K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Thank you, Your honor. Move for a directed verdict.
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Disney’s ABC Stations Could Be Bought By Nexstar With “Little Friction” If They Are Sold Off, Company Advisor Tom Carter Says
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
Thank you, Your honor. Move for a directed verdict.
JeeperOne
Banned
What I meant by "Backwards duopoly" is that (As is the case of Denver), the CW O&O is KWGN 2 while the Fox affiliation is on KDVR 31 & since Fox is the major network, it is the parent of the two
While this is the exception more than the rule that you'll find elsewhere, it is nonetheless a backwards duopoly. This is an indisputable fact
About the Disney/ABC stations, let's just say I would be SHOCKED if this gets past the FCC unless Nexstar wants to convert The CW into a Diginet like Scripps did with ION (Unlikely) given the number of conflicts there are & WHERE they are (And that doesn't even include Chicago where Disney/ABC owns WLS 7 & Nexstar owns WGN 9 (Both owned by their respective networks) which adds another place)
While this is the exception more than the rule that you'll find elsewhere, it is nonetheless a backwards duopoly. This is an indisputable fact
About the Disney/ABC stations, let's just say I would be SHOCKED if this gets past the FCC unless Nexstar wants to convert The CW into a Diginet like Scripps did with ION (Unlikely) given the number of conflicts there are & WHERE they are (And that doesn't even include Chicago where Disney/ABC owns WLS 7 & Nexstar owns WGN 9 (Both owned by their respective networks) which adds another place)
Just more gobbledygook. As Scott said; there is no such thing as a 'backward duopoly'.
Making up your own rules and terms for the industry doesn't make them true.
Maybe to you alone, but not to anyone who knows the business or rules.
The FCC wouldn't care if CW programming is carried as a 'diginet.' Again, I have no idea where you come up with such nonsense.
Consider that markets like Denver and San Diego have separate news operations but a combined website using the website of the Fox affiliate owned by Nexstar. KWGN has a competing morning show and a lifestyle program (combined 4:30-10am) that competes with KDVR but 2 hours longer (4:30am-12nn). KWGN other newscast at 7pm uses the same studio and crew as KDVR. In contrast WTTV and WXIN have separate operations, websites, social media accounts and news apps but the weather app and the reporters do share sometimes. Fresno uses the NBC and CBS duopoly under 1 website and app mostly in common with smaller markets that Nexstar serves (including the sidecar partners from Mission, Vaughan etc.).
The FCC doesn't regulate what is on any particular website, other than whether public file links exist.
I could use some exceptions like in Indianapolis, RDU, Norfolk, Jacksonville, San Antonio, El Paso and Fresno. Indianapolis in 2015 saw one Nexstar predicessor Tribune converting one CW station into a CBS affiliate while reallocating some people worked from WXIN including Bob Donaldson which was the original anchors at WXIN. RDU and Norfolk being the other examples of a duopoly between a Big 3 and a Fox affiliate depending on the ratings factors in which alongside Pittsburgh they don't have a news department of a Fox affiliate. Jacksonville was most prominent example starting with a side effect of the Fox NFL deal when ABC moved from WCWJ to WJXX in 1997 only lasted for 2 years when Tegna's then owner Gannett bought WJXX and merged with WTLV, 3 years later WJXT broke up with CBS over affiliate compensation and moved to then UPN station WJAX using the resources of WFOX. El Paso, Fresno, and San Antonio have significant Hispanic populations and Univision was either No.1 or 2 in the market (idk how many people watch a local Telemundo newscast) so such instance they can make a duopoly with either a 2 Big 3 stations or Big 3 with a Fox affiliate.
Nexstar has to make a choice here since it's a non starter to give up in the nation's largest media market. Either sall WPIX or sell some the Big 4 stations to allow to comply with the 39 percent household cap, 6-7 percent is where WPIX reached according to Nielsen so Nexstar has to sell the stations that is the equivalent of 6-7 percent of household so they can buy the license of WPIX.
How ever the network afflictions / doupliciacy issues are worked out is a mere technically IMHO. The more important question is: Will this thing end up like old ABC and CBS O & O radio stations with some over leveraged operator thinks they can "cut the fat" to finance the purchase? The OTA industry has enough issues without "Flag Ship Properties" going into bankruptcy.
TV and Radio are different broadcast sectors. I mean if Apollo did win the Paramount bid, Cox Radio would become CBS Radio 2.0 unless they sell it.
I wasn't worried about current radio ownership. Just look at what happened to the old CBS and ABC radio properties. Twenty years ago how many folks would have thought the ABC radio O & Os would have been thru bankruptcy twice. CBS's radio properties (and the rest of Audacy) were leveraged to the point just one economic downturn put them in Bankruptcy. If you don't plan your financing with a contingency for an economic downturn you are a fool. Man made (mortgage meltdown, tech bubble, etc) or natural COVID or political COVID, or man made virus COVID (whatever you believe) dornturns will come along.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
WPIX is a complicated legal matter all by itself. Nexstar does not "technically" own channel 11 but they do have a LMA to operate it and provided the financing for Mission Broadcasting (the actual licensee) to acquire it in the first place. The FCC has already strongly suggested that at the least the LMA needs to be broken and at the extreme, both parties lose their respective interests in WPIX.
This may actually be the only valid stumbling block in attempting to get approval of a Nexstar/ABC deal.
That has been a very blatant abuse of the LMA rules and Nexstar deserved their $2.5M fine levied against them. They've made no effort whatsoever to say Mission owns it and throws up "Nexstar" and "NewsNation" all over the place over-the-air. Hell, Perry Sook's son is a sports reporter at WPIX.
It probably wouldn't happen anyway. Disney seems to be more content with operating their owned-stations until the bitter end. It's a mere budget line item and WABC and WPVI are easy money.
Not to the FCC. As far as the FCC is concerned, the duopoly is KWGN and KDVR, Nexstar owns both, and there's no "parent" anything. Just because some Wikipedia editors created the idea of a "backwards duopoly" doesn't mean it has any reality in regulation.
Again, the actual rules: if a broadcaster is already in a market with one station, adding a duopoly station on the same RF band doesn't add anything at all under the national 39% market cap. Network affiliation doesn't matter here.
Do you understand what that means, Pat? It means that since Nexstar already owns WGN-TV, it already has the Chicago market under its national cap. Adding WLS-TV makes no difference, since both WGN and WLS operate on UHF channels. Same with KGO-TV/KRON, KABC-TV/KTLA, and WABC-TV/WPIX once Nexstar takes ownership of WPIX, which it will eventually.
Adding KTRK in Houston and WPVI in Philadelphia is a little more complicated because they operate on VHF channels and count twice as much as UHFs KIAH and WPHL under the national market cap. So if Nexstar starts selling off a lot of small markets to make room for WPIX, it might have to shed a few more national percentage points to make room for KTRK and WPVI - if there's even a Disney/Nexstar deal.
But don't be "SHOCKED" if the FCC approves such a deal. It's kosher under the rules, IF you actually understand the rules and don't try to make them up as you go along.
More than a "strong suggestion." It's an FCC order with a deadline - in addition to the fine, Nexstar has to either completely remove itself from WPIX or sell off enough small markets to make room under the 39% national cap in order to be able to acquire WPIX outright.
Every indication is that Nexstar will acquire WPIX and is already looking to sell enough smaller markets to open up cap space.
True and Nexstar had that same issue with WADL Detroit where "Mission Broadcasting" was supposed to get that station for CW affiliation in Detroit.
Not that it makes a whole lot of difference in this discussion, or to the understanding of it, but both the KWGN and KDVR RF channels are on UHF. KDVR is also simulcast on Fort Collins' KFCT, RF 21, PSIP-mapped to 22.
I jokingly refer to KDVR as "Fox 85" for reasons known only to my subconscious.
Maybe big markets also but I do wanna see Fox or any Big 3 network owner buy some large or mid-size markets. Since NewsNation competes with Fox News and MSNBC (both relying on their network affiliates respectively with Fox and NBC) and CW building its own sports division, I would suprising on how Nexstar wants to expand further into more national content. Most Fox affiliates owned by Nexstar were once part of Tribune Media; so maybe Charlotte, Cleveland and Kansas CIty or even as small and secondary as Albany, Roanoke and Greensboro. Disney does supply their primetime newscasts in both Houston and Philly so they might looking at ending their primetime newscast as a result of KIAH and WPHL launching their morning shows in exchange of acquiring some Nexstar's ABC affiliates like in Nashville, Knoxville, Hartford/New Haven, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, Syracuse &/or Albany. I'm not good in predictions but I still believe in local and more consolidation because many streamers now are adding sports and probably news, I don't care that I'm wrong or made it up but I believe there will more traction and speed in consolidation because streaming isn't going away but they will evolve if they diversify in sports and news.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Well, maybe you don't care, but the rest of us do ... and the new owners of RD have already said in public that this is no longer a place to post scenarios that one "made up".
The FCC is not likely to relax the ownership rules. The major group owners are not going to divest their smaller stations (which are likely profitable) in favor of being in more major markets (where the higher operating costs is going to result in a smaller profit margin). If you had some real world industry experience you might be taken more seriously, but that last post read like a fairy tale.
Well the small markets might not be ready to sell but the big markets do since WPIX covers only 6-7 percent so Nexstar needs to sell the big ones at least 2-5 stations as equivalent to WPIX's household reach. As for the FCC rules do not change, as long as big tech continues to trounce with money and power with ad tech, content and AI; it will create a concerning dillema being outdated and a radical change.
This is honestly a bunch of gibberish with no substance.
I have never really understood the concept of "fantasy television" like it's fantasy football or something, conjuring up imaginary horse-trading scenarios that never make sense.
This, and it's why Nexstar stands a very very good chance of losing control of WPIX outright.
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