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Byron Allen Buying 11 Stations For $290M

Their daytime lineups will sure consist of the following:
Double runs of Supreme Justice
Double runs of The Verdict with Judge Hatchett
Double runs of Funny You Should Ask
Double runs of Comics Unleashed
Double runs of Justice with Judge Mablean
Personally no offense, I'm glad none of those shows air around here. FYSA was replaced by America Says reruns on my local affiliate. But I wonder if Byron will mandate his shows air on those stations at certain times? He's tried to get Comcast to clear the Justice Central channel for years along with Comedy.TV, etc.
 
he recently made a deal with Sinclair Broadcasting Group to be a minority owner of Sinclair yet to renamed Fox Sports Network RSNs that they bought from Disney (who had to spin them off as soon as they got them via the Fox merger, as part of the stipuation of the government approving the Fox/Disney merger due to fears that Disney would have a sports TV monopoly with FSN RSNs, the ESPN national networks & their 50/50 owned channels with the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Southeastern Conference and the University of Texas), i wonder if he's intending to try to merge with Sinclair or at least let them operate his owned TV stations.
 
Allen Media will be fairly formidable in Indiana, now with stations in each of Indiana's home markets except for Indianapolis and South Bend. Of course, the markets they do serve are overwhelmingly rural but they will still get lots of action on the political side.

Heartland Media aka USA Television MidAmerica will still exist after this sale, as the licensee of WKTV in Utica, New York.
One would assume Heartland Media will look to divest or LMA WKTV as well.
 
I think Allens also has his hand in the upcoming Marquee Sports Network which has the rights to the Chicago Cubs. It would be interesting to see if they would try air some games on their Indiana stations. Similar to how WGN had a syndicated package of games for MyTV and Antenna TV.
 
Why does he spend so much buying all these channels etc and then his cable channels are utter dirt and are the worst rated?
 
https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/244531/entertainment-studios-closes-on-11-station-buy/

Here is an Update

Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios said Tuesday that it has closed on the acquisition of 11 television stations from USA Television Holdings and USA Television MidAmerica for $305 million.

The company’s Allen Media Broadcasting division has acquired the following: Allen’s continued expansion into broadcast television is the latest step the company has taken in further extending the global reach of its programming and content. The Entertainment Studios divisions now include: broadcast television network affiliates, streaming services, broadcast television syndication, production and distribution of 64 television programs, nine 24/7 HD television networks, theatrical motion picture production, acquisition and global distribution, digital movie acquisition and distribution, and global news publishing.
Click to expand...
 
Several of these are very strong stations in their market. WTHI, in particular, has owned the top spot for news coverage throughout the Wabash Valley for decades. Local advertising on local broadcast platforms has been stronger in smaller and medium markets relative to larger ones. I have no idea how Mr. Allen is financing this acquisition but, assuming that the interest cost isn't prohibitive, this could be a very good deal for his company.
 
zeebre12 said:
I don't get why he operates his cable channels on a shoestring and then has hundreds of millions to buy other things?
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The tight budget makes the money and pays the debt, leaving leverage available to expand.
 
Kelly A said:
I think he slightly overpaid (plus or minus $50M) for these stations, given they're in small to medium markets. But, it's not my or my employer's money, so who am I to criticize?
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A broker friend told me recently that a lot of a terrestrial TV price has to do with the cable fees and the "need" of a cable system to negotiate.

So this price may have as much to do with cable fees as ad revenue. It's a changing world; I know of one TV operation where more than 50% of revenue comes from cable carriage fees.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I know of one TV operation where more than 50% of revenue comes from cable carriage fees.
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Since you didn't name them, I assume you weren't referring to Nexstar. But it is true for them too. According to an SEC filding, for the period Jan 1 through Sept. 30, 2019, Nexstar had $923 million in retransmission revenue, and $825 million in advertising revenue.
 
DavidEduardo said:
A broker friend told me recently that a lot of a terrestrial TV price has to do with the cable fees and the "need" of a cable system to negotiate.

So this price may have as much to do with cable fees as ad revenue. It's a changing world; I know of one TV operation where more than 50% of revenue comes from cable carriage fees.
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Re-trans fees typically make up about 30% of most station group revenue. Problem with these stations; they are all small to medium markets. In these markets, I would be surprised if they get .15 to .35 per sub. That, and with less population density in smaller towns, the number of subscribers can't approach numbers in larger cities.
Larger markets garner .80 to 1.00 per sub.
 


Should we say that few TV stations, even in 2020, are minority owned. I'm sure the FCC, even in the Trump era, likes that all these TV outlets will have minority ownership.

I wouldn't say that Allen's diginet channels are bad. My dad loved watching courtroom shows and he'd often have Allen's Justice TV on his television. The shows weren't quite Judge Judy, but they still entertained.

And despite Allen's busy schedule, he is often one of the panelists/comedians on Funny You Should Ask, which he also produces. (FYSA is really Hollywood Squares, but with six celebrities, not nine, in chairs, not a tic-tac-toe board.)


 
Gregg. said:
Should we say that few TV stations, even in 2020, are minority owned. I'm sure the FCC, even in the Trump era, likes that all these TV outlets will have minority ownership.
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I won't claim to know what the current FCC commissioners would prefer or not prefer. But I will say that I quibble with the assertion that "few TV stations are minority owned".

Very few television stations are individually owned, or have ownership group where majority control can be ascribed to an individual, because they are publicly traded corporations. Sinclair, Nexstar, Gray, Scripps, TEGNA, and all of the O&O groups all publicly traded. So it is unfair to say that they are, or are not, minority owned because they are owned by a large swathe of investors.
 
That FCC report does exactly what I suggested, using the phrase "discernible majority ownership interest" to eliminate out stations owned by public corporations.

The analysis includes only 1368 full-power television stations, which is about 15% of the total number of full-power televisions licenses issued by the FCC.
 
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