Top TV Group Owners 25 Years Ago

[davideduardo]

From Broadcasting & Cable.



Remember, the FCC discounted by half the coverage percentages of UHF channels back then. Without that weighting, Univision would have been #2 and Fox would capture the top slot.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Yes and it's amazing that some of owners of the list have merged in the past 25 years. Nexstar got LIN, Media General and Tribune to take the number 1 spot for largest TV Statiom owners. Gray got Meredith and Raycom to be within the top spots, Ion and EW Scripps merged, Gannett and Belo merged to become Tegna all within the top spots in terms of ownership.

 

[Huff]

And the most recent rankings, per S&P Global:

 

[Megatron]

WOW I didn't know Tribune was Top 5, Nexstar at 25. West Michigan WWMT is owned by Sinclair, WZZM by TEGNA surprised Hearst sold WZZM in the late 90s, WXMI Fox17 by Scripps, WoodTV/WOTV/WXSP by Nexstar.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

The growth of Nexstar, Sinclair and Gray was amazing. Of course, mostly by acquisition.

I do wonder what happened to CBS/Paramount and Fox Broadcasting. They were near the limit in 2009's list, but well below it in the list Huff provided. Were there divestures, or just regulatory changes?

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

The growth of Nexstar, Sinclair and Gray was amazing. Of course, mostly by acquisition.

I do wonder what happened to CBS/Paramount and Fox Broadcasting. They were near the limit in 2009's list, but well below it in the list Huff provided. Were there divestures, or just regulatory changes?

Bits of both like CBS divested several stations over the years seen on this list. Some of them were former UPN, CW and My TV affiliates at the time CBS owned them. They are WTVX, WNDY, WUPL, WWHO, KAUT, and in rare cases they sold CBS affiliates like KEYE, WFRV and KUTV to meet the limits at that time.
In CBS case they had to sell several stations after the purchase of KOVR Sacramento in 2005 as a result of them splitting from Viacom. Note Viacom and CBS are remerged as Paramount right after CBS sold their radio division to Audacy.

CBS News and Stations - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Fox had to divest some stations to Tribune like KTVI, WDAF, KDVR at one point and the most famous one trading WHBQ and WFXT to Cox as part of the move to get KTVU and KICU San Francisco.

Also around this time the business model changed and focused on getting viewers to TV apps.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Of course, as Huff's inclusion of current data proves, the UHF discount is now an unfair factor. It was put in place by the FCC during the analog era, which has become a faded memory receding in the rear view mirror. That was an era where UHF reception was, for many viewers, problematic; ironically, UHF is now the preferred transmission band for digital television, and station groups are now getting credit for being on the channels they now want to be on.

Other than the headache that would be created by a large amount of grandfathering, I do not for the life of me understand why the Commission hasn't eliminated that yet.

 

[fybush]

Of course, as Huff's inclusion of current data proves, the UHF discount is now an unfair factor. It was put in place by the FCC during the analog era, which has become a faded memory receding in the rear view mirror. That was an era where UHF reception was, for many viewers, problematic; ironically, UHF is now the preferred transmission band for digital television, and station groups are now getting credit for being on the channels they now want to be on.

Other than the headache that would be created by a large amount of grandfathering, I do not for the life of me understand why the Commission hasn't eliminated that yet.

It's entirely political. There have been attempts to eliminate the discount and there's been tremendous pushback from the operators who would be negatively affected as a result.

 

[K.M. Richards]

It's entirely political. There have been attempts to eliminate the discount and there's been tremendous pushback from the operators who would be negatively affected as a result.

Why am I not surprised?

 

[radiofan2023]

What was Pappas Telecasting and what happened to it? I also had no idea that Post and Newsweek were involved in owning TV stations.

 

[K.M. Richards]

What was Pappas Telecasting and what happened to it? I also had no idea that Post and Newsweek were involved in owning TV stations.

The Wikipedia page is surprisingly accurate, despite the warning box about "unsourced references".

The background -- not included on Wikipedia -- is that the Pappas brothers started in radio, with KGEN/1370 and KBOS/94.9 in the Fresno market (they also later owned KTRB/860 in Modesto and were responsible for the bad decision to move it to San Francisco), and then put KMPH-TV/26 on the air in that market in 1971 as an independent. KMPH-TV was, about a decade and a half later, one of the earliest Fox network affiliates.

In fact, the call letters KMPH was derived from the brothers' first names of Mike, Pete and Harry.

Where they fell apart was when they co-founded the Azteca América network and quickly expanded their ownership in television to have more "network-owned" affiliates. They also operated a number of WB/CW affiliates during the time when that network was still trying to build an audience, and that situation didn't improve their finances either.

The Wikipedia page on the network has a pretty good telling of how that went sour and took the Pappas brothers down with it.

 

[radiofan2023]

Thanks for explaining!

 

[K.M. Richards]

Thanks for explaining!

Happy to have been able to share the knowledge.

 

[tripinva]

Why am I not surprised?

Here's an article that captures the most recent time it came up at the FCC: FCC Eases Media Ownership Restrictions in Vote to Restore UHF Discount

- Trip

 

[K.M. Richards]

Thanks, Trip.

I am not surprised that it was Ajit Pai who was behind it or that Mignon Clyburn was the only one who spoke the truth.

 

[radiofan2023]

Mignon Clyburn was the only one who spoke the truth.

Hope she didn’t get filleted for it!