclair and others have been around since Roger Ailes got removed.
Jared Kushner doesn't understand media. He's comparing the lowest rated news channel with top rated network affiliates. Simply putting political news on broadcast won't get better results. If it did, Fox News would run Hannity on their local stations. They don't for a reason.
True if KTVU Fox 2 and Fox11 KTTV aired Hannity then the Fox O&O division would have faced lower ratings or a boycott threat.
But in the Case of Fox O&O's they argued that the NFC Football Audience was the justification for converting a contract Fox Station under Cox like KTVU into a Fox O&O was because of revenue from the 49ers.
Jared Kushner bought up at that time that they could get more viewers if Trump and the campaign got interviewed by local stations vs the cable news nets. Living in a larger market battle ground state every time Trump would visit all four stations would interview him(none of these stations are owned by Sinclair), and would be the lead story for all stations. Contrast to Hillary she hardly gave local interviews, at least here. It made Jim Acosta and CNN's media reporters mad that Trump would ignoring them but it appears it work for him. Remember more people watch local tv news than cable news.
But they don't watch local news for national politics. There's a reason they don't watch cable news...so if you just take that content and put it on local stations, it will get the same reaction. Brief interviews with a national candidate when he's in town is different from non-stop national pundits bashing Democrats. They'll put up with a two minute insert. But if you replace the shows they like with national politics, it becomes a very different station.
True and also Local News in most cases doing the "you got 22 Minutes We give you the world" mantra but with pictures. Topics tend to be crime, disasters, Weather, sports and politics at city hall, county hall and state capitol with brief interviews.
My post had to more with the Jared Kushner comment, Trump did more interviews with reporters to local stations and less with national outlets like cnn, that made cnn upset. The campaign very likely talked to all large stations groups like Sinclair to set up interviews for local stations. Obviously, Kushner and Trump or any other political figure have no control on how often commentators are used onair or what they say.
It sounds like Sinclair is looking at everything for WGNA so don't necessarily believe it will become a news/talk channel. News has very high startup cost and with Big bang reruns on tbs having some of the highest cable ratings i wouldn't be surprised if they kind of go in that direction.
Last edited:
https://www.fiercecable.com/video/n...sion-for-nationally-distributed-news-platform
Here is another argument that one of the Sinclair management officials that sparked this discussion of the rumored news platform. This is one of the reasons why Sinclair keeps being mentioned as a competitor to Fox News Channel.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/13/sinclair-broadcasting-armstrong-williams-642997
Now Politico does an article on Armstrong Williams. He is one of the people leading one of Sinclairs associated companies.
Now Politico does an article on Armstrong Williams. He is one of the people leading one of Sinclairs associated companies.
But Still there's been lots of name dropping going on ever since the Sinclair/Tribune talks plus the rumored Sinclair Network that's allegedly going to go after Fox News for pro-GOP audiences came into play. But its gotta be Sinclair's way of making a splash in Los Angeles and New York though given that KTLA and WPIX are proposed to be the largest stations owned by Sinclair when the Tribune deal is cleared.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opini...s-becoming-truest-heir-roger-ailes-ncna881146
An Editorial on Sinclair by Nicole Hemmer and yes its the Roger Ailes comparisons on Sinlclair.
An Editorial on Sinclair by Nicole Hemmer and yes its the Roger Ailes comparisons on Sinlclair.
https://www.fiercecable.com/cable/a...able-operators-attack-sinclair-tribune-merger
Update now the ACLU and Cable providers came into play over the Sinclair/Tribune talks.
Update now the ACLU and Cable providers came into play over the Sinclair/Tribune talks.
- Status